I am an artist, researcher and writer based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK. My projects are situated within arts, heritage and community wellbeing. The ability of textile to transform and connect over time informs my studio, community and research practices.

My work has a strong sense of place and I use location, urban green spaces, cultural heritage and collections as inspiration. I have a longitudinal approach to process and materials and consider growing, making, unmaking and remaking as intrinsic to my work. I research, write, develop, deliver and evaluate long-term socially engaged arts and heritage-based projects with community and care focussed organisations, with a particular emphasis on working alongside underserved communities. Funders of this work include Kings Fund, Arts Council England, Mind, The Henry Smith Charity, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, National Lottery Heritage Fund and NHS foundation trusts. My doctoral research project Crafting Resilience: Cultural heritage and community engagement in post-industrial textile communities (2022) with The Open University was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. I am currently an Economic and Social Research Council postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies also at The Open University.

I have written and edited several books, including Slow Stitch: Mindful and Contemplative Textile Art (2015) and Resilient Stitch: Wellbeing and Connection in Textile Art (2021) published by Batsford. Both feature my durational project Stitch Journal a daily reflective stitching practice now in its tenth year.

Teaching, visiting lectureships and residencies include West Dean College of Arts and Conservation, Crafts Council, Selvedge, Gawthorpe Textile Collection, Brontë Parsonage Museum, Royal School of Needlework, Fibre Arts Australia, Tversted Skole, Denmark, Cultureghem and FARO, Belgium and IASPIS, Sweden. Curation and exhibition work include projects for Museum Dr Guislain, Belgium, British Textile Biennial, Bradford 2025 City of Culture, 2012 Cultural Olympiad, Bradford Industrial Museum, Salts Mill and the Haworth Art Gallery.

‘In work after work, stitch after stitch, Claire has made her practice – and textiles – accountable. ‘Fieldwork’ is the term used. Whatever is written in her book, whether is stitched or dyed, has been lived out: carried around in her community scrap bag; left in the backyard to be weathered by the elements before being invested with the care of repair; grown on her allotment, found on an urban walk or experienced in the daily act of spending time with needle, thread and cloth.’ June Hill (Embroidery, April/May 2021)