Statement

I do like, as far as possible, to create realism in my work. This extends to fibre art pictures also.

I know that there are people who find that realism, especially in textural art, is not necessarily a desirable effect, and there are times that I agree, but overall I lean in that direction.

Fibre art takes many and varied forms, and most of the work in my portfolio is needle felt.

With needle felting a barbed needle is pushed into a substrate, taking fibres with it, and in the case of my fibre art pictures the method is akin to painting with wool, which is the foremost material I use.

This wool is mainly of a fine nature, Merino or other similar wool. Any type of animal hair works just fine as the process involves the scales on the hair-shaft being entangled with its neighbours.

With needle felting, although this effect is required for a stable product, it’s not absolutely imperative because the backing fabric acts as an anchor to some degree, therefore other fibres, which don’t have scales, can be used to great effect.

Man-made fibres such as nylon, polyester, Angelina Fibre and a multitude of others can, and do, add variety and interest in certain pieces. I tend to go for ‘Tops’ or ‘Pencil Rovings’ as I find they are easier to dye to my own requirements.

The substrate or backing materials I use are fleece fabric, cotton fabric, canvas or cotton duck. It is of course, again, possible to use virtually any material for the backing, but one of the main considerations is that you may be poking the needle into the backing for many hours, which can be extremely tiring; therefore, a fabric that offers little resistance to the needle makes this process a lot less fatiguing and much more of a pleasure.

The term fibre art is used with gay abandon in the craft community, but strictly speaking it should only be applied to projects which use fibre as the main medium, otherwise sewing and needlework should be and indeed are, sometimes, included in the topic.

My inspiration comes from so many different avenues, it would be a mammoth task to describe them all to you here, suffice to say that I am, as is evidenced in my work, influenced by nature to a large degree. I find that butterflies and birds come very high on the list of my biggest influences.

I love colour and all of the ways it can be used to great effect. I enjoy playing with colour to discover what goes well with what. The coordination aspect, the contrast, gradient and hue and saturation are all fascinating.

I’m probably getting boring now, if all you were looking for was an insight into my inspiration. I’ll just conclude by telling you that I absolutely love doing what I do, sometimes over things like eating!!

“Fibre Art 1”

“Fibre Art 2”

“Fibre Art 3”