Amarah Alexandra is a contemporary textile designer who focuses on human centered design. She is mindful of how design can have an effect on well-being and is inspired by philosophies and experiences of the world around her. She takes on a minimal approach and creates a holistic ambience throughout her collections.
Amarah’s work is intricate with great attention to detail. She hopes the audience can feel a sense of tranquillity and connect with the concept behind her collections. Let's dive deeper into her creative process.
The Beauty of Grief Collection (Image courtesy - Amarah Alexandra)
Dea: What's your background and what lead you to working with textiles?
Amarah: I have always been creative. My mom and my nan taught me how to knit and sew from a young age. It wasn't until I joined a textile class at school that I realized that I love working with materials and I was actually really good at it. That led me onto pursuing it further and getting a textile design degree at university and things have just progressed from there.
Dea: What do textiles mean to you?
Amarah: Textiles have helped me to turn my ideas and concepts into something tangible. There are many varieties of textile techniques that give me the ability to tell a story in depth and detail.
The Beauty of Grief Collection (Image courtesy - Amarah Alexandra)
Dea: Where do you find your inspiration? What themes do you explore in your work?
Amarah: I tend to look into different aspects of well-being, philosophies, cultural/religious beliefs and life experiences that people can relate to. It is important that I have strong meaning behind what I create and if I can somehow inspire at least one person then I feel as though my purpose has been reached.
For example, I am really interested in the concept of biophilia, which is the belief that we all have a deep-rooted connection to nature and natural processes. Bringing nature indoors has said to boost both health and well being in many ways. My collection “Eutierria” consists of structures and elements of nature. I took pictures of flowers and plants and zoomed in so I could see intricate details and recreate them using fabric manipulation and textile techniques
Eutierria Collection (Image courtesy - Amarah Alexandra)
Dea: What's your creative process like?
Amarah: I usually start off with a topic which I have researched. I then source all sorts of different materials which link to the topic. Once I have collected a range of materials, I then try and create my own interesting techniques.
A few of my familiar approaches have been burning, twisting, wrapping, layering and fabric manipulation. Previous collections have included materials such as cocktail sticks, seeds, brush brittle’s, and cotton wool.
The Beauty of Grief Collection (Image courtesy - Amarah Alexandra)
Dea: Do you have any tips for people currently working at home? Any DIY ideas?
Amarah: I think it’s definitely a good idea to stick to a routine! I think having some kind of structure keeps up the motivation, as you know what you’ve got planned so you just get straight to it. I tend to write a list of things that I want to do each day and just work through the list.
I have been making a lot of macramé recently and I have found that really fun! Embroidery and knitting is also good as it just keeps your mind focused but it’s also something you can do whilst watching tv once you’ve got used to it.
Chi Collection (Image courtesy - Amarah Alexandra)
Dea: Any tips for aspiring creatives?
Amarah: My first tip would be create work that YOU are passionate about. You need to follow your own path, not anyone else’s, and try and gain inspiration from primary resources. Don’t look too much at what other people are doing or have done as you can sometimes subconsciously start to make work that looks similar to others and you want to be original!
Once you have your niche, make sure you push it, then push it again, then don’t stop pushing because I believe there is always something that you can improve on or something you can do different and it will bring out even more ideas.
Great advice! And we agree; we are all amazing in our own ways - so why not use that uniqueness to create our own artistic voice? Are you feeling inspired by Amarah? Don't forget to share your thoughts below and on our social media pages! Let's keep supporting our incredible textile community.
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Show Amarah some love here:
Web - amarahalexandra.com
Insta - @AmarahAlexandra
(Image courtesy - Amarah Alexandra)
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