Partners

Rachel Fitzpatrick

Artist and designer Rachel Fitzpatrick works at the interface between art and design using a variety of tactile materials to create playful one-off installations and limited edition pieces. Rachel enjoys the challenge of transforming heavy-duty industrial textiles and fabrics into beautiful commissioned works of art or affordable design products.

Rachel has collaborated with a wide variety of major corporate clients across the globe. Her work was recently presented by Global Arts Affairs Foundation in the 16th Venice Architectural Biennale.

Linen Lab Focus

Rachel is passionate about sharing her design and making skills with those who get involved in the project and keen to involve them directly in the making of multiple component pieces for ambitious
large-scale artworks for the Linen Lab exhibition.

Lyndsey McDougall

Lyndsey uses natural dye processes to create pigmented fabric and threads. She draws natural forms onto linen, uncovering the landscape through hand embroidery and colour. Lyndsey is currently a PhD researcher at Ulster University studying the history of Irish textiles.

She taught embroidery for four years on the Textile Art, Design and Fashion degree course at Ulster University and trained in natural dye techniques at Taller Teñido a Mano in Oaxaca, Mexico where she learned how to extract natural dye matter from plants and minerals, using eco-friendly and sustainable techniques.

Linen Lab Focus

Exploring the connection between linen and our local landscape by creating colour from natural sources is at the core of Lyndsey’s work on the Linen Lab project. Participants will have the opportunity to try planting a linen ‘dye garden’ and learn how to create coloured fabric and thread from the plants they grow. Foraging walks for wild natural dye plants will encourage an appreciation of the relationship between linen and our local natural heritage.

Deborah Malcomson

Deborah Malcomson is a professional artist whose creative practice focuses on fine art painting, drawing, print and mixed media.
Deborah studied painting at the University of Ulster where she received a 1st class (BA Hons) Degree in Fine and Applied Arts. Since then, she has worked as a freelance artist, tutor and facilitator on a wide range of creative community projects.

Currently, she works as a Project Coordinator for Arts in Motion and is responsible for developing and delivering the very popular regular programme of ‘Toddler Tuesdays’ and ‘Baby Art’ sessions at the FE McWilliam Gallery in Banbridge.

Linen Lab Focus

Deborah’s focus for the Linen Lab project is on exploring experimental approaches to linen as a surface for painting and image making. Deborah’s background in conservation has inspired her interest in the examination of linen as a living surface – how it can change and deteriorate under different conditions and how it can influence the painted images applied to it.

Jill Phillips

Award winning contemporary interior and product designer Jill Phillips has extensive experience within the textiles industry and as a freelance design consultant. Jill’s pieces encourage the observer to construct their own unique visual experience. She is interested in exploring elements of cognitive science – particularly the connections between brain, eye and image and gaining a better
understanding of how we interact with objects and images.

Jill is fascinated by the ‘everydayness’ of textiles – indispensable objects in our daily lives that we rarely stop to truly appreciate. Her designs aim to capture something of the simplicity, strength and
solidity of these everyday objects but imbue them with something of the twists and turns of life.

Linen Lab Focus

Jill’s work on the Linen Lab project will challenge traditional notions of linen and explore creative possibilities with surface pattern and image making. By examining historical artefacts from the linen
industry and trying out new creative technology approaches to working with linen, participants will be offered a range of experiences that relate to both the past and the future of linen.

Robert Peters

Robert Peters is a visual artist whose work explores themes relating to the relationships between perception, illusion and reality. He has no preferred medium, working across disciplines to produce
artworks, which attempt to fuse form and content. He is a founding member of Catalyst Arts and Fully Formed Art Projects and presently he operates on a freelance basis as Arts Creative. Robert Peters has
over thirty years experience of devising visual art programmes for educational setting. Most recently he devised and delivered the very successful A Level Printmaking Programme at Seacourt Print Workshop which engaged over 400 pupils each year from across Northern Ireland.

Linen Lab Focus

Robert’s focus for Linen Lab is on examining the industrial heritage of linen. He is in particularly interested in reflecting on the experiences of young linen mill workers during the industrial revolution and exploring current issues for young people relating to digitalisation, automation and entrepreneurism.

Heather Richardson

Heather’s work combines words and textiles to explore memory and family history – making connections between writing, garments and visual artefacts. She is particularly interested in everyday textiles such as clothes, and how they can become a text in which a story is told, through the use of stitch and other embellishments.

Heather’s background is in creative writing. She has published two novels as well as short stories, poetry and creative nonfiction. She currently works as a lecturer in Creative Writing for the Open
University.

Linen Lab Focus

Heather’s work for the Linen Lab exhibition will focus on the garment as text – developing a collective narrative in the form of linen
garments representing past (history), present (documentary) and future (prophecy). Heather can offer a range of creative learning experiences based on the notion of ‘stitching stories’.

Studio Plastique

Studio Plastique is a collaboration between designers Archibald Godts and Theresa Bastek. They founded the studio after their studies at the Design Academy Eindhoven in 2016.

With a common passion for cross-cultural investigations and analytical research, their design practice strives for empathic approaches in an increasingly dehumanised world.

In the past, they have worked for international clients from various fields, ranging from product design to research based developments.

Linen Lab Focus

For Linen Lab, Studio Plastique seek to highlight the unique qualities of linen for the environmentally and economically sustainable production of goods.

By establishing a physical library, Studio Plastique will showcase the diverse properties of a seemingly banal fibre and reveal opportunities for industry in this indigenous European resource.