Ella Watts
Contact: ellawatts21@gmail.com
University/School: Leeds Arts University
Location: Leeds
About me
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About me _____
Specialised in print, pattern cutting and accessories.
Ella Watts’s 2025 Graduate Collection encompasses futuristic growth through sharp cubes and sculptural curves that obscure and reveal the form intermittently. The relationship with the natural and the manmade, past and future these opposites are explored in parallel and their synthesis discovered. The new future is found through excavation of our current lives interconnected with the earth’s natural past. Influenced by Arsham’s ‘Relics in the Landscape’ (2022), she began her research by looking at prehistoric cave art as well as contemporary explorations of found objects (Silver’s ‘Dig’ 2013)After looking into rocks and crystals (inspired by Arsham’s work) the reoccurring supernatural cube shapes were inspired by the naturally formed cubic crystals of Pyrite. The perfect cubes nestled in natural rock built the foundation of the collection as a harmony between the structure and free form. This inspired the approach to the pattern cutting of the collection a mixture of flat, 3D and draping to create a harmonious mixture of traditionally opposing shapes. She explores the visual tension between the geological and geometric.
Inspiration
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Inspiration _____
Forcing 3D rock forms into flat graphic shapes contrast the bold silhouettes.
Using a mixture of silver metallic fabric of varying weights and texture with a hint of blue mixed in, the other worldly appearance of the collection is reinforced by the geometric rock print taken from her drawings of a crystal rock formation. Forcing 3D rock forms into flat graphic shapes contrast the bold silhouettes. The element of shine seen throughout, in her foiled print design, stiff forms, chainmail-like textures and weblike marks of decay is the bind that ties the future while crystals recognise the power of natural evolution.
My work
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My work _____
“I feel I can further explore natural themes within my work and experiment with interesting silhouettes.”