Little Burrow Designs by Claire Read

Little Burrow Designs is the whimsical repurposed sculpture world of mixed media artist Claire Read.

Each piece, or “storybox”, is created entirely by reworking vintage and antique objects and curios, often with a combination of vintage textiles. Most storyboxes are one-off, unique sculptures. A few are possible to recreate, although will never be identical, and therefore still unique. 

“I love to give life again to unloved or unused objects from the past. It doesn’t bother me if an item is far from perfect in condition – for me that merely enhances its story. Somehow I connect emotionally with the objects I choose to work with, almost as though, secretly, they tell me what they would like to be. I love the thought that, as an object reaches the end of its valued life, someone like me still sees value in it, and decides to rework it in to something new – and so it begins life again, in a different form.”

With a long-standing love of literature and music, lyrics and poetry is often used within the storyboxes, being either printed via typewriter, or sculpted out of wire. For commissions, customers often choose to have song lyrics or poetry, personal to them, within their storybox.

“The fact that I live on a smallholding in the rolling Devon countryside, surround by slightly abnormal pets – llamas, sheep, and pigs, who potter in and out of the house, also helps with my slightly “unusual” view on life. Sheep playing on bouncy castles, and pigs joining in at family breakfast time, only increase to inspire me.””

Claire’s background is in Architecture, having graduated from Edinburgh College of Art, and Plymouth School of Architecture, to gain her BA (Hons) Architecture in 1997.