Estila Magazine The August Edition of Estila Magazine features the work of textile artist and designer Jilli Blackwood. Karolina Barnes, Editor-in-Chief of Estila Magazine, manages to discover many interesting details not usually voiced by the artist. Estila Magazine’s enquiring questions brings forth how Jilli likes to dress while in her studio and when presenting herself to the outside world, what her background is and how she started in the field of

“Anatolia” - an embroidered carpet wall hanging In 2015 I helped a friend dress his house for sale by lending him a number of carpets. We eventually rejected this one as it was very worn and dirty. The centre section pattern of “Anatolia” had completely disappeared, revealing only flat, brown, cotton warp threads.  The carpet lay in my studio for weeks. My foot kept catching it whenever I walked past. So, one

The International Craft Scotland Conference - New Ways of Seeing The Craft Scotland Conference, 2018, in partnership with National Museums Scotland, was held in Edinburgh on the 7th and 8th of June. The theme for this year's conference was “New Ways of Seeing”. The invited guest curator was Rose Watban, formerly the Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Design at National Museums Scotland. Rose has been responsible for curating many international exhibitions

By Alan Friend. For me, the true tests of an artwork, whether realist or abstract, are that it stimulates my imagination and elicits also an emotional response. For example, when looking at a painting of a bowl of fruit, I  tend to see only a bowl of fruit. My thoughts usually go no further than, “Well, it’s a bowl of fruit. Must remember to add apples and bananas to my shopping

By Naomi Clark. On Sunday 29 April 2018 I woke up with a big challenge to accomplish: walk the Glasgow Royal Bank of Scotland Kiltwalk. I opted to do the 15 mile Big Stroll, the happy medium between the six mile Wee Wander and the 23 mile Mighty Stride. This was the first mass participation event I’d ever been a part of and I needed to don something special to mark the

On the 17th – 18th March 2018, I was very pleased to be invited to present a workshop at ‘Off the Rails’ Arthouse, a magical artist lead project in Fife. I arrived to be welcomed at the studio by the artist and painter Sheila Page with a roaring fire in the studio. A warming and inspiring environment indeed. I was discussing and developing the making of a thread, a yarn, but