artists and tutors sharing ideas imagination and skills
Heart Shard 8
Ceramic, cotton muslin, linen thread, scoured cotton. 30cm x 42 cm; 2010
Improvise
Wood, wire, grass, paper, metal. 21cm x 30cm; 2011
Punctum installation
Ceramic, linen thread, nylon line. 100cm x 100cm x ceiling height; 2010
Collective Drawing
2010
Slipping Off detail
Organdie, cotton thread. 245cm x 110cm
Invisible Mending, cup
Ceramic, paper and plastic. 21cm x 30cm; 2011
After many years teaching in further and higher education, I am concentrating on freelance work and return to study, completing my MA studies in Textiles at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2011.
Current work explores the accidental incidents that disrupt the smooth order and predictability of everyday life. Dementia and memory loss have been important themes, linked to first aid and sewing kits. These inadequate sources of help investigate fragility and impotence in difficult circumstances but also convey a sense of ingenuity and determination.
Drawing is an important part of my practice, allowing a space for thought and investigation of my subject. Working with responsive materials as both tool and media, the drawn mark develops its own voice and may also incorporate text, both readable and unreadable.
I am excited by materiality, including fabric but also ceramic, glass, wood, metal or feathers, strongly contrasting in weight and character and used for their expressive properties. Open structured materials, explore perceptions of fragility whilst colour and burning are used symbolically to reinforce ideas.
Past exhibition work has explored gloves and working hands collaborating with collections at the Bankfield Museum in Halifax, Aston under Lyne, Yeovil and Northampton Museums for a solo touring exhibition G’love Stories. I traced older glove makers and incorporated their stories as well as artefacts from the glove industry.
I tutor a distance learning BA Hons textile course and work with tutor groups in Sheffield and Derbyshire specialising in mentoring, design and experimental approaches to technique.
I teach freelance workshops and summer schools as well and have contributed to books published in both USA and UK.
I enjoy working with architects and clients and have completed ecclesiastical and domestic commissions for both textiles and stained glass, including innovative glass which retains the image of textile structures.