Drawing into Threads: Embroidery as Encounter

Textile pieces that began with a shared act of drawing: eyes closed, pencils moving across paper without direction or authorship.

Formed at the Contemporary Textile Studio Co-op in Toronto in 2014, this group of artists, designers, and researchers came together to rethink the structure of North-South collaborations in textiles. Many had worked across South Asia and South America, aiming to support traditional craft and build ethical models of exchange. But even these efforts often placed the designer in control, and the artisan in a supporting role.

Drawing into Threads offers a different approach - one rooted in mutual authorship. With early input from artist Sheilagh Keeley, members created communal drawings that served as prompts for embroidery. In 2015, artist Munira Amin introduced the work to Parahan Studio in Karachi, where three embroiderers interpreted the drawings freely. Thickened threads, new textures, and varied materials shaped the work as a creative exchange.

The project continued in 2017 and 2019 with embroiderers in Islamabad. Each piece evolved through shared experimentation across wool, muslin, and cotton, stitched with metallic thread, cotton floss, and handmade yarns. Over nearly a decade, the work travelled between Toronto and Pakistan, shaped by many hands in an ongoing conversation of drawing and thread.

The work will be exhibited in the UK for the first time in the Constance Howard Gallery, on weekdays 1-4pm, 1st - 12th September.

There will be a Meet the Artists event on 10th September, 5-7pm.