Isabel Bradley

Isabel is a printed textile designer and maker. She is a graduate of Staffordshire University where she studied Surface Pattern Design as a mature student & was awarded a First-Class BA(Hons) degree. She has had a fascination with pattern from an early age and has combined this with her love of travel to produce printed textile designs inspired by what she has seen and experienced. Working from her drawings, photographs and souvenirs she has collected; she likes to create unlikely fusions of exotic and colourful imagery. Her love of colour and form are at the forefront of her designs which take on an air of eastern promise. Before continuing her studies in art, she spent twenty-five years living abroad soaking up the culture and atmosphere around the Mediterranean with its famous qualities of golden light and colour.

Screen-printing is her medium of choice as she loves the hands-on, low tech techniques that it involves. As well as designing repeat patterns, she likes to experiment with placement prints, layering screens, colours and hand cut stencils to create individual prints for the interior or fashion markets or just as art for art’s sake. Although she prefers hand drawing her designs, she does like to mix her computer manipulated photography into her work along with collages of her images. She can’t bear to throw anything away that might come in handy one day; her favourite saying being “necessity is the mother of invention”.