Arts Award Adviser — Trained to Gold Level
Train the Trainer
Dorine Flies grew up in India during the 1970s before settling in England in the 1980s, where she discovered modern computing at school. This early introduction to technology helped shape an approach to creative work that favours form, design and structure.
With a background in antique ceramic and furniture restoration, Dorine combines traditional craftsmanship with modern digital design and manufacturing technologies. Her work reflects a particular interest in understanding how objects are constructed, how materials behave and how traditional techniques can be adapted through modern technology.
Her technical practice includes 2D and 3D CAD design, 3D prototyping and printing, CO₂ and UV laser cutting and engraving, UV direct-to-object printing, and eco-solvent printing and contour cutting. She also works with dye sublimation, heat-transfer materials, garment decoration, vinyl graphics and specialist print production, alongside traditional finishing techniques.
Through the use of digital fabrication tools, Dorine explores practical solutions for creative production, the reproduction of missing or obsolete components, and the adaptation of traditional making and restoration techniques to contemporary materials and processes.
Her work favours considered design, structural understanding and practical experimentation, where the process of making is as important as the finished object.
Her literary interests range from the science fiction of Isaac Asimov to Terry Brooks' Magic Kingdom for Sale—Sold!. Both reflect a fascination with imagined worlds governed by their own rules, where creativity, logic and practical problem-solving meet.
This balance between imagination and structure is central to her approach as a technical artist: understanding how something works is as important as imagining what it could become.
