I am a, multi-disciplinary artist and writer, living in Sheffield, working with knitted textiles, print and textiles. I have an undergraduate degree in Fine Art (1998) SHU, and a Masters Degree in Site specific Knitting (2018) NTU. My practice utilises craft skills of knitted textiles to explore social narratives of place associated with women’s histories, viewed within a contemporary art situation. In 2019, I was Artist-in-Residence at Sheffield Institute of Art, developing my passion of hand printed wallpaper incorporating Shetland Lace designs, which I took to Shetland and pasted on the inside of abandoned croft houses to make site-specific art as a testament to the women knitters who once lived there.
I finally moved to live in Shetland for 2020/21 (the story of which can can read here in past posts) developing a successful Fair Isle, hand-knitted creative practice which I continue today, designing intricate, traditional, Fair Isle knitting patterns inspired by people / landscapes / colour as well as teaching specialist online colour blending workshops to an international audience. In 2021, I received a small VACMA award to write the story of my Shetland life, which I wove around Susan Halcrow, the woman that lived in the house I bought from 1876 to 1960. The story was called Dear Susan and here is the pattern and 15 page story In 2022, I returned to Sheffield.
In 2023, I returned to the East and found healing properties when I viewed exquisite screens and gardens in Zen temples in Kyoto. I found that in a world filled with noise and speed, the Japanese concept of 間 （ま、Ma) offered me a new perspective. ‘Ma,’ represents the space, silence, or pause between objects, sounds, or moments. Considering the concept of Ma, I’m worked on a contemporary knitted piece called, ‘I Cannot Reach You’, which was about the gaps and pauses in the relationship between my sister and I, which was presented in Farfield Mill in the ‘Celebrating Wool’ exhibition March to June 2025.
I resumed my craft and technical skills of wallpaper printing to create a body of printed wallpapers, cyanotype botanical prints whilst taking in the concept of, ‘Ma’. whilst in my studio at Bloc.
My new work in progress is titled ‘Between Paper and Silk’, rooted in the Japanese concepts of Ma (間)—the space between things—and Mono no aware, the gentle awareness of impermanence. These ideas began to take shape during my time in Kyoto and will be further explored during a one-month residency in Fujiyoshida, Japan in December 2025, where I will develop the initial stages of this project by incorporating vintage kimono fabric and embroidery into the work.
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tracey doxey 