Jules Findley’s practice-based research is in embodied materiality, which has led to questioning in-depth areas of emotions around complicated grief and memory using the methodology of affect and repetition in making paper, evolving into paintings, drawings and sculpture.

The studio is the home, the domestic environment, used as a source of comfort, where the artefacts are stored instead of food on the shelves. The tools used reside in the kitchen, such as the kitchen blender, cloths for mopping up water.

Focusing on fragmentation, layering using the hand in mixing substrates to produce paper, sized with milk and using charcoal mix into a paste with milk to draw and paint from specific burnings to produce the metaphors of paper like skin. Examining maternal loss and absence generating an embodied materiality using repetition. Elements such as soil, hair and ash are used in the paper, and sculpture using paper-based clay. 

Jules presents at international conferences, making work for exhibitions and teaches on the award winning Fashion Communication course which she wrote in 2014. 

Jules gained her PhD Textiles from the Royal College of Art. She has a First Class Honours in Fashion and Textiles, and an MA in Learning and Teaching. She has worked extensively in the fashion industry in trends, fashion illustration, catwalk photography and as a fashion and product designer for Loewe SA. Madrid, Spain, and was Creative Director for PEX plc. Jules has worked in the post-production industry creating SFX for Cinesite Europe, CFC Framestore, character animation for Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, VFX for BBC Science and cg-supervisor for Stardust Productions, Berlin, Germany.

Making paper became a metaphor for skin-to-skin, skin-on-skin, remaking the used and reused into new, analysing embodied materiality in its essence creating substrates at the encounter of the elemental. The textile and fashion processes of unravelling, unfolding in both cloth and paper become material conductors of our passage through life. Edges, raw, fragile and delicate became the metaphor for recent loss and the emotional unease in complicated mourning. Material making and material thinking in paper, cloth and textiles from substrate to final output and the process of that whether it be using the camera or in film is where the sub-conscious thoughts can rise to the surface.

Jules learnt about research methodologies in postgraduate education in MA in Learning and Teaching, using social science methodologies such as discourse analysis and grounded theory. These methodologies expanded significantly in her practice-based PhD research, where she started looking at autoethnography, heurism, repetition, play in the suspension of judgement, reflective practice, prototyping, affect, empathy, the feminine and the significance of the hand with making in her work, together with the domestic environment as studio and the kitchen cupboards as storage for her work.  

These mixed methods became the background of her research into producing artwork which describes fragile and fragmented states of the feminine and complicated grief.

Teaching in Higher Education came after an extensive period in industries, Jules' teaching practice developed during the time she studied for MA in Teaching and Learning in Cambridge. This inspiration has stayed with me, creating new and fresh projects for students demanding their attention as if to enter an industry context. Jules has had considerable experience of writing and developing course material, new courses for undergraduates and postgraduates in different subjects. Since 2013, she has been a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Jules has a broad professional experience at a high level. Originally Fashion and Textile Design trained at undergraduate level, working as a Creative Director for a plc, design consultant for Agatha Ruiz de la Prada, Paris and Madrid. She has worked as a fashion and product designer and as trend director for Loewe S.A. Madrid for eleven years, as well as working as a fashion photographer for catwalk photography and in fashion forecasting and trends with International Textiles. As a designer, Jules has worked with design companies such as Fitch, Pentagram, Davies Baron among others.

In the evening Jules worked in theatre in Lighting and actor in the Gielgud Theatre working with directors such as Nuria Espert, and as follow spot at London Collesium with ENO. Working in theatre inspired more study, and a career in post production followed as a 3D Character Animator and 2D Compositor for the film industry, Cinesite, Framestore working as an animator creating the fist VFX for BBC Science for BBC2 television series, as character animator for Jim Henson's Creature Shop for film, front end animation for computer games companies such as Psygnosis and compositor at Cinesite Europe, in UK, USA making 10 feature films and finally as CG Supervisor in character animation for a children's series for Halmark Entertainment in Berlin. 

Postgraduate supervision is a keen interest and can supervise students from my research interests which are broad. Keywords are here:

embodied materiality, art, textiles, sculpture, fashion communication, practice-based, installation, visual, drawing, fashion, applied drawing, design, paper, papermaking, craft, handmade, stitch, textile art, photography, fashion photography, film, fashion film, digital effects, sfx, vfx, character animation, domesticity, medium format