Fi Hocking is a feltmaker and artist living in Eumundi, a lush little piece of hinterland on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland.

Earthy richness is a hallmark of Fi’s felting too – layer of colour upon layer, with little embroidered details and textures that are both bold and delicate inviting us to touch.

 

 

Originally growing up in Sydney, Fi later moved to Perth. She learnt to felt with a group called FeltWEST, and credits them with opening up a whole new world for her. “This is where my love of feltmaking began. I learnt, laughed, went on retreats and made some life long friends. This is also where I met the two people who are most inspirational in my felt making journey. Firstly Nancy Ballesteros, who owns Treetops Colour Harmonies – her business supplies felt makers around the world with incredible hand dyed colour harmonies in the finest merino wool and silks. I am also privileged to call Nancy my friend.

“Also while I was a member of FeltWEST I attended a workshop with Jeanette Appleton (an English felt maker/artist). Jeanette’s workshop was not about the physical making of felt but how and where she finds inspiration for her work. The most difficult for some participants of this workshop was when Jeanette told the class that we had to take our scissors and cut up our felt and re-sew back together.  This was liberating for me and artistically it has allowed me to explore more ideas, particularly with creating my abstract landscapes.”

 

Landscape has always been important to Fi; she worked as a cartographer for a few years and has always loved topographic maps and their contour lines.

 

“The aerial views of these maps were filed away in the dark recesses of my mind until I moved from Perth to Eumundi. On the flight across the country I was lucky to have a window seat, and for the four hour flight my nose was stuck on the window in awe of the landscapes unfolding underneath me.  Ever since my kids never get the window seat and it is my camera now stuck up against the window.”

 

 

 

 

“My earthskin felt wrap is my interpretation of the combination of topographic maps, contour lines and man made marks seemingly scratched onto the vast landscape that unfolds from the plane window. I also made a triptych of my flight from Perth to Brisbane (for an exhibition I was part of at the Noosa Regional Gallery a few years ago). Each piece was made separately, then cut up and re-pieced. Each piece portrays the changing landscape from the blue seas, and brilliant wildflower displays in the west to the salt lakes and ochre colours of the centre to the green patchwork of farmland of the east coast. This aspect of the aerial view of this amazing country and my feltmaking is something that I want to explore in a lot more detail.”

 

 

Fi describes herself as someone who has been a maker pretty much her whole life, but it was only after she had kids that she started exploring these tendencies a bit more. She started making all her kid’s clothes; then moved on to quilting, and then to felting. Now she uses both nuno felting (a technique which uses a lightweight cloth as its base) for its lightness and drape, and she also uses more traditional felting to create abstract landscapes. Her works often incorporate hand stitching with hand-dyed silk threads and found objects.

 

 

 

Being the sole parent of two teenagers always makes for a difficult juggle between artistic aspirations and family responsibilities.

 

And for this, she says she feels truly blessed having the love and support that she does from surrounding friends and family. Parenting has added bonuses though, and she related that when a friend of her kids came to visit recently, she could hear them wandering around the home and her kids saying ““Yes Mum made that” and “Yes she made that too” with pride in their voices, and I must admit to being very proud of that.”

“I am also rediscovering a long lost love for photography, and in this digital age it is so much easier and quicker to be able to access our images.  It is vitally important to have the best possible photographs to showcase my work online.” Fi only started her business livingcloth recently, opening on Etsy in April earlier this year.

“Livingcloth seemed a very natural fit for me as I work with natural fibres (all have been living at some time) – felting with merino wool and silks, hand spinning and knitting and stitching with silk threads and also diving head first into natural dyeing.  For me the cloth in livingcloth stands for creating love of the handmade.”

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You can find more of Fi’s work in her Etsy shop livingcloth.etsy.com, and on her blog, www.livingcloth.com.