Meet the Maker - Freya Cummings

We so happy to introduce today's Meet the Maker, the very lovely and talented Freya Cummings...

Please can you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your work?

My name is Freya and I'm a Screen Printer. I lived in Bristol for seven years from 2004 to 2011 after moving there to study Printmaking at UWE. Some friends and I ran Snap Studio, a screen-printing studio and gallery in Bristol for a while. It's closed now, but I really got into printing there and it started me on my way. I moved home to Scotland recently and I produce Limited Edition Prints, cards, cushions and bags and occasionally, wallpapers and wedding invites from my studio at home.

Apart from creating things what else do you do?

Not very much! I'm spending every minute at the moment getting ready for a trade fair in London next week. I'm hoping to launch some new wallpapers and other products. I'm also coming to Bristol for a visit afterwards and I can't wait!

When did you know you were an artist/maker?

I don't remember a time when I didn't want to go to Art College, except for a time when I was ten, and I wanted to be a farmer.

What do you love most about working in your chosen discipline?

I love the fact that in Screen printing you can easily combine drawings, photographs, painting and pattern and that I can be very messy, but the process will smooth it all out.

Where does your inspiration come from?

When I lived in Bristol, I was inspired by the architecture and my work was very Urban based, now that I'm in the country, my work has changed quite a lot and now it's very rural, so it comes from my surroundings, much more than I had realised before I became a country bumpkin....

Describe your studio or workspace?

A complete mess, I turned a bedroom in the house into my studio. I print at one table and draw at another and have a string of pegs for drying my work. I love having my own work space, it looks out across the garden to the hills beyond. It's my first studio on my own and I love it, but I miss the friends I shared SNAP with too, so if I feel I am going completely mad on my own, I drive into Dundee and print there. 

If you could peek inside the studio of any artist, designer or craftsman (dead or alive), who would it be?

I'd like to look at loads, I'm very nosey. Probably William Morris at the moment. I'd have a few questions for him about wallpaper design. I'm having some repeat pattern problems right now.

How would you describe your creative process?

Painful! I spend too much time thinking about prints-to-be and not enough time actually making them. But when I've started something, then I'm happy. I need deadlines! 

What handmade possession do you most cherish?

Lots, I have a lot of handmade possessions, I think that the felted emergency tea-bag holder that my friend crafted for me has to be up there for it's inventiveness.

What do you when you are stuck in a creative rut?

Either procrastinate by doing other things, until something comes to me, or stare at the walls of my studio, until something comes to me..

Where would you like to be in ten years?

Doing exactly the same thing, but with a bigger studio for printing wallpaper, I had to use my parents dining room recently. A bit more financial security would be nice too.

Freya your colourful screen prints are a delight.  You can find Freya's beautiful work in our Made in Britain shop here in Bristol.

Made in Britain

(next to Carluccios)

Quakers Friars

Cabot Circus

Bristol

Mon-Sat:  10am - 6pm

Sun:  11am - 5pm