Okolica Rug, 2020

Woven in four panels on a cotton warp with rug wool. Sewn together at the end with little tassels on the top and bottom.

The design is based on my drawings from my dad's pictures of Warsaw where I grew up. I'm half Polish and half British and I spent most of my childhood in Warsaw. We moved as a family in my teens and I always found that I have a sense of connection to where I grew up. There is a feeling where I'm often feeling misplaced or that I belong to two places at the same time.

I think a lot of my work is based on nostalgia without realising it. Perhaps it's because it's a feeling that's always bubbling under the surface for me, deep in my subconscious?

As a Brit, my dad found Poland in communist times fascinating. He actually has a great eye for photography and whenever I visit my parents in Warsaw, I love looking through our old family albums and looking at his pictures of grey, concrete buildings. This was the inspiration for this design.

Cotton and rug wool, approx 120cm x 190cm.