After completing my art foundation course in 2010 I spent several years working with mixed media, including making hand painted and stitched decorations. Eventually my creative practice evolved to working primarily with hand embroidered hoop art, something I did for a number of years, creating over 40 patterns during this time, offered for sale via my Etsy shop or written for magazines.
In 2018, I was approached by an artist friend and loyal customer from my mixed media and painted decoration making days to ask if I still made decorations, and if so, could I make a set for them? I no longer had the supplies I'd used before, so set to thinking about the best way to make this set of decorations - did I order up some new acrylic paint and start again, or try something different this time? In the end, tantalised by a wonderful selection of felt colours I found online, I decided to work with felt. I enjoyed the process so much that I continued to create many more decorations, and now work solely with felt. I have had the opportunity to work on some wonderful commissions, including one to create a set of custom decorations for artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins; Clive was in the process of illustrating a retelling of Hansel and Gretel by poet laureate Simon Armitage, and tasked me with producing a set of decorations based on his illustrations of Lebkuchen biscuits. It was wonderul to have the opportunity to work on this project. I have also worked to create several decorations inspired by people's beloved pets, often as memorial pieces, I always feel it is a particular priviledge to be asked to work on these. In recent years my practice has evolved to include the creation of poseable 3D felt animals including so far horses, camels, a chameleon, a bird, a lion and a buffalo, to name a few! All of my poseable 3D felt animals come with an embossed certificate of authenticity and care card. I also create the occasional 2D piece, these are either framed or finished to be freehanging wall pieces. All of my felt pieces are entirely hand stitched, hand beaded, and all felt pieces are cut by hand. Editorial I have extensive experience in creating both embroidery and felt patterns and articles for magazines and love to work on projects like this, if you would like me to contribute a project or article to your publication, be it a magazine or book, please contact me. To date, my work has been featured in UK magazines including Mollie Makes, Stitch, Love Embroidery, Love Sewing, Sew Inspired and Sewing World, and international magazines including Homespun and Inspirations. |
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