Amy Cresswell
BA Furniture & Product Design
I would describe myself as more of a maker than a designer, as I often incorporate craft and art within my work. I have a particular interest in taking traditional material processes and reimagining them in a fun new way.
Holme
Growing up in Bradford, a city shaped by its past textile industry, I wanted to create an item which paid homage to this. The chair gave me the perfect frame to weave around and allowed me to not only create an aesthetically pleasing item for the home but also a practical one. It was important to me to have the warp and weft of the weave in two different colours to really highlight how the two travel over the chair frame and eventually meet together. The structure reminds me of the looms once used in the now empty mills of where I live.
Experimenting with stain resist on timber
This project was inspired by the handcraft of pysanky, the Ukrainian tradition of decorating Easter eggs. It consists of using bees wax to resist coloured stain and ultimately creating an intricate pattern. Similar wax resist methods are also used within textiles and ceramics. However, I was unable to find any examples of a resist method used with timber. Therefore, this project became process led, experimenting with different resist methods to find one which would work on wood. After finding a suitable method I explored the use of different patterns and colours and settled on using a green coloured stain with a maple leaf pattern. The stain resist was applied over three layers creating a tonal effect. I chose to apply this stain resist method to a turned ash vase and trinket bowl; however, it could be applied to any timber surface such as stool tops, side cabinet doors etc. The key focus of this project was developing the stain resist method and the ability to apply it to any product.