Wai-Yuk Kennedy

The influences on my work are as diverse as my background. My love of old Chinese stories and legends collides with my day to day experience of the Cornish landscape. My Fine Art training interacts with my fascination for the practical aspects of sewing and pattern making.

Creating my fabrics is a never-ending process of discovery: the fabric grows and changes as semi-transparent layers are added and then parts are melted away to reveal the hidden colours beneath. As a child I was fascinated by the play of light on running water. I would spend hours watching how objects and surfaces were continually distorted, hidden and revealed beneath a shimmering surface.

Making the finished jewellery pieces is a search for fresh and surprising 3D forms that can be made from little bits of fabric. Forms for smaller pieces such as earrings often grow from playing around with simple shapes. The brooches tend to be much more complex and I often find inspiration in the world for these. It may never be apparent to an outside observer but many of my brooch forms have grown out of my experience of the rugged North Cornwall coast. Others come from a long-time love of studying plant forms.

I was born in Hong Kong. My family owned a small textile factory so I learned to sew and use a sewing machine from a young age.

After leaving school I studied graphic design and worked for a Hong Kong company designing gloves. During the same period I became skilled at dressmaking and pattern cutting.

In 1978 I came to England to study fine art. I gained my BA (Hons) from Kingston Polytechnic in 1982.

In 1986 I moved to Cornwall and much of my time after that was taken up by raising a family and helping my husband with his business. However, I always made time to continue exploring my craft using many different textile techniques.

Over the past few years I have been devoting ever more time to my textiles and I now have a large and beautiful textile studio to use.

Making jewellery of various kinds has been an obsession of mine for a long time. Using fabric to create jewellery pieces is something I have been developing for a several years.