• Denise creates contemporary mosaic panels from materials she makes or adapts
• She wrote the first City and Guilds study programme on mosaics
• She co-founded Farnham Creatives Network to bring makers together

Although Denise Jaques trained in textiles at Central Saint Martins, her making always incorporated other craft disciplines. “I am intent on experimenting with materials in an untraditional way,” she shares. The common thread throughout her work is her use of reflection and iridescent elements. Mosaic came almost by accident through teaching textiles at summer schools, where Denise began piecing together hardened fabric with glass, resin and ceramic. Today, her work is built on celebrating contrasts, such as gnarly, volcanic black ceramic set against mirrored, iridised, hand gilded glass. Living and working in Farnham, England’s first designated World Craft Town, Denise's mosaic compositions feature reflective surfaces that shift with every change of light. "My mosaics are speculative pieces that allow me to see how far the boundaries of material can be pushed,” she says.