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HEALING LACE

HEALING LACE

July 24, 2023
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Katerina Knight is an English Textile Practitioner: Artist, Maker and Writer specialising in one-of-a- kind handmade textile artefacts. A graduate of the Royal College of Art 2023 Ma Textiles programme and recipient of the Burberry Design Scholar. She tells us about her final collection.

Text by Katerina Knight

My graduate collection “My Material Memoir: Hands Can Heal, Cloth Can Care” documents the stages of personal healing - leaving the luxury fashion industry, recovering from physical and mental illness and finding a new way of both making and being that moves akin to the rhythms of our Earth.


Image: The healing lace with hands, Katerina Knight. Image above: The Healing Lace Detail, Katerina Knight. 

The principal work from the collection ‘The Healing Lace’ is a handmade needle lace of lavender and snow in summer hand threaded on silk and linen. Three varieties of lavender, all homegrown on my allotment in Worcestershire, were harvested over two summers - 2021 and 2022. Once dried and preserved each bead of lavender has been hand threaded on remnants of silk and linen, complete with floral buds of snow in summer that grew wild on the allotment, an unexpected bloom in winter. A white sea of hope during a period of darkness.

Unlike a woven textile, constructed with the support of a frame, this needle lace was created entirely freehand. It was formed intuitively and grew organically- I was guided by my materials. Continuing to lace until my harvest of lavender came to an end, the threads then left to freely hang. Taking the form of a dress, whilst it is not a wearable garment when draped before me, the dress holds a mirror to my body, a shield of protection. Yet through its open structure, I am transparent. I allow myself to be vulnerable and open. Inspired by the teachings of environmental activist and Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy, who writes in the Work That Reconnects “ As your heart breaks open there will be room for the world to heal.”


Image: The Healing Lace, Katerina Knight.

Over 250 hours spent hand threading was an incredibly reflective time, the slow and steady hand that needle lace demands, taught me that healing, to really, truly heal, is a slow and steady process. And whilst this lacework may evoke a fragile structure, it is strong- the threads are intrinsically tied. And as I tightened each thread I was reminded of my strength too. My infatuation with traditional lace-making techniques stemmed from a period in 2021 when I worked closely with The Lace Guild- an educational charity in Stourbridge, West Midlands. The largest lace organisation in the UK. I treasured the intricacy of this craft and searched for my way to conserve and connect this technique to current textile practices.

To create each textile artefact in this collection I have worked with living materials, homegrown, locally foraged or collected slowly over time. When selecting the components of ‘The Healing Lace’ I knew that Lavender would take a pivotal place. Harnessing its natural powers to soothe the mind, body and soul. It is a herb I have used routinely throughout my life, and one of the first herbs I planted when I began my medicinal allotment bed in 2021. The intoxicating aroma and rich purple colour create a sensorial cloth that holds personal comfort, whilst evoking visions of serenity for others too.

To see ‘The Healing Lace’ complete, hanging at the Royal College of Art graduate showcase, I reflect on what began as only a tiny seed that sat in the palm of my hand, over these last two years slowly a cloth was crafted and the textile came to life. And slowly as I healed, I found a new sense of life.


Image: The healing lace with hands, Katerina Knight. © Ruby Pluhar.

This is an incredibly precious piece, with a very precious story. But made with living materials I do not know how long the textile will last. All life is precious, but no life is everlasting. Perhaps therefore we cannot be too precious with it, perhaps we can only care for life - the life of a material object, life in nature and our own lives, presently and patiently.

Katerina’s complete graduate work can be viewed on the RCA23 digital exhibition:
2023.rca.ac.uk/students/katerina-knight
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