Nicole Florence is a Print-Maker specialising in Cyanotype print-making.

We first saw her work at The Arcade Gallery last year where she was exhibiting her tea-bag installation - (See photo above)

KIOSK talked to her about her arts practice just before she left Belfast to study for a Masters of Contemporary Arts Practice in Edinburgh University

How and when did you become a printmaker?

It has been quite a long time now because I started printmaking when I did my Foundation Year at Ulster University.

The Foundation Course is technically an undergraduate course, you do 12 months and get a taster of all the different arts courses which Ulster University provides. That would be textiles, fashion design, interior design, fine art, ceramics, and other forms of art. I did that when I was 18 years old.

Prior to that, at High School, I didn’t even know what Printmaking was. I thought I was going to go to university and do Fine Art and become a painter. But when I discovered Printmaking, I really fell in love with how tactile it was, how much you have to put your whole body into it. I just loved that aspect of it.

You are known for your work with tea-bags. Is that accurate to say?

At the moment I am a resident at Ulster University in the Print Department and people will come up to me and say that they saw the Graduate Degree Show last year and they remember my work with the teabags.

That seems like all your hard work has paid off?

I am extremely motivated to follow what I am passionate about and what makes me happy which is my art and my craft and I do work hard to ensure that I can keep producing my art.

Do you ever think that being an artist is just too hard?

Almost every week. My mum has always said to me that you have to follow your dreams but it is very difficult and I do think that I am very young and I have seen what other people have to do just to get by. I do ask myself have I got it in me mentally to keep overcoming any obstacles that are put in my way.

What advice would you give to younger artists?

I would say stick with what your gut tells you. Just stay true to yourself and work hard. Just stick with it. Now even if that fails, even if something doesn’t work out, you will find other opportunities, and they may lead to something else that you like better. I generally think you just shouldn’t give in.

How did you go about establishing working like that?

My arts practice was really etching, drawing and photography, and I discovered Cyanotype Printing in the second year of my degree. But working with tea-bags, there were a number of developments leading up to that.

It was in the summer before my final year, we lost a family member, then my mother had major surgery, and it was during that time I just seemed to either making tea or drinking tea. Making tea for people grieving or when people were visiting my mum.

It dawned on me, at some point, that tea was a central part of the process of remembering someone you’ve lost, or what happens when people were visiting my mum when she was sick; they would be offered a cup of tea. There is a certain sense of comfort which accompanies a cup of tea in those situations.

Tea as part of certain social moments?

I started to think about the tea bag and how it, the actual tea bag, is quite ductile but quite resilient and delicate as well. There was a moment, I think it was watching people who would be drinking all sorts of different teas, not just regular tea, maybe chamomile or ginger tea, and the colours which emerged from that. I thought I could do something artistic with those tea bags.

How did you go about that?

Each tea bag is cut at the back, then with a tiny brush you remove the contents, and then the cyanotype process where you have the photographs, then you coat the tea bag paper with chemicals, expose the tea bag to the photographs and they are rinsed out with water after that

Part 2 – Working out how to work as an artist

What are you doing now you have finished university?

I was very lucky in that I was offered a residency at Ulster University. Unfortunately it is an unpaid position so I need to work a part-time on top of that. I am working in Bodyshop at the moment and that pays the bills. I have access to materials and facilities at Ulster University and within that residency I have studio space. I work alongside the 2nd year and 3rd students so there is a lot of back and forth there with the students. I am working towards an Associate Fellowship as well so there is the course work for that which takes up a fair bit of my time. I do around 25 hours a week at the university and 25 hours a week at my part-time job, so there is not a lot of time where I am not doing something which allows me to follow my passion.

When does the residency end?

The Fellowship course ends in June but I have just been accepted to do my Masters of Contemporary Arts Practice in Edinburgh University and I should be going there in September.