Meet a Maker: Edition 22

Meet Rachel O’Connell

Learn about her marbling techniques and her business ROCWORX.

1. What is your craft and how did you get into it?

I’m Rachel O’Connell, the designer-maker behind my sustainable brand, ROCWORX®️. I’m a multi-media marbling artist and leatherworker, combining these heritage crafts to create items for home décor and wearable art. I have a background in art, textiles and screen printing, having started working life as a silkscreen printer, printing adverts and on textiles.

I fell in love with marbling in my teens on a trip to Turkey and have since been lucky to train with Suminagashi and European marbling artists all over the world, learning my craft in a creative environment, building and layering up skills. I have over 30 years of experience marbling on paper and textiles but I am always learning and experimenting. After training in leatherwork to be able to do upholstery, I started marbling on leather over a decade ago.

I turned professional and started my brand, ROCWORX®️ in 2021. My aim is to create beautiful, yet practical, marbled home décor, carry goods and wearable art. My goal is to educate and pass on this craft to future generations. This includes a five-year goal to employ an apprentice.

Since starting my business, my creative journey has put me in touch with Heritage Crafts and Blue Patch, a sustainable B2B charity hub for British makers. Through Blue Patch, I have been lucky to exhibit marbling in their exhibitions in national galleries and museums. Blue Patch connected me with The Royal Opera and Ballet. I receive boxes of theatrical textiles and ballet slippers to repurpose. Part of my circular design range is from using the leather from deconstructing the slippers to make marbled leather key fobs, cable tidies and jewellery.

Since 2021, I have exhibited and sold work in Manchester Art Gallery, Dulwich Picture Gallery, The British Museum, Weald and Downland Living Museum, Brantwood Museum and MAKE Southwest. In 2024, I sold work in the British Museum, became an SBS Winner with Theo Paphitis, joined Find A Maker (Craft Festival) and exhibited a Suminagashi ink marbled silk kimono in John Ruskin’s Studio in Brantwood Museum. This was part of a sustainable British textile makers exhibition, curated by Blue Patch. I currently have work in Thelma Hulbert Gallery, in Devon – Present Makers exhibition, which runs until 24 December. In the Spring, I will have a guest maker’s showcase at MAKE Southwest, Devon and demonstrate at Craft Festival, Cheltenham, I am so grateful for all these opportunities to showcase my craft.

Beyond making and exhibiting my own work, I have the privilege of tutoring marbling in schools as well as working with children with behavioural issues and with trauma survivors. Through Arts Council funded workshops at MAKE Southwest, in Devon, I teach National Saturday Club teenagers wishing to pursue art as a career. I also tutor workshops in community groups, galleries and museums. Last year Heritage Crafts put me in touch with the Speaker for Schools programme. I loved volunteering and working with the A Level students, teaching them Suminagashi. I now tutor with West Dean College and with the charity, The Creative Dimension Trust. I have also demonstrated with Heritage Crafts, at Craft Festival and been artist in residence at Weald and Downland Living Museum.

2. What is one interesting fact about you?

I did my work experience in Tate Britain. I had just turned 16 and spent two glorious weeks behind the scenes in all the departments. My favourite part of the experience was being in the restoration department. It was an incredible opportunity to be up close to famous artworks, watch the restorers at work and be supervised to help restore and clean some of the textile art and paintings.

I would also like to share that I am a proud member of ACID, Blue Patch, Crafts Council, Devon Artist Network, Find-a-Maker, Craft Festival, Heritage Crafts, MAKE Southwest, Leather UK, Society of Bookbinders.

3. How long have you been making?

I have been making soft furnishings and clothing for over 30 years. My grandmother taught me to hand sew at age four and machine sew at aged 10. She had a love for handcraft and had many leather books with marbling end papers and some with marble edge. When she passed, we found a stash of Cockerell and Son sample books, which I have treasured ever since.

My grandfather also did some leatherwork as a hobby. I was influenced by him to try this craft for upholstery, first learning to saddle stitch when we lived in Canada, then with John Hagger at Tanner Bates when we returned to live in the UK. I have worked with leather for 15 years, marbling on leather for over a decade.

4. Who are your favourite makers?

There are so many makers I admire in the textiles world, but one stands out in leatherwork, Bill Amberg. He is an exceptional designer-maker. I am always inspired by his leatherwork. I love his design aesthetic and that some of his commissions have even involved using leather as flooring.

There are a number of marbling artists I admire around the world – sadly as an endangered craft, it’s a much smaller pool of talent now. For me, meeting fellow heritage crafts marbling artist, Lucy McGrath was wonderful. She’s a lovely person and is as passionate as me about our craft. I love that Lucy had her marbled books in Liberty. I feel she is a great ambassador for paper marbling and someone to admire and follow in our craft.

5. What is the most challenging skill/technique you learned in your craft?

Marbling leather – I spent a number of years working on my own sustainable formulas to prepare the leather as I had found the usual mordant, Alum, does not always ensure a long lasting, or best outcome for marbling on leather, becoming brittle and flaking. Using my hands so much in both crafts, meant I limit the use of commercial products and the use of toxic chemicals for the sake of my own health and the environment.

I also visited a local tannery in Devon, JFJ Bakers, to learn about the process of vegetable tanning leather. I have since become a member of Leather UK, who have helped me build my knowledge and understanding of leather and how sustainable a material it is. They have also connected me with the some of the best tanneries in Britain and Europe. I also make my own sustainable and natural sealant, made to protect the leather after marbling. Being a sustainable artist, I am working towards being Net Zero aligned, so I am always looking at best practise for sustainability, provenance and environmental impact.

6. What is your favourite part of your craft?

That’s such a tricky one, as I love my marbling days, but also love my sewing days. I suppose marbling will always win as it’s about the alchemy of the process and the outcome brings me so much joy.

I also love the design part of making, enjoying the spark of an idea being drawn on paper, then creating the 3D paper mock up, followed by the prototype made in textiles. It is such an exciting stage of making. Working with materials received from the Royal Opera and Ballet has been a lovely challenge as I have had to learn to design from the materials.

7. What project are you most proud of and why?

Last year I made a marbled wedding album for my son and his bride. I went on a course with the Society of Bookbinders to learn how to make a boxed book and stitch the papers. I had done this at college years ago, so it was good to undo bad habits and learn the correct way of making a book. Apart from learning this heritage craft, to make something for people I love was the best part of the project.

8. If someone who knows nothing about you and your practice could know one thing, what would it be?

Marbling is a mindful and joyful craft. You learn when marbling that you cannot always control the outcome, nor make the exact same pattern, only a similar pattern, as the water may move or the paints disperse differently. The breath-work involved is mindful, helping to calm and focus the mind. The colours used, lift your mood, the patterns are mesmerising.