Joy Merron
Joy’s work explores textiles as an architectural form, creating boundaries both physical and intangible.She often uses layered, geometric forms and repeating patterns with depth and perspective to create surfaces that capture light and cast shadows.
Having gained a BA in Fashion and Textiles at Middlesex University in 1979 she has worked for a number of years as a practising designer, pattern cutter and technologist within the fashion industry for companies including Conran Design Group, Mulberry and Secret People.
A career change into education led to studying for a PGCE in 2006 and subsequently an MA in Fashion and Textiles in 2014, spending 4 months in Japan that has inspired her approach to recent work. Large scale commissions followed at the Breast Care Centre in Bristol, Summer Festival installation, Clarks Village, Street and the Decorative Arts Fair in Battersea. She has also been an active artist with ACE funded projects at Brean Down Fort, where she was an artist in residence for 2 years and Shiftworks, a travelling UK and USA exhibition with the textile group, Seam. She has exhibited widely in the South West, London and Chicago, with work in private collections in UK, Hong Kong, USA and St Helena
Currently based at Bath Spa University as a part time technical demonstrator in embroidery. From large scale to hand size projects , she constantly searches for low impact materials and processes to inform her direction.
Gill Bliss
Gill Bliss exhibits creative work in ceramics, drawing and digital work. Her main focus is on ecological themes, which include the evolving relationships between living forms and their environments.
With an initial degree in 3D Design- Ceramics (Cardiff 1978), Gill set up her own business producing thrown domestic ware in porcelain. After 15 yrs of making and selling functional ware, and a return to education for an MA, her interests turned to sculptural ceramics particularly anthropomorphic figures. Working as a freelance model maker for the stop-motion animation industry for over 12 years, she maintained regular exhibiting of her own character work.
Since 1997, Gill was also as an Associate Lecturer in Animation and Animation Theory with many universities in the UK, including UCA, Farnham; Falmouth University; Worcester University; Loughborough University. In 2017 Gill gained a PHD with a scholarship from Loughborough University. During the course of this research her focus moved away from character and figurative work to more abstracted imagery relating to ecological themes.
Mud and Thread 