Talking with Beverley Folkard: (venue 11: Mendoza’s )
One of the regulars on the 2015 Rochford Art Trail
http://www.fibre-
Rochford Life: Beverley, how would you describe the sort of work you do?
Beverley: Textile art.
RL: And how long have you been doing it?
Beverley: Well, I’ve been sewing all my life, even since before I went to school. I used to turn the handle on my grandmother’s sewing machine while she made my dresses and so sewing has been my life all my life.
RL: But it’s gone considerably bigger than ‘just sewing’?
Beverley: Yes. My grandmother used to do embroidery and crochet and things like that and I wanted a job as an alteration hand in a department store but my mother told me I should have a proper job so it never happened. I used to work in Rochford Square in a solicitor’s office and when I was made redundant it was like everything collapsed and so I took the opportunity to go to college to do City and Guilds in Creative Embroidery. I have Parts 1 and 2 in that and that then led on to City and Guilds in Paper Art and then I did an advanced Certificate in Paper Art and so, as you’ll see from my work in the Optician’s window, I like stitching on paper.
RL: So just following on from the sewing led you into this kind of art?
Beverley: That’s right. I expect a lot of artists just can’t not do it. Every so often I feel I’m going to give it up, but then you just can’t not do it! It’s just who you are, I think.
RL: Do you belong to a group to do this?
Beverley: I belong to the Embroiderers’ Guild which is a national organisation which has been going since 1904 and is for the furtherance of embroidery and education and what have you, and we meet once a month in Westcliff. I also currently belong to a Textile Art Group, The Material Girls, (see http://www.the-
RL: Beverley, thank you for sharing. I often think a shop window doesn’t do justice to an artist, so if I may I’ll include here some of the works from your website to give a bigger picture of the wide range of works of art you show there. Thank you again.
Having introduced some of the newcomers to the Rochford Art Trail we felt it would also be good to pick up on one or two of the ‘regulars’ who have been with us previously.
