After a decade away, last year I moved back to Dunoon and am enjoying re-rooting myself here and organising my home around my various creative activities. Currently I’m experimenting with mono-screenprinting, where I paint/draw on a silkscreen in watercolour, graphite and watercolour pencils, and then pull a one-off print. Other printmaking experiments involve using a gel plate to create monoprints and monotypes.

You are very welcome to visit my home/studio during the Cowal Open Studios weekend, and see some finished art pieces and bags, and to browse my sketchbooks, and I can show you some of the little sketching kits I take out and about with me so I can sketch on the go. I’m a member of Glasgow Urban Sketchers group (although I’m mostly out and about in Dunoon and Argyll). I love sketching landscapes/seascapes but also in cafes and in the town and on the sea front.

Textile art is another sphere of activity. I started (self taught using books, blogs and Youtube) making felted pictures, then learned machine and hand embroidery. Later I attended a course in eco-printing (with Wild Rose Escapes near Inverness), printing leaves on fabric and paper and how to mordant fabrics to give the best results. I had fun teaching myself indigo shibori/tie-dyeing. This year I’m attending a course in tapestry weaving run by one of the COS artists, Lorna Morrish – it’s very addictive!

The bags, pouches and accessories I make are usually fairly utilitarian and practical. I like sewing with fabrics that are as earth-friendly as I can manage. I mostly use Harris Tweed, waxed canvas and linen.

I have a degree in Visual Communication and worked for a long time as a graphic designer of health promotion materials and facilitated many community arts projects. I later retrained as a nurse, and my work took me to various parts of Aberdeenshire, Argyll and latterly, NW Sutherland, where I worked as a community nurse, part time. In 2014, on my days off, I started making felted pictures and taught myself how to use a sewing machine to do free motion embroidery. I learned to sew cushion covers and Harris Tweed accessories, and began selling online and at a local craft market. I developed a love of working with vintage sewing machines, and have to confess to having way too many machines! But they are very sturdy reliable machines and I do use several of them for sewing bags now – you are welcome to come and see the ones that are currently employed in my sewing space!