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By Beverley Nielsen | Jo is wonderfully vibrant and cheerful. Her laughter announces her presence and when you’re with her life is fun. Her home is a reflection of her exuberant character, as well as her varied career.
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A warm welcome: Eddie the dog next to the Rayburn | She has worked in television as a production assistant (or Head of Blame as Jo laughingly puts it) to her more recent time working as an artist. She and her husband, Ian, live in a listed cowshed, now converted into a beautiful family home, with their two children and Eddie the dog.
Jo’s had a Rayburn for seven years. Like most, she cooks her family meals on it. “It’s wonderful for slow-cooking,” she says, “for casseroles on the lowest heat, and for meringues, which I cook overnight in the lower oven. I also find it fantastic for roasts during the winter months.
“I like the fact that we can regulate the heat and it heats our water and all our radiators.”
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Trusty workhorse: the Rayburn | But Jo’s Rayburn is also trusty workhorse, vital for drying the materials she uses to create her artworks.
“I attended a millinery course six years ago at Inkberrow School of Design, which isn’t too far from Ragley Hall. This introduced me to the idea of manipulating materials. Following this I started studying art.
“I began to experiment – putting the wools and silk tops together with recycled threads, silk fibres, beads, wires and other materials. I manoeuvre all these pieces around, agitating them together using PVA glue and binding them to a Sinamay base made from banana tree bark which provides a firm structural base for the materials.”
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Vibrant artwork: Jo dries materials on the Rayburn | By fusing her knowledge of manipulating wool and silk materials with wire Jo’s been able to create jewellery, textile pictures, knitted wire teapots and pictures of tiny miniature shoes. The garage has been converted into a studio, where Jo now spends several hours each day. Having created her artworks she’s found that in general they require around three hours drying time on the Rayburn.
“I became familiar with a movement called Arte Povera, where during the turmoil of 1960s Italy artists who weren’t able to afford traditional oil and canvas started recycling everything,” says Jo.
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Creative space: Jo's studio | “They were completely open to using new materials and processes. At the same time I was influenced by the work of Marisa Merz, whose work introduced me to knitting with wire. She was well known as one of the leading artists within Arte Povera and she literally changed my life. I also met my four fantastic artistic partners and we now regularly exhibit together which is always a great challenge and great fun!”
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