Sensory Sculptures and Installations

The Woolly Finger Walk: Sensory Installation

This little woolly installation was made for the Forgotten Fleece Tales touring exhibition  and will be travelling around Scotland from 2025-2027. It was made using only odds and ends of yarn and fleece, and is a combination of crochet and needle-felting, offering a tiny finger walk where people get to explore the landscape and interact with the piece with the senses of sight, touch, smell and hearing (the piece is completely silent and cushioned, offering a refreshing break). I like to call it "a refreshing walk accessible to people of most capacities." 

Nesting: Regulation Station

A heavy and strong nest smelling of friendly sheep is filled with a mini blanket and very small woolly book to provide a safe space that regulates and recharges the tiny woolly brain.

Crocheted with nearly one kilo of pure, undyed Scottish wool sourced from small producers around Scotland. The nest was made with @brawliemuirfarm yarn. The miniature blanket, tiny wool and book were made with yarns from @ionawool, @uistwool, @colonsaywoolgrowers, @heatherleablackcheviot, @brawliemuirfarmand @caithnessyarn

The Forgotten Box and The Forgotten Book

Woolly Mobius Strip

Hyperbolic Formation

Portable Coral Reef

Impossibly cuddly and tactile 🤲🏼

The little corals were made with @heatherleablackcheviot yarn and the sand base was made with @uistwool.

The base was stuffed and lined with beautifully soft cashmere offcuts from @brightonlace

Filomena the Woolly Brain

Sensory Book: Undyed Shades of Scotland

A book without words... improvised to tell the story of Scottish wool and landscapes.

Each page has its own atmosphere inspired by the place that grew the wool used for it. It's a very friendly and cuddly book! 

I called the book Undyed Shades of Scotland in order to show the beautiful variety of shades that can be obtained without dyes. It's always satisfying to discover the character of a yarn and to marvel at the way its colours and texture subtly change depending on the light and the way it is worked. 

A fun fact is that the same sheep will give slightly or massively different colours each year, because it all depends on their age, genes, diet, health, happiness, and weather conditions. 

Made with undyed wool from Brawliemuir Farm, Colonsay Wool Growers, Barkland Croft, Caithness Yarns and Heatherlea Black Cheviot. 

I have also made a mini Woolly Book and a Tiny Woolly Book which are both approximate replicas of the larger one, and that I enjoy featuring in installations:

Crip Crib

Chronically ill, disabled and neurodivergent people often experience an alternative passing of time, which we call “crip time.” It is a time that allows for accommodation of care so that we can continue to function... Sometimes it is a time of mourning what we lost or will never have. Sometimes it is a time of waiting in-between states where we are too drained and too unwell to function, and need to regulate, take care and retreat, instead of participating in life and in the world as we would wish. Meanwhile, the rest of the world carries on, often oblivious to our different pace and needs, which can make us feel invisible, unheard, and half alive. The presence of the skeleton is meant to inject humour into this frustrating situation, but also to convey the feeling of life passing us by in what can feel like crushing isolation while feeling very old even in our young years, endlessly waiting to be able to function in a world that is not interested in adjusting to us. 

In this situation, it helps to build an environment that is healing and soothing in order to allow for sensory rest and bodily repair: so I present to you my very own Crip Crib.

Fractal Weaving

Interactive sculpture in three parts which can be displayed as a whole or separately in an organic and ever-changing way. Most people think of corals, mosses or lichens when they see it. It also makes me think of lungs, trees and seaweed. I've got an endless fascination for fractals found in nature, so it was fun to weave such a large one, and the perfect focus for my monotropic brain. 

The material used was remnants of plastic threads that would otherwise have been thrown away. Around 450 were needed to make the whole piece. 

Dawn to Dusk on Uist

“Dawn to Dusk on Uist” is a crochet improvisation made with @uistwool dreamy laceweight yarn, which was fluttering as lightly as gossamer thread when I took these photos in the morning breeze 

When flat, it is a mini landscape offering a journey to the Isle of North Uist where the wool used for the project was grown: white beaches, intricate ripples in the sand, energising waves, textured rock, and that unforgettable island light.

Mounted on a copper circle it becomes a mini installation reminiscent of a lampshade, where the head of the person going in acts as a lightbulb that illuminates the work through their unique perception.