Our Story

                 

As a teenager growing up in a small town in Cheshire, I became obsessed with cities; that was where it was all happening and that was where I was meant to be!! Pocket money was spent on train fare to Manchester, Liverpool and London and hours spent in record shops, gazing longingly at club flyers ,taking photos of gig posters, famous music venues and poring over maps planning the next trip 

I certainly made the most of my time when I eventually moved to London to study Fine Art Textiles at Goldsmiths University, and just at the right time to be part of the explosion of young British contemporary artists. My chosen media was photographic silk screen printing combined with collage using elements of my many thousand photographs amassed over the teenage years. Text and music  finding their home in my work. 

On graduating after working for Creative Review magazine and developing my own work  selling prints to WH Smith and Boots ,I moved back to the North to train as an Art & Textiles teacher. I loved every minute ( almost!) of my years teaching and also in recent years started to sell my photographs hand printed on wood at art events across the country. However, my love was still for textiles so I set about finding ways to cram textile making into a teaching career and in February 2020, spent half term at The Ministry of Upholstery in Manchester where I had previously completed an upholstery course. This time, I developed  small mixed media pieces I'd made using maps, old text and fabric digitally using photoshop.

With March 2020 came lockdown 1. Suddenly I , like many,had time on my hands so I plugged myself into BBC 6 music and set about developing further my February designs and creating a range of soft furnishing designs starting from my mixed media artwork and developing it digitally later. The girl who loved music , cities and excitement of possibilities in creating something new was discovered again!

In December 2020 , I finally took the leap and left teaching and have spent time and subsequent lockdowns locked in my studio creating vast amounts of playlists and currently 5 ranges of prints based on New York, Cuba, Berlin and London and Manchester. I also believe in supporting other small business and all lampshades are made locally to me in Cheshire and cushions in Manchester, a city with a rich textile history.

I have emerged from the studio this Spring with something I am very proud of and a mission to complete! Creation of contemporary designs that will be developed into rock and roll influenced homewares starting with cushions printed on vegan suede and lampshades as well as original artwork. The range is small but with big ideas for the future!! 

Click on links below to follow the Distort Design journey and keep up to date with the new prints which will be evolving at record speed this year!