Throughout my life I’ve had an active working relationship with fabric, thread and sewing machines but about ten years ago, I decided to focus much more seriously on textile practice.

I took a number of intensive courses led by well-known textile artists and for three years I was a student in Jean Draper’s Design for Stitch advanced workshop. Jean’s mentoring and her approach to her own work have been a really important influence on me. 

Before concentrating full-time on textile art, I’d had a long career as a university academic. During that time, my teaching and research focused on issues of human rights, equality and social justice with particular reference to the experience of disabled children and adults and those whose lives are shaped by poverty and material hardship.

My individual textile work is mainly abstract and is connected either to places that have made a lasting impression or to the social justice issues that have always been important to me. I make machine and hand stitched pieces using a wide range of collaged fabrics, yarns and other mixed media. When I’m developing an idea, I rely heavily on drawing, taking photographs and sampling with cloth, thread and paint. Depending on the subject, I often do quite a lot of library research, too.

In addition to my individual practice, I have a long-standing interest in the social and historical role of textile art and craft as a medium of political commentary, protest and resistance. 

I am very committed to socially engaged practice and I enjoy working with others to find ways of using textiles as a medium to express ideas that are important to them. One example of this 

collective approach was LB’s Justice Quilt, a large wall hanging made to mourn the death and celebrate the life of Connor Sparrowhawk, a young learning disabled man. The piece was 

constructed from fragments of cloth contributed by several hundred people from seven different countries.

  

I am a member of the Broadway Group of textile artists and I live in Coventry, UK.