Molly ACACIA DESIGN.
Molly Acacia
I graduated from Loughborough University in 2023.
Specialising in printed textiles & pattern repeat design, achieving a first class degree.
I have since worked as a silk screen technician in an apparel printing company. As well as freelancing for a high end interiors manufacturer, hand printed wallpapers and fabrics.
Phone:
07787413047
Email:
CREATIVE CAREER & INTERESTS
2018 - 2023
I applied to Loughborough University hoping to study Fine Art, having been accepted into other Universities with a very surreal portfolio.
My formative years as an artist I explored my own emotions and symbolic representations of human emotions. Always drawing from art deco and nouveau arrangements.
At my interview for Loughborough, it was recommended to me that I apply again the following year, as Textiles might better suit my style.
So I started a foundation studies course at Loughborough that would lead me on to my degree.
(to the left are experiments from this time, using stencils and shadows, to create symmetrical repeats)
2021 - 2023
During my degree, teaching was interrupted by the COVID - 19 pandemic, so I paused my studies in the hope to resume when we were better able to access our facilities - as how does one learn how to perfect screen printing without inks, screens and a rather large table?
To make up for a lost year, I did an internship at a company called Rapture & Wright over one summer - well known for their style and sustainability, and their environmentally responsible approach to screen printing - printing to order and selling high quality linen fabrics and bespoke wallpapers internationally.
When I graduated a year later, I went back to work alongside the team as a freelancer, hand screen printing along a 14m table. This was a team I valued immensely, and it was great experience to see how a family run business can profit whilst also remaining sustainable; how a company can thrive whilst remaining steadfast to their core values. For them, and myself, this is a love of artisanal creating, that constantly considers the very fibres and environment that make ones workplace environmentally responsible.
(to the right are 2 watercolour pieces that I painted during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown)
2023 - 2024
Certnfase apparel screen printers and embroiderers.
Taking on a role with more responsibility, and focusing solely on production of silk screens, I gained a deeper insight into the specifics how silk screens function - mesh counts, exposure times, cleaning and coating and the general upkeep of screen/print quality.
My job was to act as the interface between the clients requirements (usually corporate branding, so anything from tiny breast logos to UV and glitter prints) and the manufacturing team, who ran up to 3 machines at once with multiple jobs on the go at all times. So checking that artwork would align perfectly, that the print was exactly as the client expected, and that the inks were both mixed and ready to minimise the turnaround time. A big element of my work at Certnfase was managing communications between the office and the digital/admin team, and what was going on downstairs on the factory floor. Keeping clients updated and my manager aware of how long the turnaround process would take.
WHAT AM I DOING IN 2025?
LAUNCHING A BUSINESS
- I decided to start my own business making bespoke bows and hair accessories.
- focusing on my fine art practice again, devoting more time to painting and drawing.
- taking time to realise my own potential and develop the ideas and work of the past 10 years into a professional collection of products, which I really hope people like.
- with a mind to the flood of secondhand and deadstock fabric within the textiles industry, as well as my own inherited piles of beautiful fabrics my mother collected in the 90's, I aim to use reclaimed and remnant pieces of fabric to create hair accessories that make whoever wears them feel as unique as they are.
- Small collections, focusing on quality and individuality.
