MEMBERS
Soft Sculpture Artist
West Yorkshire
About:
My personal focus on Northern culture and dialect is visually represented through my designs by means of various techniques. This has resulted in a collection and basis for the brand’s next steps, focusing on sustainability, individuality, and realism. Being a proud ‘Yorkshire lass,’ I take inspiration from the necessities of everyday life. Reflecting on my youth, in the 90s and 2000s, I have memories of strong branding images, easy meals, cheap toys, and what we could get with our £1.50 pocket money; this imagery informs and inspires my artwork to resonate and communicate with my audience through recollection and historical memories. Designing soft objects was an idea I had at the very beginning of this pandemic. I began making cushions that referenced our everyday activities, for example eating junk food, doing a lot of DIY, and visiting cheap food shops to recall the thrill of getting a bargain. With time on my hands, phone calls with family became more frequent, old stories were shared during family group chats, and queuing at the local shop became an opportunity to talk with people. This inspired the idea of bringing my Northern background into my designs. I began to pay more attention to local characters and the dialect they used. Now I have a complete collection of soft objects that all reference, in some way, my life growing up in Yorkshire. When designing my cushions I start off with objects in mind, be they cleaning products, DIY tools, or the sweets I used to get with my pocket money. I used my typography design to create words and phrases to communicate the meaning behind the object. This, for me, is an amusing way of expressing who I am, where I came from and the appreciation I have for my culture. I began this project purely to bring humor to people’s day in such an uncertain time; and with the reaction of social media, it became a business.