'I've spent 25 years painting with wool in the stunning Yorkshire countryside'

Rambling scenery, sporadically interspersed with dry stone walls, barns and the woolly inhabitants within provide the artist with a panoramic palette.

The view alone from her purpose-built studio – an upstairs room above the family home - re-built from its previous agricultural purpose stone by stone by her husband Stewart, a professional dry stone waller - is a window to a dramatic landscape that changes with the weather.

Hardraw, a pretty hamlet close to Hawes and named after the nearby Hardraw Force Waterfall, is a home from home for Andrea who grew up within a stone’s throw on the family farm.

There is a synergy between the landscape in which Andrea lives and the art works adorning her studio walls.

The colours and textures of the wool Andrea uses in her felt work defines the drama and nature. This natural environment, captured through Andrea’s wool ‘painting’ technique blends with the stone, synonymous with this Dales village, used to create the walls on which they hang.

Perhaps it was the new Millennium that gave Andrea the confidence to expand the textile skills she learned studying O’ Level and A’ Level art, and the impetus to take a ‘leap of faith’ and open ‘Focus on Felt’ – the business she launched with a sign at the end of her drive.

Up until then her art was something that slotted into part-time work, floristry and gardening, and caring for her two daughters.

“I was doing pastels, using oil pastels, soft pastels and charcoal for several years. It was convenient and I could do it while we were finishing off the house.,” she says.

“But I was dying to get back into textiles. I got all my old work out of the attic, looked through it and came across the felt I had made. I thought I would buy some wool and play about with it.”

Embarking on some courses with the International Felt Association Andrea discovered a style of her own.

“I came back all buoyed up and I thought I would give this a go. I decided to open the garage. I painted the walls and the floor and put a sign at the gateway and ‘Focus on Felt’ was born.”

While her beautiful felt work sells itself through her website, bringing in commissions from around the country - and the world, Andrea also credits the luck she has had along the way.

One customer calling by with connections to the prestigious Knitting and Stitching Show encouraged her to send in her portfolio.

‘The Gathering’ a striking monochrome triptych featuring the characteristic Swaledale sheep that knit together so much of Andrea’s life, from the childhood farm to her husband Stewart, a former shepherd and sheep breeder, was showcased on a 9m stand at the show.

“And that really got the ball rolling,” says Andrea. From there, ‘The Gathering’ toured locations including Alexandra Palace and Lichfield Cathedral.

TV appearances as a featured artist followed on TV programmes including the BBC’s ‘Home is where the Art is’ and ‘Dan and Helen’s Pennine Adventure,’ the Channel 5 series presented by Dan Walker and Helen Skelton.

‘A Heartfelt Landscape’ and ‘Creating Felt Pictures’ are the books Andrea has written documenting the background to her technique and the technical elements of her work.

She was also one of the featured artists in Iain Parkinson’s book ‘Meadow’ – the foreward to which was written by the then HRH The Prince of Wales, now King Charles III.

“At the beginning of Spring the sheep are having lambs in the low fields then they go on to the hills to allow the grass to grow.

"Meadows are cut in July and August, the grass is made into hay or haylage and the sheep are brought back off the hills and fed the hay through the winter. Then, next spring, it all starts again so the cycle of the meadow is very important within farming up here.”

One of nine children, Andrea credits her mum as her greatest influence.

“My mum was very creative. She used to do a lot of sewing and knitting so I have always been around textiles.”

After studying her Art Foundation course at York Tech, Andrea worked as a machinist for a year for clothing manufacturers, S R Gent. Studies at Bretton Hall College followed and a degree in Textiles.

“That was where I learned the principles of felt making, printing and weaving, and specialised in printed fabrics.

"I also worked on machines at Huddersfield Polytechnic – they had these big felting machines and, because I was specialising in print, I printed on it and I have come back to it,” says Andrea, reflecting on how some of her designs have come full circle in the beautiful cards she began creating during Covid.

They are among the popular purchases displayed around her studio where she also runs workshops for adults.

Demonstrating her technique, Andrea explains the bubble wrap laid out on her art table is ‘key’ to the process.

Taking fine strands of the pure Merino wool, sourced from the Falkland Islands and supplied by World of Wool in Huddersfield, Andrea begins free-hand drawing with the undyed white fibres.

Layering the wool one way, then the other, across the bubble wrap replicates the warp and weft in the weaving process. Crossing the fibres also builds a strong base on which to work.

Once the background is in place, Andrea sprays it with cold soapy water.

“Putting the water on it accelerates the felting process because soapy water helps to break down the oil in the wool and allows the scales to open up fully and lock together.

“It is like watercolour because I work with really fine layers of wool and working with really fine layers creates a subtle colour palette – it all merges together and gives the appearance of watercolour.”

Adding in some black wool, Andrea creates the sheep’s body. Black pre-felt – when the wool is partially felted so it holds its shape - is used for the head.

The completed design is sprayed and covered with the bubble wrap; rolled up round a wooden roller and rolled vigorously.

“The bubbles on the bubble wrap help to create friction – that is the key. I like the fact that you don’t have full control. I have a high level of control because I have been doing it for so long, but you don’t have full control.

"Once you start rolling the fibres lock together and move around. They have to move around to lock together and make the felt.”

The 3D effects are achieved through the textures of the materials Andrea works with.

The curly fibres of the family’s own Blue Faced Leicesters sheered by Stewart, washed by Andrea and dyed by her friend; Nepps, a waste product from the cotton industry and Mulberry silk depict the cotton grass and other plants within the landscape where Andrea walks.

“I go most nights for a walk and it is fab light and everything changes so fast up here with the weather.”

Living in a Dales community there is a real sense of belonging and Andrea was keen to celebrate the 25th anniversary of her business with those who have supported her along the way.

‘Heartfelt 2025,’ running until Sunday July 6 at the Old School Muker Art Gallery and Craft Centre in Muker, showcases Andrea’s original artworks and encapsulates a place she holds so dear.

“It’s all about belonging to a place and being in tune with your surroundings and being content with where you are in the world.”

Visitwww.andreahunterfocusonfelt.co.uk. To find out more about the exhibition visit https://www.theoldschoolmuker.co.uk.