Jane Jackson & Bright Seed Textiles - Our Story
|
From being a small child I always wanted to be an artist when I grew up. I was also lucky enough to go Art College for a couple of years as a teenager. But unfortunately life events got in the way and ironically I have spent most of my working life in IT. I never expected that my childhood dream of becoming a professional artist would eventually come true and it did so in an entirely unexpected manner.
In 2005 I moved to Rock Village, near Alnwick in Northumberland with my husband Keith to start a new career as an Occupational Therapist working for the NHS. Shortly after moving I joined an adult education class and learnt the traditional craft of rag rugging. I very quickly became obsessed with rag rugging and started to make wall hangings using Harris Tweed®, a unique handwoven fabric I have always loved. For the next few years I sold my wall hangings in local galleries and made enough money to cover the cost of my rather expensive materials.
|
In 2010 I bought some felting needles and started playing around with them and some Harris Tweed® scraps. Three years later I had my first exhibition of 13 of my needle felted Harris Tweed “paintings” at the Bakehouse Gallery in Alnwick. Since then I have produced over 100 pictures, most of which are available as giclee art prints and greetings cards. My husband Keith and I now both work full time in our business Bright Seed Textiles, selling my pictures, prints and cards. The name Bright Seed Textiles was inspired by the words “Wind of wild air of seeds of brightness” from the novel Ulysses by James Joyce. I never finished Ulysses, but I thought Bright Seed Textiles was an appropriate name because I was starting to grow the small seed of a business and working with brightly coloured Harris Tweeds.