Sian Cornish, Founder and Creative Director

As a visual artist, a mother, and creative director of Lancaster & Cornish, I spend much of my time seeking connections. I am drawn to the links between disciplines and the invisible line between art and science as a way to understand the really BIG things in the context of our everyday.

These connections might be stories of love, of people and of lands. They might be tales of colour, extracted from plants, and woven into history. They might also be stories of the earth, our solar system and indeed our universe. Creating my work makes me feel grounded, joyful and helps to make sense of everything around me.


As an undergraduate studying Geology at Oxford, through travels in India and Mexico, and throughout my career in the construction industry prior to finally founding my business 10 years ago, this has been a constant thought process.
Today, working with colour, plants and pigments, collaborating with academics, wedding professionals and creatives around the globe, I think I have finally found my place. Ever changing, but always present.
 

Sian Cornish My work as a natural dyer evolves with the seasons. I use often ancient recipes of natural plant based colours, infused with romance and a little bit of magic, to create colours from the landscape flora... I have a family history in textiles, from cotton weavers to silk sellers in Manchester, UK. The full extent of this history was unknown to me when I started out, I just knew I was in the right place.

My Grandfather and Great Grandfather owned D. M. Lancaster, a three-floor fabric emporium in George Street, central Manchester from the 1920's to the 1940's. They sourced incredible fabrics from all over the world. My Great-Grandfather was a cotton weaver and it’s amazing to think that 100 years later I’m experiencing the same beauty and simple satisfaction from my own personal experience with cottons and silks every single day. 

You can read more about my family history and the story of the wedding dresses over on my blog, here.

 

Lancaster Textile History

 

Now I spend time at my Cornish studio in south east Cornwall, exploring the woodlands and rivers nearby, the stunning coasts and beaches. Wild swimming in the seas and rivers is a passion, a true sense of freedom found year round.