Dalia James

Dalia often references early twentieth century design, artistic
movements and philosophies in her work, using simple geometric forms to
explore how colours interact with each other. Interiors and buildings
inform her work and, in the past, she's sought inspiration from
buildings such as The Duomo in Venice with its pink, green and white
marble façade and the Ruskin building which is finished in polished
red/orange Venetian plaster. For this commission, Dalia hand dyed the
yarn using natural materials such as turmeric, saffron and cochineal.

In
these works Dalia continues her exploration of pattern design and
colour. As a starting point, Dalia starts with research, looking to the
world around her to create a research board, picking out the colours she
wants to use and then refining them by playing with different shades of
the initial colour palette. She uses watercolours to get a few ideas on
paper then uses them to inform the dyeing of the warps. The warp
colours need to be planned in advance so she lays them on the floor to
decide where she wants the different colours and the final composition
is created on the loom quite instinctively.