I love making - knit, weave, crochet, spinning, dyeing, felting, mixed media, embroidery, stitch, applique, quilting, printing, embellishing, beads, wire - the list goes on! I love to learn new things and am constantly experimenting, designing and mixing my media as I go. I find inspiration in costume, architecture, nature, landscapes - anything that uses exciting combinations of visual language that I can play with, especially texture, patterns and colour.
I trained in Constructed Textiles (BDes) where I got to indulge in the whole learning process from huge dobby looms, screen printing and knitting machines to spinning, machine embroidery and dyeing my own yarns and fabrics. I realised quite early on that I hate to limit myself to just one technique or medium - I LOVE to combine materials, pattern and textures with a full range of mixed media from my ever growing stash of 'bits' and a lot of my work has layer upon layer of visual detail and embellishment.
Teaching textiles for 10 years at college gave me a good opportunity to experiment and learn many new techniques and skills, as well as refine my own textile development. Ideas suddenly become so much clearer when you have to explain things to other people. It's as if you have been given permission to just play, explore and enjoy the journey while most importantly, withholding judgement on the outcome!
My other passion is colour! I get immense pleasure playing with dyes, creating new yarns to crochet and knit with as well as painterly landscapes on fabric to use in collage and embroidered artwork. This is an area I'm thinking of developing more, introducing printmaking and markmaking into the mix. It's very exciting as I have no idea where it will take me as yet. I tend to be more of a process person - I do love the experimental aspect of making and get bored repeating anything. Why do the same thing again when there is so much more out there to discover? :)
At the moment, my interests are shifting more towards creating art textiles that incorporate traditional techniques such as crochet and jewellery making and re-expressing them in a new and creative way. This has led me into more 3 Dimensional work which is an exciting new avenue for me to explore. But I do like the satisfaction of creating a product too - such as a fun crochet flower blanket or warm, snuggly winter mittens, so these do creep in on a regular basis and help keep my ideas fresh as well as introduce more techniques into my vocabulary. There is something satisfying about a well written pattern!
This year, the aim is to work towards selling my work in galleries and shops, develop more of my ideas in print and dyeing and start designing some lace knit and crochet patterns to sell on Ravelry.
So welcome to the ongoing journey - good to have you along!
