When home work is a pleasure

The dusty, shuttered former shop that Serena Partridge calls home appears empty and forlorn from the outside. But looks can be deceptive. Open the door and you enter a world of vintage finds, curios, keepsakes and exquisite, tiny costumes.

Those with vivid imaginations might muse that Serena shares her cottage in Norton, Malton, with a combination of fairy folk, Borrowers and Gulliver's Lilliputians. There are tiny shoes, no bigger than a couple of inches, alongside miniature silk and lace ball gowns and Tom Thumb-sized kid gloves with detailed embroidery. The tailoring is superb and the fine detail all the more breathtaking because it is done by human-sized Serena.

The grade two listed old shop is now a home and workplace for artist Serena, who specialises in creating small-scale historical costumes, which stand alone as decoration or are framed and hung on the wall. Designing, cutting and stitching from home has compensations, like working when it feels right, "usually early in the morning or very late into the night," says Serena.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

But even though her "textile sculptures" are small, her work has taken over at least half her living space. What was a sitting room is given over to storage, the dining room table is for working on, a bedroom on the first floor is now a studio/sewing room and the other is her new sitting room.

"It was a three-bedroom house when I arrived, but it's really a one bedroom now," says Serena, who sleeps in the attic under a silk eiderdown found in a charity shop. Born and raised on a farm in Devon, she had a gipsy-style existence thanks to artist residencies all over Britain, but she has put down roots in Ryedale, where there is a thriving artistic community.

She found her unusual home four years ago after initially dismissing it. "There was no parking and the agent didn't have the key when I first went to view. I left but then the agent rang and said the landlady was there and could show me round.

"I went back reluctantly but as soon as I walked in and looked round I knew it was perfect. It's got lots of character and it has been renovated really well."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The early 19th century property is full of original features including an old range, beams and shutters. It also has a secret walled garden at the back, which is full of wild flowers and scores of terracotta pots. "The pots were a great find," says Serena. "I got 60 and they only cost about 1 from an auction sale."

They are among a host of bargains that she has found on her trips to auctions in Pickering, Northallerton and Melbourne village hall. Charity shops are another favourite hunting ground. She was brought up to be frugal and so mending and making do and being creative with inherited and recycled furniture and furnishings is second nature.

"I'd describe the interior dcor as flea market style. It's all done on a shoestring. I don't lust after things in Habitat and feel upset that I can't afford them. I tend to buy things when I need them. It's a good job really as most artists don't earn a huge amount. I am quite happy living within my means."

Her favourite find is the antique birdcage in the sitting room, which came from a local auction. The pile of hat boxes and the waistcoats displayed in the dining room are from an auction of theatrical costumes in Stratford-upon-Avon. Family donations include the sofas and the kitchen table and chairs. "Not what I would've chosen myself but they do a good job," says Serena. Her dining room table and chairs, which she has painted, were 40 from a local hospice shop and her embroidered cushions are from an auction.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

She also inherited her grandmother's old sewing machine, which is now ornamental and sentimental reminder of happy times. "I was going to change the thread but she put it there and so I left it just as it was. I love it because it reminds me of her."

Friends and fans often send her little gifts including old postcards that she mounts her tiny shoes on and pieces of antique fabrics and trimmings for her work. "I also get fabric from the antique textile fair in Manchester and it tends to last quite a long time because the costumes are so small," says Serena, who has a degree in Design Crafts and who also does workshops in schools and colleges.

Her garments and accessories reference costumes from the past 600 years and the scale and proportions are distorted to create what she calls "curios and follies". They are made and presented to look like museum exhibits and all carry little fictional labels that suggest they have a history. "I love making them and although most of the pieces are sewn and embroidered, I work in mixed-media. I carve wooden heels for my shoes and I've started using wire and metalworking techniques. I love the fairytale element and the work has many parallels with classic storytelling, from Gulliver's Travels to Great Expectations. Some of the pieces relate to specific fairytales and nursery rhymes."

Her pieces cost from 37 to 1,500 and have attracted a number of collectors. Some of her latest creations feature in an exhibition at the Mercer Art Gallery in Harrogate (until July 18)

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Many are based on the story of Agatha Christie's disappearance, which turned out to be a stay at a Harrogate hotel. Visitors have been entranced by a pair of gloves labelled as the writer's own. "Some of them think that they really did belong to her, even they are far, far too small and would never have fitted. I'm really pleased that people have seen them as believable."

Serena Partridge tel: 07740 379215, www.serenapartridge.co.uk

Ryedale Folk Museum

Serena Partridge's work is also on display at Ryedale Folk Museum in Hutton le Hole until August 8.

The collection is inspired by a passion for historical European costume and the fantastical tiny pieces are a contrast to the rural exhibits in the rest of the museum.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

They were inspired by flamboyant fashions paraded by the wealthy elite and include 16th century Venetian platforms and the superfluous coiffures supported by Marie Antoinette.

Although her works contain strong references to the past, Serena is not concerned with producing historically accurate replicas and classes her art as sculptural textiles.

Gallery manager Andy Dalton says: "Serena makes work that moves easily between high fashion and fine art.

"Her pieces are exquisitely beautiful but highlight the artificiality and impossibility of our concept of beauty and fashion.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Her work addresses these subjects with a knowing humour and we are seduced by the stylised forms and sensuous materials before realising that the clothing, shoes and accessories that feature in her work are physically unwearable and idealised. Fashion becomes art."

The Gallery, Ryedale Folk Museum, admission free, 10am-4.30pm. Hutton le Hole, North Yorkshire YO62 6UA, tel: 01751 417 367, www.ryedalefolkmuseum.co.uk

YP MAG 10/7/10

Related topics: