Louise West is a contemporary lace artist based in Derby, England. She creates and develops lace designs from traditional methods such as bobbin lacemaking, including individual and bespoke jewellery. She continues to create lace for the purpose of to make the wearer feel good about themselves by using traditional methods to create modern wearable lace, and lace created and inspired by fine silver jewellery. Louise teaches her methods of lacemaking and the fine silver jewellery in her Derby based studio and other locations by arrangement.
Louise started lacemaking in 1992 through doing various courses, and progressed very quickly, even gaining experience in the real world of work whilst in education through university. Lace has always been her main focus however she has taken on many formats and continues to be inspired by many more recent artists and designs.
She has also produced work for Nottingham Contemporary where she got asked to produce a lace design as a mould for concrete slabs to create an abstract design around the building for an architecture company.
Her attitude towards her career and education is inspiring as she is always willing to learn and experience new types of design, even though at first she thought she would be judged as she is of an older age going into uni when she did. She continues to be inspired by old and new methods which teaches me how to consider different types of artists when researching about photography.
After listening to her educational talk it's made me realise how i can use other aspects of art and design within my photography, for example she produced lace of Richard Branson, which originally would have been taken from an image. Therefore taking an image can then be adapted into so many ways, such as printing; linking with lace, as it acts like a template for it.
A lot of her work recently is contemporary as she creates fashion pieces through her love of lace, previously she has made products such as; an Autumn leaves Collar, Old fashioned Victorian fans linking back to the history of lace successfully and also a lace and silver ring. She has also linked lace with wire and produced something called Silver Magnolias. I particularly like this piece as she has created a sculptural piece that could be used within interior design.
The most recent exhibition was the 'In Fine Style:The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion, opened on 10th May and ran through to 6th October in the Queens Gallery, Buckingham Palace. Louise is featured on the digital audio visual guide given to visitors to the exhibition to explain how bobbin lace is made, as the paintings of the fashions feature a lot of lace. The short film was shot by Edward Jarvis and is being used in this introduction to the exhibition to explain the process. Louise was invited and attended the Private View on Monday evening (13th May) and was able to see the painting first hand.
"It is a great privilege to part of this prestigious exhibition, I hope my explanation helps the visitors understand lace a little" Louise West
I personally think that lace has affected the fashion industry positively since it all began as it has introduced patterns and textures that are vibrant and bold that are used to this day by fashion designers around the world. But it has also affected architecture through metal structures and buildings and is still developing each day now.
Bibliography
http://www.louisewestlacedesign.co.uk/
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