Friday Feature Artist

Jane Walkley is a Leeds-based artist working across tapestry, mould making, and casting. Her practice explores memory, labour, and regeneration within post-industrial sites. In this conversation, she reflects on her research at Sunny Bank Mill, where material, rhythm, and lived experience converge. The episode offers a considered look at process-led making and how meaning develops through repetition, attention, and time.Visit our website to explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Australian artist Shona Wilson creates delicate, ephemeral works in collaboration with nature, transforming found materials into moments of quiet wonder. With a practice spanning three decades, she reflects on attention, scale and connection – inviting us to slow down and rediscover the extraordinary within the everyday. This episode is a gentle meditation on making, presence and belonging.Visit our website to explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

In this episode, we chat with Hungarian textile artist Kinga Földi creates delicate silk sculptures shaped by pintuck, origami and a deep attentiveness to nature. After years in fashion, costume and theatre design, she turned to freestanding sculptural work as a slower, more personal form of expression. This discussion explores material transformation, patient making, and the search for forms that offer rest in an overstimulated world.Visit our website to explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

In this episode, ceramic artist Juz Kitson creates visceral, hybrid sculptures that blur the line between human, animal and object. Working across porcelain, found materials and installation, her practice is both technically rigorous and deeply intuitive. In this conversation, Juz reflects on process, materiality, and what it means to reinvent tradition while building a sustainable creative life.Visit our website to explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

In conversation, mixed media artist and educator Robert Lee Davis reflects on creativity as a deeply human, accessible practice grounded in memory, observation and play. Working with found materials and everyday fragments, he reveals how art can soften the world, invite reflection, and reconnect us to ourselves. This conversation offers a gentle yet powerful reminder that creativity begins wherever you are, with whatever you have.Visit our website to explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

After decades working in functional ceramics, Ann Weber shifted her practice toward monumental cardboard sculpture – transforming a humble, discarded material into powerful, anthropomorphic forms. In this conversation, she reflects on material, scale, persistence, and purpose, offering a deeply honest look at what it means to build a life in art.Visit our website to explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Textile artist Sue Hotchkis transforms everyday decay into captivating, layered artworks that blur the line between 2D and 3D. Through photography, printing, dyeing, and stitching, she reimagines textures, rust, weathered walls, and peeling paint into sculptural fabrics. This episode explores her fearless experimentation, intuitive process, and how she finds beauty in imperfection, chance, and the quiet stories of time.Visit our website to explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

In this episode, tufting artist Melissa Monroe creates exuberant textile works that sit somewhere between furniture, sculpture and wall-based art. In this conversation, she shares how colour, character and everyday life shape her practice – and how instinct, material knowledge and a willingness to loosen up allow each piece to become itself fully.Visit our website to explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

In this episode, Sophie Edwards speaks with French artist Stéphanie Devaux about the quiet dialogue between writing and textile. Working across calligraphy, embroidery and artist books, Stéphanie transforms text into tactile form. She reflects on learning from rare books in Paris, the meditative rhythm of stitch and script, and the moment when ink and thread dissolve into one visual language.Visit our website to explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

In this episode, we hear how Japanese designer Kazuya Nohara and his partner Miki work with traditional Hontate indigo fermentation in rural Japan, creating hand-sewn garments dyed in living vats he tends himself. In this thoughtful conversation, he reflects on learning to release control, building a business at nature’s pace, and seeing indigo not just as colour, but as culture, partnership and practice.Visit our website to explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

In this episode, textile artist Shelly Goldsmith works across hand weaving, digital cloth and installation to explore inheritance, motherhood and the origins of self. In conversation with Jo Wright, she reflects on slow process, psychological theory and the courage to trust intuition. This thoughtful episode moves between the intimate and the cosmic, revealing how cloth becomes a vehicle for life’s biggest questions.Visit our website to explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews.

In this episode, textile artist Julian Jamaal Jones reimagines quilting as contemporary fine art – bold, abstract works built from sketches, printed cloth, and rhythmic stitching. In conversation with Angela Truscott, Julian reflects on making through grief, family lineage, and the freedom of abstraction as protection. A thoughtful episode about taste, confidence, and building a signature language in cloth.And some good news: we are filming a course with Julian soon! Join the waiting list on our website - taketwoart.com/courses/julian-jamaal-jonesVisit our website to explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

In this episode, psychologist, writer and textile maker Nicole Nehrig joins Jo Wright for a wide-ranging conversation on the social, historical, and cultural power of making. Drawing from her book and lived experience, Nicole reflects on craft as a therapeutic practice, a cultural language, and a tool for connection, protest and meaning-making across time.Visit our website to explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

In this episode, quilter and multidisciplinary artist Casey Engel moves between fibre, ceramics, printmaking and painting – chasing that “magnificent wobble” only handwork can hold. In this conversation, she reflects on embracing imperfection, trusting risk, and making work that resists utility while staying deeply intimate. From thrifted textiles to residencies without internet, Casey shares a practice built on courage, surprise, and renewal.Visit our website to explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

In this episode, Claire Benn joins Deborah White to reflect on handwriting as an expressive, material practice. Working across ink, paper and textiles, Claire speaks about text as mark, texture and gesture rather than language. The conversation explores learning through repetition, suspending judgement, and how slowing down can open new creative pathways. Claire also shares insights into the ideas and approaches woven through her new course TEXTure, offering a glimpse of what participants can expect when they begin transforming their own handwriting into material expression.Learn more about Claire’s course TEXTure.Visit our website to explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

As a new brand (and new era!) of the business begins, founder Angela Truscott speaks to Creative Director Jo Wright about building an inclusive creative community rooted in education, quality, and care. Angela shares the personal and professional journey behind Take Two – from leaving corporate life to championing artists, students, a caring team, and collaboration. This episode offers rare insight into values-led creative leadership.

From her studio on the Hampshire coast, textile sculptor Bryony Jennings stitches soulful creatures from vintage cloth, forgotten buttons and timeworn threads. In this thoughtful conversation, Bryony reflects on the slow magic of her making process, how fabric holds memory, and the quiet bravery of balancing motherhood, art and imagination.Visit our website to view Bryony’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Marian Jazmik is a UK-based textile artist known for her inventive mixed media sculptures inspired by nature’s quiet details. In this conversation, Marion shares how retirement became her creative beginning, why texture speaks louder than colour, and how found objects and experimental play underpin her captivating practice.Visit our website to view Marian’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Ukrainian artist Olga Radionova transforms wood, metal and textiles into sculptural works that explore strength, vulnerability and rebirth. From soft sculptures to weapon remnants reborn as flowers, Olga’s practice is both a tactile celebration of material and a profound response to life in a war-torn country. This episode is a powerful meditation on creativity, resilience, and the transformative nature of art.Visit our website to view Olga’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

What does it mean to know a place? For textile artists Dorothy Caldwell and Claire Benn, it begins with walking, listening, collecting – and letting the land leave its mark. In this rare and intimate conversation across three continents, these lifelong artists and friends reflect on pigment, place, and the deep, quiet power of working with cloth, soil, and time.Visit our website to view Dorothy and Claire’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Canadian-born artist Sandra Meech blends photography, painting, and stitch to tell layered stories of landscape, memory and climate. Drawing from Arctic expeditions and the flooded fields of Somerset, her work reveals what lies beneath – from melting glaciers to ancient ammonites. In this rich conversation, Sandra shares how sketchbooks, digital collage and the natural world continue to guide her evolving textile practice.Visit our website to view Sandra’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Painter, printmaker and educator Sally Hirst brings a fearless, can-do spirit to her richly layered abstractions. Guided by memory, material and the textures of the urban environment, Sally’s work is an evolving conversation between painting, printmaking and collage. In this lively conversation, she shares how curiosity, risk and repurposing drive her process – and why the best ideas often start with “what if?”Visit our website to view Sally’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Lissy and Rudi Cole are collaborative fibre artists, visionaries and partners in life and art. Guided by aroha, whakapapa and a bold creative spirit, they transform simple crochet into monumental public artworks. In this intimate episode, the Coles share the story behind their neon-pink whare nui, their soulful creative process, and their deep belief in the power of art to heal, connect and uplift.

Through the vivid language of punch needle tapestry, Simone Elizabeth Saunders reclaims and reimagines Western art histories. A Canadian artist of Jamaican and African descent, Simone weaves narratives of Black womanhood, liberation and ancestral connection into lush, large-scale works rooted in Art Nouveau, the Renaissance and her own lived experience. In this conversation, she shares the spiritual, symbolic, and technical dimensions of her extraordinary practice.Visit our website to view Simone’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Sculptor and installation artist Dana Falcini works with organic materials – from fish skin and feathers to human hair and bone – to create sculptural forms rich with emotion and meaning. In this reflective conversation, Dana shares how time away from making deepened her creative practice, and how her raw materials hold quiet conversations about memory, care, and transformation.Visit our website to view Dana’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Mississippi-based artist Coulter Fussell turns donated, discarded, and once-loved textiles into exuberant, improvisational quilts that carry memory, conflict, beauty, and joy. From river towns to war zones, soft sculpture to Snapchat videos, Coulter’s layered works ask us to consider what we throw away, what we hold onto, and what makes something worth remembering.Visit our website to view Coulter’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

From painting flower power on her father’s car to water blasting antique linens in her New Zealand studio, fibre artist Jacki Barklie has never been one to follow rules. In this episode, Jacki explores scale, resistance, and identity in her richly layered practice – one that celebrates risk-taking, material curiosity, and the quiet power of the unsaid.Visit our website to view Jacki’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

American textile artist Helen Geglio creates layered, hand-stitched works that explore memory, motherhood and the quiet power of cloth. Blending the intimacy of collage with the discipline of quilting, her art reflects years of teaching, storytelling and meditation through stitching. In this thoughtful conversation, Helen shares how repetition, reflection and risk-taking have shaped her visual vocabulary and her artistic life.Visit our website to view Helen’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Artist Carlie Trosclair casts the world in latex, capturing the skins of old buildings, staircases, and trees to reveal stories embedded in their structure. Drawing on architecture, memory and place, Carlie’s work invites us to think about home, the body, and the quiet yet booming voice of impermanence.Visit our website to view Carlie’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Internationally acclaimed textile artist Tina Marais invites us into her sculptural world, where memory, material and meaning are intimately stitched together. From community to creative courage, this conversation explores Tina’s poetic practice and her new Take Two course, Soft Revolution – a deeply personal offering shaped by years of experimentation and a lifelong reverence for cloth.Learn more about her course here. Visit our website to view Tina’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Painter, writer and educator Rebecca Crowell has helped redefine how artists engage with cold wax medium. In this conversation, Rebecca reflects on abstraction, intuition, and the layered histories that lie beneath a painting’s surface. For artists drawn to process, materiality, and meaningful teaching, this is a rich and thoughtful listen.Visit our website to view Rebecca’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

British printmaker Sue Brown invites us into a richly textured world of birds, sheds and story-filled sketchbooks. Working primarily with collograph printmaking, Sue transforms humble materials into layered works that celebrate the natural world and our place within it. This episode explores her deep love of birds, the beauty of experimentation, and the collaborative quilt project that connected makers across the globe.Visit our website to view Sue's work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

British artist Matthew Harris brings cloth and paper to life through a process that blends structure, chance, and rhythm. Drawing from a background in drawing and a deep reverence for materials, Matthew shares how intuition, repetition, and constraint shape his striking textile works – and how music, memory, and the beauty of imperfection guide his creative process.Visit our website to view Matthew’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

UK artist Tansy Hargan brings her background in architecture and landscape design into a vibrant mixed-media practice. From tiny thumbnail sketches to layered textiles, she explores colour, sound, and place with a rare attentiveness. In this thoughtful conversation, Tansy shares how observation, constraint, and play shape her distinctive art practice.Visit our website to view Tansy’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Quilt artist and soft sculptor Phong Chi Lai brings a fashion background, a deep respect for upcycled textiles, and a maker’s intuition to his vibrant, tactile world of improv patchwork. From childhood days in a clothing factory to natural dyeing in Tasmania, Phong’s journey is stitched with care, curiosity, and conviction.Visit our website to view Phong's work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

What happens when two kindred spirits in stitch meet across the globe? In this rich conversation, embroidery artists Tessa Perlow and Fleur Woods delve into their shared love of beading, symbolism, and slow making. From creative rituals to personal philosophies, they explore the beauty of handwork as magic, meditation, and connection. A warm and generous exchange between artists walking parallel paths. Visit our website to view Tessa and Fleur's work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Lydia Miller weaves with the wild. From ocean-foraged kelp to antlers, sticks and horsehair, her sculptural fibre works are shaped as much by intuition as by ecology. In this episode, Lydia shares how place, process and material co-create her art – and how slowing down, paying attention, and working with what you have can transform both your creative practice and your connection to the natural world.Alongside weaving, Lydia also works with natural plant dyes, growing and foraging colour from her own garden. Her practice reminds us that creativity can extend from the soil to the studio, with every season offering new possibilities.🌿 As a gift to listeners, Lydia has created The Plant Lover’s Guide to Solar Dyeing – a free downloadable resource to help you begin growing, harvesting, and creating your own natural dyes at home. You’ll find the free resource on the podcast page on our website.Visit our website to view Lydia's work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Textile artist and calligrapher Rosalind Wyatt works at the poetic intersection of word and cloth. From hand-stitched handwriting to garments that carry memory, her work honours the ‘quiet voice’ people leave behind. In this moving studio interview, Rosalind shares how handwriting, language, and material all converge to tell deeply human stories.Visit our website to explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

From classical painting to intuitive abstraction, Monica Rezman’s journey spans decades, disciplines, and dimensions. Working between Chicago and Mexico, Monica creates sculptural paintings and fabric-covered forms that explore memory, movement, and materiality. In this episode, she reflects on letting go of realism, embracing process over perfection, and making art that keeps her creatively alive.Visit our website to view Monica's work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Deborah White is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores belonging, identity, and renewal. Drawing from her childhood in Malawi and her years in fashion, Deborah uses recycled materials and earth pigments to build deeply personal, evocative forms. In this moving conversation, Deborah shares how art became her way home and how you can be part of that journey.Visit our website to view Deborah's work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

New Zealand printmaker and mixed media artist Toni Hartill invites us into her playful world of artist books. As we celebrate the launch of her new course Unbound, Toni shares how folding, layering and storytelling can liberate your art from the frame. This thoughtful conversation is a joyful nudge toward process, experimentation and creating with what you already have.Visit our website to view Toni's work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Abstract artist Nathan Terborg transforms discarded industrial waste into richly layered sculptural wall art. Guided by curiosity and experimentation, his work explores the beauty of brokenness, the power of transformation, and the poetry of materials reborn. For those who save materials for “someday” or wait for the perfect idea, Nathan offers a powerful invitation: don’t wait.Visit our website to view Nathan's work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Berlin-based artist Itamar Yehiel transforms traditional embroidery into sculptural studies of nature’s decay and regeneration. His delicate, three-dimensional works capture moss, bark and stones in thread, embracing impermanence with poetic precision. A self-taught artist, Itamar invites us to see the beauty in what is ageing, fragile, and slowly breaking down.Visit our website to view Itamar’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

From corporate suits to studio silks, Roberta Wagner’s journey spans pottery, watercolour, and textile collage. Her art is a meditation on life itself. In this reflective conversation, Roberta explores the emotional truth of making, the beauty of asking the right questions, and how creativity becomes a parallel path to living.Visit our website to view Roberta Wagner’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Fibre and mixed media artist Shin-hee Chin stitches portraits, installations and quilted forms that honour the quiet strength of womanhood and the complexity of belonging. Drawing on spirituality, feminism and Eastern philosophy, her art invites reflection on care, identity and paradox. Her recent piece Viriditas (Greenness) won Best of Show at Quilt National '25, celebrating innovation in contemporary quiltmaking!Visit our website to view Shin-hee’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

British artist Richard McVetis uses hand embroidery to explore the elusive nature of time. Best known for his monochrome stitched cubes and meticulous mark making, Richard’s work is a meditation on rhythm, imperfection, and the passage of time. In this reflective conversation, he shares how slowness, structure, and curiosity shape both his practice and his perspective.Visit our website to view Richard’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

What does it mean to carry your ancestors in cloth? In this conversation, American textile artist Beverly Y Smith shares how quilting became a path to healing, remembrance and truth-telling. Her work honours ancestors, explores intergenerational trauma, and brings hidden histories to light. We’re honoured to share this conversation on Juneteenth – a day of reflection, remembrance, and the enduring power of Black storytelling.Visit our website to view Beverly's work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

In this episode, as we celebrate the launch of Edible Abstraction, New Zealand-based abstract painter Nicola Bennett invites us into her sensory-rich world, where flavour and colour lead the way. Nicola shares how ingredients like beetroot, fig, and asparagus inspire her abstract paintings – and how reconnecting with the senses can transform your creative process.Visit our website to view Nicola's work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

In this episode, go behind the scenes with contemporary artist Pat Paul as she shares how she prints, pieces and composes her bold, abstract quilts. Working from her Rochester studio, Pat shares how she prints, pieces, and composes in a process that’s as instinctive as it is intentional. From surface design to spontaneous composition, this conversation is a deep dive into scale, saturation, and creative freedom.Visit our website to view Pat's work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Textile artist Caroline Bartlett draws on memory to create poetic installations and pleated forms that honour material, history, and transformation. In this episode, she reflects on the emotional weight of cloth, her journey through education and public art, and how the process of making can centre us in times of flux.Visit our website to view Caroline's work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews.