Celia Pym is a teacher with 15 years experience. She works with
knitted, stitched and woven textiles and has been exploring mending
since 2007 with extensive experience of everyday holes. She was
shortlisted for the Woman's Hour Craft Prize, V&A Museum and
inaugural Loewe Craft Prize, COAM Madrid. Her work was included in
Subversive Stitch, TJ Boulting 2019 and is held in Crafts Council
UK and Noveau Musée National de Monaco permanent collections. She
is currently visiting lecturer in textiles at Royal College of
Art.
Describe your approach to teaching.
My approach to teaching is student centered. My start questions
are always what is it that students aim to develop and learn, what
skills do they already have and can share. I believe that through
making you develop creativity with materials and thinking. Another
central aim in my teaching is to have fun in a workshop.
What inspires your own work?
My work is inspired by: objects of daily use (sweaters, socks,
bowls, towels, wooden spoons), by wool and yarn, by damage, holes
and wear and tear and also by play and positive accidents in play.
I currently love Boro quilts, Richard Tuttle's paintings, Sophie
Tauber Arp's embroideries, Eva Hesse's sculptures and Herman
Schloten's tapestries