About

 

Studio Marbling (Credit Image Jim Wileman)

Hello, I'm Rachel O'Connell, the founder and designer-maker at ROCWORX®. I am a surface pattern designer, using marbling, an endangered heritage craft for my pattern work.  

I have also trained as a bookbinder and leatherworker and I teach my crafts in my own studio and in a variety of venues across the UK. 

I live in a small rural village in the beautiful South Hams, in South Devon, between the moors and the sea., with my husband and daft dog, Ruby.

With over 35 years experience in marbling as a hobby, I switched careers and turned professional in 2021 when our eldest child left home for university. Part of my own creative learning journey was to train as a leatherworker with John Hagger here in Devon over 15 years ago and then  bookbinding at Dartington, when I was asked to conserve a leather bound book with marbled end papers.

Marbling in my teens, I have since worked with artists all over the world, learning and layering up the skills for my marbling craft in a creative environment, leading me to combine marbling on leatherwork over a decade ago.

I love marbling as it is so diverse as a surface pattern, offering so much creativity and an opportunity to work on a variety of materials.  When marbling, you learn that you cannot always control the outcome, nor make the same pattern twice, only a similar pattern, as the paints tend to move over the water, so you learn that it is about the process of creativity. The breath-work involved is mindful, helping focus the mind and can ease anxiety. Patterns cannot be replicated, only similar, making each piece made totally unique.

Marbling is classed as an endangered heritage craft and I am listed in the Red List of Endangered Crafts, created by the Heritage Crafts Association.  My hope is to show that this heritage craft can be used in contemporary design.  My aim is to create beautiful, practical products to wear and use every day in the home and to wear, and to also help educate, with the goal to pass on this beautiful craft to future younger generations.  I marble using traditional Turkish, European and Japanese techniques, incorporating marbling into my textile items, including leather, as well as my embossed printmaking art work and paper stationery. 

 

I work with leather as it is a sustainable material, a by-product of the food industry and is compostable.  

More information can be found on these pages: Leather and Leather Care and Marbling 

As a sustainable artist, I am working towards being net zero aligned, with the help of a sustainable business hub charity, Blue Patch, who support creative makers to reduce their carbon impact in their environment and use materials to have the least impact on the environment.  I use natural materials and repurpose synthetic theatrical textiles, some of which have been donated by local and national organisations.

 

I have a background in, and love for, textile art, sewing and printing, all of which influence my designs.  I have worked in printing, as a silk screen printer; in interior design, as a seamstress and upholsterer; and in mainstream education and community arts projects with indigenous groups overseas.  I also trained in accounting and worked in finance for a number of years.

Throughout this, marbling remained a creative outlet for me to de-stress from my busy working life and supported me through trauma.

The pandemic allowed me time to create and, after making a number of items and being asked to sell them, in 2021, I launched my sustainable brand, ROCWORX®.  However it then took another year to finally launch my website shop in 2022!  It has been a steep learning curve for the business side, but I have found great mentorship with Small Business Britain and Theo Paphitis as an SBS winner.  I have also benefitted from being part of Find A Maker (Craft Festival) and Blue Patch, both helping me creatively and to work sustainably.

Since turning professional, I have exhibited and sold work in Manchester Art Gallery, Dulwich Picture Gallery, The British Museum, Weald and Downland Living Museum, Brantwood Museum, at London Craft Week, Handmade Oxford, MAKE Southwest, New Brewery Arts, and Thelma Hilbert Gallery. I have work in a select galleries and independent shops in Devon. 

Marbling is an endangered heritage craft. It's a privilege to demonstrate for Heritage Crafts.  I have also demonstrated and sold work at several large craft events, like Craft Festival and Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair.

Suminagashi ink marbling abstract art Raindrop Swirl © 2026

In 2026, the Grand Designs Live interior design team chose my abstract art patterns for their backdrops and signage for both their Excel and NEC exhibitions.  It is wonderful to think an ancient art form (Suminagashi is over a thousand years old) is being used in this contemporary way.  After discussions with interior designers I am creating a wall paper range with complimentary homewares and tableware, to launch SS2027.  Patterns will be a monochrome abstract pattern and a colourful heritage pattern.