Abstract contemporary textile art
A gallery of abstract and semi-abstract textile art by Mary-Clare Buckle,
one of the UK's leading contemporary textile artists

Floating Felts - translucent abstract textile art

I have developed and refined a technique of making paper-thin felt art (wool) pieces and sandwiching them in clear acrylic sheet.   These - predominantly abstract art - pieces can then be hung slightly away from the wall, so that the piece interacts with light falling on and through it and gives an impression of the textile art piece floating in three dimensions - hence ‘Floating Felts’. No longer is the eye of the viewer constrained by a rectangular frame - but can stray onto and off the piece.

This type of textile art work can be seen in my main textile art gallery - click here.

Art Lights - backlit and UV-lit abstract textile art pieces

The obvious extension of this technique was to use an integral light source to backlight the pieces, turning them into 'Art Lights’. This creates the dramatic effect of the textile art piece appearing to float in space.

I also use fairy lights, to produce a completely different lighting effect.

And - inspired, as a textile artist, by the UV environment of nightclubs - I have produced a range of lights which use uv-reactive fibres, lit by blacklight-blue (uv-A) tubes or LEDs. This produces an intense glow from the fibres and an incredibly vibrant effect.

See my art lights gallery for this type of textile art work - click here.

Conceptual Textile Art - semi-abstract textile art pieces

In my range of 'conceptual textile art' I produce the art by combining digital images with a wool felt background. The first piece, It’s Raining Men, was originally suggested by the Weather Girls song. This is the first in a series of It's Raining ... textile art pieces - cows, money, cats & dogs, etc.

I am also working on a series of ‘tourist cliché’ pieces - a London-themed piece will have images of red phone boxes, double-decker buses, beefeaters, etc.

See my Conceptual Textile Art Gallery for this type of textile art work.

Also in this Gallery is a range of textile art work using a design inspired by the decorative use of tiles in the Middle East and North Africa.

Two pieces in particular - Me and You - were recently sold to a client furnishing a villa in the Algarve.   Textile art pieces like this could have any lettering or symbols repeated across them.

A series of interviews with Mary-Clare about textile art and her work, as one of Dorset's textile artists - click here to read the interviews

Articles by/about Mary-Clare on textile art and felt making and her work as one of the UK's leading textile artists - click here to read these articles about her approach to textile art and felt making