Matt and Amanda Caines Down to the Sea Brooch SORCAB3

Matt and Amanda Caines are multi-media artists who have worked side by side in their separate practices for over 28 years.

Amanda produces paintings, stitch-work hangings, sculptures and jewellery, drawing upon her vast collection of materials gathered over many years, including glass, wood, metal and ceramics. Amanda trained in Printed Textiles and has always been deeply engaged in colour, painting and pattern. Formative jobs and work experiences followed that laid the foundation of her sewing and stitch work skills, including milliner’s assistant, ecclesiastical vestment maker and hand beading bespoke wedding shoes. After an influential trip around Mexico, Amanda made the decision to devote herself solely to jewellery, stitch work and painting and has continued to develop and refine these self-taught processes.

Matt is a sculptor working in a variety of stone as well as wood, nut and pieces of naturally shed antler. Stone carving has underpinned his practice and has led to periods studying marble carving in Italy and Greece having been the recipient of a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship and becoming a Winston Churchill Fellow. He has also spent time in Arctic Canada learning how to carve antler and found bone whale with noted Inuit sculptors.

They currently live and work together in rural Wales and like nothing more than long days spent in their studio surrounded by nature.