About Jo

Jo has been a creative artist all her life. Starting at a very young age as a dancer, Jo learned about story and expression through movement and creating with needle and thread, stitching and darning the many costumes and shoes of the profession.

Coming from a family of creatives, nans and aunts who embroidered, crocheted and knitted, Jo continued to develop her skills.

Largely self-taught, Jo works intuitively, allowing the thread and fabric to inspire and work its magic. Studying with different renowned textile artists, it was workshops with Claire Wellesley Smith and Alice Fox which set her on her current path of working with plants and flowers, from which Jo has experimented and refined her practice to where it is today.

Her love of nature, wandering and foraging for the plant materials she uses to dye her cloth and threads, brought forth the stories that needed to be told, her stories. Taking a question or a problem for a walk amongst the trees, began to offer insights, and answers would begin to emerge from the other than human world around her. Jo began to listen as the stories blew on the wind… Her lifelong love of fairy stories began with a gift from an aunt at the age of seven, a book Jo still treasures and re-reads today. Further study of story and fairy tale encouraged Jo’s own stories to emerge.

Capturing moments from these stories in stitch brings her two passions together for the first time. Jo has been teaching her love for textiles for several years, passing on the ancient knowledge of botanical dyeing and printing and also guiding students to stitch their own stories, encouraging each fellow creative to bring their own unique style and experiences to their project.