I grew up on a farm in the rolling Quantocks hills in Somerset. My childhood was filled with endless summers and warm winter fires. Food came straight from the fields and we were immersed in, and at home with, nature that was all around us.
After graduating from the University of Bath I found my path, firstly as an artist and later joining a design studio in Bristol. After five years with the agency, Shaped By, I founded my own full-service design studio, KindredDesign, in 2010.
When my children were born we began our Waldorf journey. As my two strong, clever girls grew, I found myself drawing and creating pieces for them, nurturing their relationship with nature.
Wilded Family was created in October 2018 to share these products with friends and family. From these cottage industry roots, Wilded Family has grown expeditiously and is now selling its products worldwide.
I still work from my home studio, but Wilded Family now has manufacturing, fulfilment and warehousing in Herefordshire and Berkshire.
Connect with me and follow my PERSONAL PROFILE here.
Alternatively, browse our BEAUTIFUL COLLECTIONS and follow WALDORF FAMILY LINKEDIN here.
Rudolf Steiner reacted to industrialization and materialism by idealizing the craftspeople of the middle ages: he advocated and sought spiritual renewal for the creators and inhabitants of the built environment. This idea that the objects we own can be art and can vivify our homes is dear to my heart and central to what I create. I see the reprinting of my art pieces like the printing of a poem. As artists, we share our art to as many people as we can; as people engage and use art is when it really comes alive.
I am inspired by nature: if I can help children in the built environment connect with nature and help those who do not find a good fit in the educational system find wonder in learning then I will be doing what I was put here to do.
I believe we are all here to serve – our society, our purpose. It is our job to dig deep and discover what lights our fire: for me that is drawing, painting, my family and homemaking. These personal passions were what firmly led me to create for children.
I still remember a painting that I had when I was about 6 or 7. In each corner it had so many details I remember staring at this whole other world for hours – not really sure if it was a real world – existing in that flat paper space.
Recently I was in the Musée de l’Orangerie in the grounds of the Louvre in the immersive space of Monet’s Water Lilies, reduced to tears, in the energy held in that space. His quest to heal the pain of the war for the people of France. Art has a magic, an energy that can touch our hearts.
I want to make pictures that children love. Images of children playing, sunny days and butterflies. I want my art to stick in their hearts to make a space that reminds them to go outside a play. If we forget nature we are lost.
Quantum entanglement theory begins to give a scientific framework to what I know in my bones – the connection between all things. The lively energetic connection between us, each other and our environment. Our world is created and shaped by what we interact with, our norms and values are formed in the early years by what we see and feel – and this is why we must care for and curate our children’s experience and environment.
After graduating from the University of Bath I found my path, firstly as an artist and later joining a design studio in Bristol. After five years with the agency, Shaped By, I founded my own full-service design studio, KindredDesign, in 2010.
