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Hobbz Designs
Website:
'@hobbzdesigns
Oystercatchers
Coastal bird paperweights
Anemone
Biography
Rachel endeavours to capture and share the beauty and wonder of the natural world through her artwork. Being able to take the colours and feel of a place in a particular moment and preserve it for others to enjoy is an underlying theme of her work.
Rachel enjoys sharing the stories behind her work especially when this leads to further connections.
inspiration
Inspiration comes from the wildlife Rachel sees on coastal and rural walks. Her bird collection includes work inspired by the North Norfolk Coast, Northumberland, the Inner Hebrides and the South of Ireland. The textures and colours she uses are reflective of these natural landscapes.
Her garden is another source of inspiration and she seeks to evoke the shapes, lines and colours within this space in her work.
medium
Work is mainly created by using needle felting techniques to make the various backgrounds by fusing very fine wool fibres together. Other fibres such as flax, mulberry silk and silk throwsters waste are added using either a needle felting needle or tool to secure them into place. A small amount of angelina is usually sprinkled on and then fixed using heat.
Brooch backgrounds are made to be very dense which requires a lot more needle felting and shaping with the use of a single needle.
Birds, plants and other details are then embroidered onto the surface using a range of stitches such as back stitch, French knot, bullion knot, couching or stem stitch.
Rachel also creates birds and flowers using purely embroidery stitches which have been joined together with water soluble fabric.