Camilla Stirling

To give us a sense of you as a designer, what is your major and why?

Screen print is my major, although the title does not fully describe what it is that I do. My textile practice involves both additive and subtractive surface manipulation and textile form building techniques, which allows me to explore new textile possibilities. By layering age old techniques and new technologies such as screen printing, hand dying and devore with laser cutting, pleating and digital print technology I am able to achieve a contemporary aesthetic that retains the raw materiality intrinsic to the original base cloth.

 

“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?

Often my designs express a collision of ideas whereby I impart an expression of self, guided by commercial trends and historical references. In my day-to-day I encounter beauty in simple forms both natural and man-made. It is these suspended moments of reverie where I notice new points of inspiration, ideas freely gather momentum and I continue to work creatively through writing, sketching, experimentation and research to bring together narratives that are tactile and textile.

 

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?

I have two modes of work, rapid and calm, the tools and mediums that I use in rapid mode create gestural, bold marks and textures: a print roller, a palette knife, a sea sponge, a well loved and worn paint brush. In my working mode of calm, when I am creating considered motifs, I use a 7mm pacer, an eraser, smooth watercolour paper, fine brushes, ink, gouache and masking fluid.