Gillian Arnold Collection

Gillian Arnold is a home wares, gifts and jewellery producer with a passion for blending botanical design and artisan production skills.
Our designs are created by Gillian’s inexhaustible experimentation with sustainably gathered English wild plants and rich colour drenched collages, which are transferred to an ever growing range of handcrafted luxury products.

My artistry is the culmination of all my life experiences, the world around me and the people I love.

I received my BA in textiles at John Moore’s University going on to study my masters at Chelsea College of Art and Design. Over these years one of the greatest experiences that taught me a great deal about being an artist came through developing my relationship with religion. This took a lot of pressure away from what I was doing; it helped to free me from my self-made constraints and improved my ability as an artist.

I went on to work as a community artist and freelance designer in London for fourteen years. The bulk of this work was leading creative workshops and theatre productions in schools and youth groups. I also worked extensively with people in deprivation and addiction, the homeless and in church groups reaching out to people living on the very extreme margins of society.

This taught me two really important things: firstly, that art and the activity of producing beautiful objects, can bring about powerful wellbeing in anyone; and secondly, creativity could act as a leveling ‘bridge’ between these deprived individuals and the partners and donors who wanted to benefit them.