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A Personal Insight: Shirley Wells
As a child I loved to design and make outfits for cut-out dolls with tab clothes. Growing up, I remember designing and making clothes for friends, family and myself and wanting to be a fashion designer. However, due to family circumstances, I was unable to attend art college and instead, qualified as a medical secretary.
Always yearning to return to my love of art and design, I studied at an evening class learning pattern drafting and tailoring, eventually studying for the City and Guilds Fashion and Design qualification. It was at this time that a tutor suggested I took a degree in Textile Design as she felt I had a good eye for colour and shape. Off I went to investigate and the rest is history.
My passion for colour and shape resulted in seven years part-time study at Cleveland College of Art and Design, gaining an honours degree in Textiles and Surface Design, specialising in freestyle machine embroidery and the use of water soluble fabrics.
Working full-time and studying for a degree has not been easy, but it has paid off. I am also involved with the Borough Council in a regeneration programme of a local estate, holding an after school workshop with children recycling household waste one evening a week. Together with freelance work and taking commissions for greetings cards and gifts, it all keeps me very busy indeed. But I would not swap it for the world.
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