June 2009
"Layers of Stitch"
An Exhibition by Karen Broderson

Artist's Statement

My name is Karen Broderson and I am a fibre artist and tutor living in sunny Nelson.  I think I am so lucky to live in such a beautiful place that has inspiration where ever you look. 
I love stitching, beading, fibre work and crocheting of all types both traditional and contemporary.  I always have two or more (sometimes many more) projects on the go at once. 
Around seventeen years ago I started teaching traditional crazy patchwork classes and just fell in love with the beading and surface embellishment.  This very quickly led me to designing beading and contemporary stitching and fibre classes in my own techniques and original designs.  I regularly travel out of Nelson to teach at other towns.  I have two children aged 11 and 12 so my projects are always worked around them and family commitments.  This is reflected in my work as lots of smaller different pieces go to make up my main projects.  These are created in all the small pockets of time that I have available to me in a day.  I love playing with new products available to the fibre artist today and enjoy using non traditional products for my work and seeing what I can do with them. 
I find that during the process of doing one project my imagination is always playing with the idea of other things that could be done this way or new designs or ideas.  I think the best thing that I allow myself is to run with the question “what if I did this?”  Following this question has always led me on to other designs and ideas, so next time that question pops into your mind while doing a project follow it and see all the wonderful places it will lead you. 
Enjoy the journey.