Jenny Steele

Jenny was invited to be part of the Women in Print residency to explore recent textile work and weaving through the medium of print. Jenny trained in printmaking as an undergraduate at DOJCAD and has often printed on textiles as part of her wider practice.

Since the 2020 pandemic, Jenny has learnt new weaving skills by short courses and self-teaching in passementerie (woven and non-woven tassels and trimmings), basketry, rush weaving and loom weaving and developed a new studio-based practice. These new skills have led to the creation of new bodies of woven sculptures using heritage craft processes often referencing personal experiences of loss and a new knowledge of my personal maternal lineage.

During the experimental residency at ACPS, Jenny has explored embossing hand made textiles, drawing the textiles using stone lithography and monoprints, exploring colour through water colour screenprinting. Experimentation of scale using scanning and magnification of handwoven artifacts as revealed new sculptural forms, screen printing small details such as hand wound cord and tassels to ten or fifteen times the dimension changing the presence of the textile entirely.

“I am particularly interested in developing an edition using the subtler processes of screen-printing and embossing on paper. I paint everyday watercolours on an open screen, building up dense layers which I leave to dry and settle into the screen. I then pull through medium to print the image, which first comes through strong and bright and then fades in certain areas more and more as the prints progress.“