Artist
Cockpit Arts

Lucy F

00:00:03 My name’s Lucy F, and I make interior products and accessories from waste rubber silicone, and natural rubber off-cuts. I did a lot of work with silicone – medical grade silicone tubing on my undergrad courses. I studied woven textiles, so I was doing a lot of weaving with metal and silicone. And when I went on to study my post graduate degree it was very materials led, and there was a big push for sustainability within the course. And I went to work at the factory just to gain a bit more knowledge. And I came across the waste in the skip, and thought it was so exciting, took it back to college, started experimenting, and started making the lighting at first, and it just all spiralled from there.

00:00:47 I think wanted to be an Interior Designer when I was a lot younger. I’ve always been very interested in making, and I think it was kind of a fashion to say Oh I want to do Interior Design or Fashion or something. But as I grew up I think – I had a passion for music as well, I played the flute and the piano, and also very interested in Art – and making – I mean I had to make a decision between those to study my Highers in Scotland. I chose the Art route, and it went from there. And we had a great portfolio course for our final year of school, and our Art Teacher was notorious for getting a lot of people into Glasgow Art School, and it happened that year. And I went straight into Textiles to study Woven Textiles.

00:02:07 I left college and I knew that I wanted to develop my products so I did a Small Business course, which was very useful for creative businesses, and there was a lot of like-minded people, and it was nice to see that everyone was going through the same thing as me. Having hard days when they didn’t have any money, or something was going wrong with a commission. You have to be really hardworking, and committed, and be prepared to be skint, because not everybody’s – wants to buy your designs, or it takes a long time to get people to recognise you, and to get stockists and to work out really how you want to work. For example, now I know that it’s difficult to make a living from doing one-off commission pieces and installations, and you have to think about the practical things and the smaller things that will sell. So that’s why I recently started to develop a jewellery range, because people showed interest, and I know that’s the kind of thing that’s accessible to people.

00:02:26 My grandmother was from Holland, and she was a knitwear designer, and she always had a sewing room in her house. So I suppose that’s where the textile background did come from, although I didn’t realise it at the time. Because I remember – I’m left-handed, and my grandma would try and teach me to knit, but she was right-handed – so I would never be able to pick it up. So I would always make a bit of a mess of it, and find my own way of doing it. But I suppose she’d be so proud if she knew that actually in my final year, I was initially knitting and weaving with the silicone, she would be – I’m sure she would be really proud of me.

00:02:59 I can see myself making forever, I don’t think I’ll ever get bored of it. My fingers might do though. Because my hands are already starting to look a lot older than me. So – no I definitely think I’ll always be involved with something creative for the rest of my life. Whether it’s inspiring other people, and advising other people or making my own work. If I could do anything in the world, it would probably be something to do with covering a huge building in silicone. I’ve always wanted to cover the façade of a building – maybe it would be something like the Eiffel Tower. I would cover the whole Eiffel Tower in waste silicone. But I know that’s a lifetime’s job anyway. But that would be a – definitely something I’d like to achieve.

00:03:41 I know that I’m lucky because I’ve found what I love to do, and I know that a lot of people do a job for the sake of it, and I absolutely love – adore what I do. And I wouldn’t change it for the world.

ENDS