As a child, Felicity always enjoyed making things but didn’t really shine at any art and design subjects at school. “My art teacher told me not to try and be a fashion designer as I would end up designing socks – I still hate her for that!” {teaching is a terrible responsibility and an absolute privilege – see what lasting impressions you make? – jg}
“Mum taught us all to sew and knit from an early age and I remember knitting doll’s scarves – badly with wobbly edges where stitches got dropped and then made up again. As a teenager I used to go to jumble sales and buy clothes to alter or cut up and remake. Half my wardrobe was created out of old sheets dyed black and made into baggy New Romantic shirts and dresses. I remember wearing a jumper upside down on my legs with a some kind of wrap over the top like a skirt…”

 

 

“I was a bit of a hippy chick when I was younger and worked for a few years helping to run a festival catering stall called The Laughing Buddha, in the 1990s. We went to Glastonbury and WOMAD and other festivals and served really delicious vegetarian Vietnamese food to hungry festival goers. One of the funniest experiences was when I painted up some beautiful menu blackboards and a fold out signboard to stand at the front of the stall. I found a great image of Budai to work from and came up with a fetching yellow, green and red design that I was very pleased with. It wasn’t until I unfolded the sign at the front of the stall on the first day of Glastonbury that someone pointed out that Buddha was spelt wrong! Oh I felt very, very stupid. Now I always get someone to check my work before going public.”

“I also worked with an amazing bunch of archaeologists who were digging in Albania and working to set up heritage parks around some stunning ruined ancient cities. I ran a project bringing Albanian students studying archaeology at the University of Tirana to study at an English University, and helped write a guide book to a breath-taking mountain city called Gjirokastra. I met hundreds of interesting people in Albania, some privileged and some really struggling, many honest, open and welcoming, a few terribly corrupt and scheming. Albania is a very colourful place, well worth a visit if you can – make sure you visit Butrint and Gjirokastra.

 

 

 

“These days I teach at Norwich University of the Arts on the Textile degree. My main role is helping the students with research and writing their dissertations.

 

“Since I finished my Textile MA last year I have been putting work into exhibitions and trying to work out how to be an artist, run a design business, teach, be a mum all from a rural village in north Norfolk UK – surely it must be possible mustn’t it?”

 

 

Felicity Booth’s surface designs start with photography, capturing the light and shadow patterns cast from shining lights through stencils cut into different types of paper and Perspex. She often uses highly reflective surfaces and sometimes coloured cellophane to give a stained glass window effect. The photos are then manipulated in Photoshop using layers and various filters to make the patterns.

Especially inspired by textile artists Alice Fox and Joanna Kinnersly-Taylor for their methods of working and their aesthetic, Felicity also looks to a huge range of other artists – Richard Long and Maya Lin for ways of working and themes in their work;  Franz Marc, Gustav Klimpt, and Friedensreich Hundertwasser for colour; Van Gogh, Lucienne Day; the poetry of Wordsworth and Coleridge, and many more.

 

 

Her best piece of advice? “There are so many bits of excellent advice out there. One I saw recently on the textile magazine site in an article by Carol Naylor has been singing away in my head ever since I read it. I had it in mind when I re-vamped my website this week:

 

“Always show your best, as you will always be judged by your worst.” “

 

 

You can find more of Felicity Booth’s work – her surface designs, as well as her artworks in various mediums – on her website.