Lora Avedian is a multidisciplinary artist, who graduated with a Masters in Mixed Media Textiles from the Royal College of Art in 2017. She depicts elements of narrative through textile and craft processes. Lora uses traditional embroidery and embellishment techniques to make modern artefacts, which look as beautiful on the body as they do on a wall. She favours slow processes, focusing on short run and bespoke projects.
How old is your daughter Ada now?
She is almost 10 months old now.
How does being a mother make you more creative?
Maybe this sounds cheesy but it has made me see the world with a bit more wonder, seeing the way she examines things makes me look at the world differently.
Has motherhood boosted your confidence in any way?
I don’t have as much time to over think what I am doing, and so I suppose I have to be more confident in my decisions and go with my gut. Being a mother is such a rollercoaster, it makes you realise that it’s not worth sweating the small stuff so much, and if I can produce a human I can pretty much do anything!
How do you manage your time between work and looking after Ada?
Time is such a tricky thing when you have someone else to look after, I struggled with my time management before having Ada, and I would say that maybe I am better now than I was before, because you just sort of have to get stuff done when you can. Like I said, I don’t have the time to over think things, so I suppose I am becoming better at prioritising my time and knowing what is important and what can wait. Ada goes to a local childminder two days a week, which is so helpful, and means I just have to plan in advance for those two days and cram in as much as I can in that time. When I was pregnant days seemed to go so slowly and I spent a lot of time producing my work and ideas because I had the space both physically and mentally to do it. I think now I am a bit more sleep deprived and frazzled so work is not such a relaxed process, but actually I appreciate my time alone in my studio so much more because I have less of it.
What’s the difference between the way you work now and the way you worked before being a mother?
Before I had Ada, I took a lot more time to experiment with materials and making samples, and I did a lot more research. I hope I get back to doing some of that a bit more because it’s a really important part of my practice. I used to plan in detail each part of what I was making, but perhaps now I don’t have the time I can see I didn’t really need to, I now just focus on working quite instinctually with how I put things together and primarily generate my ideas through making, but like I said, I don’t get the time to make multiple samples of each thing, I have to just go with what works.
What’s your work environment like?
I work in my spare room at home, it’s a really nice studio space, and I am so lucky my partner is happy for me to take over a whole room in our tiny flat, but I do miss having a studio mate, I get a bit of cabin fever sometimes.
What can we expect from you for the rest of this year?
I am doing a lot of 3D fabric flower making workshops this year, two with Selvedge magazine, one week long one in France (which Ada is coming with me to!) and one day class in London, as well as quite a few other classes in London and one embroidery workshop at the Pop-Up of the North in York. I am also working on a new collection of table linens for The New Craftsmen, launching in the summer. I would really like to create a new collection of cushions using all the scraps of fabric I have collected over the years; I have boxes and boxes of bits so I am going to make some one-off cushions to go on sale on my website later in the year.
Follow Lora on Instagram here