Ellie Beck

Ellie Beck is a textile artist with an intuitive practice where curiosity is her underlying passion. Botanical dye and natural fibres interest and excite her. Nature and a dialogue with materials are a big part of her creative process.

Cocoon | Emerge {Self} was created at the end of a year of emotional discovery, where creative play helped with internal narratives and finding an easier way to communicate pain and feel more comfortable in her own skin.

The raw silk worm cocoons express the idea of opening our full colour and raw selves to the world, rather than hiding within the cocoon that can shelter us. The exterior of the work looks like tree bark or an animal’s second skin, whilst also emulating a feathery wing ready to fly. It speaks to flight, of going through the pain and the metamorphosis required to become the new ‘self’ that we have within us.

The dyes were made from plants, flowers and roots grown and gathered from Ellie’s garden and local area. Living surrounded by rainforest, Ellie finds her work communicates the smaller often overlooked aspects of nature, landscape and environment.

Ellie lives in Northern NSW, with her husband and three creative children.

Image: Ellie Beck, Cocoon / Emerge {Self}, 2018, COTA
Materials: raw silk cocoons, naturally dyed with leaves, flowers and roots from Ellie's garden and local environment, cotton and linen threads, recycled copper pipe