Our speaker for May is Kate Findlay and her talk is entitled "Nature in Textiles".

Kate is self employed as a textile artist and teacher.  She lives with her partner and son in Berkshire, and has a studio at home on the second floor which gives her plenty of exercise up and down the stairs!

Kate taught Design Technology and Art in secondary schools for many years, before getting a job as an art teacher in a private primary school after her son was born.  It was working part time here that allowed her own art to develop.

After creating a body of work inspired by the the Large Hadron Collider she turned to the natural world for inspiration and began a series of pieces inspired by birds, which has gradually grown to encompass a great variety of wildlife, and also landscapes and woodlands on a larger scale.

Kate travels the country giving talks and workshops based on all her work - and her ongoing interest in e-textiles and the use of other media.

Making art is a complete passion and is probably the most important thing in her life right now.