Born: 9.5.45, the day after the end of World War II,
The second child of three.
Mother: Irish Scots, whose father,
A priests' assistant in the Medical Corps during World War I,
In which both he and his priest were gassed,
Subsequently contracted tuberculosis.
Only she and her 3 year old sister survived,
Raised by a Scots Protestant grandmother
Who traced her lineage back through highland stock to
James of the Glen and David Livingstone.
Father: Polish/Russian.
On the eve of the Stalin/Hitler Pact,
Remnants of the Polish Forces
Started the journey from their Russian Units in Siberia,
Travelling by night, overland to the middle east,
Where they joined up with the allied troops.
The Polish Army was despatched to Italy and Monte Cassino,
The Air Force to the UK.,
Where they were based in army camps
On the borders and eastcoast.
The influx of exotic Polish Officers were in much demand socially
And while many repatriated after the war, a great number remained.
In the ensuing years many of the second generation
Were to be found in Art Colleges throughout the UK.

Schooldays; clamped to the door of the Infants School,
Screaming to be let in,
She had to be prised off every day
until finally aged two,
She was allowed to enter.
There she was introduced to colour.
There, stood in line, waiting, as they bought in the paper and paint.
Fit-fused brain, overwhelmed by the knowing, drowned in colour.
Green sprangled sharp, blue booed,
Yellow melded singing into blessed skin.
Awoke to the others,
Ready-coated and parented around the room,
Whispered starings.
Then, scraped from the floor, brush released,
Carried to the door by the good Miss Shepherd,
"you'll have to send her to art school, you know".

Several schools later came
Kirkcaldy High School,
Resonant with the familiar names of
Terelcka, Audrobynska, Szabowskie, Kuilinowska and Buj.
But change is ineluctable
And in 1962 at sixteen, she arrived in Dundee
To sit the entrance exam for
Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art.
Sitting beside her that day was Albert Watson.

The 60's were a time of expectation of new beginnings,
new possibilities,
The space age had begun
And there was a plethora of new materials
And new designers; Paco Rabanne, Courreges, Ungaro.
A sense of euphoria permeated the air,
A new idealism.
Design was exciting;
with the "white heat of technology"
good design would be accessible to everyone.
Attracted to the ideas of textiles
By their omnipresence,
Their ubiquity from swaddling cloth to shroud
And the excitement of new processes and materials,
She opted to study textiles.
In 1966 she was awarded a place on
The Royal College of Art Textiles and Fashion Course