Tay Series: Talking silk scarves with Joanna Craig
A capsule collection created exclusively from our shop
The Tay Series is a capsule collection of silk scarves by artist and designer Joanna Craig, designed in collaboration with our Shop team.
Born in Scotland and based in Dundee, Joanna uses her own drawings and paintings to create patterns which are then printed onto wearable silk scarves. Inspired by Dundee and the river that runs alongside the city, she has created three beautiful abstract designs. We caught up with her to find out more about her process.
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First of all, can you share a bit about your background and how you became a fine artist/designer?
Maybe it was because nothing else quite fitted? Or maybe that was because this fitted so well.
I could always see more than one thing with visual experience, always an enticing and exciting area of massive interest - difficult to articulate! I studied fashion and sculpture and in the end found that a paint brush in my hand and a fundamental passion for form came together to drive my path into creating large scale visual works and collections. Encounters experienced inside the walls of DCA (not a big city far away but on my doorstep) inspired my understanding and concreted my belief that art can be really powerful. These were definitely key moments inspiring my path.
We’ve been stocking your work in DCA Shop for a number of years and are very excited about the new collection of silk scarves, designed exclusively for us. What inspired these new pieces?
This collection came directly from my translation of the city; the energy, the vibrancy, a little darkness and a whole lot of bright. I spent time studying its edge at the Tay, stood looking out across the water and feeling the city radiate out; the intensity of life behind me, the huge high skies above. This became the language, the energy I wanted to communicate with my colours and brushstrokes.
This collection came directly from my translation of the city; the energy, the vibrancy, a little darkness and a whole lot of bright.
What is the process of translating one of your paintings onto textiles?
My paintings begin huge and as I delve into the expressions, I find smaller areas where there's a story happening, an area in the painting where there's an individual composition. I work with my camera to view these through a new lense, transfer them to a digital screen image to study them in a new way. Each composition becomes a piece I imagine as a moving image - how that might work as it moves, folds, drapes. Compositions develop their own identity as a textile piece.
Colour is very important in your work – how do you select what colours to use?
Colour is literally my expressive language. Landscapes I study have a really ‘felt’ identity to me as I spend time with them. These become energies I match in colour, lots of brights describing an alive pulse in the land, darks matching quieter sides, darker moments, colour speaks volumes. Developing these works into a textile collection, visual choice in terms of a beautiful piece to wear drives the selection I will put together. Two different ways of using the colour, both driven by the expression of the colours themselves.
Landscapes I study have a really ‘felt’ identity to me as I spend time with them. These become energies I match in colour, lots of brights describing an alive pulse in the land, darks matching quieter sides, darker moments...
What is your favourite way to style one of your silk scarves?
Anything goes! I love seeing how customers choose to wear them, it really inspires me.
Personally, I go low whilst the silk goes high. Burst of luxurious colour against skin, complimented by understated simplicity upon the rest of the self/body.
