My process starts with a photograph that I have generally taken. I make sketches and notes of my thoughts and ideas and these are the basis of how I intend to recreate the essence of the scene and my response to it, the mood I want to convey. My pieces build and develop over time as I stitch in a slow and methodical way. Contrasting areas texturally rich in stitch with ‘quiet’ areas, spaces between stitches or little or no stitch at all, I explore the rhythm and movement which brings a scene alive to me. An atmosphere evoked, a pictorial reading between the lines. I use scraps, vintage, re-purposed or hand-dyed threads and fabrics in my work whenever I can to consciously move away from the new, manufactured, environmental calamity that textile production has become. I am also exploring painting or dyeing my backgrounds as my latest seascape shows.