Jules Findley

Jules Findley’s practice-based research is in embodied materiality, which has led to questioning in-depth areas of emotions around complicated grief and memory using the methodology of affect and repetition in making paper, evolving into paintings, drawings and sculpture.

Focusing on fragmentation, layering using the hand in mixing substrates to produce handmade paper, sized with milk and using charcoal mix into a paste with milk to draw and paint from specific burnings to link the metaphors of paper like skin. Examining maternal loss and absence generating an embodied materiality using repetition in the domestic environment using elements such as fire, air and water. Presenting at international conferences, making work for exhibitions and teaching on the award winning Fashion Communication course which she wrote in 2014. 

Jules gained her PhD Textiles from the Royal College of Art. She has a First Class Honours in Fashion and Textiles, and an MA in Learning and Teaching. 

Making paper became a metaphor for skin-to-skin, skin-on-skin, remaking the used and reused into new, analysing embodied materiality in its essence creating substrates at the encounter of the elemental. The textile and fashion processes of unravelling, unfolding in both cloth and paper become material conductors of our passage through life. Edges, raw, fragile and delicate became the metaphor for recent loss and the emotional unease in complicated mourning. Material making and material thinking in paper, cloth and textiles from substrate to final output and the process of that whether it be using the camera or in film is where the sub-conscious thoughts can rise to the surface.

Recent research has been made in 2021 as co-investigator with an AHRC project on Sustainable Materials in the Creative Industries, a 12 month scoping project in the areas of Fashion, Textiles, Accessories and Leather in waste and how waste is managed in these industries, in collaboration with the PI at Royal College of Art, and other co-i's at the University of Edinburgh and University of Plymouth. 

Teaching in Higher Education came after an extensive period in the industries of fashion, textiles, theatre and feature films. Teaching practice developed during the MA in Teaching and Learning in Cambridge. This inspiration has stayed with me, creating new and fresh projects for students demanding their attention as if to enter an industry context. Jules has had considerable experience of writing and developing course material, new courses for undergraduates and postgraduates in different subjects. Since 2013, she has been a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Originally Fashion and Textile design trained at undergraduate level, working as a creative director for Pex plc, design consultant for Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, in Paris and Madrid. She has worked as a fashion and product designer and trend director for Loewe S.A. Madrid, for eleven years, worked as a fashion photographer for catwalk photography and in fashion forecasting and trends with International Textiles. As a designer, Jules has worked with design companies such as Fitch, Pentagram, Davies Baron among others.

At the same time, Jules worked in theatre in London, in lighting in the Gielgud Theatre, working with directors such as Nuria Espert, and as follow spot at London Collesium with ENO. Working in theatre inspired more study, and a career in post production followed as a 3D Character Animator and 2D Compositor for the film industry, Cinesite, Framestore working as an animator creating the fist VFX for BBC Science for BBC2 television series, as character animator for Jim Henson's Creature Shop for film, front end animation for computer games companies such as Psygnosis and compositor at Cinesite Europe, in UK, and LA, USA making 10 feature films and finally as CG Supervisor in character animation for a children's series for Halmark Entertainment in Berlin. 

Postgraduate supervision is a keen interest, areas covered are those in Textiles, Fashion, Fashion Communication, Drawing, encompassing embodied materiality, my work in handmade paper and practice-based, installation art. More recently,  substantial research as co-investigator with an AHRC project into sustainabile materials, looking at waste in the fashion, textiles, accessories and leather industries.

My work has taken me into materials, craft, things that are handmade, using stitch, textiles and textile art. Over the years I have worked in photography, fashion photography, fashion illustration, and in film, post production using digital effects, sfx, vfx, together with character animation in feature films. I am design trained, [fashion, textiles, theatre], however I have an interest in psychology and philosophy through my study of grief, trauma, and the craft of handmade papermaking.

Recent PhD supervision:

University of Brighton - Martin Irorere - Research Title: 'Closing the Fashion Sustainability Gap through textile Recycling: Evaluation of UK Gen-Z consumer attitudes, knowledge, and acceptance of textile recycling'. - [March 2021 - present]

Anglia Ruskin University - Amanda Lavis - Research Title: 'Woven Language: A practice-based research investigation Exploring the Textile Praxis in Children's Book Illustration' [March 2021 - expected completion 2024]

External PhD Viva examination experience, University of Chester October 2020 - Georgina Spry -  'A New Felt Presence: Making and Learning as part of a Community of Women Feltmakers'