Give me an inspiration from the natural world, some fabric and some threads and I’m happy. Creativity is an absorbing occupation where time disappears. Making pieces that start life as a colour, a shape, a fabric or a thread and are assembled in a multitude of ways is a thrilling process.

As a choreographer I see movement in everything, so I love to create movement in my stitched pieces: from stormy waves, falling leaves and fields of waving corn to flocking birds and darting fish, from scrunched chiffon secured with fly stitch creating sheets of rain, to swathes of running stitches giving the effect of light and shadow on curving architecture.

Walking on moorland, by the sea or high up in the mountains gives one an objective view and a space in the mind in which to develop ideas.

I like to use a variety of techniques, choosing the most appropriate for each piece of work. Machine embroidery with massed stitches can give a painterly effect. Cut shapes, pieced together and quilted produce a soft tactile three dimensional result, and hand stitching can bring a variety of textures to a piece. Layering is another exciting method, which uses chiffon and sheer fabrics to build up a depth of colour and an atmosphere.

I have always been a stitcher and maker but was given a real boost when I took the City and Guilds Creative Embroidery course parts 1 and 2. Many more doors were opened to me - in one way giving so many more ways to create stitched textiles yet in another way providing me with far too many exciting choices to make.

To walk into the magical ancient Wistman’s Wood on Dartmoor or pass by a waving cornfield is to set the creative thoughts flowing giving me the urge to re-produce, in some artistic form, the sensation of being there. Too many thoughts and not enough time!

Since completing the City and Guilds course I have been exhibiting in various local venues – the Chard art gallery in Hooked on Books in 2002, the Meeting House Arts Centre, Ilminster in 2004 the Exmouth Art Gallery in 2005, Otterton Mill in Devon in 2005/6, annually in the Beaminster Festival since 2003, at Mangerton Mill Embroidery Studio in 2006 and further afield in Falmouth Arts Centre in 2006 and Salisbury Arts Centre in 2007.

Combining the creative processes of choreographing with designing for a textile piece has become an interest for me. I have started running workshops called Dancing Stitches, which involve translating a movement response to a visual or audio stimulus, into marks, lines and shapes which can then be adapted into design for fabric and stitch.

In 2006 I ran a year long arts council funded project called Threads of Memory Footprints of Time which was an intergenerational event based on the stimulus of the iron- age hill forts of Pilsdon Pen in West Dorset and Ham Hill in South Somerset. Children made costumes and dances based on their guided walk around Ham Hill and the adults made 2 metre panels, costumes and dances based on several visits to Pilsdon Pen, for their combined performances. The resulting stitched textile work was full of movement and vitality and the performances were very lively. The participants experienced new exciting ways into creativity.

In 2009 I am running day workshops on Dancing Stitches for the Embroidery Guild, of which I am a member and West Country Embroiderers. For details of these please visit my Exhibitions & Workshops page.

Over many years I have taught creative/ contemporary dance based on Rudolf Laban’s principles, in schools, on summer schools, including Laban International Courses (LInC), on teacher training courses for the Laban Guild and choreographed dances in schools and in the community.

In 2009 I plan to run day workshops on “Dancing Art” and “Dancing Stitches”. “Dancing Art” will involve combining movement with a wider range of art determined by the interests of the participants.