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.