Jenny has always enjoyed creating; and after several years of experimenting with different media she came back to her true love: textiles.  It is in her blood,  her paternal grandfather was a tailor and her mother taught her to sew and nurtured her love of craft and design.  She completed her City and Guilds embroidery diploma in 2007, having received an ICHF bursary in her final year, giving the opportunity for a solo student stand at The Fashion and Embroidery Show.

Her work reflects her interests and passions over the years, such as landscape, swimming, ethnic iconography and science. Jenny uses various materials and embroidery techniques and these  usually flow from her current inspiration.  Her work is often abstract in nature and includes hidden elements, only know to the artist.  During her City and Guilds training she completed a design project on the Botanic Gardens in Cambridge.  This led to a major piece based on the seed pods of the false acacia tree; focusing on the theme of “secret,  hidden, enclosed and precious”.  It was while completing this work she realised this theme had been a constant element of her work, appearing in a variety of ways.

She has exhibited nationally mostly while a member of Fibrefusion and has work published in books.  She has had several commissions, mostly related to story telling, the largest of these was in 2009 for the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences in Cambridge.  She designed and made a story mat for general use by the Museum and specifically for their education project relating to Charles Darwin's role as a geologist during his travels in the Beagle.  Jenny got a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction from this project, as is shown from the end of her entry on Sedgwick Museum's blog:

“Although I actually made the story mat, its creation was a collaborative process involving many people.  As it begins its life with the Sedgwick Museum, it is lovely to think of it being out there in the world and being used and enjoyed over the coming years. I’ve loved hearing about its early visits to schools and the responses of teachers and children. Hearing of a child’s cry, “It’s the whole world!” was just brilliant, a lovely ending to what I regard as “my dream commission”.

Jenny had her first solo exhibition in 2010, Protein Art: In Thread and Ink.  This was at The Sanger Institute,  Wellcome Trust at The Genome Campus at Hinxton.  She constructed several silk hangings, based on  the forms of structural proteins.  Some of these textile pieces were used to make collagraph prints and both the textiles and prints featured in her exhibition.  This work has been developed into nuno felted pieces exploring other elements of protein structure.  Her next exhibition,  'Elemental Threads' at the Artcell gallery, CRUK, Cambridge develops the theme of protein structure and opened in July 2011 as part of Cambridge Open Studios.

Jenny joined EAST at the beginning of 2011 and is currently exploring different inspirations for inclusion in their exhibitions.  Continuing the theme of secret,  hidden, enclosed and precious she is researching the prehistoric monuments of Dorset, her home county.  She has become fascinated with round barrows in particular and at the moment has no idea where this will lead her.

“I've just realised that my new work for EAST is the embodiment of my persistent theme,  it is hidden and secret,  even from me!  How exciting to be starting a journey and I have no idea where it will take me!”

Talks and Demonstrations relating to her work:

Protein Art: In Thread and Ink

Making a Story mat

Making a piece of Art in the medium of felt

For more information on Jenny and her work -

http://www.arttextiles.co.uk/

For information on Cambridge Open Studios -

http://www.camopenstudios.co.uk

For more information on Jenny's involvement with the "Darwin the Geologist" project -

http://darwinthegeologist.org/?p=42