‘Mending lets you see things afresh’: Celia Pym, textile artist
Growing up in Kent in a house full of doers, menders and makers, the textile artist Celia Pym says, “Tool kits were readily available and there was a designated drawer for elastic bands and odd lengths of string that were saved for bodge fixes.” She learned to weave and knit as a child, a skill that later re-emerged when she was studying sculpture at Harvard University.
“I picked up knitting again when I was an undergraduate,” she recalls. “I used it as a way to help me get started in the studio in the morning – like a warm-up exercise. But then, I’d get to the end of the day and realise I’d spent my whole day knitting.” In her final year, she received a fellowship that enabled her to travel across Japan for nine months carrying her knitting with her in her backpack. Pym’s finished piece was…
