StAndard No4 vFINAL .indd - University of St Andrews

PEOPLE
Our Creative Colleagues
By Gayle Cook
Press Officer
If you ever assumed that your colleagues
went home after a day’s work and sat in
front of the box all night, think again – The
StAndard has peeked through the keyholes
of our own staff and uncovered members of
the University who spend their spare time
in the most interesting and creative way. In
those precious hours after work and during
weekends, our colleagues can be found
carefully honing their hidden talents. The
results are impressive to say the least.
By day Barbara Fleming is the postgraduate
secretary within the School of Modern
Languages, which she joined in 1999. She
spends her days organising school conferences
and seminars, making arrangements for visitors
and dealing with postgraduate students and
– as a special duty – she edits the impressive
School newsletter, for which she also writes the
horoscope and occasional piece.
You might think she would spend her
evenings taking a break from it all, but instead
she switches focus and immerses herself in the
world of design. Whether she whips out her
knitting needles and fine yarns or her veritable
collection of semi-precious stones, Barbara
generally spends her spare time working on
her crafty hobby. Barbara designs and makes
an impressive collection of jewellery and
knitwear, which she has successfully sold for the
past 6 years. Surrounded by an eclectic mix of
exotic beads and stones and tactile wools and
silks, Barbara spends her out of office hours in
the most creative way possible.
“I’ve always loved making things,” she said,
“even when I was at school, I would be inspired
by something I saw on someone else and I
would think ‘I could make that’. In the sixties,
when cloche hats were all the rage, I made
them for all my friends to wear.”
Barbara didn’t follow up her artistic leanings
after school and instead joined the Civil Service
aged 20. But even during her 12 year career
working for the Benefits Office, the creative
juices kept flowing and soon Barbara’s two
children were kitted out in knitwear of her own
design. Though inspired by other designers,
Barbara has her own distinct style and believes
in the importance of individuality, and began
by making her own personal touches to
standard designs. Now she mostly works on a
trial and error basis until she comes to a design
she is happy with – she never sits down and
designs a piece on paper; she gets to work
right away on the practical side.
The StAndard was lucky to view some of
Barbara’s recent work and even a small
selection was a feast for the eyes. Elaborate
necklaces and beautiful bracelets in stunning
semi-precious stones with exotic names
such as green aventurine and oh-so-soft
little woollen collars made from the best
silky yarns are a real treat for a girl’s girl. And
it doesn’t stop at colourful jewellery and
deliciously tactile scarves – Barbara also makes
beautifully distinctive gift cards and elaborate
hat pins, and has recently turned her hand to
making decorative felt bags – felting being a
newly discovered skill for Barbara; indeed the
6
Barbara with her creations
collection spilled not out of a Tesco’s carrier
bag, but a freshly hand-made basket.
With her designs bearing the name Cushy
Number, Barbara believes in using natural
materials of the highest quality, though her
designs are reasonably priced. She imports
a glittering array of loose beads and semiprecious
stones from all over the world and
marries them with some vintage finds to
ensure that each piece she makes is unique.
Working in the School of Modern Languages,
Barbara has sourced some distinctive material
through far-flung colleagues and many of her
more unusual beads are sourced from Africa,
India and China. For her main jewellery range,
Barbara’s favoured material is fresh water pearls,
but she also loves working with semi precious
stones such as carnelian, amethyst, jaspers
and agates as well as unusual glass beads. A
second, more simple range, is ethnic in style
using chunky woods, horn, bone and metal
beads – a tribal African look, which was one of
the first styles she experimented with.
In her woollen work, she uses only high quality
yarns of pure wool, mohair or silk to make
scarves and cushions. If she hasn’t found what
she is looking for, she will spin her own and in the
past Barbara has spun wool from her sister’s
sheep!
Finally, Barbara’s range of delicate and totally
unique hand-made cards are made by
embellishing hand-made paper with wool,
dried flowers and seeds. Occasionally Barbara