ABOUT ME
The Fibresmith
Artist & Feltmaker
I often describe myself as a fibresmith. I think the term really fits with the nature of my work. Taking a raw material and shaping it into something with purpose and meaning. It's mucky, messy and so much fun.
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I didn't start out to create a business around it but sometimes life steers you in a direction you didn't realise you needed to go.
During the first Covid lockdown in March 2020 I made a felt cushion for my very hard kitchen chair. This then led to a general clear out of the spare room and in the clutter I found a Country Living article I’d kept from 2016, about a thing called a Felted Fleece Rug. There was a lovely Romney fleece in one of the boxes so I thought let's give it a go!
I really really wanted to figure the process out, I love the concept of a felted fleece rug, it’s ethical and sustainable and beautiful. It’s like a traditional tanned sheepskin rug (and you can use it the same way) but it’s sheep-friendly and nobody had to die for it! And it celebrates wool, in all its glorious varieties.
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I’ve always lived with wool. I’m a sheepfarmers daughter and the descendant of a long line of spinners and weavers. I learnt to knit when I was very very small. When I was a kid wool was still king, we were taught to value it from an early age. We earned our Christmas pocket money rousing on the boards in the woolshed. My pet lambs lived their whole lives in the Old Orchard. A mix of coloured & standard breeds; Arapawa, Hokonui Merinos, Romneys, Suffolks.
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I still remember them - Beauty, Teddy, Prince, Gorgeous, Nessie, Daisy, Jumper and Golly. The last time I was in a woolshed was when I left the farm at 18. For many years my life was lived in other places, so far removed from rural life that it was quite a
surprise to find myself back in a woolshed over 20 years later. It was like I’d never left. Close my eyes and I'm eight years old again.
But felted fleece rugs took a bit of cracking. It was a great many months before I had a product I was truly satisfied with. I knew how to make felt but rugs are different. I still have that first ever rug, it took me about 3 months of trying just to get to that stage, so I keep it as a memory of lessons learned. The discovery method worked pretty well for me and helped me understand a lot about the 'why' of the process and not just the 'how'. I’m still making new discoveries.
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Love Felt grew in a similar trial and error fashion, it was never a proper planned out thing although when I look back on it now I can see exactly why the things that were successful worked. I called the business Love Felt because I wanted a name that described what I was doing - feltmaking - and I added the Love in front because I think everyone should love felt! It’s an awesome natural product.
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I attended my very first market in Nov 2020. I didn’t have any rugs ready for sale yet but I was determined to start so I made some felt Christmas decorations and shared a stall with a friend. During that market a lady came up asking if I made felt cushions, I thought about my own round felt cushion that I’d made back during lockdown and showed her a picture. And just like that a whole product line was born. Sometimes it’s about being in the right place at the right time. The cushions didn’t stay plain for long, I enjoy design and adding motifs onto the cushions was something that happened very early on. Picture cushions are now a staple of the Love Felt cushion collection.
Rugs and cushions are the primary focus of the business but in the winter of 2022 I added the Fibreworks into the mix. This was a way of bringing fine art into the business. My Fibreworks are created in the same way as the designs on my picture cushions, but they are much more detailed and are worked onto canvas. I use a variety of fibres - primarily wool but also silk, cotton, linen, angora, mohair, feathers & fur. They are a winter hobby for me. The feltmaking business runs year round and the rugs take up all my time in summer. But in the winter the markets and events are finished, the garden is tucked up in bed and there’s the odd spare afternoon. There’s many, many ideas that I have stacked up in my mind just waiting for the day!
I live in Arrowtown, its an old gold mining town about 20mins out of Queenstown. There's a lot of history here. My town features in a lot of my work and has influenced a number of my cushion designs. My dogs and I regularly walk the hills and river tracks. It's wonderful to be so connected to the place where you live. The roots go pretty deep here.
Our local market has been a fabulous place to connect with people who are interested in my work and it’s very exciting when you discover that some of your creations are heading off to different places around the world.
I source most of my feltmaking wool from Central Otago, there’s a little carding mill near Roxburgh and they grow a lot of the wool themselves. It’s lovely to work with. The rug fleeces mostly come from sheep that live just down the road. Arrowtown is only 20 mins from an International airport but we’re still surrounded by rural land. It’s such a unique place.
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I now work in my business full time. It was a leap of faith in the beginning but I’m so proud to say that it has worked out for the good. The possibilities for the future are endless and that’s an exciting thing!
