Fay McCaul

A sense of scale

• Fay creates innovative new techniques
• She combines tradition with experimentation
• Her creative processes often result in unexpected outcomes

Fay McCaul creates luminous knitted panels inspired by architectural forms. Her pieces incorporate a mix of reflective materials inside knitted pockets. She builds up rows of pockets and places tiles of various materials inside: plastic, mirrored, painted plywood, and etched metal. These inclusions give Fay’s textiles a quality of light and movement not found in traditional fabrics. She has also invented an entirely new textile surface that encapsulates reflective materials via a heat bonding process. Fay’s work has been exhibited widely from London to Shanghai and been featured in Elle Decoration, Design Boom and Architectural Digest.

Interview

©Fay McCaul

©Fay McCaul

How do you express tradition and innovation in your work?

This is something that I enjoy doing - juxtaposing the traditional technique of knitting with innovative materials. It often creates a very unique and unexpected outcome such as surfaces that look solid but are actually soft and malleable.

When did you start exploring this technique?

At Royal College of Art, I began knitting with fibre optics and electroluminescent wire. Being new to knitting I approached it from an unusual angle. I created a light in the form of a conch shell, the whole thing glowed. It was rather spectacular.

Are you more drawn to materials or technique?

My process is more material led than technique led. I use knitting as a means to hold my materials in place, to connect them together to form surface and structure. I’ve always been a bit of a magpie; drawn to materials that play with light in some way.

What do you love most about your profession?

I love the problem solving element of it. For example, changing my materials or tweaking my techniques to work to a client’s brief. It means I’m constantly challenging myself, discovering new ways to create my work. It is forever evolving and never boring.

Fay McCaul is an expert artisan: she began her career in 2010

Works

©Matthew Booth

©Fay McCaul

©Matthew Booth

Where