Donna Wilson

About

Scottish designer Donna Wilson brings her playful textiles to Yorkshire Sculpture Park this winter, drawing inspiration from the landscape to create an eccentric world of knitted trees and curiosities featuring her trademark patterns and colours alongside exclusive limited edition prints. Awarded ‘Designer of the Year 2010' by Elle Decoration, Donna is known for her knitted creatures, textiles, homewares and furniture. Donna's vision will transform the YSP Centre into a tactile enchanted garden. Traditional materials combine with her humorous touch in a magical land where woolly pompoms become leaves, knitted tubes become branches and layers of patterned rugs create a forest floor. The Upper Space features a canopy of soft sculptural shapes covered in Donna's striking knitted patterns, blending textures and colours alongside a range of beautiful limited edition screen-prints produced specifically for this exhibition. The Upper Concourse showcases a wall of screen-printed ceramics plates, small prints and one-off drawings in an eclectic mix of materials and patterns displayed in mix and match frames. The display in the four-metre shop window, a seasonal highlight at YSP, is an enticing scene with Donna's unusual creatures hidden in woodland and complemented by her hand-drawn illustrations. An exclusive limited edition screen-print produced by Donna for the show will be available only at YSP, alongside a range of her products in the YSP shop such as cushions, throws and blankets, ceramics, knitted creatures, scarves, hats, socks and gloves. Much of Donna's work is a celebration of traditional methods and materials combined with her distinctive style. She is committed to using UK-based manufacturers and suppliers wherever possible, keeping craftsmanship alive. Donna sources her lambswool yarns from Z. Hinchliffe and Sons in Denby Dale, and retains her Scottish roots with her smaller pieces such as the toys and scarves knitted on machines by a small family-run business in Galasheils on the Scottish border, and another lady based in Orkney has produced Donna's ‘Cyril Squirrels' for the last six years.