Career profile: Saskia Gavin, textile artist

Saskia Gavin runs the Mixing Fibres textile studio in Edinburgh’s Drill Hall for budding textile enthusiasts and converts who want to drop in and play, work or experiment with textiles and other fibres.

She runs classes in felting, jewellery, scarves, bags, vessels; needle-felting - pictures and 3D; embellishing; wire knitting and crochet; fabric recycling as well as offering drop-in/freestyle sessions, studio hire and time share.

The Drill Hall is part of the “out of the blue” arts and education trust and is an artistic hub combining artists studios, offices, exhibition space, workshops, rehearsal spaces, conference facilities, café, crèche and a studio theatre.

What is your job title?
Fibre fanatisist/felt missionary/textile artist/studio runner.

Who do you work for?
Myself.

What do you do all day?
Very varied- teach, experiment, market, make/create.

What are you doing today?
I’m putting together a pack for a couple of sessions teaching at a secondary school & handout for a workshop at my studio this morning; in the afternoon I’m taking photographs of recent work for marketing and in the evening, teaching evening class.

What's the best thing about your job?
The variety - including a mix of “with people” and on my own. I spend a lot of time doing what I love most.

And the worst thing?
Sort of the same as the best thing! It’s hard to know when I’m switched off sometimes. The hours aren’t as convenient in some ways as my old ‘9 to 5’ and as well as doing what I love most, I have to do what I like least.

How did you get into it?
I’ve sort of always been doing some of what I do now- learning new techniques, enthusing and encouraging, but in a different field. The thinking in 3D, experimenting and making things, as well as other sets of new skills used to be more of a hobby. Then I realised that nothing ventured, nothing gained and the safe option would probably always be there.

Who's been the biggest influence on you, career-wise?
Not sure if I’ve had a big influence; it might be better if I had!

Tell us a little about your latest project?
I have two – a group exhibition with the theme Victoriana- about 11 of us who work together have spent a couple of weekends bouncing themes and ideas off each other, and January’s exhibition at the Patriothall Gallery will show our various takes on what has most intrigued us. The other one that I am rolling over in my mind concerns a bucket of earth and what I will find there…!?

What's been your biggest professional achievement so far?
At the moment, it’s getting the workshop/studio operating. It’s an equipped space for people to learn and gain confidence, to experiment or to meet and work together, or just to work with textiles.

Who is your favourite textile artist?
I don’t really have a favourite artist, as I don’t really feel I’ve seen enough to have a favourite yet. Textile art is such an enormously wide field that the more I see, the harder it gets!

Where would you like to go from here, career-wise?
I am still feeling my way. I enjoy teaching/demonstrating (I have a large slice of felt missionary in me!). I love designing and experimenting with materials and techniques. I would like to get the studio better equipped, better established and better known and then… who knows?