What better way to start than to explain who I am!
I was educated at the University of Ulster and Scottish College of Textiles; along with St Martins and KLC obtaining degree level amongst a variety of certificates in specialised fields.
An industrial textile designer for almost ten years, my passion for fabric, texture and pattern is evident in my previous collections for apparel and interior retailers; I love to examine culture and sub cultures, how we evolve as people and translate this research into trends and forecasts (up to two years in advance) for future collections.
My collections of stand-alone textile art explore historic stories and much of my current work has evolved from concepts intrinsically linked to me and is often incorporated into my work in delightfully surprising ways.
How my brain works!
Like any creative, I begin with a thought, normally in the middle of the night! Hence, I sleep with a notebook by my bed... sometimes these notes are unreadable after being scribbled down in the dark! Totally frustrating the next morning.
My concepts include the combination of using the old with the new; getting a good story to add to the visual helps enhance the design process. The ‘seed’ grows in my head before it visually forms on mood boards or concept story boards. If this project is a collaboration, then at this stage the clients get to see the concepts for approval. Then it is focused design; collaborating scale, shape, style and colour using the computer or hand drawn work to create the collection.
Sometimes I use technology, allowing me to present the old in new and exciting forms: - achieving a style that is unique and unobtainable by using other methods. This technology, mainly used in mass production is experimented with and by exploring the process I gain a unique product. By combining a variety of processes, my style is layered, allowing the observer to connect and reconnect to the piece and each time to gain something new from it, whether it be a texture, pattern, form or the story behind it.
My pieces encourage the observer to construct their own visual experience, a subconscious impression at first but one which slowly ripens into awareness. Drawing on aspects of cognitive science, the pieces persuade the brain and eye to connect, and then re-connect, and in this way stimulate a progression of engagements to allow new forms to emerge.
All my life I've been attracted by the contrast of old and new, past and present, experience and innocence, antique and modern. And this is the inspiration behind my work - a desire to explore the traditional and the past, and to imagine how this can inform the future. Nothing is as it seems. Subtlety is key. Elegantly deviant in all forms.
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