Statement
Throughout my childhood I was always making. However as soon as I made my first willow basket, I knew I had to make more. An introduction to textile basketry and the suggestion to try some different materials took my making in a new direction. Working with fine flexible materials, with the use of a few simple tools, I sit on the edge of basketry and textiles, drawing skills from both areas: adapting techniques, exploring and experimenting. Most of my textile basketry work uses the technique of twining. Twining is very accessible; it doesn’t need a lot of space, expensive equipment, or even materials. You just need a lot of patience and time, as twining is slow.
CV
Solo Exhibitions
2018
Significant Figures: remembrance through making. Oxmarket Gallery, Chichester.
2012
Willow to Wire, Horsham Museum & Art Gallery
Group Exhibitions
2019
Basketry – Function & Ornament. Ruthin Craft Centre.
2018
MADE: folding, bending, weaving, twisting. Qube Gallery, Oswestry.
2016
Summer Show 2016: Weave, The Makers Guild in Wales, Craft in the Bay
2015
Inspire: Winter Selling Exhibition, Walford Mill Crafts, Wimbourne, Dorset
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Publications
2018 Seeking remembrance through making by Rupert Toovey.
Page courtesy of the West Sussex Gazette.
2018 Beyond the Battlefields
Kathe Buchlers Photographs of Germany in the Great War. This book contains a short contribution, made my me, in response to a photograph from the collection. A copy of the publication can be purchased through UH Press.
2017 Featured artist, Meet the makers, Countryside Voice CPRE, Summer 2017
2016 Featured artist, Silver Award 2016: Specialist Media, craft&design September/October 2016
2012 Work featured in Practical basketry techniques, Stella Harding & Shane Waltener
2009 Image included in The Craft Blueprint: a Workforce Development Plan for Crafts in the UK, Creative & Cultural Skills and Crafts Council