Claire Komiski (Phillips) B.A. (Hons) Textile Design G.S.A.

I graduated in Textile Design from Glasgow School of Art, Printed and Knitted Textiles department in 1992. My degree show focused on hand dyed/ felted textiles and felted knitwear.

As a Graduate Designer with Tait and Style felt makers, in the Orkney Islands I was afforded the opportunities to work with designers such as Paul Smith and Marithe and Francois Girbauld. I also worked on in-house design collections with Ingrid and Freddie and the lovely Tait and Style girls.

While at Tait and Style I started a small range of handmade cards .

Followed by a period of being a Designer / Knitwear Department Co-ordinator at Judith Glue, Orkney Islands. An opportunity to successfully realise the concept of the felted knitwear range from my degree show.

1996 saw me open "Scoskie" gift shop and gallery in Largs, North Ayrshire. An in-house studio also allowed me to carry on producing "Scoskie" hand-made cards. The "Scoskie" hand-made card range was by this stage sold all over the U.K. 

2002-2012: Designed and created hand made cards and digi stamps for papercrafters for a number of years while my kids were small.

Hope Jacare started producing hand-dyed textiles in 2012 after a trip to the wonderful Woolfest with friends Vicky and Rita. The business grew, helped by Vicky and Rita (my fab hand-spinner and packer extraordinaire) We showed for the first time at Woolfest 2013. Along the way we have supported work experience students.  Now my daughter Hope(14) helps in the studio. We love what we do and enjoy working with so many creative folk worldwide.

2019 saw a change in my direction after working on the wonderful community arts project "52 Stitched Stories". This gave me a new enthusiasm to work on ideas to further my own finished pieces of work. 2020 saw the "52 Stitched Stories" exhibition take place at The Barony, West Kilbride, North Ayrshire. My own body of work along with donated pieces by customers and friends were sold after the exhibition to raise funds for Kidney Kids Scotland. Kidney Kids Scotland are a charity that has supported our family since my son's diagnosis in 2018.

2020/21 were indeed very strange years, but lots of exciting creative happenings still occurred. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with the lovely Fiona Doubleday and team at the stitched stories group, special mention goes to the climate change pieces created for Cop26, the stitched conversation and snippet roll in 2022.

At the end of 2021 I received a Creative Scotland award which has allowed me in 2022 to purchase a gentle roller felting machine, attend workshops to further develope my own felting skills, spend time researching a new body of work "felt - turning 2d into 3d" and then sharing this new range as workshops and kits. Most recently I have been working on a new body of work for the Story of the Artist exhibition at The Barony in Aug/Sept 2022. Barra bramble was born from a collaboration with my daughter Hope, and we plan to further develop this range.