About

Two of my passions are embroidery and botanical art. I find the process of stitching or painting to be calming and therapeutic in these difficult times.

I love the process of designing and developing my ideas for combining these two mediums and hope to share some of my techniques with you.

Currently I am enrolled on the Certificate and Diploma Course run by the Royal School of Needlework. I have completed the certificate modules in Jacobean Crewelwork and Blackwork and am working on the remaining modules in Silk Shading and Goldwork. The standard set by the RSN is very high but with the help of their wonderful tutors it is surprising what can be achieved.

Botanical Art has a long history and I find some of the beautiful paintings produced by artists, both ancient and modern, to be truly inspiring. I enjoy working from specimens rather than photographs as I believe this helps to create a more realistic result. Primarily I use watercolours as this is traditional and I love the translucent quality of the finished painting.

At the moment I am also trying out new processes such as natural dyeing and eco-printing using the plants that I am interested in recreating. It will be interesting to see how I progress as so far I have only managed to produce a lot of murky greens but hopefully this will improve. My idea is to incorporate some of the dyed fibres into my stitching.

This is the beginning of a new journey for me. I am excited to see what will happen next…..