The home of Art : made with Heart
Hello beautiful creatures! I’m Trixie an ansolute fanatic of the Arts in many of it’s forms. I have explored and practised performance, music, circus, street, fine and faerie Art in my years as an Artist and Im ecstatic to say that Fibre Art has won a massive place in my heart. It brings me great joy to create using sustainable and recycled materials with an ever growing thirst to learn more about processing and natural dyes, enabling me to eventually bring you yarn from my own lovely sheep. Having just moved to Kent I’m discovering Romney wool and admiring the ancestry of the Romney Marsh Farmers. Anyway, it all started in my living room in Barnham when I became a single parent. With a borrowed spinning wheel and drum carder and having fallen in love with the endless possibilities this craft offers, I started my journey weaving and entwining my creative love into solo motherhood. As I rebuilt my life emotionally and physically I was offered a caravan on a piece of land with a gorgeous little community of women in Somerset. This was exactly what I need to feed my soul with nourishing goodness and permission to just be me. I set up my studio first in a friend’s out house, then I built a shared space on the land and eventually synchronistically landed a space at The Red Brick building in Glastonbury. From there I came to Kent where again I am building a space with recycled materials in our glorious garden at the end of the Orchard. I have learnt so much already in this field and still feel I have so much more to explore, I hope you enjoy my work as much as I love making it and thank you so much for your support. It means a lot for us small creative businesses.
As a conscious creator I like to take the time to research where my materials are coming from. It is very important to me that I use sustainable, donated or recycled materials. I do use acrylic yarn depending on the project and for those whose skin is too sensitive for wool. Its also a good one for experimenting patterns as I do a lot of projects not knowing how it will turn out, I follow the ebb and flow and eventually it takes shape and shows me what it is. The Fibre I currently use for hand spun creations comes from The Wingham Wool Company and I have started also experimenting with local Romney fibres. I use the pre-dyed Merino Fibre from Wingham as I find Merino has so many desirable qualities. Merino Wool is a unique, versatile material that has temperature-resistant properties. Not only does it keep you warm in the winter, but it is sustainable, renewable, fire proof and even antibacterial, which means you’ll very rarely need to wash it. Combined with Romney its an absolute dream! I also source wood locally or from trusted sources, I mostly use apple wood for my hand made buttons. I put so much love into my work, I love what I do and do what I love and wish to encourage everyone to follow their highest excitements in life and keep ancient arts alive. Other materials such as the firestar fibres and silks are sourced from other small creative businesse on Etsy, which are UK based fibre providers.
All about little ol’me…
After encountering performers on the street and realising you didn’t need to have lots of money to become a performer, I ambitiously pursued my dream to be a Performance Artist and persevered against all odds to obtain an education in Theatre and Performing Arts. In 2007 I graduated and through a very magical happening, I met my dearest friend and co-creator Bubbles La Fae (www.linktr.ee/bubblesthepixie) together we created the Performance troupe ‘The Seelie Court Faeries’ (now rebranded ‘The Bubble Faeries‘) bringing our zany, colourful, musical comedy faerie characters to audiences everywhere for many years thereafter and still now. As a faerie performer nature started to become a very prominent part of my life and my consideration for the good of the planet and all those who live on it became more important than ever before. It made me question how I could combine my love of creativity and sustainability?
My time as a faerie also fed my passion for music and I started singing and playing Ukulele on the streets in local towns. I got a warm welcome in most of the places I performed and felt hugely encouraged to continue sharing my musical talents. And so I did!
In 2016 I followed another of my dreams, to travel. I left the UK with a backpack and hitch hiked my way to Portugal, where I had booked onto a Vipassana Meditation Course. All the way I spent my time singing and playing on the streets, meeting kind and beautiful people who helped me to my final destination. I managed to restore a man’s faith in humanity, eat lots of french pastry and inspire a community to hold regular communal singing along the way. The Vipassana served me wonderfully leading me to the next chapter of my life, embarking on yet another amazing adventure, I decluttered all my possessions, packed up the essentials on a bike trailer (to include hula hoops, fire fans and ukulele) sold my van for a good bike and cycled to Barcelona and then onto Morocco.
This, I thought, was the solution to my question, it combines sustainability, creativity and the ability to travel. And so off I went, it was exhilarating, exhausting, energising, full of wonderous sights that you would otherwise miss in a vehicle, there were mountains, icy forests, waterfalls and unpredictable weather but that’s another story for another time. The downside to this lifestyle, for me, was the lack of ability to carry craft supplies. And so after 6 months I gave up the bike and traded it in for a small van again. Returning to the UK for festival season in 2018, I co-created ‘The Circus of Dreams’ a wonderful Puppet show about a girl called Maud and her adventure into realising how much she loves the circus and everyone there. Alongside this I had the joy of serving handmade pizza and becoming part of the beautiful community that is pizza and puppets.
Between festivals I was a little lost and unsure which Artistic direction to turn next and after asking the Universe for a new challenge, I was surprised to find myself pregnant which took away any doubt about what I needed to do next. And so I thrive to give my daughter the best start in life and HeARTworks Magic is now my new creative love.
xX Massive thanks for your support! Xx