Meet our artist community: Q&As
Part of an ongoing series, members of our artist community share insights about their work, their stories and their relationship to ACAVA. Visit this page to read more.
Candice Lau is one of eight highly skilled artists and makers who worked with ACAVA in 2023 to run Make and Reuse Creative Workshops, a series of free creative courses inspired by the circular economy and sustainability. Learn more about Candice’s leathercraft course here.
Read on to learn more about her studio practice, current projects and plans for the future.
Name
Candice Lau
Art practice
Leather and clay artist
Would you like to tell us about yourself?
I am 41 years old. I was born in Hong Kong and emigrated to Australia when I was 7 years old. I moved over to the UK after my studies and ended up staying!
What materials do you use? What do you like about those?
I began my creative practice with leather. I fell in love with this material after a colleague of mine from my previous job as a graphic designer gave me a piece of nubuck. I cut straight into it and did a terrible sewing job at stitching together a bag, I immediately realised this was what I wanted to work with every day. Ten years on with lots of practice and training to refine my take on the craft, I now work as a full-time leather craftswoman.
More recently, I have brought clay into my practice to allow me to explore the more artistic aspect of my craft. I love working with this very contrasting material to leather as it has completely shifted my practice from one that is highly planned, considered and measured, to a more fluid, messy and unexpected.
