Meet Our Makers - Thunderbug Designs
Toni Hibberd aka Thunderbug Designs is a weaver and polymer clay artist based in Ripley, best known for colourful jewellery and textiles using her signature rainbow colour palette.
For the next blog in the ‘Meet Our Makers’ series, I’ve been chatting to Toni Hibberd aka Thunderbug Designs; whose instantly recognisable creations are sure to brighten any outfit or corner of your home. I was excited to finally meet Toni in April 2022.
Hi Toni, I’m sure many people will recognise you from Tissington Craft Fairs but how did your business start?
Way back in the mists of The Before Times (2019), I graduated from the University Of Derby with a degree in Textile Design. When I started my degree I really had no clear idea what I would do with it, other than spending three years learning and working with a medium I’d been in love with since I was a small child. During my first year, though, I had a flash – a very clear vision of myself; I was at a loom, in my own studio, a self-employed designer/maker of woven pieces, selling my creations via an online shop. So that became my goal. After very limited success, I realised that the Internet is a very big place, and that I would fare much better at selling to people when I can engage them face-to-face, and they can experience my products in person. There’s no substitute for the tactile qualities and in-person visual impact of a thoughtfully constructed textile, after all. The plan, then, was to start attending craft fairs in the spring of 2020 (as it happens, Tissington was to be my first fair).
That… didn’t go to plan.
Stuck at home with unlimited creative time but a newly-discovered and unfortunate tendency toward RSI if I spend too long weaving, I began experimenting with polymer clay as a way to create with colour, structure and pattern without injuring myself. Nine months later I looked up from my workspace and realised I’d accidentally gained a new skill, and so I began to produce polymer clay jewellery, accessories and ornaments for sale as well as woven homewares and accessories.
Thunderbug Designs at Tissington Craft Fair in 2022.
I understand your creative business is your livelihood, but how did it feel to take the leap to work on it full time?
I was fortunate enough to have the full support of my husband in making my vision a reality. I absolutely would not have been able to build a creative business if I’d also had more conventional job, as I just wouldn’t have had the energy or mental resources. Funnily enough, since I started being able to attend fairs and markets on a fairly normal schedule, I honestly don’t think I’ve ever worked as hard as I do now. But I’ve also never enjoyed my work so much. Every day, I take a moment to appreciate how lucky I am that I get to do this for a full-time job.
Where do your creations come to life?
Hah! Generally in chaos! We have a very small house, and quite a lot of it is filled with my creative process. When weaving, I work on a large-ish floor loom called Lotte (she’s Dutch). For anyone interested, Lotte is a Louët Megado 16-shaft electronic dobby, and she lives in my studio, which was converted from our spare bedroom. Also in my studio is an inordinate amount of yarn, fabric, and many boxes of stock, both woven and polymer clay, plus all the things I need to set up my stall, and many other creative media in storage. Not to mention my previous loom, Agnetha (she’s Swedish), who is flat-packed against a wall, and who I will definitely be putting up for sale soon. Because I’m not sentimental at all. Nope. Because of all this, there’s only really room to weave in there, so my other studio is downstairs in my kitchen. Because of the aforementioned smallness of the house, the only place I have room enough for a flat space large enough for sewing and polymer clay work is at my kitchen table. Fortunately for me, it is a large kitchen table, but unfortunately, I still have to pack away whatever I’m working on when it’s time to cook tea. All of my clay and sewing tools and supplies live in a complex jigsaw of boxes under my kitchen table, or in a tall set of IKEA storage drawers I somehow managed to squeeze in next to the fridge. Every day is an exercise in controlled chaos. Over the years though, I’ve learned that is just my process, and I’ve more-or-less made peace with it. Unfortunately it has been known to drive my poor, tidy-minded husband to distraction, which is why I never enter his workshop to spread my chaos there if I can possibly avoid it! Fortunately, my cat doesn’t seem to care. If it looks comfy, she’ll sit on it (which is why I keep any fabric I make well out of her way!), if it looks fun, she’ll chase it, and if it looks like food, she’ll hassle me for it until I show her that it’s either Not Food, or Yuk Food. Even then she sometimes doesn’t believe me, but either way grateful for her company, and her mid-morning cuddles.
“Prism is a fabric of 12 colours, striped in the same sequence both horizontally and vertically.” Toni Hibberd, Thunderbug Designs
How do you manage your time so you are able to work with two different mediums?
Two mediums is a blessing, but it can be a somewhat precarious balancing act at times. Sometimes, I will get really into one (hello, involuntary hyperfocus!), and it can take me a little time to get my mojo back for the other. Most of the time, I try to actively manage it and do a little of both. I try to work to a schedule of no more than three hours weaving, usually in the morning, and then spend the afternoon either finishing woven items (washing, sewing, and all the other processes that go into producing textiles), or working with the clay. Of course, life often intervenes, or I’m just not in the mood to do the thing I’m supposed to be doing but, lucky me! I have the flexibility to move things around almost at will.
What inspires your use of colour and do you have a particular set of colours or tones that you are always drawn to?
That’s a very good question, and not really something I have a clear answer to. I often tell people that I dress like a crow, but accessorise like a parrot. I like jewel tones, and colour combinations that pop (like hot pink against navy, or lime green and royal purple against a neutral mid-grey), but my most-used colour combination in both my textile and clay work is rainbow. I’m endlessly fascinated by the way the different colours morph into each other. I’ve never really been very good at being subtle, so I don’t often try; I work to my strengths. I think the rainbow fixation was probably fully born back in 2019. During product development, I discovered a beautiful cotton yarn, which I still use for most of my weaving, and comes in a large variety of shades. I chose a dozen cones in different colours, and then found myself completely unable to decide which combinations to use. So I used all of them, and my favourite fabric was born! Prism is a fabric of 12 colours, striped in the same sequence both horizontally and vertically. It is woven in a diamond herringbone pattern, to allow for each colour to visibly interact with every other colour.
“My most-used colour combination in both my textile and clay work is rainbow.” Toni Hibberd, Thunderbug Designs.
Do you remember your very first sale? And how does it feel when someone chooses to buy your work?
I remember my first commission very clearly! It was made at my graduate show. A fellow mature student was so taken with the fabrics I had produced that she asked me to make her six window blinds, each in a different design. I was by turns disbelieving, astonished, thrilled, and honoured. The fact that a fellow weaver (and one whose work I’d also admired!) would choose to feature my work in their home was quite simply a gift.
Which of your pieces are you most proud of and why?
Absolutely hands down, my Most Excellent Rainbow Teatowels. I got so sick of crap teatowels that I decided to put my training to use and design a better one. Every aspect of their use has been considered, and there were many different versions before I refined them to the design I make today. The yarn and structure of the fabric was chosen to make them more absorbent, and they also feel nicer in the hand. There’s a pleasing weight, drape and softness to the fabric that makes them a pleasure to use. The colours were also carefully chosen and placed. Rainbow will go with almost any décor, and the ditsy and textured surface helps to disguise the stains that teatowels inevitably acquire during use. And they are built from the ground up to be used every. single. day. I don’t use “normal” teatowels any more – what would be the point? I’ve designed an everyday luxury that makes me smile every time I use it, and I couldn’t be prouder.
Most Excellent Rainbow Teatowels by Thunderbug Designs.
What do you love to do in your spare time and how does this influence your work?
Weirdly, I actually do very little in my spare time. Back when I was working 9-5, I would spend a good deal of my time either daydreaming about possible future projects, or working on ongoing projects (in my break times, of course!). In those days, it would be mostly crochet or hand spinning (sometimes both). These days, I get my creative reward from my actual job and it’s wonderful, but it can be mentally exhausting, too. I also have to be careful of how much handwork I do, as RSI is cruel, sneaky, and can appear after the most surprising activities. I used to read an awful lot, but no longer have the kind of concentration required to read print books (I’m forever grateful for audiobooks though – listen while you work!), so in the evenings or weekends, I spend a lot of time scrolling through social media, usually watching other people being creative, and going, “Ooooh! I really want to try that!” This led to me recently (and very slowly!) completing a granny hex cardi, which is the first crochet project I’ve attempted in probably six years. Makers gonna make, after all. I enjoy scrolling through others’ work and being inspired by people far more skilled and creative than I could ever hope to be, but nonetheless being inspired by the beauty (and sometimes sheer glorious madness) they create, and reminded that beauty comes in many forms. I love watching videos of skilled artisans just doing their thing. It makes me so happy just to watch people making purple clay teapots, or restoring a vintage bread slicer, or making cosplay armour, or a coat made entirely of fuzzy worms!
And finally what can our customers look forward to seeing in 2023? Do you have any new products in the pipeline?
Well, there are a bunch of new (to me) polymer clay techniques that I’m itching to try my hand at, so I suspect there’ll be a lot more cane work going on (once I’ve finished the post-christmas restock). I seem to be feeling the geometric kaleidoscope vibe this year, so I’m excited to see where that will take me. In any case, the clay lends itself very well to experimentation, so there are always new and unique pieces available. However, there will always be rainbow stripe everything, because I love me some rainbows!
As for the weaving, as long as people keep buying them, I will keep making the Most Excellent Rainbow Teatowels. Unfortunately, I’ve had some yarn supply issues, so my popular rainbow honeycomb scarves will be a while to arrive this year, but they will be here. New woven designs take longer to come to fruition. The design and production process is much more careful and considered, because mistakes or misjudgements can be costly in both time and yarn. But I do have a few project plans up my sleeve – one of which will be based on a fabrics I designed as part of my degree, inspired by the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Another fabric I really want to perfect is based on a design that was a part of my degree exhibition, capturing oversized sequins in pockets within the structure of the weave, but in a way that makes the fabric wearable. This one is a technical challenge I’ve been wrestling with on and off for several years at this point, so we’ll see how that goes!
As for things that are not available online? Truly most of my work never makes it online. Since I rarely repeat designs, and I produce new, unique pieces all the time, it became incredibly time consuming to photograph, describe, and post every item I make. And I would rather spend that time making things that bring a little bit of joy to someone’s day, and seeing the smile it puts on their face. As a maker, that is my greatest happiness.
A selection of pendants by Thunderbug Designs.