Claire Christie Homewares

“I’D SAY MY LOVE OF MAKING things comes from my mum. She made our clothes and knitted our jumpers – for all six of us – and the clickety-click of knitting needles and the hum of her old Singer sewing machine was the soundtrack to my childhood. Influenced by her, I went to Glasgow School of Art in the early 1990s, where I studied printed textiles and surface design.

- Miriam Metheun-Jones

My first job out of school was as a window dresser for an independent retailer in Berkshire. It was fabulous. We were given free rein to do what we wanted with the windows, so we made all our own props and we soon started winning awards for our displays. I managed to convince my boss that I needed to go to London to learn more about prop-making, which I did at the London School of Printing. A little while later, a music director noticed a window scheme I had created and offered me a role designing an opera in Bristol. The job meant building sets and props and making costumes for a cast of 50 for a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I jumped at the chance. The performance was put on in an old tobacco factory and I slept t