Elaine Peden is a powerhouse of creativity. Whilst working part time during the lockdown, she has also managed to work on a number of creative projects inspired by her longstanding love of the ocean.

Whilst yellow is not normally a colour Elaine uses in her work (she says she runs a mile from it!) the colour combination is beautiful in this wall hanging. The piece has come out of her concern about all the plastics in the ocean – to be honest plastic inspired work has never looked so good!! We can’t wait to see it in reality and in its entirety.

Elaine’s preoccupation with the seashore continues in other pieces she is creating, small samples of which are captured in this image : driftwood, white felted pods and crochet small vessels.

The crochet vessels are made from paper ‘twine’ which she bought in Finland.  With all the paper mills in that country they make good use of waste product making twine in three different strengths. The lighter one is used for crochet etc as in Elaine’s sample above and the heavier is really strong and has many uses such as basket making.  It is woven tight to form a fine twine/thread then dyed. 

And just when you thought there could not be anything more – there is! Paper weaving…. using the aforementioned paper twine and this fascinating, and rather beautiful, piece of equipment. Elaine, we will have to get a demonstration!