Friday Feature Artist
Each week, we sit down with some of the world’s most talented and successful artists and share the stories that have influenced their creative journeys. From their earliest experiments to their most impactful works, you’ll discover the processes and philosophies that have shaped their art. Whether you’re a practicing artist, a craft enthusiast, or simply captivated by the beauty of mixed media art, we invite you to join us on this exclusive peek inside the world of our amazing feature artists. Tune in to inspire your imagination, connect with our global artist community, and enjoy some fabulous art banter.
Episodes
What does it mean to know a place? For textile artists Dorothy Caldwell and Claire Benn, it begins with walking, listening, collecting – and letting the land leave its mark. In this rare and intimate conversation across three continents, these lifelong artists and friends reflect on pigment, place, and the deep, quiet power of working with cloth, soil, and time.
Visit our website to view Dorothy and Claire’s work, explore our course...
Canadian-born artist Sandra Meech blends photography, painting, and stitch to tell layered stories of landscape, memory and climate. Drawing from Arctic expeditions and the flooded fields of Somerset, her work reveals what lies beneath – from melting glaciers to ancient ammonites. In this rich conversation, Sandra shares how sketchbooks, digital collage and the natural world continue to guide her evolving textile practice.
Painter, printmaker and educator Sally Hirst brings a fearless, can-do spirit to her richly layered abstractions. Guided by memory, material and the textures of the urban environment, Sally’s work is an evolving conversation between painting, printmaking and collage. In this lively conversation, she shares how curiosity, risk and repurposing drive her process – and why the best ideas often start with “what if?”
Lissy and Rudi Cole are collaborative fibre artists, visionaries and partners in life and art. Guided by aroha, whakapapa and a bold creative spirit, they transform simple crochet into monumental public artworks. In this intimate episode, the Coles share the story behind their neon-pink whare nui, their soulful creative process, and their deep belief in the power of art to heal, connect and uplift.
Through the vivid language of punch needle tapestry, Simone Elizabeth Saunders reclaims and reimagines Western art histories. A Canadian artist of Jamaican and African descent, Simone weaves narratives of Black womanhood, liberation and ancestral connection into lush, large-scale works rooted in Art Nouveau, the Renaissance and her own lived experience. In this conversation, she shares the spiritual, symbolic, and technical dimensi...
Sculptor and installation artist Dana Falcini works with organic materials – from fish skin and feathers to human hair and bone – to create sculptural forms rich with emotion and meaning. In this reflective conversation, Dana shares how time away from making deepened her creative practice, and how her raw materials hold quiet conversations about memory, care, and transformation.
Visit our website to view Dana’s work, explore our cou...
Mississippi-based artist Coulter Fussell turns donated, discarded, and once-loved textiles into exuberant, improvisational quilts that carry memory, conflict, beauty, and joy. From river towns to war zones, soft sculpture to Snapchat videos, Coulter’s layered works ask us to consider what we throw away, what we hold onto, and what makes something worth remembering.
Visit our website to view Coulter’s work, explore our courses, or di...
From painting flower power on her father’s car to water blasting antique linens in her New Zealand studio, fibre artist Jacki Barklie has never been one to follow rules. In this episode, Jacki explores scale, resistance, and identity in her richly layered practice – one that celebrates risk-taking, material curiosity, and the quiet power of the unsaid.
Visit our website to view Jacki’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more ar...
American textile artist Helen Geglio creates layered, hand-stitched works that explore memory, motherhood and the quiet power of cloth. Blending the intimacy of collage with the discipline of quilting, her art reflects years of teaching, storytelling and meditation through stitching. In this thoughtful conversation, Helen shares how repetition, reflection and risk-taking have shaped her visual vocabulary and her artistic life.
Artist Carlie Trosclair casts the world in latex, capturing the skins of old buildings, staircases, and trees to reveal stories embedded in their structure. Drawing on architecture, memory and place, Carlie’s work invites us to think about home, the body, and the quiet yet booming voice of impermanence.
Visit our website to view Carlie’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews.
Internationally acclaimed textile artist Tina Marais invites us into her sculptural world, where memory, material and meaning are intimately stitched together. From community to creative courage, this conversation explores Tina’s poetic practice and her new Take Two course, Soft Revolution – a deeply personal offering shaped by years of experimentation and a lifelong reverence for cloth.
Learn more about her course here.
Painter, writer and educator Rebecca Crowell has helped redefine how artists engage with cold wax medium. In this conversation, Rebecca reflects on abstraction, intuition, and the layered histories that lie beneath a painting’s surface. For artists drawn to process, materiality, and meaningful teaching, this is a rich and thoughtful listen.
Visit our website to view Rebecca’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and...
British printmaker Sue Brown invites us into a richly textured world of birds, sheds and story-filled sketchbooks. Working primarily with collograph printmaking, Sue transforms humble materials into layered works that celebrate the natural world and our place within it. This episode explores her deep love of birds, the beauty of experimentation, and the collaborative quilt project that connected makers across the globe.
British artist Matthew Harris brings cloth and paper to life through a process that blends structure, chance, and rhythm. Drawing from a background in drawing and a deep reverence for materials, Matthew shares how intuition, repetition, and constraint shape his striking textile works – and how music, memory, and the beauty of imperfection guide his creative process.
Visit our website to view Matthew’s work, explore our courses, or d...
UK artist Tansy Hargan brings her background in architecture and landscape design into a vibrant mixed-media practice. From tiny thumbnail sketches to layered textiles, she explores colour, sound, and place with a rare attentiveness. In this thoughtful conversation, Tansy shares how observation, constraint, and play shape her distinctive art practice.
Visit our website to view Tansy’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more art...
Quilt artist and soft sculptor Phong Chi Lai brings a fashion background, a deep respect for upcycled textiles, and a maker’s intuition to his vibrant, tactile world of improv patchwork. From childhood days in a clothing factory to natural dyeing in Tasmania, Phong’s journey is stitched with care, curiosity, and conviction.
Visit our website to view Phong's work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews.
What happens when two kindred spirits in stitch meet across the globe? In this rich conversation, embroidery artists Tessa Perlow and Fleur Woods delve into their shared love of beading, symbolism, and slow making. From creative rituals to personal philosophies, they explore the beauty of handwork as magic, meditation, and connection. A warm and generous exchange between artists walking parallel paths.
Lydia Miller weaves with the wild. From ocean-foraged kelp to antlers, sticks and horsehair, her sculptural fibre works are shaped as much by intuition as by ecology. In this episode, Lydia shares how place, process and material co-create her art – and how slowing down, paying attention, and working with what you have can transform both your creative practice and your connection to the natural world.
Alongside weaving, Lydia also wo...
Textile artist and calligrapher Rosalind Wyatt works at the poetic intersection of word and cloth. From hand-stitched handwriting to garments that carry memory, her work honours the ‘quiet voice’ people leave behind. In this moving studio interview, Rosalind shares how handwriting, language, and material all converge to tell deeply human stories.
Visit our website to explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews.
From classical painting to intuitive abstraction, Monica Rezman’s journey spans decades, disciplines, and dimensions. Working between Chicago and Mexico, Monica creates sculptural paintings and fabric-covered forms that explore memory, movement, and materiality. In this episode, she reflects on letting go of realism, embracing process over perfection, and making art that keeps her creatively alive.
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