The Selvedge Winter Fair

On Saturday 10th November I will be taking part in the Selvedge Magazine Winter Fair at Chelsea Old Town Hall, King's Road, London. It's on from 10am-4pm, do come along and pop in if you're in the area. There will be over 60 exhibitors and I'll have a range of brooches, rings and necklaces on sale-it's a great opportunity to buy some lovely handmade gifts for Christmas, or just to treat yourself! Find out more at selvedge.org

A selection of knitted and felted necklaces I'm working on, embellished with found objects and broken jewellery

Detail of knitted necklace embellished with beads taken from broken jewellery

Hope to see you there!

My other train of thought

I'd like to share with you some previous work to give some background to my working process.

I love to have the freedom to develop ideas without the constraints of making a functional piece and it is mostly through working in this way that the ideas for my jewellery are formed and developed.

"Curiosity"

As you will know by now, my obsessions are knitting and felting and my main objective through my work is to explore the possibilities of these crafts and subvert wool as much as I can! For my last main big project "Curiosity" I was lucky enough to have a month long residency in the Benham Gallery at Cuckoo Farm Studios, which was essentially an exploration into the sculptural and textural possibilities of knit and felt. This subject is something I want to continue to return to in order to explore the infinite possibilities surrounding this subject and I hope that one day I will have the time and the organisational skills (!) to work the two strands of my work, being the conceptual pieces and jewellery, side by side. Ultimately, in everything I make I want to ensure that there is integrity in the thought processes behind the pieces.

I made this piece from two separate knitted tubes and Shibori felting experiments.


The bobbles run all the way through the middle of the piece! The pieces were hung from the ceiling using invisible thread, creating an ethereal presentation.





Many visitors to the exhibition said the pieces reminded them of sea creatures

Knit and crochet piece- I added my Crocheted strings by hooking them into the knitting machine needles when constructing the tube 

Once I get the Gallery section of my site up and running I can share more, but for now I hope this gives you some insight into how my work and my thoughts develop!

Foraging, walking and cooking!

When I'm not sewing and knitting one of my most favorite ways to spend my time is cooking (and eating!) lovely homemade things. I also love to forage for ingredients, and as I have a Labrador who is at her happiest out in the countryside (pictures of her to follow at some point, she doesn't like to sit still for  long!), dog walks provide a  handy time to pick blackberries and apples, which is exactly what I did last weekend!

Here is the result, Blackberry and Apple Gin which will be ready just in time for Christmas!

This was how it looked a week ago

This is how it looks now, just a simple combination of fruit, sugar and Gin, can't wait to try it!
If you'd like to make some yourself, the recipe is taken from the River Cottage Preserves book

By way of news of the textile variety, I'm currently making lots of things for a London Textile Fair next month, I'll let you know more when the advertising is released!