Heather Ridley-Moran is a UK-based designer, maker, and visual artist working at the intersection of socially engaged practice and hand-making. Since graduating with a degree in Textile Design for Fashion from Brighton University in 2013, Heather has evolved a multifaceted creative practice spanning knitwear design, styling, creative direction, and prop-making for display and advertising contexts.

Between 2012 and 2019, she lived and worked in London, Paris, and Berlin, collaborating with fashion brands and independent designers before working full-time as a display artist, creating bespoke props for Anthropologie EU and Selfridges, London. Drawing from this varied creative industry experience, Heather has developed a wide range of hand-making skills—across knitting, tufting, embroidery, Jesmonite casting, mould-making, and more—which she applies in work for clients across design, fashion, beauty, graphics, and photography sectors.

Since graduating with an MA in Participatory Art Heather’s work has increasingly centred around collaboration and co-production within community settings. She has worked closely with archivists, palliative care professionals, and community groups, often creating site-specific projects that respond to local histories and collective narratives. Her socially engaged practice has focused on creating spaces for dialogue, care, and creativity, with an emphasis on how shared making processes can harness imagination, and as a result support wellbeing and social connection. She has worked with Artlink Edinburgh since 2023 and continues to seek independent funding for self-led participatory projects.

Heather views the design process as a fun, collaborative problem-solving journey—a philosophy that equally informs her socially engaged methods. Her approach values research-driven making and the shared processes that emerge through hands-on collaboration, embracing an exploratory mindset rooted in curiosity, accessibility, and connection. She challenges the expectation that artists should be defined by a single medium, instead maintaining a deliberately expansive and adaptable approach.

The work presented on this website reflects the diverse threads of Heather’s creative output. The Workbook section offers a more playful curation of past projects, revealing unexpected relationships and recurring themes through behind-the-scenes glimpses, working drawings, and idea development. For Heather, making art is an act of connection-making—spotting patterns, drawing parallels, and highlighting the links that already exist all around us.