Between Textile and Sound

My work begins with a fascination: how material can carry sound, and how something we can touch can also be deeply felt.

For more than ten years, I have been exploring the meeting point between textile and sound. What first drew me to textiles was not only their visual character, but their sensitivity, the way a surface responds to tension, movement, touch, and time. The more I worked with these materials, the more I found myself listening to them. Some seemed capable of carrying sound in surprising ways, while others did not.

This led me to a question that would occupy me for years: how could the structure and material of a textile be used to shape the voice of an instrument?

Alongside this exploration, I developed a deep connection to the frame drum. Its ability to be both instrument and companion, to hold rhythm, presence, and emotion within a single form, is what drew me to it. Bringing these two paths together felt like a natural step and led me to create drums whose sound emerges directly through textile.

Each instrument begins with a surface that I either hand weave or hand dye and finish in my studio. Colour, structure, and sound evolve together throughout the process, each influencing the character of the final instrument. The process is slow and deliberate, shaped by years of research, experimentation, and refinement. Rather than imposing a fixed outcome, I work in dialogue with the material, following how structure and sound interact with one another.

Many of the instruments begin as commissions. One of the most rewarding parts of the process is getting to know the person who will eventually play the drum. Through conversations about sound, colour, and personal meaning, each instrument gradually takes shape in response to the individual for whom it is being made.

The intention is not only to create an instrument, but something that genuinely resonates with the person who receives it, whether in a professional setting or a more personal one.

Because the sound is shaped through the textile itself, the voice of the drum begins to form while the surface is still being created. Through structure and variation in the material, even a smaller frame can carry a deep, sustained sound, while another may become brighter and more defined. The character of the instrument is not limited by size alone.

Today these instruments find their way into music therapy, performance, ceremony, and personal practice. What interests me most is not only how they sound, but the relationships people develop with them over time.

Each drum begins in my studio, but its story continues in the hands of the person who plays it.

Background

I hold a BA in Textile Design from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, as well as a Master's degree and the German Meister qualification in Textile and Surface Design from Kunsthochschule Weißensee in Berlin.

My training as a shamanic practitioner through the Northern Drum Shamanic School informs the sensitivity and intention I bring to each piece.