Camilla Rogers

“If things start happening, don't worry, don't stew, just go right along and you'll start happening too" or so says Dr Seuss. How do you get started on a new project?

I think it's important to find an inspiration source, or a point that is powerful enough to invoke a mood, which resonates with you. A subject that will allow for ultimate creativity and imagination to culminate. Having a positive outlook is always influential on how your project is perceived. My most successful designs and stories that I have created, stem from something deep inside my psyche that felt true and right to pursue.

 

Bricolage is about using and utilising what you find to hand. What tools or techniques do you find you can’t help coming back to?

In my work I juxtapose two mediums or effects; opaque vs transparency; collage vs flat colour; watercolour vs scratchy texture; and print vs constructed textiles. My main tools of the trade are the brush, the thick opaque texta, and ALWAYS scrap paper. I see huge potential in left-overs: snippets, off-cuts, old inks and paints.

 

Why textile design? (Or maybe by the end of the course, why not...!)

To be honest, I pretty much jumped into this course straight after high school, not knowing what I wanted to do or be, but knowing that I had a strong creative mind and an intuitive hand for illustration. Being 'awakened' by the the world of textiles has been a great experience for me. I love being able to create, and being able to translate imagination through surface design. Feeling now, more grounded in my thought process, with a little bit more sense and a lot of inspiration, I find that textiles are embedded into my life, thoughts and definitely my future. Textiles bring people together and they provide something important for society.