An afternoon exploring contemporary textile art, collectible design and a little gallery etiquette at PAD London. Today I was off to PAD London (Pavilion of Art and Design), held in Berkeley Square. Described as the UK's exclusive fair dedicated to 20th-century and contemporary design, this year's event brought together 67 international galleries from 18 countries, showcasing 125 years of collectible design, historical pieces and contemporary studio works. It all sounded like

It's been around five years since I last visited the Knit & Stitch Show at Alexandra Palace. To be honest, I didn't get much out of it in terms of vendors on that occasion, as I was very much in my tufting stage at the time. However, it did introduce me to The 62 Group of Textile Artists, a collective that was exhibiting there. Having only recently returned to the art world back then, discovering this group encouraged me to investigate similar organisations as a potential way

For two days only, the Holborn Group took over Department Store in Brixton with Conversations, an exhibition featuring work from the collective alongside a group of invited guest artists. Firstly, I love this venue. Just three minutes from Brixton tube station, it’s a huge open space with exposed walls and concrete floors — the perfect backdrop for this eclectic group of artists. Sadly, the exhibition was only open for two days, so by the time you read this it will already ha

Today I visited my Crossing Crafts partner Diane again, with the Ickworth deadline looming this Sunday. Unfortunately, there was a problem with Diane's moulding machine, which meant she couldn't create the metal thorns we'd originally planned. There was another option, but with time running out we decided to go with 3D-printed thorns instead. The beauty of our design is that they are attached discreetly with magnets, so if we decide to make them in metal in the future, we can

My husband and I spent our latest date night at the opening of Materiality at the Saatchi Gallery. The exhibition is curated by bsmtspace, the same team behind Perspicere's solo exhibition that I visited earlier this summer. I was excited to see what they would do next and curious to discover a completely different group show. Bringing together 21 artists from a wide range of disciplines, Materiality explores what happens when the physical substance of an artwork becomes just

Yesterday I travelled over to Marks Tey to visit Diane and Russell's workshop and home. Diane Levitt is my Crossing Crafts collaborator from the Suffolk Craft Society, and our project has taken both of us into unfamiliar territory. Fiona Wyse and Diane Levitt outside her jewellery studio Diane is a high-end jeweller by trade, more accustomed to delicate silversmithing than welding large chains and casting oversized metal thorns. Yet for this project she has swapped precision

Back in 2024, The Wimble - an online Wimbledon newspaper - put out a call asking to visit local homes for a feature. As someone whose artwork was gradually taking over every available wall space, I thought it might be a good opportunity to share what I was doing. Journalist Zak Asgard came to visit, we had a great chat, and the resulting article featured both my work and my home studio. At the time, my focus was very much on tufting, creating large-scale rugs and wall hanging

Yesterday I attended the London opening of Picking Up the Thread: The Past, Present and Future of Tapestry, the British Tapestry Group's touring exhibition, which has now arrived at Morley Gallery, just a short walk from Waterloo Station. This was actually my second visit to the exhibition. I first saw it in Dumfries last August, and it was interesting to experience it in such a different setting. Morley Gallery's bright, airy upstairs spaces and carefully directed lighting d

Yesterday I visited New Designers in Islington. It has been many years since I last attended— probably not since my time working in the Design Promotion Department at the British Council. My first thought? Everyone looked so young! There's nothing quite like revisiting a graduate show to hold a mirror up to your younger self. You see hundreds of emerging designers at the very beginning of their creative journeys, full of ambition, optimism and ideas. It's both inspiring and a

One of the joys of being part of the textile community is that no matter how long you've been weaving, there's always something new to learn. Recently I was introduced to a finishing technique called blocking by tapestry weaver Margaret Jones. Despite studying tapestry at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, it was a technique I'd never come across before. If you've ever taken a tapestry off the loom only to discover it has developed a few unexpected waves (and I'm

Last night I headed to the preview of the Society of Women Artists (SWA) Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries, just a stone's throw from Buckingham Palace. The exhibition runs from 23–27 June 2026 and showcases an impressive 446 works. Chatting to one of the SWA members during the evening, I learned that around 200 artists are represented, with roughly half of them being non-members. It's this open-entry approach that gives the exhibition a broad and varied feel. Walking

One of the most unexpected highlights of my recent visit to the Guggenheim Bilbao was discovering the monumental tapestry installations of South African artist Igshaan Adams. As a tapestry weaver myself, it's always exciting to encounter contemporary textile work on such an ambitious scale. Walking into the gallery and finding myself surrounded by enormous suspended tapestries was both surprising and captivating. Rather than simply hanging on the walls, many of the works occu

Where to start? Well, of course, with the building itself, because it is undoubtedly the star of the show. Designed by Frank Gehry, it is quite simply one of the most extraordinary buildings I have ever seen. Organic yet industrial, it rises from the ground like an unfurling rose. Depending on the weather and the time of day, its titanium, glass and limestone panels seem to change colour and character. This was exactly how I first experienced it, catching sight of it as our t

Monday was Varnishing Day for the prestigious Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2026 — a special occasion when all selected artists are invited to attend a service at St James's Church, Piccadilly before gathering at the Royal Academy for a celebratory glass of champagne and, most importantly, the first opportunity to see their work installed in the Royal Academy. Seven rooms in, I finally spotted my work mine - Summer Dive, (No. 1229), in the top right corner by the arch. Se

In May, I stepped away from the studio for a day to immerse myself in London Craft Week. My aim was simple: to see as much as possible in a single day and, perhaps, catch a glimpse of where I might fit within this inspiring world by 2027. After all, sometimes you have to imagine where you're going before you can begin the journey. My first official stop was Sotheby's to see Crafted. I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that despite living in London for more than twenty years, I'

In May I travelled back to Dundee for my 30-year reunion at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design. The reunion had been brilliantly organised by some far more organised alumni from the Graphic Design department, coinciding with the opening of this year's Degree Show. I was looking forward to seeing old friends and discovering how the college had evolved over the past three decades. What I hadn't expected was just how excited I was to simply wander the corridors one l