Fiona Gill

 

About me... What shall I tell you?... I have a passion for textiles, fibres and thread. Always have!

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I am an award winning artist 'painting' pictures with loose wool fibres, soapy water and stitch. My pieces are made using the wet felting technique which means I layer up fine wool fibres to make my design and then soak the whole thing with hot soapy water and bash it around a bit so that all those loose fibres mesh together to create a piece of fabric called felt...(it's not quite as easy as that.) The wool will have shrunk and distorted, and small pieces will have moved but with skill and pinch of luck I will have produced a beautiful picture that once dry, I can embellish with stitch.

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I like to make things a little more difficult for myself by depicting realistic animals in my work...something often only done with needle felting. By only wet felting, my animals have a fluidity and softness, a breath of life... a heart beat. But this is a tricky business. If the wool shrinks too much in one direction or fibres move out of place, the picture is distorted and ruined. There are no second chances.

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I work from home in the Yorkshire Dales under the name Marmaladerose. I'm surrounded by hills, sheep and wild windy skies but it's not the wide undulating landscapes that inspire me... it's the small places. A tangle of grasses and buttercups underneath a bush, the wild flowers and daisies around a gate post, the corner of a summer meadow...the secret world of wildlife.

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I have no formal training only a lifetime passion for textile craft, experimenting, practicing and creating. I have no rules or guidelines no one to please but myself and my customers. My work is purchased by lovely people from all over the world with pieces in homes as far afield as Australia, New Zealand, Canada and America. I have received, amongst others, invitations to teach in Australia, exhibit in Hong Kong and guest present on a TV craft channel. I also won the Knitting and Stitching Show Self Portrait Competition. I exhibit my work in galleries and at art events in the UK. 

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