Robyn Steel-Stickland

My textile life started at school when I embroidered a pear on the pocket of my school apron. I love decorative sewing, but have avoided practical sewing ever since. I joined the Embroiderers Guild of Victoria in my early 20’s where I immersed myself in both traditional and contemporary embroidery techniques. In 1989 I enrolled in a Wearable Art course at the Canberra School of Art and had my accidental introduction to felt making. I say accidental because I had no idea then, what felt making was, it was just part of the course. In 1991/92 I completed a Certificate in Art & Design for Embroiderers at Deakin Uni, Burwood Campus, which opened up a New World for me.

More involvement with felt, joining the Victorian Feltmakers, and better techniques since 1997 has made this my preferred medium. I make felt to stitch, not just for its own sake. Making felt has endless possibilities, and the act of creating your own textile from scratch is very appealing. I get excited about colour and pattern in my work, and I love creating with wool. I love to see the possibilities of layering and building in stages that is so intrinsic to designing with felt and collage.

Felt isn’t the only thing in my world. I have worked in a variety of art and textile mediums over the past 30 years and usually work through a theme or idea until it’s out of my system. I enjoy the following: mixed media collage; art dolls; art journaling; jewellery making; drawing; writing and poetry. Hopefully this will justify my collection of found objects (very important junk), which along with stitch, find their way into my work.

After years of attending workshops, entering exhibitions and experimenting with various felt techniques, I started to teach basic felt making classes for the Victorian Feltmakers. I enjoyed the teaching and with encouragement from friends and family, set up my business “Felt Good”. This has been a wonderful adventure and has led to teaching for a number of different organizations, in a wide variety of venues.

I credit the development of my work to my family and friends who encourage and support me. I believe that collaboration is more productive than working in isolation, and I am finding the wisdom of this through teaching. Working with adults and children who come up with new ideas to explore is very rewarding, and provokes me to push my skills further, because of the questions and tests that the students put to me – all of which makes me a better artist.

My proudest achievements in textiles have been winning the Embroiderers Guild, Victoria “Embroidery with Wool” prize in 2000 and having my very first quilt accepted into “Expressions 2004” at the National Wool Museum, Geelong, a selected exhibition.

My greatest test has been writing a book about felt making. I was commissioned by Penguin Books to write “Felt” which was published in 2006. The process of writing the book was like preparing for an exhibition, the ideas, the designs, and the deadlines. You get to the end of the process and realise the value of what you have achieved.

I am excited about promoting felt as an art form – to see an ancient craft become reborn into a trend and to see the fabulous things that people are creating is thrilling. Felt making has become very popular and people actually know what you’re talking about when you say, “I make felt”. I feel I am contributing to the development and awareness of my art form.