ARTIST STATEMENT
My work begins with a place. I forage plants from a landscape, using them to naturally dye silk by hand before embroidering into the resulting cloth. The cloth carries the colour of where it came from. The textures I stitch into it, beaded clusters and tufted chenille, read more like fragments of moss, lichen, or seedheads than a depiction of landscape. The work is not a picture of a place, but a fragment of it, made with the place itself.
Natural dye is a process that cannot be fully controlled. The plants behave in their own way, and the silk absorbs colour unpredictably. I have learned to follow rather than resist this. When the dye settles, it leaves pooled and layered marks across the surface that I read as a kind of map. The embroidery follows where the colour gathers or thins, and the beadwork responds to the textures of the landscape itself.
Each piece takes time, and the making remains visible in the finished work. Hand-stitch, repetition, and layered mark-making hold the trace of the hours embedded within each piece.
PROCESS
My process begins outdoors, through gathering and observing plant material from specific landscapes. These natural materials are then used to dye silk, allowing colour to emerge through an unpredictable interaction between plant, fibre and time.
Once dyed, the silk becomes a surface for further making. I work into it through embroidery, layering stitch and beadwork in response to the natural formations within the cloth. Seed, bugle, and Delica beads are used to build texture and rhythm, echoing natural forms such as seedheads, lichen, and ground structures.
The process is slow and responsive, shaped by material behaviour rather than fixed outcomes. Each stage informs the next, allowing the work to evolve through attention and repetition.
PRACTICE
I built the foundation of my practice at Leith School of Art in Edinburgh, where I completed a Foundation Diploma in Fine Art & Design. This is where I learned to slow down, observe closely, and approach textiles as a medium with the same conceptual weight as painting.
I later moved to Melbourne to complete a Bachelor of Textile Design at RMIT University, where I developed the technical and material understanding that underpins my practice today, including surface design, dye processes, fibre manipulation, and textile structure.
My practice now sits between fine art and textile design, grounded in material exploration and a continued interest in how place can be held within cloth.