An award-winning artist is using the animals of the Pennines as inspiration for her latest creations.
Zoe Stainton uses locally sourced wool to create a range of curious creatures, from foxes, badgers and hares to stags’ heads and even highland cattle.
She received the Best Newcomer Award for her work at the 2016 Holmfirth Art Week and this week showed her sculptures at Harrogate’s Country Living Fair.
Zoe said: “As a child growing up in Meltham our bedroom overlooked the fields and I remember watching the hares and the cows over the wall next door.
“I think I must have been a bit unusual because, instead of pushing a doll in my toy pram, I filled it with soil and had a pet mole – for a day.”
Zoe, who now lives in Holmbridge, has a strong affinity with the local countryside which inspired her to study the animals and develop a new artform.
“Felting is relatively new to me as I usually work in clay, but I love the technique and the scope that it gives me,” she added.
Zoe works at Ashbrow Junior School helping children to create ceramic work of their own.
She is hoping her work might get picked up by department stores and hotels.
To find out more about Zoe’s work go to www.facebook.com/Zoestaintonartist .
