This little scene of organised chaos is my studio in WASPS Hanson Street, Glasgow. I spend six days a week here bringing to life an increasingly large gang of animals made from a mixture of textiles. I graduated in ceramics from Glasgow School of Art in 1993 (Masters 1994) and practised ceramics for a long time, but changed to textiles a few years ago – much more me, really! I’ve gone from struggling for ideas (ceramics) to having way too many!

I started Nameless Wonders in 2009, mostly for the ‘craftier’ work, and have now started exhibiting too, using my own name – there’s a bit of migration between the two areas, though.

The work – I use animal forms in the work as a vehicle for experimenting with and exploring the possibilities presented by combining and reworking fabrics. I like to play with colour, pattern and texture combinations and use thread visibly and freely worked – I find this like a kind of drawing process, finding the form through needle, thread, scissors – and just keep going till I’m happy with the result. I like to think the way the animals look is how they would be if we could see their ‘soul’, if there is such a thing, rather than a realistic representation. They make people laugh anyway, and that’s half the pleasure of making them in the first place.

I don’t know, and don’t really bother about, whether it’s art or craft or both. It doesn’t really seem relevant. The work comes out as it does and I like to leave it at that.

There’s more on my page on Facebook

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‘Where I Make’ invites readers behind the scenes of artists from many disciplines to share photographs and a little insight about where they create their masterpieces. See more from the series here.