Sarah Brooker

Sarah studied Fine Art sculpture originally, at Portsmouth Poly, primarily working in metals, and exhibited widely as a sculptor for the next five years, but chanced on feltmaking during a Post Grad in Textiles at Goldsmiths College London. She became entranced by the process, possibilities and of course, the polar opposite medium. She taught for ten years at Portsmouth and Southampton University ( Foundation ), and after moving to Wales, at Hereford Art College for a while. Sarah finally decided to concentrate solely on making. "The felt making became my primary focus, and I have always tried to incorporate drawing skills within the medium, which at times is simply 'painting with wool. Some works emerge from a collaboration of ideas and sources; my reasons, for example, for creating a series of similar objects was a kind of feeling that they were together, but apart. Whether with domestic paraphernalia or natural images, creating a 'set' of objects is quite intriguing particularly with the unpredictable process of felting. From collections of antique fans, to a bead stall in India, fossils on a Dorset beach to Christmas decorations - it is the variety within a form I am fascinated by. For the touring exhibition, I worked on, called simply ‘Collections’, this came into its own. It toured to the glorious Museum in the Park, Stroud the following year including works inspired by some museum exhibits."