About Me
Hi my name is Ann (she/her), and I am a textile designer specialising in weave, and enjoy taking a fine art approach, often using drawing and photography to inform my textiles. The natural world is a huge influence on my work, and my current practice is heavily focussed on using nature as a source of conceptual inspiration, as well as materials and methods. Through my work, I aim to bring about a greater awareness of the beauty in nature, encouraging others to engage with and build connections to nature.
The Earth
The sky
The Sea
My practice
Natural materials
Using natural materials has always been an important part of my work. Not only do they boast a range of properties making them suitable for a variety of textiles, but natural fibres are a renewable and sustainable source of materials, and are fully biodegradable- products made of natural materials can therefore completely decompose and will not release any compounds that are harmful or toxic to the environment.
Mono-materials
Producing textiles that are mono-material has a great impact on sustainable practice, as it facilitates recycling and cyclability. Fibre blends are a huge challenge in recycling, as different fibres require different processing- especially if there is a combination of natural and synthetic fibres. By creating mono-material products, the amount of processing required to break the product down into usable components is minimised.
Natural dyes
The use of synthetic dyes along with chemical additives results in a copious amount of toxic output into the environment both during and after the process, through waste disposal. Synthetic dyes are also made from cracking crude-oil which contributes to carbon emissions. As my practice developed, I began to move away from synthetically dyed yarns to experiment with using natural dyes myself, without any mordants/fixatives.