Coming from an Indian background, Vinisha’s family have worked with various forms of textiles for generations from tailoring suits to making carpets and rugs. With these familial ties, Vinisha has held a love and appreciation for textiles throughout her life.  

Having studied Creative Arts and Social Work in University, Vinisha has had extensive experience working with community arts organisations, arts festivals, and in the community engagement and social impact sectors.   

Vinisha started her hand-tufting practice in 2021 when she was on maternity leave with her first child. With hand-tufting becoming more popular and accessible to do at home during COVID lockdowns, Vinisha taught herself how to use a hand-tufting gun in the hours when her son was napping. 

“There were a lot of mistakes and YouTube troubleshooting, but I just loved the process of making a piece, from start to finish.” 

Working now from her home studio, Vinisha creates hand-tufted artworks, small rugs, cushions, and limited-edition fine art prints, drawing on the environments and motifs of her Indian and Indonesian cultural backgrounds. Having access to excess wool yarn, a by-product of the carpet manufacturing process, Vinisha was inspired to create art that gave this redundant material a new purpose. Driven by this sustainable lens, Vinisha’s creative process focuses on taking something that would have otherwise gone to waste and transforming it into a thoughtfully designed work of art.  

Working only with excess yarn means that Vinisha is constrained by the colours and quantities available to her and that she must design her pieces with this in mind. 

“I honestly love the challenge of it – I prefer not having the choice anxiety anyway!” 

Vinisha fills her home with artwork and products by local makers that bring her an immense amount of joy and she hopes that her artwork can do the same for others. 

“I hope that my works are pieces that people love seeing in their homes day-to-day and that they’re also helping repurpose something in a positive way.” 

Images supplied by artist