Sian O'Doherty's Page

Textiles can be a powerful medium for creating illusions enabling artists to design concepts that are different to reality.  I have been drawn to creating a textile collection that incorporates optical illusions, whereby my creations on second inspection reveal themselves differently, and are not what they first seem.

My initial inspiration came from Google earth images- drawing reference from the patterns and vibrant colours created by estuaries. My Welsh heritage is apparent in many of my designs where I draw reference to historical Welsh textiles.

Fundamental to the body of work, has been the in depth technical exploration of multi layered weave structures combined with colour and the deviation of the expected path of a warp thread. Hand manipulated distortions rise and fall from structurally patterned ground weaves, emphasised by carefully considered bands of contrasting colour. Incredibly labour- intensive to produce, there is also no scope for errors. Impossible to commercially produce in volume they are a celebration of hand created textiles.

Keeping in mind the aspect of optical illusions I digitally developed my weaves into new patterns that would be impossible literally to weave, but significantly look like weaves. I utilise modern technology to develop them into new dimensions.

I hope to create a visual technical challenge that tricks the viewer when observing my designs, which I intend to be used primarily for interiors, both functional and aesthetic.