Our Story

Matt and Amanda Caines are multi-media artists who have worked side by side in their separate practices for the last 28 years.


Amanda produces paintings, stitch-work hangings, sculptures and jewellery, drawing upon her vast collection of materials gathered over many years, including glass, wood, metal and ceramics. Matt is a sculptor working in a variety of stone as well as wood, nut and pieces of naturally shed antler. He has worked on marble projects in Carrara, Italy and on found whale bone carvings with Inuit sculptors in Arctic Canada. He also creates engravings, drawings and printmaking.

For the past 4 years they have focused on a unique collaboration, immersing themselves in numerous creative projects, where a single idea can be the starting point for a number of responses in several of the mediums with which they work. Stitch-work wall hangings become the starting point for pen and ink drawings which in turn lead to stone carvings that give rise to necklaces. Work is started without a preconception of where it will lead and can change many times as it is passed and filtered through both artists’ viewpoints. The differing specialisms they each possess lead to a strong set of contrasts which come together as a whole vision in the finished work.

They currently live and work together in rural Wales and like nothing more than long days spent in their studio surrounded by nature. Their work can be found in galleries and private collections around the world.



A bit more about us…


Amanda trained in Printed Textiles and has always been deeply engaged in colour, painting and pattern. Formative jobs and work experiences followed that laid the foundation of her sewing and stitch work skills, including milliner’s assistant, ecclesiastical vestment maker and hand beading bespoke wedding shoes. Following a hugely influential trip around Mexico when she was 39, she made the decision to devote herself solely to jewellery, stitch work and painting and has continued to develop and refine these self-taught processes.

Amanda has exhibited both nationally and internationally - at Origins (London) for the Crafts Council, Handmade at the Jacob Javits Centre (New York), Sofa (Chicago) and has worked closely with Flow Gallery (London). She was an exhibitor at the cutting edge Sierrad Exposition (Amsterdam) over 3 years both with Matt and solo, becoming the UK winner of the New Traditional Jewellery Competition in 2010. Their joint work for Sierrad was also featured at the Arnhem Museum. In 2012, she was invited to take part in Loot at the Museum of Modern Art (New York). 

She made a series of large boxed assemblages featuring various sculpted found objects from her weekly mudlarking trips to the Thames foreshore for 'Anthropolgie' in London’s Kings Road. In 2016 a large stitch work panel was selected for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (London).

Subsequent joint exhibitions with Matt have followed at Llantarnam Grange Art Centre and The Art Shop & Chapel (Abergavenny, Wales).


Matt’s background and skill set contrast with Amanda’s sense of colour, being drawn naturally to structure and form. He graduated with a Fine Art Degree at Middlesex University and a 3 year Diploma in Architectural Ornament at The City & Guilds School of Art (London.) 

Stone carving has underpinned his practice and has led to periods studying marble carving in Italy and Greece having been the recipient of a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship and becoming a Winston Churchill Fellow. During his time spent in Arctic Canada he carved antler and found whale bone with noted Inuit sculptors after being awarded a Wingate Scholarship. Matt has developed his engraving techniques on both stone and naturally shed antler and enjoys using maritime imagery.