Founded in 2001, MaP is a creative, supportive and innovative group of Artists and Designers with a focus on textiles. The group are passionate about their work and expanding the audience of Contemporary art/craft, raising its profile and increasing links within the sector and outside. The group currently has ten members from Wales, Ireland, England and Finland.

‘Something Old, Something New’

Since its inception, the group has exhibited work on many themes, more recently focussing on environmental issues, such as regenerating interest in the use of linen and wool. Currently, the group are exploring ways of incorporating local, recycled and natural materials in their work. This exhibition features both old and new work showing the diversity of their skills.

Claire Cawte is a textile artist and educator with over twenty years of experience, known for her environmentally focused practice and commitment to sustainable making. Working with materials such as wool, flax, silk, natural dyes, and locally foraged flora, her work explores the deep connection between process, material, and place. Drawing inspiration from ancestral life; when natural materials were crafted into intricately adorned artifacts for ceremonial purposes, often carrying symbolic, spiritual, or social meaning, her practice honours the symbiotic relationship between humans and the earth. Her use of biodegradable materials reflects a profound respect for nature, allowing her creations to return gently to the soil and reinforcing the cycles of regeneration and sustainability that lie at the core of her practice.

Jane McCann trained as a fashion designer at Belfast College of Art and the Royal College of Art with her focus primarily on Irish tweeds and linens. Since her return to Northern Ireland, over a decade ago, she has collaborated with other practitioners for the  promotion of natural fibres both for garments and Natural Fibre Composites (NFC). For ‘Something Old’ she uses linen as one of the most ancient and sustainable materials in an ageless and enduring jacket style while the concept of “Something New” is that the jacket, once assembled, has been customised with a hand screened overprint.

Alison Moger is a practising artist working with free-stitch, mixed media and print; her work will always have a recycling, environmental and family ethos at its heart. She is an avid collector of vintage textiles and domestic objects that show the passage of time and the human interaction; Alison embraces storytelling and valley life through the visual process.

Sirpa Mörsky, lives in Finland. Currently she works on personal projects. She finds herself foremost a maker of clothes. She is also fond of embroidery, knitting and weaving.

For the exhibition Sirpa has designed and made six embroidered linen dress collection by name Tired Light. Tired light theories are astronomical hypotheses regarding the fading of visible light from distant galaxies and objects, such as the red and blue shift. In this context, tired light reflects observations of light and the sky in Tampere Finland from March to November. The observations have been painted by an artist Pirjo Seddiki on linen fabrics with surplus pigments from a digital printer and these fabrics have been made into a series of wearable paintings in the form of dresses. In the exhibition Sirpa is also exhibiting digital printed linen cushions. Prints are based on Pirjo’s paintings. Dresses and cushions represent the cooperation of Pirjo’s and Sirpa’s Ehkä design (Maybe Design) brand, a research project at the interface of art and productisation.

Mandy Nash trained as a jeweller. Her three passions are colour, pattern and technique,  heavily influenced by both traditional and contemporary textiles.

Over the last twenty years she has also been developing work in felt, combining this with her jewellery practice to create both functional pieces and work that is purely decorative.

Lynda Shell is a textile designer making handmade bags & purses. Her journey began with studying Contemporary Textile Practice. Lynda draws inspiration for her designs from historical artefacts and translate her ideas into contemporary patterns that are silkscreen printed onto linen cloth.

Her latest ‘No Waste’ collection has been created using silkscreen printed off-cuts kept for many years from her handmade bag collections.

The designs are inspired by the bold and distinctive quilts produced by the woman from the African American community of Gee’s Bend, Alabama, who created remarkable abstract quilts made from work clothes remnants and scraps.

Like the woman of Gee’s Bend Lynda’s collection has been crafted using a considered combination of colours, patterns & plains with an improvisational approach to placement. Each product created is therefore completely unique and special.

Sue Shields is an Illustrator / Printmaker who also teaches. Her linocuts are strong on pattern, with a fondness for animals in general, and sheep in particular. She is currently using collagraph to explore themes from the Wrexham quilt.

Susan Smith produces ‘one-off’ textile piece, primarily hand embroidered, which she has been making and selling for many years using such themes as houses, gardens and hearts, with Welsh chapels being her current focus.

Whether simple or flamboyant, Classical or Gothic, these  delightful chapel facades are depicted in cloth and stitch, using a variety of techniques and incorporating re-purposed Welsh wool fabric, aiming to celebrate some of the familiar and well-loved buildings which form such a part of Wales’ cultural heritage.

Alison Taylor designs and hand makes luxury knitwear on vintage domestic knitting machines, from her studio in South Wales. Colour, pattern and texture are fundamental to her design process and combining old school craftmanship and contemporary design she creates statement pieces with a timeless quality.

Her work is inspired by the rich heritage of her Welsh culture and environment from castles to countryside. With ancestors involved in the Welsh Woollen trade, the influence of woven construction and patterns can often be traced within her knit structures.

Using soft to handle, sustainable yarns, she knits her intricate patterns in luxurious merino lambswool with touches of cashmere and alpaca. She employs fully fashioned knitting techniques to avoid waste and with care, the knitwear should last well beyond the seasonal fashion lifecycle. Careful washing and storing, together with mending will enhance the garment and prolong its wear.

Elspeth Thomas uses digital embroidery either from photographs or hand drawn artwork in her work, which includes hand and machine embroidery using both natural and synthetic fabrics.

Elspeth loves to create surface texture, whether it is through heat manipulation or stitch manipulation and embroidery either stitched by hand or by machine. Her work continues to be influenced by natural landscapes, fauna and flora.