"Since before I could pack my own school bag, I’ve been cramming ideas into shoe-boxes and pasting trinkets into notebooks held together with elastic bands. I suppose its creative hoarding really! But once at Art College, my extraordinary textiles teacher (Sue Lawty) told us that we could make anything out of the materials we found in our homes, backpacks and litter bins. And so, she gave flight to my stash of dusty butterflies and desiccated paperclips!

 

Consequently, my work is heavily influenced by the concept of recycling; transforming metal bottle tops, acupuncture tubes, confectionary wrapping, and aluminium cans into something precious, something special.

 

The use of chocolate foil wrappings remains a constant in my work - not because of my love of chocolate - but rather my wholehearted appreciation of the material’s colour, texture, delicacy and strength. Simply, I unwrap one form and recreate another. And then repeat. And repeat.

 

As many collections are categorised by forms of repetition, so my collections are characterised by the replication of multiples and miniatures, blending my childhood fascinations with deliberated uniformity.'

 

Joanne Tinker

 

Profile:

I am an artist who seeks to transform ordinary objects into something precious, something special. Metal bottle tops, acupuncture tubes, confectionary wrapping and aluminium cans have all featured as materials, although chocolate foil wrappings remain a constant in my work.

 

My current work has appeared at London’s Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.  While, the New York Museum of Art & Design and The White Rabbit Gallery, Sydney own pieces.

 

Some of my early work is also on permanent display at the National Science Museum, London.

 

I have produced pieces for art collectors, Hampton Court Flower Show Gardens, cruise liners and the TV production of Dennis Potter’s ‘Cold Lazarus’.  Work has been featured in many newspapers and magazines and is promoted internationally through the Woolf Gallery, London.

 

Born in Nottingham (1969) but raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, and then Leeds, true to my family name - Tinker - I trained to work with metal, earning a first class degree in Silversmithing and Jewellery from Birmingham in 1992. After graduating I started my own business and worked out of a small studio in Harrogate before moving down to west London. I slowly built up a reputation as an artist working with recycled materials and my work sold successfully through a variety of galleries and art fairs.

 

I now live and work in Ilkley, West Yorkshire.