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Jess Reynolds

Textile Design BA (Hons)

She/Her

Hi I'm Jess! I’m a multimedia textile designer exploring the emotional power of colour, sound, texture, and movement. My work blends print, embroidery and ceramics to create playful, immersive pieces that spark connection, storytelling and sensory engagement within interior spaces.
Close-up images of bamboo silk, hand-painted flocking, and beading from a jazz-inspired textile collection, showing expressive marks and tactile detail.

The Soul of Jazz

My final project, The Soul of Jazz, is a multimedia installation that celebrates the raw, emotional energy of live jazz – and the spaces that make it possible. In a time where music is increasingly being streamed and experienced passively, I wanted to create something that reminds people how the music feels.

A layered showcase of final outcomes- featuring hand-painted silks, digital prints, hand beading, colour studies, and ceramic elements- capturing the rich, textural world of my jazz-inspired textile collection.
Hanging ceramic sculpture layered with a glass frit overlay, capturing jazz at its most playful, “Blue Syncopate” demonstrates unexpected rhythms, shifting tones, and bursts of improvisation suspended in form.
“Walking Bass” explores the rhythm, fluid melody and steady drive of a walking bass line – through both carving and colour – anchoring the space like the heartbeat of a live jazz set.

Translating Rhythm into Colour, Material and Texture

Through hand-painted silks, flocking, beading, ceramics and digital prints, I have built a textured, flowing language that personifies each musical voice within a live set into a textile material. Colour plays a key role – shifting intuitively to reflect the emotional tones of each jazz track. Silks move with the rhythm, beads punctuate like brass, and ceramics ground the beat.

This project is my love letter to grassroots venues and the emotional highs we get to experiences thanks to them. These spaces are disappearing at an alarming rate. Without them, we lose the heart of live music culture and a crucial platform for emerging artists of all genres.

If my work stirs something deep, an old memory, a forgotten song, or that weightless feeling only live music can bring, I hope it reminds you why those moments matter, and what’s at stake. Let it be the spark to find your local venue, and let yourself be lifted by the music again.

Hand-drawn digital print on silk
Surface effects on different clay bodies
Digital print on furnishing velour

Ceramic tile colour journey for the ‘Walking Bass’ hanging sculpture

Collection of hand-painted silks, flocking and beadwork
Hand-painted silk bamboo with rhythmic beading
Layered hand-painted silk organza
Hand-painted silk with screen-printed flocking

This performance by Igmar Thomas & the Revive Big Band has stayed with me throughout this project. It’s a powerful reminder of jazz’s ability to evolve, connect, and electrify. With its bold energy and modern twists, it captures everything I love about live music. I encourage you to take a moment, watch it, and see where it takes you.

If this project has sparked something in you, go seek out the music, feel it live, and let it carry you somewhere new!

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