"Give Me Spots on my Apples"
 A felted hat and mitten collection

Self-sufficiency is a very important part of my life and art practice.  Growing up in rural Cape Breton Island, our family always had a large, prolific vegetable garden.  The seasons of the year were best described in terms of planting, harvesting and preserving schedules.  “Organic” was not a political ideology or a marketing manoeuver; it was just how things were done and had always been done.   I continue to be inspired by the colours and textures of fruit and vegetables, the histories and geographies of heirloom varieties, and the political and social climate of the local food movement.    This collection of felted hats and fingerless mittens were inspired by the diversity of colours, shapes and textures of garden produce.  The hats were hand-knit with woollen yarn, wet-felted in my washing machine, and finally embellished with carded wool roving through the process of needle-felting.  The fingerless mittens were hand-knit and needle-felted.