Sep 2, 20232 min read

Creative Matters with Fleur Woods

Fleur Woods is a contemporary fibre artist based in the beautiful rural village of Upper Moutere (near Nelson, New Zealand) She is surrounded by vineyards, hop farms, orchards and country gardens - it makes sense that her work is largely inspired by nature.

Fleur describes her style of her work as contemporary stitched paintings. Coming to stitch as a mixed media artist she has taught herself a variety of embroidery techniques which generally don't follow traditional embroidery but beautifully serve the kind of mark making she loves to create.

From so called "Nana craft" to discovering your "creative soul", Fleur talks about her love of nature, connecting people, encouraging creativity and inspiring others. She shares how she came to be a full time artist starting with mixed media and paint, how she discovered embroidery through her love of mark making, how vintage fabrics resonated so much with her but she was never sure why until later in her practice. She talks about how connected she feels with past generations of creative women and how she feels stitching is part of her DNA, part of her "maker genes".

We chat about her entrepreneurial approach to her business which includes creating and selling beautiful personally assembled kits at various levels and different themes and why she doesn't like to include too many instructions. She makes and sells textile treasure packs and she teaches workshops around NZ and in Australia. She has built a hugely engaged community and audience across the world through social media. AND she tells us about her most recent exciting project and new baby, her own book The Untamed Thread, which is out next month.