A little something about me…

I’ve been making ever since I was small! You could always find me happily absorbed in craft projects; quilling, fimo, decoupage… to name a few. I was always experimenting with different materials melting wax to create flowers! ( not sure how safe that was!), marbling with PVA! I can’t imagine a life without creativity !

I still enjoy experimenting with different materials and craft is still at the heart of what I do, but it`s about making the craft my own and I do that through play and experimentation. I now make jewellery, which I treat like wearable works of art, paper art and installations. After studying a mixed media degree in Fine Art in the friendly city of Cardiff, I moved to London to do a two year MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art. I began my degree by painting, but soon started creating miniature paper installations and by the time I started my MA I was creating room sized textile installations. I now use a mixture of fabric, paper, wood, perspex, which I laser cut to create my work.

I am passionate about spreading the word about how wonderful creativity is! so I do lots of workshops and projects with different communities from school children to adults suffering with mental health difficulties. I have recently completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Integrative Psychotherapy, which I loved!

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inspiration

Keepsake packages….


I have been working on getting all the packages ready for the Keepsake project, commissioned by RuraL Arts North Yorkshire, and I have been having such a lovely time creating (what I like to call), collage doodles. I have been using pin pricks and putting coloured window film behind the holes, so the light shines through…..this will mirror what will happen in the final installation. These are just some of the designs I came up using bits of laser cut paper, tape, pen, different japanese papers and window film… (there are 50 of them!), so I`ll share more of them later. They will appear on the front of the pack, to hopefully inspire and make the packages feel special.

Click on the link to see a video of the light shining through the pin holes

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I am asking community members to create a pin hole design…doing this repetitive activity is so meditative and sooooo good for our well being, because it connects to our right brain, also the results from something so simple are really beautiful.

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Keepsake project….


I am so excited to be involved with the Keepsake project commissioned by Rural Arts. I am one of seven artists that have been commissioned to work across Yorkshire. So it feels REALLY exciting to be working in my local area of Skipton. I am fairly new to the area, so this is my first local project. The idea of the project is to work with the community that have felt most isolated due to COVID 19.

I wanted to expand on my Happiness project and wanted to incorporate their designs into the final piece. There is a lot more detail and the communities` designs to add, butthis is the design I`ve come up with inspired by nature and Yorkshire architecture…..

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I`ll be sharing more soon and writing to the participants to ask them to create their design.

Mandala detail….


The mandala is like a big jigsaw puzzle now I just need to attach it altogether….here is some close ups of the beautiful detail. If you look back to the workshop photos you will be able to see the original designs and how close they are to the final laser cut pieces.

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Project; Happiness…Community Mandala….


It was around this time last year- (gosh that seems a long time ago), it was snowing… I facilitated a workshop with the children from Belmont Primary School, near Bolton. I thought their designs were fantastic and could not believe how creative they were….

I worked with just over sixty children from Belmont Primary and each produced a leaf design. Their designs appear in gold and have been etched into a thin plastic to create the central part of the mandala.

This piece was supposed to be exhibited last summer, but for COVID reasons had to be cancelled….I still plan to exhibit it outside and hopefully it will tour around the schools and community centres who have been involved in the project.

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A photo of their original designs from last January…

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then their wonderful designs were put into a computer, so they could be laser cut and engraved.Untitled-1click her to see a video of the central mandala coming together. I will post more images of the Mandala in the next few days.