About Tors

I design and make everything in my home studio surrounded by all the beautiful fabrics, yarns and threads that I am always collecting. I love to give them new life and minimise the environmental impact of waste with my work.
I live near the coast in Burnham-on-Crouch, a small town on a river east of London.  A lot of my work is influenced by my beautiful coastal surroundings, nature and in contrast the interesting architecture of cities especially London.

I enjoy experimenting with colours and textures using both free machine and hand embroidery.
Most of my jewellery designs use dense machine embroidery to blend colours and give pattern and texture but I also enjoy the slowness of hand embroidery and the beauty of hand dyed yarns.
I finish most of my jewellery by hand beading tiny seed beads along the edge to accentuate the colours and shape. I use special beading thread to ensure the beads are very secure.

My ‘Threadscape’ pictures start with a dry felted collage and then more detail is added with lots of free machine stitch. Finally I add the grass foreground with meticulous hand stitching.
In other areas of my work I love to use black thread and free machine stitch to ‘sketch/draw’.

Everything is made to a very high standard so it is special and will be enjoyed for a long time.

 

 

"I always loved sewing, knitting and textiles but it all really developed as part of my recovery from ME which I got after qualifying as a Chartered Accountant. Although recovering from ME took a long time I am so happy that it initiated this complete change in direction. I then studied and got a City & Guilds distinction and enjoyed residential courses learning from talented embroiderers including the very innovative Valerie Campbell-Harding.
The jewellery designing began when I started making earrings for myself as I love wearing large earrings but the ones I bought were always uncomfortably heavy. I realised that with my embroidered fabrics I could make beautiful feather light earrings. I continue to enjoy creating new jewellery designs and unique accessories"