Mother Tongue

Hygge (2025)

Embroidery, Quilted Fabric

68 x 68 cm

Hygge (pronounced hu-gah) is a defining characteristic of Danish culture. Hygge encompasses community, connection, cosy surroundings and warming acts of comfort. Through my work and research into women-led spaces and making circles, I felt a strong resonance with this concept and realised that I had been embodying hygge for a while in my own life and through these circles of making. The slow and considered act of making something by hand is very much in keeping with hygge.

This wall hanging quilt is a visual representation of my own personal hygge. Each colour block has been laid out in a log cabin style, the colours representative of a different touchstone. Each colour piece was made using collaging and free-motion embroidery and then cut into strips to form the blocks. There is continuity in the threads, each colour from the last block continuing on into the next.

Yellow (centre square) - The perfect golden quality of the light through my studio windows in the afternoon.

Gold - The textures present in all the spools of thread that adorn the walls of my workspace.

Teal - The ever-present stacks of books and fabrics on my shelves.

Pink - The pink cushion on my cosy arm chair, the knitted pattern in the jumper my sister made for me, my crochet hooks in their case.

Blue - The dreamy quality of the sky and clouds above the roof tops as I look out the window.

Red - My armchair, thrifted from a charity shop and now a vital touchstone for my daily grounding and journaling.

Green - The plants in my garden, the plants I am drawn to on my daily dog walks and the colours present in the mural on my studio wall.

This artwork is not currently for sale. It is due to be exhibited in February 2026, after which it will be released for sale by offer.

Allowing myself to be led (2025)

Embroidery

60 x 90 cm

This piece is about human connection. In the initial stages of my work, I consciously returned to valuing and prioritising physical human interactions over the pseudo-social platforms we use online. I allowed myself to be led by each conversation, meeting, event, personal voice note and phone call, following the connecting exchanges wherever they took me. Through this process, I kept returning to the image of a forest and the slow mindful wanderings of a forest bather. The path through a forest is rarely straight and there is always a temptation to deviate and discover hidden delights in the trees. Pink Trees, Horizontal and Vertical were all development pieces towards this larger machine embroidery work. The materials used are all donated and gathered fabric scraps from people I have met and places I have been.

The photograph for this piece was taken while on a walk with a friend through Preston Park, Stockton-on-Tees.

SOLD

Vertical (2025)

Embroidery

30 x 22 cm

After completing Pink Trees, I wanted to explore further the impact of changing the directions of threads in my machine embroidery. In my painted works, brushstroke direction and textures created using a palette knife feature heavily to create movement and shape. In these two works, I am exploring how this may be transferred and recreated in the medium of fabric collage and free-motion embroidery.

Horizontal (2025)

Embroidery

30 x 22 cm

These artworks are for sale by offer and/or exchange.

Please follow the link below and read the information if you would like to own this piece.

Pink Trees (2025)

Embroidery

19 x 19 cm

I knew I wanted to return to textiles being at the core of my work. The primary focus of my practice through which all other threads of artistic exploration emerged. I begun simply by collaging found images and colour mapping with marker pens. This embroidery is created from an image of what is likely a Japanese maple tree that I found in a magazine. Here I am playing with textures, colours and thread direction, layering different fibres and fabrics.

SOLD