Profile

Isabel Fletcher is a textile artist exploring the way overlooked production offcuts can act as portals into the craft of their industry. Reframing disregarded offcuts as glimpses into the craft of making, she aims to increase empathy for possessions and encourage a reduction in consumption and waste. 

Working intuitively by responding to the nuanced shapes, textures and forms presented by offcuts, Isabel’s sculptural works take on ambiguous forms. With a background in fashion design, she has a fascination in materiality and the transformation of textiles from 2D to 3D through pattern cutting, draping, and stitch. Her recent work has moved away from the garment form as an end-point, to instead work sculpturally and bring into focus the processes, craft and concept present in her work. Improvising through stitching, draping, gathering, tensioning, separating, layering, cutting and joining, Isabel critically interacts with her materials as she seeks to identify their three-dimensional possibilities. 

Living in an increasingly technological world, we are loosing touch with the tacit knowledge that is innate in us all and thus becoming emotionally detached from possessions. By presenting material offcuts out of context (such as ballet shoe offcuts) in the form of ambiguous sculptural works, Isabel intends for viewers to closely consider each of these material remnants as a trace of making. Understanding the craft processes and skill required for the creation of our possessions, regardless of cost, will result in increased care and empathy for possessions, and act as an antidote to waste.

With a practice rooted in craft but working across art and design depending on the project, Isabel has collaborated with brands such as Kvadrat and TOAST and has presented work in both solo and group exhibitions, including ‘Waste Age’ (Design Museum) and ‘Eternally Yours’ (Somerset House). Isabel regularly runs workshops exploring themes of textile waste, mending and repair which further supports her belief of reconnecting people to tacit knowledge. She also completes commissions for galleries, interiors, and clothing. 

Isabel is a graduate of the Royal College of Art (2023), and lives and works in London.