Featured Maker

This month we are very privileged to be the featured maker at The Bluecoat Gallery in Liverpool.

Such a beautiful gallery filled with arty treasures and well worth a visit if you are in Liverpool.

Featured Artist Member, August 2024

Our featured Artist Member for August 2024 are scarf and accessory designers RubyKite.

RubyKite’s designer printmaker, Tamara Williams (who has answered the interview questions below) creates contemporary mixed media paintings, intaglio and relief prints on cast plaster; exploring unique textures that translate beautifully on to silk and cashmere scarves. Each colour story is printed in sustainable small batches on natural fabrics, curated by partner Joy Leese, to create wearable art that enhances the original artwork by creating a distinctive 3D effect with a signature chalky palette.

Each piece has a strong emphasis on texture. Both designers love exploring the tactile qualities that the plaster creates with intricate textures and fine carved marks that become hugely abstracted when scaled large over their scarves.

Since launching RubyKite in 2019, Tamara and Joy’s aim is to create treasured, timeless pieces that prioritise longevity over fast fashion; original art scarves and accessories that stand-out in a world of mass production.

What inspires your work?

Being outside, whether in the countryside or in a city. Looking, thinking, and imagining. Stepping outside the world of art allows you to think freely. Daydreaming is the best form of inspiration for each of our colour stories.

Describe your workspace.

I moved to the riverside about eight years ago. We were fortunate to have a space that we could re-design to accommodate my painting and printmaking. I converted an old garage into my studio. At the time, I was still consulting for my design agency a couple of days a week. It was before Joy and I started RubyKite, so the space was more design than art based.

I found a huge wood top table which I rebuilt to create a space for boards and panels underneath. It became the centrepiece of the room, surrounded by other worktops and a wall filled with shelves for my little paintings and books. When we started designing our scarves the space evolved. The big table is now covered in layers of paint and ink, my Mac is relegated to the back of the room and my books have been replaced by paintings and fabric swatches. I do like to be surrounded by finished paintings. It helps to inform new directions.

It already had large east facing windows at one end, which make the studio light beautiful in the mornings. And I look out onto apple trees and fields which are filled with buttercups and ox-eye daisies in the spring. Just about perfect for all that daydreaming!

What is your favourite piece or design you have made?

That’s a tricky one. Joy and I both like different colour combinations. Joy is all about colour whilst I’m into neutrals. It’s great to have different starting points as it challenges us both to think about what works and what doesn’t.

So, to answer the question, my two favourites are ‘Tree’ which is our very first design and a true neutral with contrasting yellow edging. And ‘Rockpool’ with its subtle tones of slate, ochre and stone. Both images were created on cast plaster with layers of texture and mark-making.

Joy’s favourite is our latest design, ‘Northern Lights’ with all its bright pops of pink, lime and orange against an inky blue background.

Established in 1959, Bluecoat Display Centre has championed the lasting value of contemporary craft and design from our gallery in Liverpool for over 65 years. We display and sell unique, hand-crafted work by over 250 talented and exceptionally skilled independent British studio-based artists working in ceramics, glass, jewellery, metal, paper, textiles and wood.