Collect Week: Isobel Napier - 5 Minutes with a Friend

For today's Collect special, we catch up with Isobel Napier, a London-based artist whose work in paper and wood reimagines textile traditions through a fusion of digital precision and organic unpredictability. Her work blends laser cutting and 3D milling to transform solid materials into delicate, textile-inspired forms.

Ahead of her showcase at Crafts Council’s Collect Week 2025, she shares some insights about her affinity with textiles:

What is your first memory of textiles?

Growing up, my mother and I collected mid-century textiles together; thick, textured bark-cloths with rough, painterly patterns. I loved their graphic presence - abstract paintings that you could hold and cut and live with. Some were so crude with brushstrokes and murky colours that they were almost ugly; these were my favourites.  Some had simple suggestions of scenes and characters that were very whimsical and elegant. I’ve been collecting  and making textiles ever since. More recently, plain hand-loomed linens are my preference, I’m interested in texture and colour. I love to find old fabrics that show the traces of their use.

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