Creating with fibre and fabric has been a passion since I learned to thread a needle at the age of eight and started making what would now be vintage doll clothes! First a seamstress, then a weaver, I now combine both of those skills with the popular surface embellishment technique of needle felting and with the art of wet felting. Blending colour and texture in surface design is especially important to me and is a hallmark of my work. I consider my technique to be akin to painting with fibre, especially wool.
I am largely self and peer taught, and
have taken advantage of many workshop and short course opportunities to enhance
my skills over the years. I have been fortunate to have lived in several diverse
areas of Canada, and to have traveled in many other locations in Canada and
abroad. From growing up and being educated in southern Ontario, to experiencing
life in two of Canadas national parks, Wood Buffalo in the Northwest Territories
and Waterton Lakes in southern Alberta; then living in Calgary and finally
Victoria BC where I now reside, many of my visions of colour and texture come to
me through the sights I have experienced over a lifetime in various locales.
Now, the ever-changing designs and colours in nature around me are of great
influence when I combine fabrics and fibres, primarily wool and silk, to create
decorative, wearable and functional art with a West Coast flavour.
As a member and a Director of the Island
Artisans Association, an organization representing Vancouver Island and Gulf
Island artisans in the promotion and appreciation of quality craft, I am an
active supporter of excellence in craft. I am also a member of a local textile
art group Fibres and Beyond.
I am a vendor annually at Gifts for Myself
and Others and at Out of Hand, quality craft shows held in Victoria. I currently
sell my work at Side Street Studio, She Said Gallery, the Royal British Columbia
Museum Shop, Knotty By Nature and Abkhazi Gardens in Victoria as well as the
Chemainus Theatre Gallery, Sooke Harbour House and the Sooke Regional Museum
Shop.
