Page 7 - The Digital Cloth - Issue 5

It’s the 1970’s.....for
christmas I had an emu hand
puppet. A large fluffy stuffed
bird with dangly satin legs and
hard plastic eyes; I tucked his
squishy body under my arm,
inserted my hand into his faux
fur long neck and manipulated
his beak to bring him to life.
Emu was the latest of a long
line of homemade gifts which I
received for christmas every
year. You name it and my
mother could make it; self
taught she copied and
manipulated fabrics into
wonderful gifts, her
talents did not go unnoticed by
friends; as orders stacked up
in December our kitchen
became a workroom of fluffy
body limbs and beady glass
eyes!
Growing up in a creative home
laid the building blocks in my
own journey to becoming an
artist. At 16 I studied art and
textiles at college, then in my
30s trained as an interior
designer. Things changed when I
had my daughter and I found
myself a willing volunteer at
her primary school. I worked at
the school for 9 years, taking
on all manner of art
activities including running a
children’s art club.
Being a self confessed fidget
I was always making ‘something’
in my spare time. My love of
art soon outgrew my hobby room
space; having consistently sold
artwork through local shops and
word of mouth I decided now was
the time to take the plunge,
quit my job, build a proper
studio and go for it!