Nell Cluett - BA (Hons) Textiles in Practice
Nell Cluett is a knit practitioner exploring the relationship between childhood, memory, play and materiality through constructed textiles. Her work sits at the intersection of technical craftsmanship and emotional storytelling. She blends precise textile construction with playful, intuitive colour choices to create pieces that feel both personal and universal.
Nell’s use of colour and form have a familiarity, reimagined with subtle complexity, she produces pieces that balance structure with play. Though small in scale, her works carry presence through repetition, rhythm, and detail. They are tactile and intimate, inviting close engagement while speaking to broader themes of nostalgia, identity, and sensory experience. With each piece, Nell invites the viewer to slow down and notice - offering tactile fragments of something just out of reach.
The Manchester School of Art degree show presents an exciting opportunity to showcase Nell’s portfolio of work from this year. She has also been commissioned to create a piece for the Vertical Gallery, titled Up in the Air - a suspended installation composed of knitted forms. Echoing the visual language of childhood toys, this piece explores the fragility and flux of memory through gentle motion and vibrant form. As an installation, this work becomes both intimate and immersive, inviting viewers to look up and rediscover childlike wonder. Created during a time of personal indecision, Up in the Air reflects themes of uncertainty, imagination, and possibility.
