Arts, Craft and Me

I have always had a passion for creating — there is something almost magical about taking an idea, a handful of materials, or sometimes very little at all, and turning it into something that did not exist before.

Making has always been a huge part of who I am. I love the process just as much as the finished piece: experimenting, problem-solving, getting things wrong, changing direction and discovering something unexpected along the way. For me, creativity is not about everything being perfect; it is about curiosity, play and having the confidence to ask, “What happens if I try this?”

My creative practice has taken me in many different directions over the years, from fine art and mixed media to ceramics and three-dimensional work. However, textiles and fibre have always remained at the heart of what I do. Knitting and spinning are particular passions of mine, alongside felting and exploring both traditional and contemporary textile techniques. I love the tactile nature of working with fibre and yarn, and the possibilities that can come from something as simple as a thread and yarn.

I have never felt the need to restrict myself to one material or discipline. I enjoy combining techniques, experimenting with processes and allowing one material to influence another. Whether I am working with yarn, fibre, clay, paint or found materials, I am fascinated by the transformation that happens through making and the unexpected directions that a piece can take.

That passion for making naturally developed into a passion for teaching. I love sharing creative processes with others and seeing that moment when someone realises that they can make something they previously thought was beyond them.

Over the years, I have worked as an artist, maker, educator and creative practitioner, teaching everyone from young children through to adults. Alongside teaching Art & Design in Further Education, I have run creative workshops, exhibited at shows and events, worked within Art & Design assessment and moderation, and spent many years developing my own slow-craft practice, NoMothsAllowed which is now a collective called KASKON. 

NoMothsAllowed began as the home for my love of fibre, spinning, yarn and slow crafter. Rather than leaving that identity behind, it has become part of something larger.

KASKON is the wider creative brand and collective that brings together the different strands of my practice while allowing each one to have its own identity.

NoMothsAllowed remains dedicated to yarn and fibre as well as wool shows — celebrating the materials, processes and traditional skills that first became such an important part of my creative practice.

Alongside this, KASKON is developing as a small atelier for my handmade garments. This is where my love of fibre, knitting, construction and design can come together through clothing made slowly and thoughtfully by hand. Rather than mass production, the focus is on the individual nature of making: materials, craftsmanship, process and pieces that carry evidence of the hands that created them.

KASKON gives me the freedom to allow these different parts of my creative life to sit alongside one another — artist, maker, designer, educator and lifelong experimenter.

Although my roles, materials and creative interests have evolved over the years, the thing that connects everything I do is still that original fascination with making something out of seemingly nothing.

A little bit of imagination, some experimentation, a willingness to make a mess — and, occasionally, a little bit of magic.