Cherry Hirsch

I originally went to the London College of Printing to study photography but never worked professionally.  I have always been interested in textiles and started to make my own clothes from an early age.

We live in the Cotswolds with a view over the river Severn.  Gardening is my other passion and with over half an acre on a slope, this takes up a lot of my time and as I get older I notice the wild edges getting larger!  The colours and textures in the garden and surrounding landscape have always been a great source of inspiration to me.

I have experimented with all sorts of things – knitting, designing polymer clay jewellery, paper and silk paper making, felting, quilting.  I always have lots of ideas but don’t always know how to carry these through to completion.

In 2010 I became increasingly aware that I need guidance and discipline to enable me to develop an image from sketchbook to finished work.  In the  summer of 2010 I went on two week-long workshops that set me on this road.  I enrolled for a City and Guilds online Machine Embroidery course with Distant Stitch and also a Creative Sketchbooks course with Linda Kemshall.

In April of 2013, I was diagnosed with and treated for cancer in May/June and spent the summer recovering in the garden, taking advantage of the wonderful summer. We had built me a new studio in the garden in the early part of the year, dumped everything in it from the little bedroom I used to work in, so that by August when I felt up to going in it, I couldn’t remember where anything was!  I decided to give up the embroidery course, as I felt all the exercises had started to have less relevance for me, freeing myself to follow my own path.

Since then I have experimented with all kinds of textiles and mixed media, been to various workshops and done several online courses.  It is a joy to sit in the studio and be so close to nature.  So much inspiration!