Artists Profile

I was born in Liverpool, England, in 1962.
After leaving school I did a foundation course in Art & Design, I then moved on to a further three years specialist study in 'Surface Pattern Design' before attending university in London where I obtained a 1st class honors degree in Textiles / Fashion design.

I have worked for various UK companies designing textiles, clothing, wallpaper, greetings cards etc.
I have also worked on a voluntary basis for a London based community arts theatre, where I designed the costumes and sets for several large productions.

Eleven years ago, along with my partner, I formed the renowned alternative clothing design company, The Dark Angel Design Co Ltd http://www.thedarkangel.co.uk we now have studios in England and New Zealand.
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Four years ago our business was hit badly by the decline in clothing manufacture in the UK and like many other companies we were faced with the choice of closing the company or moving the manufacture overseas.
All of the big high street fashion stores were using cheap third world labor and thus made it impossible for the smaller retailers to manufacture in the UK and compete on price.
We had always been reluctant to manufacture outside England, especially in countries like India, as we were very much against the unethical work practices that are widespread in third world factories.
In the end this was not a problem as the larger factories would not work for us anyway. We do not produce our designs in huge bulks and therefore we were not able to order the minimum production quantity required. This led us to search out small workshops that would produce the smaller runs that we needed.
It was then that we realized that these small workshops had been as much of a victim of the fashion industry as we had been ourselves, as they could not compete with the big factories and many small workshops had been forced to close.
In 2004 we made contact with several small workshops in Thailand who agreed to manufacture for us. In order to be on site, oversee the production and ensure that working conditions were ethical we moved out to Bangkok with our two children.
We lived in Thailand for a year before moving onto Singapore for a further three years. During that time we established links with other small companies in Indonesia and Nepal. We have very close relations with the companies that manufacture for us and we can assure our customers that everything that we produce is manufactured in a clean, safe environment where the staff are paid a fair wage.

Working in an uncertain climate and living in a totally alien environment proved at times to be nothing short of traumatic! However, leaving behind the violent society of England and living in a calmer Buddhist community has been a source of great joy. I have studied Tibetan Buddhism for many years and living amongst a predominantly Buddhist culture has strengthened my belief in Buddhist philosophy; I now have no doubt that this is the key to more tolerant and peaceful way of life.

As well as being a source of great spiritual strength, living in Asia has also given me a wealth of artistic inspiration. The colour and ceremony is at times pure magic, particularly in Thailand and Nepal
For as long as I can remember I have been an avid photographer. I have always used a camera to record things that I find inspirational and can use as reference in my design work.
Needless to say I now have a hard drive that is simply bursting with images, many of which I will never be able to use. Consequently I have made many of my photographs, including a selection from this site, available to other designers. 100% of the proceeds from the sale of these images will go to support sponsorships organised by 'Tibet Aid' and 'Kopan Monastery'