Guest Author - Amanda Addison

Today I have the honour and pleasure of introducing Amanda Addison.   Amanda is pictured at her sewing machine.  Crafters will be very interested in today's Author Spotlight, too.

Photos by kind permission of the author 

 

How did you career in writing begin?

After working in a variety of art and design areas I began to do more book illustration work which led to me wanting to develop my own stories.I completed an writing MA entitled Writing the Visual and since graduating have worked on several writing projects which feature art & design - Laura's Handmade Life being my first full length adult novel.

 

Amanda, you work with textiles as well as writing, like your character Laura,  where did your passion for textiles begin?

 

Firstly, from travelling and collecting 'world' or ethnic textiles from North Africa to Scandinavia. The obsession continues,  last year I found some unique Tyrolean woven mats in a second hand shop in Austria. They were my sole holiday souvenir! Even as a student I used textiles in my illustration work, always torn between becoming a textile designer or an illustrator. Most recently the purchase of Indian ribbons was the basis for a textile installation.

You have some lovely designs on your website.  How do you begin with an idea for a project?

I'm definitely process led. This is art jargon for someone who enjoys working with materials. I have far too many boxes of fabric, papers, ribbons or buttons just in case they should come in handy for a project. My other big influence and starting point are colours and shapes in the landscape/different weather conditions.

 

Are you working on another novel?

 

I have just completed a manuscript for a sequel to Laura's Handmade Life and sent off to my agent. It is very much about crafting in the winter and the idea of creative entrepreneurship. It features knitting, felting, pantomime and a spot of baking. Like Laura's Handmade Life  it is underpinned with some Norfolk textile history, notably fisherman’s jumpers, Flemish weavers.

I’m also working on a 9-12 year old children’s novel, set in Norfolk and featuring a boy who loves to bake.

What book is on your bedside table at the moment?

I'm about to read by A Perfect Life Raphaella Barker, also a Norfolk based author. Her mother, the writer Elspeth Barker taught me one my MA and I recently met Raphaella at City College Norwich where she was presenting the Creative Writing award to one of my students. I'm now intrigued and very much looking forward to seeing what her writing is like.

Find out more about Amanda, her novels and her crafts here