Info

Background

Sarah spent some ten years teaching art and textiles in secondary schools in Yorkshire, before leaving to start her family.

Sarah studied for the City & Guilds in Creative Embroidery, gaining distinctions for both Parts I and II. Sarah has continued to develop her own work, exhibiting widely giving talks, demonstrations and workshops, undertaking commissions and organising exhibitions.

A couple of years ago Sarah undertook a post-graduate course to support all the work she has done over the last ten years with vulnerable people – elderly and disadvantaged young people. Sarah continues to work extensively in the community and undertakes consultancy work for the improvement of standards of educational provision for these groups.

Sarah works as a freelance textile artist and tutor. She exhibits her work widely, having taken part in over 40 group exhibitions since 1991, as well as several solo exhibitions.

Sarah runs many courses on felting, embroidery, beading and surface construction etc. for a diverse range of groups.

In addition, Sarah owns and runs craftynotions.com. Established in 1999, in response to students’ requests for materials after attending Sarah’s workshops, craftynotions.com now supplies a wide range of products to customers worldwide.

International Experience

Sarah was a participant in the first International Felt Congress in Kyrgyzstan. She participated in the conference, interviewed by CNN and traveled into some of the remote areas where felt is still part of the living culture. This first event established a continuing experience that is now an organised opportunity for felt-makers to visit the roots of a felt-making culture.

In Finland Sarah was a guest international tutor at the specialist textile department at Petajavesi Institute. Sarah has also taught in Jersey where she was the inaugural guest speaker at the launch of the Jersey Textile Group.

In 2004 Sarah was the guest of the Stitch, Craft and Knit Show in Perth, where she exhibited her current work and taught several groups in Western Australia and again in 2008.

Sarah has also taught in Canada and Ireland.

Qualifications

B.Ed. (Hons) Art
City & Guilds Embroidery Part I & II (Dist)
Post-Grad AWP (Arts with People), Leeds University 2003/4 (Pilot)

Exhibitions

Sarah has participated in over 40 group exhibitions since 1991, Details

….and solo exhibitions:
Step Textile Centre, Leicester – 1996
Millgate Museum, Newark – 1997
Burton-Upon-Trent – 1998
It Started with a Fish… – 1999/2000 (7 venues)
…Another Kettle of Fish – 2004/5

Additional Experience

Chairman, International Feltmakers Association (1993-1996)
Exhibitions Officer, NottsLincs Textile Designers (1996)
Mentor for Vocational Arts Programme (DeMontfort University)
Lecture on Contemporary Feltwork, Museum of Mankind
Pilot Post-Grad AWP (Arts with People), Leeds University 2003/4