Textile artist Kathryn Chambers, more commonly known as k3n, has been stitching since she was a child – when she recalls using her mother’s dressmaking scraps to make small items like dolls clothes and cushions. She made her first quilt – English paper-pieced – in her thirties. Her work subsequently developed into textile art constructed with commercial fabrics and Procion-dyed cottons. Then, around fifteen years ago, concerned with the environmental impacts of using new materials and chemically manufactured dyes, she began looking for more sustainable alternatives.
In tandem with this, after years of sewing by machine, k3n was increasingly drawn to a return to hand-stitching. Largely this was to slow down her practice, but also to reduce her consumption of materials. Slow stitching – sewing using simple hand techniques – has since become central to k3n’s life. “Slow stitching is so much more than just hand-stitching. At its heart, it is a focus on the process. I
