Joanna Kessel received the Inches Carr Creative Development Award in 2022. The award shifted her gaze from the urban, to the natural environment we inhabit. This was further informed by research into the woven fabrics of Serbian born, Scottish textile designer Bernat Klein and the beauty of particular colour juxtapositions and combinations.

Taking Stock is a series of small-scale glass and concrete artworks made in response to the large stocks of Italian smalti Kessel has accumulated in her studio. Each piece, within the series, is a joyful exploration of colour.

Parallels can be drawn between the individual tessera and the stitch or bead of woven fabrics, particularly tapestry. Contained within hand-cast concrete box-frames, some in raw, grey concrete others tinted with iron oxide pigments the work inhabits a space that embraces and moves freely between the disciplines of art, craft and design.