Collar Piece: Jenny McCabe

Jenny McCabe: Hand screened bear print
Based in Lancaster, Jenny McCabe designs and prints home wares and accessories under the business name Coo & Co.
Jenny has a background in fine art but her printing skills and techniques have been largely self taught through a process of experimentation. I first encountered Jenny's work through her early 'Yarn Soup' blog which recorded her endeavours with print, machine stitch and natural dyes. Since then Jenny's creative path has led to establishing Coo & Co and the publication of two books on printing, including 'The Handprinted Home' which was published earlier this year by Cico Books.
A sense of environment and our place in it features strongly in Jenny's creative ethos. Each item Jenny makes is handprinted using eco-friendly materials such as water soluable inks, vintage papers and recycled fabrics where possible (for example, her white cotton is recycled sheeting from the hotel industry). Jenny, therefore, wasn't going to be daunted by the suggestion of creating a piece of work from a vintage shirt collar.

Jenny's collar piece is a combination of techniques familiar to her. Inspired by happy times, family stories & childhood holidays, Jenny's collar has been transformed by using free machine embroidery and transfer printing techniques. It incorporates family & found photo’s combined with pieces of text from old books and colourful scraps of paper map. Images have been printed onto, and layered, with gauzy muslin. It has been decorated inside & out. Little flashes of the original RAF blue collar can be glimpsed through the muslin and at the button hole fastening. The resulting collar is still a very wearable piece.