The punch needle community is filled with creative, talented makers who constantly amaze us as they create beautiful works of art and push the medium in new directions. In this series, we go "behind the skeins" to learn about various artists and feature their work to our community. Read on to be inspired!
This month, I'm delighted to welcome Toronto-based artist Betty Wood to our Featured Artist series! Betty creates punch needle works that document interior scenes with remarkable detail. Growing up in the North East of England, she was surrounded by the proggy mat and clippy rug making traditions of the mining communities, and during the pandemic, punch needle became a way for her to connect with her roots while developing her distinctive artistic voice. As one of the artists from my 2023 "Threading the Needle" exhibition in Los Angeles, I've been fortunate to see firsthand how Betty's work draws viewers into intimate moments and spaces, often surprising people who initially mistake them for paintings. Read on to discover more about her journey with this medium.
Photo by Louise Harris
Tell us a little bit about your creative background. What led you to the work you do today?
I am a self-taught artist with a formal background in design and art editorial, mainly as the editor of The Spaces. My career nurtured my interest in art, interior design, architecture and spaces and I think it’s fair to say my exposure to this world has really shaped the artistic aesthetic and subject matter of my art.
How did you get started with Punch Needle? What is it about this technique, or working with fiber, that appealed to you?
I was born and raised near Newcastle in the North East of England. We have a really strong tradition of proggy mat and clippy rug making up there, associated with the mining communities and collieries that dotted the area. I grew up with them in my grandparent’s homes and have long appreciated them.
And though I’ve happily lived in Toronto, Canada for the last eight years, during the global pandemic, I was really homesick and looking for ways to connect with my family and my roots. Rug hooking – and then punch needle, which felt closer to drawing and my background in embroidery – became an exciting way to do that.
Fibers are inherently comforting. It’s magical creating illustrations using yarns and wools.
Longest Winter, 2022 Photo by Trina Turl
We'd love to hear about your creative process. How do you begin a piece? What inspires you?
My process is very intuitive and organic. If I’m too regimented, it kills the joy and curiosity of creation. Before I put anything onto cloth, I spend quite a bit of time thinking about it and visualising the finished piece in my head. Time is my most precious commodity because I don’t use any form of mechanisation; it’s very slow, labour-intensive work. My biggest pieces take around 4 months to complete if I work on them every day, which means I have to really love an idea before I am willing to commit to it.
Once I start an artwork, I embrace the flow state. I ‘sketch’ my outline onto the fabric using black yarn and guide ropes, working up the image very loosely and quickly before I start filling in with blocks of colour and working in details. With paints, you work background to foreground, building up colour and tone gradually. But fibres can be picked up or paused at will, so I follow my interest. If I’m excited about a particular element or detail, I lean into it! It’s motivating.
Can you walk us through your toolkit? Are there specific tools, fibers, or materials that have become essential to your practice?
My tool kit is quite pared back: monks' cloth, a home-made 5ft x 5ft vertical wooden frame with gripper-strip edges and a 13 fine Oxford Punch Needle which I use almost exclusively. I’ve worked with all sizes of needle, but this one is the finest, and is the closest to a pen-nib for me, so it allows me to achieve all the detail I want while working at scale.
46 Bedford Rd | Settling In (montsera in the kitchen) | Photo by Jacob Mailman
What is your favorite thing about the work that you do?
I get a real sense of accomplishment from seeing the image build gradually. And I get an even bigger sense of joy from seeing people’s reactions to my work, because of the scales I work at, people often assume it’s a painting until they get up close and see the texture come through. It’s really exciting to play with people’s expectations around the materials.
What is the most difficult thing about the work that you do?
It is very physically demanding; I wish I could create more works and would happily spend all day, every day doing this, but my body would be a wreck!
What misconceptions do people often have about punch needle as an art form?
People often get confused about what punch needle is versus rug hooking, or latch hooking. And people often assume I use a tufting gun. It’s all hand done!
Shadow Dance (chair and shadow study) | Photo by Louise Harris
How has your work evolved over time?
The subject matter has evolved, first and foremost. When I was learning, I did all sorts of pieces from zodiac and mythologically inspired compositions to portraiture. I played.
Once I mastered the basic techniques of punch needle and rug hooking, it was then I really started to think about what I wanted to achieve with the medium, and what my statement as an artist should be. It sent me on a course of documenting spaces – particularly queer spaces, which feels important to me as a queer woman and given the changing social and political climate. I also capture ‘lost’ and transient spaces. There’s something inherently nostalgic about textiles, and I’ve leaned into that sense of nurturement and comfort as I’ve become more confident in my abilities and scale.
What's the most surprising way your punch needle practice has affected other areas of your life?
It’s improved my mental health enormously. I’ve been very successful in my publishing career and am very driven, but I have always struggled with anxiety and (undiagnosed, now diagnosed ADHD), which impacted my confidence. Punch needle became a way to actively deal with those things, be present in my body and enjoy the process of creation. It has given me an unrivalled sense of achievement; I really love the works I create and believe in my practice. If you’d have said this to me in my 20s, I’d have laughed nervously and dismissed it. Now I can embrace it and enjoy it. My work has meaning.
Coffee at 180 | Photo by Trina Turl
How do you define success in your artistic practice?
How a piece makes me feel. If I can look at it and go, ‘yeah, I’d love to have this in my own home’, that’s a real marker of success.
What do you hope others see, gain, or take away from your work?
I hope they feel a sense of peace and contentment looking at my works. Though my interiors scenes are very specific, in terms of their meaning to me, I’ve tried to impart a sense of universality through my use of plants, furniture and even animals as protagonists. Everyone can get something from the scene: it can spark their own memories of an afternoon sunbathing on the carpet or stir the feelings of serenity via the colour palette.
ZZ Wants to Propagate | Photo by Trina Turl
How do you see punch needle art fitting into broader contemporary art conversations?
It’s definitely starting to change. Fiber arts are gaining more prominence in gallery and museum settings. There’s generations of women who’ve been doing the hard work for decades and are finally the subject of retrospectives and major institutional shows (Sheila Hicks, is an obvious example) and this in turn is impacting the appreciation of punch needle and rug hooking. There are some truly remarkable artists working in and around the medium, like Simone Elizabeth Saunders, Liv Aarund, Heather Goodchild, and interdisciplinary fiber artists like Letitia Fraser and Kandy Lopez (whose yarn portraiture is truly remarkable!) to name just a few. Fibers are an incredibly exciting medium and the boundary between traditional fiber forms and other media is dissolving in a really innovative way.
East End Reflections, 2024 | Photo by Louise Harris
Where do you see your work going in the future?
I’ve been exhibiting in group shows in the States, and would love to continue pushing my work into gallery settings. Part of my artist statement is that I want to elevate the perception of my ‘tapestries’ from craft to fine art, which is really how I see them.
I’m working on a new body of work, a sub-series if you will, at a much smaller scale than I typically work at, which I’m planning on exhibiting towards the end of the year.
Where can the Punch Needle World community find you to follow and support your work?
I’m most active on Instagram, where I share daily videos and stop animations of my work-in-progress, so people can follow along in real time. I feel like that’s 99% of the joy of punch needle and fibre art, i.e. seeing the piece come to life. I show my workings, my tools, my process, I answer questions and try and provide support for other people getting into the medium! I didn’t have that support when I started out, so it’s nice to have those conversations now and be able to provide guidance to others embarking on their own creative journeys (as well as follow their progress!) My handle is @bettytheyarnslayer – give me a follow. And my website has an archive of my works for sale and exhibition.
Golden Hour (keep me in your glow), 2021 | Photo by Trina Turl
What are 3 other fun facts about yourself that you would like to share with the PNW Community?
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My ‘brand name’ is inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer – I’m a huge fan, in case you hadn’t guessed. I initially used the handle because it’s a bit silly, and it made it less daunting to share my work with a wider audience if it was a little bit removed from my RL identity. I was terrified when I first started sharing my work in 2021, but by that point, I’d already created a year’s worth of work that was piling up in my studio. Online seemed a good way to give them a life beyond me.
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Every weekend, my wife and I get up early to watch Newcastle United play football on the TV – it’s a way to stay connected to home. My family is all based in the North East of England, but I’ve lived in Toronto for 8 years now. I’m hoping to be a Canadian citizen very soon, but in my heart, I’m a Geordie first and foremost. It’s a working-class city with a lot of grit and pride.
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I believe in nurturing your creativity. It doesn’t just happen, you have to feed it. I do music lessons, life drawing, painting and art criticism classes. I’m hoping that in the future I’ll be able to pursue an MFA.
For more information and to follow along with Betty's work, visit her website at www.bettytheyarnslayer.com or follow her on Instagram @bettytheyarnslayer