The Beginning

Hello, Oooh this is scary, my first ever blog post!

So I suppose I better start with a bit about me.

I am a Nottingham based textile designer / artist. I came to Nottingham about 15 years ago to do a degree in Decorative arts and never left. My degree didn't exactly go to plan and I left more confused and directionless than when I arrived. So after leaving college I got a 'proper job' and it wasn't until about 2 years ago that I start making and designing things again and I loved it. I have no idea now why I stopped. I now have so many ideas and a very long list of things I would like to make, but unfortunately the 'proper job' gets in the way slightly.

So after a year of so of making things for friends and myself, as well as lots of encouragement from friends, I decided to try and start selling some of my pieces. Now its still very early days, so I suppose its a good time to start blogging as this will hopefully document my journey.

I had always been a bit scared of doing this, as my writing skills are not fantastic and I was worried that it would just become a place where I would whinge about not having enough time, my insecurities and not selling much, so now I really have to promise not to do this and try and make it a positive thing!

So lets start here. I make a variety of items in various textile mediums, but predominantly using hand made felt, needle felting, machine and hand embroidery and appliqué. I love exploring colour and texture, and combining printed fabrics, buttons and yarn with the felt I produce. I love making wall hangings (the bigger the better – although this makes things harder to post and frame!) but have also been producing brooches, tea & coffee cosies, cards, decorative lampshades & covered books, purses, peg bags etc... I love crafting, I can think nothing better than spending a day pottering about and creating things. I think this is also something I need to remember. I do this because I enjoy it, I need to be careful not to get stressed about not having enough time to make, or not selling enough things and actually remember to enjoy the making and not get too bothered anything else!