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After completing my art foundation course I worked with mixed media for around six years, creating works on paper and fabric using painting, printing and stitch. I then began to focus on hand embroidery, and have now worked in this way for the last four years.
I love the possibilities of embroidery and the range of marks and textures that can be built up with stitch. I tend to use back stitch and stem stitch to 'draw' outlines, before using straight stitches of varying lengths to fill in space and add areas of pattern. I am very inspired by Kantha embroidery, building up areas of colour using small straight/ seed stitches. I am also partial to the odd French knot, and really love adding beads to add texture and sparkle to a piece.
My inspiration comes from many sources. One of my favourite things to embroider is birds; their colours and patterns lend themselves so well to being translated into stitch, I really enjoy working out ways to turn certain details into areas of pattern (such as feather shapes on their wings) and working out how to stylise and simplify certain areas. I love to stitch pictures of other animals too, and I'm also very inspired by plants, gardens and the landscape.
I feel the need to distill things I have seen which have inspired me into pieces of work, it is often as simple as wanting to work with the image of something I have enjoyed. I often feel like I'm making the work as a sort of appreciation of and dedication to the animal, bird or plant I am depicting.
Although my work is primarily illustrative, I occasionally work on a small abstract piece in an attempt to capture the essence of a place, or sometimes purely to explore a particularly pleasing colour combination.
Drawing is an important part of my process, and when starting a new piece of work I usually make preparatory drawings from my photographs or imagination. Sometimes I also utilise collage as a compositional aid, cutting out pieces of paper to try different arrangements. When working on an abstract piece I will generally work more spontaneously, laying down stitch to see what emerges. I find that this can often yield exciting results.
I produce downloadable embroidery patterns inspired by birds, animals and plants. I really love encouraging and supporting others on their embroidery journeys and I am so touched when people tell me about or send photos of their finished projects created using my patterns. For more information about my patterns, visit my patterns page.
In the last year I have started to work with felt alongside my hooped embroideries. When I first began my creative journey several years ago I, for a time, created painted fabric and felt decorations. Last year I was contacted by artist Clive Hicks- Jenkins who requested a set of decorations, and in creating these I found myself enjoying working with felt again. At the time I always thought I'd just go back to working solely with embroidery but enjoyed the project so much that felt is now very much here to stay! Since then I have made many individual decorations, custom orders (including decorations based on people's pets) a larger felt piece for the MOMA Machynlleth competition exhibition and I am now enjoying exploring working with felt on a slightly larger scale to make some pieces inspired by Staffordshire ceramic flatbacks. Visit my felt page for more information and images.
I have written several 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.
A small selection of original hoop art is available through my Etsy shop, alternatively you are always welcome to contact me directly.
I love the possibilities of embroidery and the range of marks and textures that can be built up with stitch. I tend to use back stitch and stem stitch to 'draw' outlines, before using straight stitches of varying lengths to fill in space and add areas of pattern. I am very inspired by Kantha embroidery, building up areas of colour using small straight/ seed stitches. I am also partial to the odd French knot, and really love adding beads to add texture and sparkle to a piece.
My inspiration comes from many sources. One of my favourite things to embroider is birds; their colours and patterns lend themselves so well to being translated into stitch, I really enjoy working out ways to turn certain details into areas of pattern (such as feather shapes on their wings) and working out how to stylise and simplify certain areas. I love to stitch pictures of other animals too, and I'm also very inspired by plants, gardens and the landscape.
I feel the need to distill things I have seen which have inspired me into pieces of work, it is often as simple as wanting to work with the image of something I have enjoyed. I often feel like I'm making the work as a sort of appreciation of and dedication to the animal, bird or plant I am depicting.
Although my work is primarily illustrative, I occasionally work on a small abstract piece in an attempt to capture the essence of a place, or sometimes purely to explore a particularly pleasing colour combination.
Drawing is an important part of my process, and when starting a new piece of work I usually make preparatory drawings from my photographs or imagination. Sometimes I also utilise collage as a compositional aid, cutting out pieces of paper to try different arrangements. When working on an abstract piece I will generally work more spontaneously, laying down stitch to see what emerges. I find that this can often yield exciting results.
I produce downloadable embroidery patterns inspired by birds, animals and plants. I really love encouraging and supporting others on their embroidery journeys and I am so touched when people tell me about or send photos of their finished projects created using my patterns. For more information about my patterns, visit my patterns page.
In the last year I have started to work with felt alongside my hooped embroideries. When I first began my creative journey several years ago I, for a time, created painted fabric and felt decorations. Last year I was contacted by artist Clive Hicks- Jenkins who requested a set of decorations, and in creating these I found myself enjoying working with felt again. At the time I always thought I'd just go back to working solely with embroidery but enjoyed the project so much that felt is now very much here to stay! Since then I have made many individual decorations, custom orders (including decorations based on people's pets) a larger felt piece for the MOMA Machynlleth competition exhibition and I am now enjoying exploring working with felt on a slightly larger scale to make some pieces inspired by Staffordshire ceramic flatbacks. Visit my felt page for more information and images.
I have written several 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.
A small selection of original hoop art is available through my Etsy shop, alternatively you are always welcome to contact me directly.
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