CLarissa Cochran - Textile Artist, Painter, Printmaker.
Specialising in Indigo Dyeing and Japanese Shibori

I can remember always being fascinated by the transformative effect of dyeing – I used to dye (and make) my own clothes, and the house I grew up in was filled with inspirational pictures and kelims and other ‘pieces’. My mother, Casty Cobb, was a silversmith and ran workshops in the house, and ‘collected’ from her travels. After a course in costume design at Wimbledon Art school, I trained as an art therapist, and while my children were growing up, I taught art in Community Education, including the local prison.

I have always had great admiration for Japanese design – their intuitive sense of the fundamental importance of space, and the extraordinary way they combine a sense of restraint with spontaneity, producing works of breathtaking and deceptive simplicity. I also recognise in this the expression of a philosophy of life, and feel I share their great love of the natural world and the need to be in harmony with it.