Roisin Spence
Through close observation of natural systems, Roisin Spence translates organic forms into textile samples that mirror the repeating patterns, structures and ethereal qualities found in plants.
At its core, her practice asks how textiles can hold care: care for materials, for makers and for the environments from which fibres emerge.
Roisin Spence
Textile Designer
BA Hons Textile Design Gray’s School of Art
Statement
Roisin Spence’s practice is centred around circular design and a celebration of regenerative materials. She is a textile designer specialising in knit, working at the intersection of material innovation, sustainability and narrative research.
A First-Class graduate of Gray’s School of Art, her work is rooted in circular design principles, approaching sustainability not as an afterthought but as the foundation of aesthetic and structural decision-making. Her connection with nature and relationship to the environment underpin all her designs. Through close observation of natural systems, she translates organic forms into textile samples that mirror the repeating patterns, structures and ethereal qualities found in plants. This sensitivity to ecological balance informs both her aesthetic and material choices.
Her graduate collection explored and celebrated paper yarn as a circular material, challenging the perception that sustainable design requires aesthetic compromise. Through domestic knitting, Dubied machine techniques and hand processes, she developed textiles that form three-dimensional structures inspired by natural geometries. These sculptural surfaces emerge through tension, repetition and structure, allowing the material to dictate form while maintaining softness and wearability.
Sustainability is embedded within her methodology. Equilibrium with the environment is expressed through her use of paper yarns, locally sourced wool and deadstock materials. Her textiles act as proposals for a more conscious and careful relationship with place — suggesting that design can exist in harmony with ecological systems rather than in opposition to them. Alongside knit, Roisin continues to explore print as an expanded language within her practice. She views print as a complementary method of storytelling and surface exploration. Material experimentation — whether through natural dyeing, hand manipulation or digital development — allows her to test how textiles can communicate tactility, sensitivity and place.
Roisin’s work balances technical precision with softness and tactility. She is drawn to seasonal colour palettes, subtle structural shifts and surfaces that reveal the hand of the maker. Whether working digitally or directly on the knitting machine, she seeks to create textiles that feel intimate yet resilient — pieces designed to endure physically and emotionally. At its core, her practice asks how textiles can hold care: care for materials, for makers and for the environments from which fibres emerge. Through research-led inquiry and hands-on experimentation, Roisin continues to develop a body of work that reimagines textiles as sites of responsibility, storytelling and quiet tactility.
Materials and Techniques
Paper yarn, deadstock yarns and locally sourced wool – prioritising circular and regenerative materials.
Textile Techniques
Domestic and Dubied machine knitting: Methods using knitting machines to create fabric by interlocking yarns in structured, repeatable patterns, often for garments or textiles with precise designs.
Partial knit techniques: Techniques where only specific areas of a knitted piece are worked, allowing for intricate shapes, openwork, or textured patterns without full fabric coverage.
Hand weaving: A manual process of interlacing warp and weft threads on a loom to create fabric, allowing for intricate designs, textures, and artistic expression in textiles.
Natural dyeing: Using plant-based, mineral, or organic materials to colour fabrics, often in an eco-friendly and sustainable way.
Print: Applying color, patterns, or designs onto fabric using techniques like block printing, screen printing, or digital printing to create visual textures and motifs.
Roisin combines and balances structured machine processes with tactile hand methods.
Accolades
Since graduating from Gray’s School of Art — where her sustainable graduate collection won multiple awards for its circular focus — Roisin has continued to expand her material practice through residencies, freelance work and workshop-based learning.
The collection was exhibited at Tex+ in London and presented in two UK fashion shows, marking an important early platform for her work. She completed an artist residency in northern Italy, where she focused on ceramics and natural dyeing while assisting and teaching within workshop settings. Working closely with natural pigments and traditional processes significantly influenced her evolving relationship with colour and materiality. The residency provided space for reflection and experimentation, encouraging a slower, more intuitive approach to making.
Roisin also works as a workshop assistant in Paisley, specialising in natural dyeing. Supporting community-based dye workshops has deepened her technical understanding of plant-based colour processes, and as she continues to learn from this role, her colour palette and material direction continue to shift and grow. This hands-on engagement with natural systems has opened a new chapter within her practice, particularly in how she approaches colour as something cultivated and extracted rather than synthetically produced. She has also begun developing her print portfolio with Print Clan, expanding her surface design knowledge and exploring print as a complementary discipline to knit. As this area of her practice continues to evolve, she is embracing the learning process and refining her visual language through repeat, scale and composition.
Professionally, Roisin works as a freelance knit designer for a London-based company, applying her technical knit expertise within a commercial context. This role enables her to balance creative exploration with industry experience, strengthening her understanding of production, adaptability and collaborative design.
Since graduating, she has remained actively engaged across multiple roles within the textile industry, using each experience as an opportunity to grow technically and conceptually. This period has been one of skill-building, exploration and renewed creative energy as she continues to define the evolving direction of her practice.