My process and techniques

Inspired by the natural environment, I live in a small hamlet situated in the North Worcestershire, surrounded by beautiful  historic countryside.  I love to walk and explore the local environment, looking for art inspiration that triggers my emotions and prompts me to  photograph both the far reaching views and the small detail of nature close up that most people would overlook.  I am intrigued by the changing Seasons and passing of time and how the weather impacts on nature, in particular its colours, textures and form. Examples of this can be seen in my ‘Beauty In Decay' which captures the fading earthy colours and dangly threads of countryside flowers and seed heads.

My Methods 

Working with any material that  “speaks to me,” both natural and recycled, I have a ‘no rules’ approach to emulating nature. 

I am passionate about recreating textures, often distressing fabric to reveal fibres and threads, layering, folding and manipulating to add depth and perspective. Using free motion machine stitching, hand stitching and embellishing, combining paper, metallic threads, natural wool and recycled fabric, that would otherwise be discarded.  

The process of dyeing and painting my own fabric is an important part of some of my art processes, and highly successful for sky, for which I use satin which allows the dye to blend and merge, creating beautiful ethereal tones. Another example of  merging colours and free motion machine embroidery can be seen in my "Frozen Hydrangea" embroidery work, where the dye provides a basis for the outline of the machine stitching of stems and leaves, combined with metallic threads to give a frozen semi translucent appearance.  

Below are examples of different processes I have engaged in when creating my textile art.