Heirloom Studio - Fibre and Textiles by Carole Smollan

Carole, international Judaic artist and ceramist has designed a unique idea as Hiddur Mitzvah, the beautification of the Mitzvoth incorporating the Jewish theme of your wedding date.

My interest in cloth began in my grandfathers tailoring room. He allowed us to have chalk and pieces of suiting. My dolls wore designer clothes from day one. A life long interaction with the tactile sensation of cloth, the feel of the weave and weight of the textiles has made me a "touch and feel" person. I need to run my hands over the materials to read it in an edifying manner. I am an avid purchaser of cloth and have an extensive collection of old and new fabrics from which I draw my sources.

I began my professional life as a lace designer for a Swiss company. I was head designer and young business woman of the year at nineteen, but soon began to concentrate on my first love - ceramics. Twenty years later after a successful career in clay I emigrated from South Africa to the U.K. leaving my kilns behind. I turned happily to textiles where my involvement with design and colour continues. I use mostly natural fabrics and Dye, Shibori and paint on them to form the basis of my images. I stretch the process in any way possible trying to allow the fibres to reveal their secrets. Which thread will take up the colour and what shade it will show? I am self taught, so luckily not bound by rules and regulations and this gives my work its uniqueness. I use unorthodox methods to get results mixing light over dark to get new tones of colour and throw colour into the pot halfway through the process to catch a glimpse of surprise colour streaked into the fabric. Then, I discharge the textile again to add additional elements until I have shades that work together. Most nights I dream my way into a project. I hang the newly dyed piece in my view over night. I sleep fitfully, waking up to look at the images that I have created with colour and by morning I have developed a direction from the shapes and strokes that I find in the design. I use words to create suggestions and old photos and documents to add content I have evolved a method of aging the cloth to represent re-discovered old pieces, which I entitle "Precious Pieces to cherish".

I work for corporate commissions, exhibitions and personal pieces commissioned by families. I specialise in making personalised hand painted Chuppot - the wedding canopy. To date I have provided 139 brides with their own chuppah all over the world. In addition, I hold a collection of Chuppot which I hire out for weddings. These range from traditional velvet to very modern embossed voile chuppot. I work from my studio in London and Portugal . I am married to a dental surgeon whose white coats are often sullied with pink spots and blue stripes in the washing, but he is quietly resigned to living with a textile art-house-keeper. My children and grandchildren all share the creative process.

Most recent exhibits at:

• Smithsonian Museum
• Washington Festival Hall
• London Constitutional Court, Johannesburg
• Second World Ceramic show, Tokyo
• Nedbank Jewish Arts and Culture Trust
• San Diego Art Fair
• Courtauld Institute of Art, London
• London Jewish Museum
• Whitworth Museum