Nicky Dillerstone visited Harrogate Ladies’ College today, Friday, 13 January – she is a Textile artist who Miss Williams (Head of Art) and Mrs Livesey (Head of Textiles and Food Technology) met at the Knitting and Stitching Show last November. Nicky lives near Grimsby and works with a variety of very creative methods with fabric – tearing, steaming and burning, using PVA and destructing using a heat gun, layering, sticking and sewing. She is very interested in experimenting with producing texture, often by working new ideas in her mind and then finding new techniques. She certainly encouraged Textile and Art pupils during a half day workshop to pursue their ideas and expand their own way of working to discover new textures. We worked on four different methods, producing samples and pieces of fabric to use for future work in sketchbooks or as final pieces.
Nicky is inspired by her garden, through close studies of the structure of leaves, looking closely at natural forms which lead to very organic and sometimes volcanic shapes. She particularly loves working with dragonfly wings. It was interesting to hear that she decided upon her textile interests after completing a degree as a mature student in Museum and Exhibition design when she was 40 years old. She encouraged the girls to follow their own choices, not to be afraid of changing direction in life and to keep their eyes open.
Her textiles were so inspiring that all the pupils and staff were intrigued to find out how the surfaces were constructed and we were all able to have a go. For the staff to have the opportunity to work on new ideas alongside the pupils was a rare treat.
