In conversation with Ella Bulley
“I get the freedom to not see boundaries.”
- Ella Bulley
Image: Felix Speller
Ella is a London-based Artist and Material Designer. In addition, she regularly lectures at University for the Creative Arts guiding young designers in their exploration of the subject. She creates work that crosses multiple disciplines including textiles, products, art and set design. In 2018 – 2019, Ella completed a design residency at the Design Museum, London.
Tell me more about what you do?
I’m a Material Designer, but I don’t really like to pigeon-hole myself into one specific area. Material designers look at material as a substance, and we are what we call “material literate”, which means looking at the lifecycle of materials and applying it to a product or an experience.
My work focuses on a cross between sustainability and how objects can be designed within a home to have more value culturally for people. I find it interesting to examine how we treat objects and interiors in the home, and I want to design products that defy our ‘throw-away’ culture in the UK.
My studio does specialise in actually making stuff with design outcomes, but we also get commissioned to do a lot of educational workshops. I teach teachers, young children and students my design process and approach. I recently designed a workshop for a company called Little Inventors, where I proposed using materials around the house or garden. For example, recycling old t-shirts or pillowcases and then dying them with spices from your cupboards or waste products from the kitchen such as old onion skins or tea bags. I think this is particularly important with Christmas coming up, it allows people to reimagine things in the home.
What projects have you been working on this year?
Luckily, coronavirus didn’t ruin too much for me, as this year I decided that I was going to make new work and wouldn’t be looking for new commissions. I wanted to do three things: a ceramics collection which I’ve done, a textiles collection which I am still working on, and I wanted to revisit the sugarcane project and spend a month in Ghana. But they closed the boarders, so I haven’t been able to do the last one. So even if I manage to get two out of three done, I will still be happy as that’s still impressive in a pandemic. If I can survive the pandemic, then I can survive anything.
Ye O Niyenil (translated to ‘eat your food’) is one of my recent projects, which is essentially a celebration of Ghanaian dining and food traditions. I created a range of functional ceramic objects that highlight traditions and symbolisms for Ghanaian expats. My project for my Design Residency, titled inter-Patria, was also inspired by Ghanaian expats, but was in response to the given theme, Dwelling. This project focused on objects that inhabit the home and curating the design to allow expats to feel more comfortable and at home in their new dwellings.
You can browse Ella’s full range of products here.
What has your journey looked like so far in the art industry?
Originally, I wanted to do fashion design. My dad immediately said no when I told him because my mum had actually started out as a fashion designer in the 80s, but she couldn’t make it in that world because of the amount of racism at the time and so she retrained as a nurse. Therefore, the agreement was that I had to do some kind of management or marketing course. I finally found a course called Fashion and Textile Management at Nottingham Trent which is what I ended up taking.
On my last day at university we had a talk from Fiona Fairhurst, who was the woman who invented the sharkskin swimsuit that Speedo introduced to swimmers. It’s actually now been banned because it does make you swim faster. It’s called biomimicry where you mimic an action from nature or an animal, so she mimicked the skin of a shark and found the technology that makes them swim faster. As she was speaking, I became so inspired and thought that’s really what I wanted to do, textile science, but not in terms of theory, more practical and making.
The only master’s course that provided what I wanted at the time was called Textile Futures (now called Material Futures). I was working in fashion at the time and so I thought I wanted to do Textile Futures in terms of fashion. When I went to the open day, I realised how many options there were in terms of material and it didn’t have to be just about fashion. When I applied but the course was full, so I ended up staying in fashion for another year. But when I applied for the course the following year and got in.
It was a two-year masters and the first year is all about trying to get you to unlearn everything that you’ve already learnt. When it came to my second year, I was really trying to challenge how I saw materials. I chose to focus on sugar cane and sugar as a material that I really wanted to work with, and this is what my graduate project was on – how craft can intersect how we treat materials, and how machines can’t always give us that knowledge because they have been programmed to treat materials according to how we have programmed them.
When I graduated, I showcased my work, but I was kind of becoming known as the girl who made things out of sugar. A lot of galleries were like “we don’t really know what to do with this” which was fine, but I wasn’t getting hired anywhere that I wanted and so I ended up back in fashion. I hated it.
I got a new job designing exhibitions for Chelsea College of the Arts and Wimbledon College of the Arts as part of UAL. After three years, I decided to give design one more go. I went to Ghana, which is where I’m from, and I had an idea for a project that I wanted to investigate. I wrote the summary and started working with jesmonite, a gypsum-based material. I came across an open call for the Design Museum for the design residency in 2018 and I applied for it. An open call is kind of like an advertisement, I used to always google for open calls, and this was one that always came up.
You just mentioned that you’re from Ghana, how much does Ghana feature as an influence in your work?
I normally go to Ghana every year, which is what I call my “reset”. When I’ve spoken to people and tried explaining how I need to go to Ghana every year they don’t get it. It’s like my body is out of tune and then as soon as I get to Ghana it’s like I am being retuned back into frequency. I suddenly get a rush of creative ideas and I instantly feel more energised and relaxed. I’ve spoken to other Ghanaians that were born in different countries, either in the UK too or in Canada, and they all do the same thing too!
Ghanaian people are very resourceful with recycling materials. For example, you could drink a coconut on the street, then you give back the shell and it’s resold for firewood, that then firewood becomes charcoal and is sold as charcoal. There is this cycle of recycling and reusing, this works with fabrics, symbols and colours too. I am continuously inspired by this cycle.
There are people like me that are either born in the UK or they have been educated in the UK and then moved back to Ghana, and they have a different mindset about the interiors and the home. So, when I’m designing things for the home, I am keeping in mind these groups, particularly for how they adapt when they move to the UK and then readapt when they move back to Ghana. I am exploring how products can be more functional and less throwaway.
What is it that you love about material designing?
I get the freedom to not see boundaries. For example, when I’m working with a website developer or an engineer, they have already learnt the boundaries of their profession, but then I ask them to do things that haven’t been done before.
I don’t understand the obsession with putting things in boxes. When I tell people that I am a Material Designer they reply, “you do fabric”. No, everything is a material. I’ve worked with perfume, sugar, textiles and wood. I work with all different materials. I like how I don’t see things in boxes like most people do, or at least, I see that the boxes overlap.
When you stop calling things by categories of like glass, metal or wood and you start thinking of materials in terms of texture, like is it soft? Is it warm? Is it hard? That’s when you start to think about the potential of a material more than what it is supposed to be.
How does it work when you’re working with new materials, like glass for example, as I’m assuming you aren’t a trained glassblower?
I work with these really cool glassblowers; they are brothers and are 68 and 70 respectively. Sometimes I would come in with an idea that is outside of their usual constraints and they love it! It doesn’t feel like work for them when they are working with me because I am trying new things and they can have fun with it.
I’ve also worked with carpenters, mineralogists and sugar cane breeders. But in terms of ceramics, I actually got a bursary and used it to go on ceramic courses and learnt the different ceramic techniques myself. This allowed me to learn more about the types of clays and the properties. So it really depends on what the material is and if it would be quicker for me to learn to do it myself, or if it would be quicker to just get a specialist to do it.
Sustainability is clearly something you are passionate about, what do you think the problem is within the art industry?
I think it’s the way that we consume, it’s gluttonous. We always want more. If you think about it in terms of digital media, social media and information, it’s all in abundance which means that we no longer value it. And I’m completely aware that I do this myself. How short is your attention span when reading things online nowadays?
When things are plentiful people get wasteful and people don’t value things as much. Where I have started to value things more, it’s because there hasn’t been the same availability and they haven’t been in abundance. For example, during lockdown I realised there was no British Library or just no libraries in general, which meant no books. I started buying books again and bought like three at a time because I am so used to taking stacks out. Then I realised, I should have just bought one, read it and then bought another when I had finished reading. I am so used to the availability of information and being surrounded by choice that I really felt the need to satisfy that.
Every industry needs to challenge themselves on this idea of abundance, especially the fashion industry.
Talk me through what an average day looks like for you.
I teach part-time, so when I’m not teaching as a lecturer my days are completely different depending on the project that I’m working on.
First things first, I check my emails in the morning. It’s really bad… but I check them from bed. I then get ready and head down to the studio. I will respond to any other emails that needed a bit more consideration. I will then work with whatever material I am currently working with for 2-3 hours, then I’ll go out for a walk as a bit of a break. I’ll come back and work on it some more. When I have deadlines, I will often be at the studio until 8/9pm.
However, if I am at the start of a project then a typical day will involve reading a lot. I normally do a design mind map that starts to unpick questions and concepts that I would want to explore in a project. If there is any material that I think would be good for the project, then I will do a making mind map that explores the material further. It’s a research journey.
So essentially, it’s either all hands-on making or all hands-on research.
You work with students a lot, what advice do you give to them regarding their future careers?
My first tip is: understand what you like. I knew that I liked working with materials and being hands on, but other people enjoy illustration and drawing. Then look at the different industry areas that you can apply your interests to. Sometimes the job that you want to do doesn’t exist yet, and that’s okay – for example, material designers didn’t exist a few years ago but I found ways to study and apply them to become my dream job.
Secondly, be proactive. If you’re into a particular topic or industry, then have a digital stamp for it – i.e. set up a blog or someway to create a buzz. There are so many online platforms that you can use, and remember that Instagram isn’t the only space where you can be creative. This is something that I really wish I had done when I was at secondary school. Being able to do things that you love for free is so liberating, and then when you need money to live you already have the experience ready to go.
Thirdly, try and get work experience early. Research earlier than you think – basically don’t wait until after you graduate as you won’t be prepared. For example, some jobs might want you to speak different languages and you could take an extra course whilst at university.
Fourthly, always apply for open calls. To get my residency at the Design Museum I just applied to an open call that I found on google. Apply for anything where you can submit your work and keep on applying – again, the earlier the better.
Fifthly, when someone says, “omg it’s really hard to get into”, ignore them. Just don’t listen to them and do your thing.
Interview by Mollie Kate Cohen
