I travelled a lot as a child with my family so it was in the blood, and after I left school I spent several years travelling around and working in various countries. Firstly in Europe, spending summers in Ibiza selling beach party tickets, then overland to India before hopping on to Australia where I worked on a fishing boat for months up in a remote mining area on the Western Coast. Periodically, I saved money back in UK doing various things including taxi driving (big tips!) to fund overland adventures through Africa.
Then I met Julian, who is an artist/printmaker and a beekeeper - we started family life in Norfolk where we lived in various ruins, caravans, the odd bus and led a 'self sufficient' lifestyle with goats, a pony, pigs, chickens, a milking cow and orphan lambs. Gardening became a passion, particularly vegetables as we could eat them, but I loved growing a few flowers! Someone gave me a spinning wheel and a friend taught me how to spin; another one taught me how to knit and then with homeschooled children (we had 3 girls) we built bonfires, boiled up various plants in big pots and discovered the amazing colours that could be bestowed on fleece.
Not many people were doing this then, and over the years people started asking me to show them how to get colour from leaves, roots and flowers. So I developed a more organised approach, read books and experimented. Our children went to Steiner School… and I learnt to weave and felt. Despite never formally training as an artist, I found I was in my element playing with colour and texture.
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