Introducing the 2017-2018 Silhouette UK Design Team - Thelma Turkington

Hello everybody, my name is Thelma and I live in Northern Ireland.

I have two Children (who aren't two children any more) 2 cats and a dog.

I am a full career for my son who has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, and have recently fallen into the post of restoration manager in a Victorian weavers mill.

In my free time I like to run craft classes and can often be found at craft fairs.

I have loved making things all my life. From trying to make perfume from rose petals or making beds for my dolls, my gifts were always of the handmade variety.

 I grew up in a very rural location with the ethos of make do and mend and could only dream of having such materials at my disposal such as sticky back plastic and PVA glue as often seen on TV's “here's one I made earlier” shows. I am still  an avid believer on re-purposing things and love using found items in mixed media projects.

The first electronic cutter I used was the Craft Robo, when my sister asked me to make her some signs to put up in her factory.  As soon as I started using the Robo I could see so many more uses for it other than cutting out letters. I was so excited when Graphtec developed the Cameo and I couldn't wait to get my hands on one. Since then I have added the amazing little gem that is the Mint to my craft arsenal. I love how simple and quick it is. It was inevitable, having a particular love of mixed media that the Curio would become my go to machine for embellishments on my projects with its increased clearance and greater cutting depth. 

My approach to craft is “what's the worst can happen”. The first day I had my Cameo it ended up with a very large slice cut into it. I love to help people with their projects, solving little problems that pop up, trying out alternative materials and working out how something was made or could be constructed.

I am really excited to join the design team and looking forward to sharing some ideas with you.