Design
These images are examples of Textiles/Millinery and Fashion, which over a period of years have spanned the space between Fine Art and commercial design. The edges of this space is where I find inspiration. My recent designs include cut and sew millinery and knitwear. Some of my practice is storytelling or conceptual sculptural and crosses the boundaries of textiles and art.
The diversity of my work ranges from product development, manufacture, kits for craft workshops and unique one-off pieces.
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A Creative Summer 2021
‘FRAME’, the West Cumbrian Cultural Education Partnership, offered ‘Recreate Make’ a grant from the Crafts Council via ‘Curious Minds NW’ to create craft packs for identified groups of Cumbrian schoolchildren.
‘Recreate Make’ is a new Community Interest Company started by Maggi Toner-Edgar and Sarah Ames, textile artists and tutors, with a view to promote the learning and enjoyment of craft skills through workshops and textile courses. Their aim is to encourage creative craft practice in the wider community.
Maggi and Sarah created two projects to engage teenagers during the summer holidays, encouraging creativity and the development of new skills.
The pack included a hard-backed sketchbook with a workbook of suggested art based activities, also Derwent Arts kindly donated some drawing equipment. The second project included a fully illustrated instruction booklet, coordinated fabrics, ribbons, needles and threads to create a decorative length of bunting, which could be customised with applique lettering or imagery.
The scope of these projects could reach beyond the original pack and the summer holiday period, inspiring children to consider further individual projects.
The quality of the pack and its learning materials encourages young people to work independently and the workbooks encouraged recipients to explore their own personal projects.
The packs also contain Crafts Council project ideas to inspire children and teenagers, and support material for those who may wish to embark on the Arts Awards scheme. ‘Recreate Make’ intend to develop an Arts Award offering in the near future.
With the help of the West Cumbria Learning Centre, Maggi and Sarah were able to distribute projects to 38 young people across West Cumbria who it was felt would find them beneficial.
We gave the packs out during the summer holiday of 2021 to help additional homeschooling ideas for the arts. They were given to children from Wigton to Whitehaven, the majority centred around the Workington area.
