Claire has named her work ‘Textile Flora’ to reflect the materials and the sculptural forms. She re-uses waste threads and fabrics, often dyeing them black to merge the source materials into one coherent graphic form. The pieces start with a wire skeleton, wrapped with thread to create the flora shapes. Each piece is coated with a protective hardener.

Claire uses found objects to display the flora. Sculptural forms are combined with machine embroidery and presented in frames and boxes. Others are combined with mixed media, such as printed paper and wood, and covered with glass vessels. While Claire often returns to make the same flora, each piece is unique since the making depends on the materials and found objects available.

Claire draws particular inspiration from unruly Nature; the prickly, thorny inhabitants of waste ground and forgotten corners, the tangle of grass verges and the linear forms of trees. She looks for patterns and forms in uncut road verges, overgrown pavements and forgotten footpaths but also in the lines of fields and hedgerows.

The basis of all Claire’s work is the desire to retain, re-use and revalue materials that have reached the end of one life-cycle, to create a new story for them and give them another path to travel.

Claire studied for a degree in knitwear design at Trent Polytechnic and has always worked within the textile industry, variously designing knitted garments and embroideries and gained an MA at Plymouth College of Art.