KIRSTEEN LYONS BA (HONS) CV

KIRSTEEN LYONS BA (HONS)

Recent Freelance:

Currently founding: Art Dreams Gallery. An online gallery bringing together the work of four professional artists to sell original paintings and some prints. https://www.etsy.com/shop/ArtDreamsGallery

2013 to present. Freelance as Enchanted Textile Design. Creating high quality design for a series of textile studioes in New York, London and Europe. Currently designing furnishing fabrics which are sold to clients throughout Europe. http://enchantedtextiledesign.blogspot.com

2006 to 2009 Started and ran Bagsythat pottery and Gallery in Tilgate Park, Crawley. A small pottery and Gallery providing handmade ceramics, teaching, painting and children's activities.

2008 to 2013 Started, ran and eventually sold Crawley Craft Fair. A vibrant community event and a viable small business. (I also advised on the founding of Crawley Book Fair.)

2008 to 2013 Started and ran Butterfly Facepainting. Butterfly Facepainting was a successful and creative Facepainting business with up to four facepainters freelancing under my management.

Competitions:

2001 First prize-winner of an industrial competition for Morton Yong & Borland. This was a prize for the best of Madras lace design and involved one week’s work placement gaining first-hand experience of designing Madras lace converting it into a suitable format for the computerised loom and seeing it woven. I was also involved in preparations for a trade fair the company were attending.

2001 Joint first prize-winner of an industrial competition for Muraspec, (a textile wall coverings design and manufacturer). The judges of this competition said I had won for the relevance and applicability of my response to the brief as well as the high standard of work, commenting “There are people out there making good livings with far inferior products”.

Qualifications:

1999-2002 BA (Hons) Textile Design 2(1). Involving; print, weave, knit, marketing, finance, management, coloration Technology, print technology, visual studies, professional practice, CAD and the design process. Also being entered into the Royal Society of Arts textile competition.

A level art, A level photography, Several GCSE's.

Work history:

2007 to 2008 teaching English as a second language at Greenfields English language school.

2006 Freelance Graphic design and fine art. Selling paintings online and at fairs.

2004-2005 Graphic Design and PR. Star Syringe. This involved web updates, Newsletters, brochures and press articles. During my time at Star Syringe I instigated many press articles including national radio interviews and national newspapers. I was also instrumental in winning several award for the Business including the Sussex Business awards and Best international Company at the Stivies. (International Bussiness awards baced in the US, This put us on US TV.) See www.starsyringe.com for more detail.

2003 Freelance Murals and wedding stationary.

2002 Associate, Product development. Muraspec. (Kent) This involved lending my textiles knowledge to the team, research, planning, lab work and CAD design for 3D weave.

1996-1999 Art and drama teacher at Greenfields school, (Sussex). In addition to teaching lessons this involved assisting with school plays, attending moderation meetings, parents’ evenings, planning lessons, keeping admin, supervision duties around the school, writing reports and communicating with parents about the progress their children made.

1996-2001 Theatre Design and production. (Sussex) I have designed and created; costumes, props, scenery and backdrops for several theatre productions as well as acting, coaching and directing.

1998-1999 Commissions to paint murals. (Sussex and Kent).

2001 Work placement with The Printed Stitch Studio Design Consultants. (Galashiels) During my time in Printed Stitch, I worked on two main design projects. The first was compiling ideas to employ textile art in a shopping mall in Edinburgh. I’d also worked on designing their new promotion mail and business card.

Volunteer Work:

2014 and 2015 Executive director of Saint Hill Arts Festival.

Vacation Work:

1997 Director of exhibitions for St Hill arts festival, (Sussex). This position involved receiving the artists and their work, acting as their hostess throughout the festival and seeing that the artwork was hung in a suitable space to the artist’s specifications.

1996 Director of the Children's Project for St Hill arts festival, (Sussex). This involved the advanced planning of a week’s activities in the arts for children of all ages, ordering relevant materials, and recruiting a voluntary staff to assist. In addition to these responsibilities, I personally delivered many of the activities.

1995 Summer school, (Sussex). Organising and delivering one week of art activities for 7 to 16 year-olds. Under the umbrella of the school where the summer school was taking place I was responsible for planning, ordering materials and delivering the activities.

Exhibitions:

1999 and 2000 Exhibitions of oil paintings with two other artists, (East Grinstead Art Centre).

2002 Exhibition at the Lighthouse Design Centre, (Glasgow).

2002 Degree show exhibition (Galashiels)

2002 New Designers, Islington exhibition centre (London)

2002 Now Gallery of contemporary art

2006 East Grinstead Arts Center

2007 East Grinstead Arts Center.

2008 Crawley Library Exhibition Space.

Other:

1992-1995 Wirral Youth Theatre member.

1993-1995 Wirral Youth Service Travel Panel rep. At monthly meetings myself and some other youth reps from the Liverpool area reviewed suggestions from the various youth groups in the district. Funding and assistance was allocated largely on our recommendations.

2000 Class rep. Textile Design, Heriot-Watt University.

2001-2002 Member of the Textile Design Society Heriot-Watt University.

2001 Photographic commission for hotel website, (Jedburgh).

Email for references:

kirsteenann@gmail.com

Living in Spain: homeless by choice.

Living in Spain: homeless by choice.

So we are in our last five weeks in Spain and I'm thinking about what is next. Home early May. The plan is get a van and stay in Sussex, letting my daughter binge on her friends while we see family, Tim does local tutoring as well as the usual Skype tutoring (which he is still working hard to build up to acceptable survivable levels) and in September we take the van to Santander (the city in Northern Spain, not the bank). It's a bit odd having nowhere you come beck to in terms of “our house.” I'm torn between, “Yay! I shed all my stuck middle class ideas on being sensible and struck out into the world” and “Why am I homeless?” It's a bit off, to say that we are less stable now, as we rented a house and had an epic quantity of second hand furniture and toys to store. Now if we rented again we could get a smaller place comfortably, having shed our Ikea/ toysRus load. Technically that makes us more stable. It just feels different. I've always returned “Home” before. But I don't want to go back to more of the same, I'm just riding the adjustment wave on the transition to one of those oh-so-cool worldschoolers who casually chat about taking the kids to volunteer looking after elephants after they finish in KL (Kuala Lumpa, not my initials)! I guess they must go “home” too, and sleep on their relatives floor a few nights, and have coffee with all their old friends, and think “Gosh I'm a weirdo!” Even Facebook thinks I have become a weirdo, perhaps through searches or groups I have joined all the advertising I now get shown is for hideous, shapeless, green woolly hippy clothes! I despise green and shapeless knitwear, I like sleek lines and classic styles! I would love to look after elephants but I AM NOT WEARING GREEN HARIM PANTS!!!! I will go back to doing PR in an office 9 to 5 first!

The plan is that home is a van of course, but I'm starting to realise that is a bit complicated, like so many things it would not be too complicated if the budget for it was £22,000 but it's not. I started a bitch fight on Facebook when I asked if I could drive a converted minibus on my licence (in the self build campers group) that ran to over 30 comments, “Yes” “No” and everything in between, some quite horrid to me and others, scattered links to unclear government guidelines and ended with some wit commenting “Well that cleared that question up then!” I've seen less controversy in a post about vaccines or US politics!

I called the DVLA the answer is “no” unless I've fully converted it and re-classified it as a motor caravan with the few remaining seats. So no driving it around while I get stuff done, and no recourse but sit a new test if they judge the conversion not fully a camper!

However all this research suggests we can add seats to a van, something the camper shop told me was not OK – come to think of it they may not have been fully unbiased. The government web site is clear this time but the insurance companies have a say... It's a minefield. I plan to entertain you with every tiny regulation regarding converting a vehicle to live and travel in – oh what? You don't want to know? But I thought everyone loved insurance company stories?!!

If we can't find an automatic van for £2400 that is big enough to stand up in, and reliable, we have plan B (the plan not the movie studio).

Plan B is actually very cool. Possibly quite cold and definitely wet. However it would be fun. I buy an estate car, just a big car, and we take my mum's tent (she has the sort of tent that people who have really camped a lot buy, it's not that big but you can stand up, the ground sheet is part of the upper...) and go to Scotland. Living in a tent in a posh camp site in Sussex, in high season, is literally as expensive as living in a flat there! So Scotland it is, you can wild camp, camp away from camp sites in the forest, moors or next to the beach...my big brother has done it, and it sounds cool. Then you rock up at a much cheaper camp site and wash all your stuff and dry out. Also one of us speacks the language.

My kids will get to see their roots and I will get to continue the mountain-fix that Spain has been supplying, but Jasmine will miss her friends and so will I. I'd rather do the home a while, away a while thing, we will have been gone six months by then and it seems that middle class, retirement community, nothing happened since the doomsday book, East Grinstead is “Home” for me??! How did that happen?

Enchanted Textile Design - Kirsteen Lyons BA (Hons)

I am Kirsteen Lyons BA (Hons) and my textile design company is called Enchanted Textile Design.

I am a freelance textile designer for a design studio in Europe. I create original furnishing fabric and wallpaper design which my design house then sells to prestigious clients throughout Europe and further afield.

I have been creating art and design my whole life as a designer, writer, photographer and fine artist. I studied textile design at Heriot-Watt University and have worked both in-house and freelance as a designer for studios in Kent, London, New York and now Europe.

More textile design and design related content can be seen here:
enchantedtextiledesign.blogspot.com

enchantedtextiledesign.blogspot.com

More than 700 days of drawing!

I'm creating a drawing a day, for two years, just for the art of it.
Today's is my children relaxing, it's very very windy today as and we are all staying home doing things we like.
#drawingadayclub
I have been drawing for 702 days!

#createadrawingadayforhumanrights

http://www.youthforhumanrights.org

Living in Spain - The "What am I doing still here?" Feeling and two drawings.

I'm sitting in "La Siesta" it means the nap. It's a beach cafe. The view is out across the sea to the headland. The floor is literally sand, although the beach here is shingle (they have brought it in to be more beach venue). The kids are at the flat with Tim, Dylan is having a real siesta. I'm drawing the view and the jumbled white carved couches and floaty curtains that decorate the place. The sea is quiet, it's only about eight meters from me, but every now and then it "cheeks" me by sending a sudden loud wave! Sparrows abound, clearing up the crumbs the French family in the next nest of couches have overlooked.

For the first time in a while, I'm not beset by the question "How did I end up back here?" And "I'm forty and I've done what?" It's actually a pretty unfair question because the town I grew up in is a privileged place to live, I just felt too much like I was stuck. The second question is also unfair, I've traveled widely, I've started and sold businesses, I've got my design degree and a brilliant world class studio to sell my work. I've got two perfect kids. I've got a brilliant husband who always steps in and quietly fixes the mess when my plans go wrong. Yes, it's Tim who dealt with the angry buyers of the last camper, and Tim who untangled the breakdown mess - mostly in French! Still I was loading the dishwasher back home and thinking... "What am I doing here? Back where I grew up? Among the middle class, suburban retired people? (And my collection of awesome friends - mostly not local!) One of said awesome friends keeps referring to this as our "first" trip, I think she might be right. I've been around Europe a bit (France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Poland, Austria, Hungry...) with a backpack and visited; America, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Egypt... but it's different to move off and say "Now I'm out and it's the start of my travel." See what I mean? I mean this as a change, not a ten day mini adventure. And that idea has dispelled the "What am I doing here?" Feeling. :)

Now I better go pay for my lunch, that I ordered by pointing at the menu and saying "Please" in Spanish, it was yummy (mostly onion and oil I think!) if you get something horrid by this method you should always try to eat it anyway, as it's your deserved punishment for not learning local language and customs fast enough - unless it's cheese, especially mouldy cheese, if it's cheese you are excused! Well not if its this sort of yummy goats cheese they have given me... I might be making the rules up as I go! :)

#createadrawingaday

#createadrawingadayforhumanrights
http://www.youthforhumanrights.org

Spanish coastline, Jasmine and seaweed.

I'm creating a drawing a day, for two years, just for the art of it.
I've got so behind, here are all the catch up drawings!
#drawingadayclub

#createadrawingadayforhumanrights
http://www.youthforhumanrights.org