When I was 18 I went to an interview for art college, with my mixed media portfolio full of all my favourite (though maybe not "best") work, wearing early 90's make up borrowed mostly from my mum, and a pair of brown jeans that were patched and embroidered until they were more patch than original jeans. I stumbled through the interview, my shyness getting the better of me every time I was asked a question. I came out thinking to myself, well, that's my first interview done, hope I do a better job of it next time. I had absolutely no sense that I’d done well enough to get a place.
To my great surprise, I got in. It was a foundation course, where we got to dip our toes in a whole range of subjects from fine art to photography, ceramics to textiles, and it was, creatively, one of the best years of my academic life. I gravitated towards textiles, and found myself in the class of the lecturer who had interviewed me, who told me, at the end of the year, that I'd got my place on account of my beautifully embroidered jeans.
But embroidery wasn't a skill that I'd found particularly easy to learn at all.
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