Kay Davis
Techncial Specialist | HPL
Costume & Garment Construction
Kay is a technical specialist and HPL for costume Design and Construction. A graduate of Goldsmiths London where she studied embroidered textiles and of NTU where she gained her MA in fashion and textile design. Kay has been a costume maker for companies such as The Crucible Theatre Sheffield, The Nottingham Playhouse, The Royal Opera house, Opera North, Ballet Rambert and Channel 4. Always inspired by colour Kay set up her own dye room at the Crucible Theatre and designed the Waverley Dye garden here at NTU. Her creative practice looks at manipulation and embellishment, rescuing discarded fabrics to breathe new life into them with natural dyes, pigments and stitches. The resulting fabric may be formed into a costume or become an interesting fragment with a backstory.
Kay is a Costume Maker and Textile Artist using discarded fabrics and natural dyes. The Kimono is made from old silk, printed with leaves foraged from the Arboretum. The lining is dyed with oak galls and black tea, the entire garment is hand stitched, the prints are smudged and the silk has age marks; A deliberate attempt to embody the concepts of Slow Stitch and Wabi-Sabi, The beauty of imperfection and impermanence.
Working at NTU is so rewarding, helping to facilitate such a variety of projects, watching the creative process unfold and witnessing the students grow in confidence is a privilege.