Pushing Our Imagination

My practice in Contemporary Lace encompasses pieces designed at scale to examine aspects of the climate crisis; explorations into pattern and design to lead students into new places and my own lacemaking into wearable art and domestic ornament – or dives straight into my pocket to identify my handkerchief in the wash from that of my husband. It is art that talks and works hard for its living.

Inspiration comes from the world around me, but can emerge in front of me as I explore pattern-making processes or lace made in free form. It gives me some of the greatest pleasure and purpose in life and sharing is a joy.

It has evolved over 40 years of pushing my imagination into places never dreamed possible when I started. Now I have companions born in the succeeding years; I count myself immeasurably lucky to find myself in their thrilling company in The Adventurous Lacemakers, or when reaching out over the airwaves via the Haptic and Hue podcast on lace which has already accumulated 10,000 downloads.

It is the best career I could imagine, helping me cull truth from uncertainty, order from chaos. I am fascinated by the different aspects of lace tackled by my colleagues, whether that might be to galleried success or mentoring beginners. I have been following Pierre’s Noobs course myself in order to initiate novices locally and pass them to him.

Plans ahead include returning to my favourite parts of Europe which were inaccessible when I was young. All around, politics is driving us apart; but lace brings us together, a visible language we all understand even if we cannot comprehend each other’s words.