From the archives: Whispers in cloth with Jette Clover

Danish-born textile artist Jette Clover reflects on four decades of art quiltmaking – from curating Europe's first art quilt exhibitions to creating intimate, text-based collages of paper, cloth and paint. Now based in Antwerp, she discusses her daily fifteen-minute collage ritual, her fascination with weathered city walls and handwriting, and the restraint she calls "a little lipstick" – one considered touch of colour amid quiet, layered compositions.

Show Notes

Key takeaways from this episode:

• You’ll The power of daily ritual – Jette's fifteen-minute morning collage practice shows how a small, consistent habit builds an intuitive feel for composition and colour over time.

• Restraint as a design tool – learn how her "lipstick rule" (working in black and white, then adding a single accent colour) can make a composition more powerful than colour overload.

• Working in series without needing to finish – discover how returning to a theme again and again, sometimes years apart, allows ideas to mature rather than be forced to a close.

• Letting materials lead the work – her approach to cheesecloth, rust-dyed fabric and layered paint demonstrates how texture and happy accidents can shape a piece as much as planning does.

• Imperfection as permission – her rejection of traditional quilting precision offers a model for approaching craft as personal pleasure rather than performance.
  

During the live interview, we shared some images of Jette’s artwork. If you’re listening to the podcast version, we’ve made these images available for you below. 

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