... it helps to have a humble approach"

I made my first piece of felt in 2003, after impulsively buying a fleece during a day out to a sheep farm with my daughter. I had initially tried spinning and knitting with it, but I wasn't satisfied with the results and it took me about 6 months to complete knitting a rather ugly hat. So I tried making felt with the aid of a book. This was much harder then expected and the result was not nearly as good as I had hoped, but I was amazed by the magic that happens when you add water, soap and a pair of hands to a pile of wool! It was only much later that I realised how lucky I had been to have made any felt at all that day, as not all wool will felt well ...

I grew up in the Netherlands and studied painting at art college (Hogeschool voor de Kunsten) in Utrecht, after which I relocated to the UK. Whilst living here I became a mother, developed an interest in green issues and worked for a not-for-profit environmental organisation in Brighton for seven years. In 2002, my boss offered me the opportunity to attend a Permaculture Design Course, which turned out to be a major turning point in my life.

I had largely ignored my creative drive ever since leaving art college, but a session on the Permaculture course entitled 'patterns in nature' awoke in me a real joy, recognition and a deep desire to reconnect with this part of myself. I started to keep a (tentative) sketch book again, and began to search for a new medium through which I could express myself, but which would also reflect my growing understanding and awareness of environmental issues. I would need to be able to work at home on the kitchen table, in between work and looking after my first child. I had a go at various crafts but none grabbed me like wool. It is a perfect 'green craft' and lends itself very well to incorporating other naturals fibres and materials. Feltmaking is incredibly earthy, tactile and grounding, as well as an organic and - to some extent- unpredictable process. It certainly helps to have a humble approach and to learn not to be too attached to the outcome!

The birth of my second child in 2006 put my felt adventure temporarily on hold, but since 2009 I've thrown myself into it on a more or less full time basis. In the past few years I have also started experimenting with natural dyes, growing dye plants on a local permaculture smallholding, and I can see that this could become a real passion in its own right too. It is a perfect link between the two activities I love doing most; feltmaking and gardening. Alongside my work as a felt maker, I jointly run Vallis Veg Boxes, a local vegetable box scheme based in Frome (Somerset) of which I am a founding partner, and from time to time I help teach on permaculture courses.

My felt work is inspired by nature (sometimes rather whimsically!) and its amazing range of patterns, textures and structures. In this way, my felt is intimately linked to permaculture, which teaches us the importance of observing nature in order to find ways in which we can learn to live more lightly on the earth. I find it is impossible to observe the natural world and not to consider the nature of creativity, or to become inspired by the abundance of its materials!