Stone Creek Silk started like so many craft businesses, as a hobby. I had been told at school that I couldn't draw and I believed it - as you do at that age. Many years later I was dragged along to an art materials exhibition by a friend and saw someone demonstrating silk painting. The colours she was using were amazing - rich vibrant colour on a shimmering fabric.
My friend and I bought small bottles of around half a dozen colours and a kit of other bits. I'd like to say that I didn't look back after this but after I had gone the rounds of making shapes with white outlines, using gutta/outliner, applying colour and throwing a lot of salt around, I 'stuck' for quite a long time. I had to get some training so I enrolled, with great nervousness, for GCSE Art and Design at nightclass.
My tutor was absolutely amazing - a lady called Sue Spivey who, when I told her I couldn't draw said simply that I hadn't been taught to draw. She then proceeded to do so .... It was a wonderful course and set me up with the basic skills I needed to progress.
I've since worked with techniques from batik and shibori to various dyeing methods, including indigo dyeing. I'm currently developing work using a wonderful technique called cyanotyping, which is the subject of my first book, and also various methods for transferring digital images to fabric. Since I spent 20 years working with IT I'm very comfortable with these combinations of digital techniques and textiles.
I have sold my work through craft fairs and textile shows for the last ten years and for the last three years I've been teaching textile workshops in various locations and for a variety of Guilds and Groups.
Iain, my husband and 'carrier of heavy items', and I live in East Yorkshire, with our three cats, on the bank of the Humber estuary in Stone Creek House - hence the name ...