The Loft Gallery’s current stunning exhibition is by Iulia Viorela Fisher. Iulia spoke to The Orkney News.

I was very lucky to be born and brought up in a picturesque village in Transylvania, Romania, where from a very young age I was instilled with a love of arts and crafts, where knitting, crochet, sewing were one of the daily past times. Quite often I reminiscence my parents taking me to the carding mill, where the raw wool from my dad’s sheep was transformed into beautiful varied wool fibres/ products.

Although my life took me on a career path in nursing, I was always hoping to explore my creative side further, using and developing my skills to discover who I am as an artist and as a person.

In 2000 I enrolled on “Introduction to textile and design” course at the Orkney college which I absolutely loved and earned me the award”Creative vision in textile 2011”, followed by “Applied textile course” in 2012 and “Introduction to painting” in 2013.

For the past few years I’ve been making various articles for friends and family, keeping my creative spirit alive and taking part in Craft fairs. For this exhibition I have wanted to connect with the Orkney land and sea-scape;replicating and representing playfully it’s shape and colours. I’ve tried to achieve this in a varied way, using felt , needle craft,
knitting and photography.

The creation of Romanian point lace (RPL) requires the unique focus and quiet slow concentration, making for a great sense of calm and mindfulness. I have not had time to attempt this artist-environment connection using my pointlace as yet, indeed what you see here are examples of older ideas and traditional motives.

In the future I very much look forward to once again embracing and connecting with my surroundings, and learning how to represent them using my point lace – if this is possible!

The exhibition is on at The Loft Gallery, Front Rd. St. Margaret’s Hope,

11th November – 19th December