I am a textile artist based in Brighton & Hove. I grew up in Derbyshire, studied textile design in Winchester and returned to Wirksworth where I had a home studio & then a shop ”A Primary Presence” (where you might have come across me under my maiden name Louise Briggs). After marrying Alex we trained in Manchester and worked in London, Hove & Portslade and shortly in Brighton
I specialize in modern quilt related art, but this includes all sorts of fibres – thread, materials, paper plastic and anything else scrounged, bought from charity & specialist shops or salvaged as part of an avid recycling in the old fashioned sense of reusing (or the awful upstart sounding trendy word ‘upcycling’,- though I suppose it does distinguish it from used materials just being sent to rag recycling). I have been practising this all my life, brought up with a ‘waste not – want not’ mother who hoarded textile treasures in our spare room (my old bedroom before a house extension), so I started sewing when I was very young and made my first Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt between 8 & 13 years old
I trained in Constructed Textiles – weaving and knitting at Winchester School of Art, but discovered quilts partway through, so combined these skills. I’ve since taught myself lots of other crafts and learned origami with the British Origami Society, and more recently, mosaic
My work is eclectic though I work a lot with mathematical ideas – & geometrical shapes and optical illusions, trying to make maths fun and accessible to women & children put off it’s traditional form at school
I also do organic free-machine embroidery developed after doing a City & Guilds course at East Berkshire College, Windsor. Nature – flowers, animals and the sea feature highly
I tend to work with strong colours often drawing on a mathematical colouring system I have been working on for almost 30 years, but have done commissions and exhibition work in other styles and palettes
The Influence of Travel I do a lot of work with ethnic fabrics and ideas. Trips to Nepal, Pakistan, Ghana and European countries plus exhibitions closer home have been big influences. These days I try to avoid flying for environmental reasons, so have to research ideas through the internet, books and museums more. We are incredibly privileged to live in such a technologically accessible world
My first book “The Quilter’s Guide To Twists and Tucks” UK (terrible title) or “Origami Quilts” (USA) on fabric origami and folding ideas was published in 2006 but has been out of print/unavailable since 2009 despite pleas to republish a paperback British edition
I am currently working on several other book ideas but they are likely to be self-published
I’m also finishing off lots of class sample based quilts, two church banner projects, several mathematical design projects and planning lots more!
faithfullfibres 