RED: Listening to the fabric

The RED collection began as an exercise in restraint — a limited palette, a small selection of textiles — and became something much more revealing.

Working with fewer materials focused my attention. I found myself listening more closely to what each cloth wanted to do, noticing its weight, its resistance, its transparency. The work slowed, and in that slowing, I could see more clearly.

Stitching carries memory. How we stitch. How we were taught to stitch. My grandmother taught me to sew on her old treadle machine, beginning — ambitiously — with a complex Vogue pattern. She taught me French seams and bound buttonholes, and more importantly, she taught me to work with the cloth and not against it on by. Over the years I’ve gathered more knowledge, but it never feels complete. When I pause and listen, the fabric still leads.

Much of this work plays with layers and transparency: lines that drift out of register, patterns that refuse to align, dots that miss their mark. These imperfections feel honest. They mirror the moments in life that interrupt us — physically or emotionally — moments that can jar and unsettle, but which also create depth and new ways of seeing.

Cotton organdie appears delicate, crisp, almost pristine, yet it can be surprisingly sharp to handle. Wool, by contrast, offers weight and protection. I’m drawn to the relationship between these materials. Fabrics can be like people — we choose them for how they feel against us, for what they offer in a particular moment.

Red has long been a colour I return to when I need release. I once thought it represented anger, but I’ve come to understand it differently. Red allows thoughts to move, frustrations to loosen. It clears space and often leaves me smiling. Recently, while binge-watching Riot Women, the colour suddenly made perfect sense.

The landscape around me quietly informs these works too — its rhythms, shadows, patterns, and shifting forms seep in unconsciously, shaping each composition as it develops.

The RED collection is, for me, about attention: to material, to memory, to feeling. About letting things be slightly misaligned, imperfect, unresolved — and finding meaning there.

Each piece in the RED collection is framed individually and 20% of proceeds are donated to The Childhood Tumour Trust. You can view the available works HERE