Debbie has been making felt for almost thirty years, since she was first introduced to it in 1992, whilst studying for City and Guilds in Patchwork and Quilting.
Her love for textiles began much earlier than that. It stems from her childhood, when she would beg her grandmother, a professional tailoress, for scraps of material so she could sew dolls’ clothes.
Debbie moved to Cumbria 30 years ago with her husband and three young children, and she has focused her attention on being a full time textile artist since 2001. The inspiration for her work comes from her everyday surroundings in the beautiful Cumbrian countryside where she lives in a 16th century farm house with her husband, Border Collie, cat and several chickens. The changing landscape, flowers, trees and even the patterns on old patchwork quilts all inform her work.
After focusing much of her efforts on feltmaking for many years, Debbie has returned to her love of natural dyeing, with a particular focus on indigo. This has led to the discovery of eco printing; where the shapes and details of plants and leaves are imprinted onto fabric through the dyeing process. For this, Debbie loves to use seasonal greenery from her garden and particularly enjoys capturing their effects on wool. This has led to Debbie expanding her range by eco printing onto felt vessels, wool scarves, bags, greetings cards and felt eco printed pictures.
Alongside this, Debbie still creates felt landscape pictures, felt bags, corsages, accessories, cards and needle felted sheep and hares. If you are interested in exploring this wonderful art form for yourself, you can try it through either her wet-
Since 2012, Debbie has been a member of the Wool Clip: an award-
Debbie’s passion for textiles and her keenness to travel mean she has collaborated with some amazing textile artists and feltmakers, both contemporary and traditional, across central and southern Asia and Europe. A particularly inspiring trip was to Kyrgyzstan in the summer of 2001, where Debbie was privileged to work with a range of experienced feltmakers in their traditional environment. More recently, she has travelled to Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia with other members of the Wool Clip on a cultural exchange.
If you would like any further information, please feel free to contact Debbie. Her hands will probably be blue with dye, but she’ll get back to you as soon as she can.
Debbie Lucas
Feltmaker & Textile Artist
