Life Traces
Textiles by Helen MacRitchie
14 August – 25 August 2026
Further information into the inspiration and stories behind some pieces within this exhibition:
Robin, Greenfinch, Bluetit, Kingfisher
40 x 40 x 4cm
wool roving, wool yarn
wet felting, free machine embroidery, free knotting
These works capture the colours of four of my favourite British birds often seen in my Oxfordshire home village. When I returned from Australia, the sights and sounds of these birds helped me adjust back to life in England, and reflecting their nesting instinct in this way helped me to settle in turn. Each nest is knotted by hand onto a wet felted and embroidered backing.
£350 each
On my Doorstep
40 x 40 x 3cm framed
wool yarn naturally dyed using 35 local species
knitting, felting, natural dyeing, knotting
When Covid lockdown began in the UK in March 2020, daily walks in the local fields around my home became a source of foraged leaves, nuts and bark for natural dyeing. This work features the dye from 35 different species, naturally mordanted and modified to give 74 individual colours (the same number of days in the initial UK lockdown). Each is represented by a wool ribbon in an expression of remembrance and empathy.
£260 each
Oxfordshire Mapped out
30 x 30 x 4cm
wool roving, wool yarn, wool thread, paper maps, silk
wet felting, knotting, free machine embroidery, natural dyeing
As an abstracted scene from views local to Oxfordshire, this work features ordnance survey map fragments in a felted background of naturally dyed wool. Striped bands of free knotted yarn exist like map legends but also remind us of colour registrations printed in a textile selvedge.
£160
Rolling Hills
wall hanging
80 x 57cm
Naturally dyed wool roving, yarn and gauze
wet felting, hand darning, natural dyeing, free knotting
Oxfordshire fields are continually reworked and renewed. Narrow furrows are ploughed and new life planted. Our histories are intertwined and bind us to the landscape.During the many weeks of lockdown in the UK, local walks became my time to explore and forage for sources of natural dye. All materials in this work have been naturally dyed from locally harvested leaves, bark and seeds during this time.
£370
Jurassic Stone
wall installation
180 x 60cm x 7cm
wool roving, wool yarn, Perspex, plastic tubing, thermoplastic polymer, garden ties
wet felting, hand embroidery
Cotswold stone is widely used in Oxfordshire. A Jurassic limestone, it is created over millions of years by the sedimentation of marine organisms and coral species, creating untold layers of tiny spherical particles or oolites. This relative stasis is juxtaposed with the quintessentially climbing English rose.
£670
Intertwined
Elder (dye from elder leaves)
Hawthorn (dye from hawthorn leaves and twigs)
Spring Blossom (dye from horse chestnut blossom and hawthorn blossom)
Alder (dye from alder cones)
40 x 40 x 4cm and 30 x 30 x 3cm
wool roving, wool yarn, cotton
wet felting, free machine embroidery, natural dyeing, free knotting
Large (40cm) £280
medium (30cm) £160
From little acorns…
wall hanging
110 x 78cm
wool roving, wool yarn, silk organza, beads
wet felting, free machine embroidery, free knotting, natural dyeing (hawthorn, nettle, daffodil, blackthorn, walnut)
Wrapped and bound yarn is manipulated into repetitive circular motifs that resemble nests. They nurture ideas and creativity in a safe protected environment. This is home.
£750
Revealing Pathways
sculptural wall hanging
150 x 50 x 10cm
wool roving, silk, cotton, beads
wet felting, knotting, free machine embroidery
This work references relocation, our experiences past and yet to come. Amidst an expanse of bland cobblestones there are discoveries of colour and excitement, of adventure, friendships and also treasured memories. The colour of life changes - predictable and unpredictable, joyful and challenging - but inextricably wrapped together on this journey of discovery.
£750
Travelling Connections
sculptural wall hanging
100 x 150 x 10cm
Merino wool, silk, cotton threads, original paper maps
Nuno felting, hand embroidery
After many years of living abroad, relocating home and work life in several countries, I returned full circle to the UK eight years ago. What should have been a comfortable homecoming was initially an unsettling disorienting experience. The surroundings were familiar, but my relationship with them was based on memories and I had an inability to settle myself in this location. Expressing this disorientation, Travelling Connections is presented as a hooded cloak; a garment often used in the past when travelling but also associated with anonymity, disguising one’s identity.
£450
Preserved
Wall hanging
155 x 50cm
wool roving, wool gauze, cotton thread
wet felting, free machine embroidery
The peatlands of the Isle of Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides have developed over thousands of years of climate change; the heathers and sphagnum moss decaying into peat (mòine dhubh), a source of fuel. Each peatbank is allocated to and managed by islander families for generations. They may resemble a bleak homogenous expanse, but to islanders they read as both personal and community histories carved into the land.
£490
Histories Told
sculpture
30 x 30 x 15cm approx
wool, silk, handmade paper, cotton thread, wood, leather, metal
wet felting, free machine embroidery
In the early 20th century, Hebridean children would often be obliged to carry peat to school along with their books to fuel the school heaters for the day. School books absorbed the smoke, the smells of heather, moss and the very history of the land found in that peat.
£180
Erasaid
Wall installation, wearable textile
200 x 120cm
wool roving and gauze, silk, linen, flax, stones
wet felting, free machine embroidery
This sculptural piece references the Erasaid, a highlander woman’s dress or garment of the late eighteenth century, made “of” the land and “for” the harsh conditions of the country. It served as warmth, shelter and a sense of identity. The wool felt epitomises that comfort and belonging; ancestry embedded in the gaelic embroidery and peat blocks.
£550
Wrapped nests (2)
These motifs speak of my identity with the Scottish landscape. The nest is a strong metaphor for creating, arranging and being at home. The open nest suggests hope and dreams; the expectation of something to come that will be protected and nurtured.
Knotting with 2ply yarn in this way is repetitive and extremely slow, requires patience and precision. Focus and time embeds my thoughts and feelings into these pieces. I become connected.
Sea Ivory
Framed textile artwork
40 x 40cm x 4cm
wool roving, wool yarn, beads
wet felting, knotting, free machine embroidery
Sea Ivory is the name given to the seaweed Rarnalina Scopulorum because of its subtle silvery sheen fronds lying on rocks above the waterline.
£350
Crotal
Framed textile artwork
40 x 40cm x 4cm
wool roving, wool yarn, beads
wet felting, knotting, free machine embroidery
Crotal is the Hebridean Gaelic term for the Parmelia lichens that were collected from the surface of stones, and were used to produce the henna brown dye colour characteristic of Harris tweed.
£350
Waulking Song Machair
sculptural wearable highland plaid / hanging
wool, silk, cotton, jute, seaweed yarn,
wet nunofelting, free machine embroidery, hand embroidery
A nod to traditional tartan highland dress. A repetitive chanting song otherwise known as a ‘waulking song’ was sung by women as they fulled the woven cloth before it was used in dressmaking. The cloth might have been worn over a shoulder like a plaid. This felted plaid is reminiscent of the ‘Machair’, the area of long grasses and wildflowers on the beaches unique to these islands.
£160
Celtic Connections I
sculptural wall hanging
60 x 38 x 7cm
wool roving, silk, wool gauze, flax
wet felting, free machine embroidery
£180
Celtic Connections II
sculptural wall hanging (round)
25 x 25 x 10cm
wool roving, silk organza and velvet
wet felting, free machine embroidery
These works reference ancient Celtic jewellery and domestic artifacts (around 100-50BC) discovered in Britain; in particular surface design elements found also in stonework and weaponry. The shape of Celtic Connections I is reminiscent of brooch pins from around this time. It has textured felt reflecting the highland landscape and overlapping peat blocks.
£130
Celtic stones I and II
sculptural wall hanging
60 x 38 x 7cm
wool roving, silk, wool gauze, flax
wet felting, free machine embroidery
Building blocks of Scottish culture or perhaps gravestones memorialising the past these stones bear signs of peat cutting scars and slate from the Isles in Western Scotland (stone I), and fishing nets, driftwood and gorse prevalent in the Outer Hebrides.
£120 each
How long ‘til I catch one, dad?
wall installation
150 x 60cm
wool roving, wool yarn, wool gauze, photographic slides, photographs, metal
wet felting, knotting, hand embroidery
Fifteen consecutive childhood summers were spent in the seaside town of Millport on the tiny island of Great Cumbrae, just off the west coast of Scotland. Family activities became routine and dependable. Fishing for mackerel for our Friday night’s tea was one of those “dad times”; a warm memory that returns with the sound of seagulls today.
£390
Treasures
sculpture
30 x 20cm x 20cm
wool roving, wool yarn, seaweed yarn
wet felting, knotting, hand embroidery
A desire to capture the essence of these summer holidays at the seaside, acknowledging that many more moments still slip through the net unrecorded. This features a handmade net from seaweed yarn.
$180
Cumbrae Rockpools
wall installation
120 x 50cm
wool roving, wool yarn, canvas deckchair fabric, wooden deckchair frame
wet felting, natural dyeing, hand embroidery
Endless days spent exploring rock pools while parents dozed in deckchairs. The bottom edges of shorts with permanent salty tidelines. A tiny habitat to be discovered between rocks, sea anemones prodded, crabs uncovered. Each pool leading on to the next, connected in wonder.
£350 (excluding frame)
Australian intertwining (3 framed pieces)
Eucalyptus I
Eucalyptus II
Kookaburra
30 x 30cm x 4cm
wool roving, wool yarn
wet felting, knotting, free machine embroidery
Wool roving and yarn dyed using leaves from different eucalyptus species creating hues of brown and grey. Cords intertwine and stretch across the canvas while splashes of the colourful native birds pop out and surprise.
£160 each
Big Gum
wall hanging
160 x 230cm
wool roving, wool yarn, polyester fabrics
wet felting, ecoprinting and natural dyeing, free machine embroidery
While in Sydney, Australia, I study the majestic Eucalyptus tree outside my window – casting endless strips of bark and dappled sunlight in rhythm to the calls of kookaburra and cockatoo – my Sydney.
£690
Bush Memories (4 oval soft sculptural wall pieces)
37 x 26cm
wool roving, wool yarn, silk, banksia seed pods, gum nuts
wet felting, ecoprinting and natural dyeing, free machine embroidery
£120 each
Banksia (round soft sculptural wall piece)
28 x 28 cm
wool roving,wool fabric, wool yarn, silk, beads, polyester motifs
wet felting, ecoprinting and natural dyeing, free machine embroidery
These five works have been created using wool felt, cloth, yarn and silk that have been naturally dyed shades of brown to red using leaves from species of Australian eucalyptus. Felted and stitched textural details echo the tree barks and banksia seed pods.
£130
14 August – 25 August 2026
Further information into the inspiration and stories behind some pieces within this exhibition:
Robin, Greenfinch, Bluetit, Kingfisher
40 x 40 x 4cm
wool roving, wool yarn
wet felting, free machine embroidery, free knotting
These works capture the colours of four of my favourite British birds often seen in my Oxfordshire home village. When I returned from Australia, the sights and sounds of these birds helped me adjust back to life in England, and reflecting their nesting instinct in this way helped me to settle in turn. Each nest is knotted by hand onto a wet felted and embroidered backing.
£350 each
On my Doorstep
40 x 40 x 3cm framed
wool yarn naturally dyed using 35 local species
knitting, felting, natural dyeing, knotting
When Covid lockdown began in the UK in March 2020, daily walks in the local fields around my home became a source of foraged leaves, nuts and bark for natural dyeing. This work features the dye from 35 different species, naturally mordanted and modified to give 74 individual colours (the same number of days in the initial UK lockdown). Each is represented by a wool ribbon in an expression of remembrance and empathy.
£260 each
Oxfordshire Mapped out
30 x 30 x 4cm
wool roving, wool yarn, wool thread, paper maps, silk
wet felting, knotting, free machine embroidery, natural dyeing
As an abstracted scene from views local to Oxfordshire, this work features ordnance survey map fragments in a felted background of naturally dyed wool. Striped bands of free knotted yarn exist like map legends but also remind us of colour registrations printed in a textile selvedge.
£160
Rolling Hills
wall hanging
80 x 57cm
Naturally dyed wool roving, yarn and gauze
wet felting, hand darning, natural dyeing, free knotting
Oxfordshire fields are continually reworked and renewed. Narrow furrows are ploughed and new life planted. Our histories are intertwined and bind us to the landscape.During the many weeks of lockdown in the UK, local walks became my time to explore and forage for sources of natural dye. All materials in this work have been naturally dyed from locally harvested leaves, bark and seeds during this time.
£370
Jurassic Stone
wall installation
180 x 60cm x 7cm
wool roving, wool yarn, Perspex, plastic tubing, thermoplastic polymer, garden ties
wet felting, hand embroidery
Cotswold stone is widely used in Oxfordshire. A Jurassic limestone, it is created over millions of years by the sedimentation of marine organisms and coral species, creating untold layers of tiny spherical particles or oolites. This relative stasis is juxtaposed with the quintessentially climbing English rose.
£670
Intertwined
Elder (dye from elder leaves)
Hawthorn (dye from hawthorn leaves and twigs)
Spring Blossom (dye from horse chestnut blossom and hawthorn blossom)
Alder (dye from alder cones)
40 x 40 x 4cm and 30 x 30 x 3cm
wool roving, wool yarn, cotton
wet felting, free machine embroidery, natural dyeing, free knotting
Large (40cm) £280
medium (30cm) £160
From little acorns…
wall hanging
110 x 78cm
wool roving, wool yarn, silk organza, beads
wet felting, free machine embroidery, free knotting, natural dyeing (hawthorn, nettle, daffodil, blackthorn, walnut)
Wrapped and bound yarn is manipulated into repetitive circular motifs that resemble nests. They nurture ideas and creativity in a safe protected environment. This is home.
£750
Revealing Pathways
sculptural wall hanging
150 x 50 x 10cm
wool roving, silk, cotton, beads
wet felting, knotting, free machine embroidery
This work references relocation, our experiences past and yet to come. Amidst an expanse of bland cobblestones there are discoveries of colour and excitement, of adventure, friendships and also treasured memories. The colour of life changes - predictable and unpredictable, joyful and challenging - but inextricably wrapped together on this journey of discovery.
£750
Travelling Connections
sculptural wall hanging
100 x 150 x 10cm
Merino wool, silk, cotton threads, original paper maps
Nuno felting, hand embroidery
After many years of living abroad, relocating home and work life in several countries, I returned full circle to the UK eight years ago. What should have been a comfortable homecoming was initially an unsettling disorienting experience. The surroundings were familiar, but my relationship with them was based on memories and I had an inability to settle myself in this location. Expressing this disorientation, Travelling Connections is presented as a hooded cloak; a garment often used in the past when travelling but also associated with anonymity, disguising one’s identity.
£450
Preserved
Wall hanging
155 x 50cm
wool roving, wool gauze, cotton thread
wet felting, free machine embroidery
The peatlands of the Isle of Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides have developed over thousands of years of climate change; the heathers and sphagnum moss decaying into peat (mòine dhubh), a source of fuel. Each peatbank is allocated to and managed by islander families for generations. They may resemble a bleak homogenous expanse, but to islanders they read as both personal and community histories carved into the land.
£490
Histories Told
sculpture
30 x 30 x 15cm approx
wool, silk, handmade paper, cotton thread, wood, leather, metal
wet felting, free machine embroidery
In the early 20th century, Hebridean children would often be obliged to carry peat to school along with their books to fuel the school heaters for the day. School books absorbed the smoke, the smells of heather, moss and the very history of the land found in that peat.
£180
Erasaid
Wall installation, wearable textile
200 x 120cm
wool roving and gauze, silk, linen, flax, stones
wet felting, free machine embroidery
This sculptural piece references the Erasaid, a highlander woman’s dress or garment of the late eighteenth century, made “of” the land and “for” the harsh conditions of the country. It served as warmth, shelter and a sense of identity. The wool felt epitomises that comfort and belonging; ancestry embedded in the gaelic embroidery and peat blocks.
£550
Wrapped nests (2)
These motifs speak of my identity with the Scottish landscape. The nest is a strong metaphor for creating, arranging and being at home. The open nest suggests hope and dreams; the expectation of something to come that will be protected and nurtured.
Knotting with 2ply yarn in this way is repetitive and extremely slow, requires patience and precision. Focus and time embeds my thoughts and feelings into these pieces. I become connected.
Sea Ivory
Framed textile artwork
40 x 40cm x 4cm
wool roving, wool yarn, beads
wet felting, knotting, free machine embroidery
Sea Ivory is the name given to the seaweed Rarnalina Scopulorum because of its subtle silvery sheen fronds lying on rocks above the waterline.
£350
Crotal
Framed textile artwork
40 x 40cm x 4cm
wool roving, wool yarn, beads
wet felting, knotting, free machine embroidery
Crotal is the Hebridean Gaelic term for the Parmelia lichens that were collected from the surface of stones, and were used to produce the henna brown dye colour characteristic of Harris tweed.
£350
Waulking Song Machair
sculptural wearable highland plaid / hanging
wool, silk, cotton, jute, seaweed yarn,
wet nunofelting, free machine embroidery, hand embroidery
A nod to traditional tartan highland dress. A repetitive chanting song otherwise known as a ‘waulking song’ was sung by women as they fulled the woven cloth before it was used in dressmaking. The cloth might have been worn over a shoulder like a plaid. This felted plaid is reminiscent of the ‘Machair’, the area of long grasses and wildflowers on the beaches unique to these islands.
£160
Celtic Connections I
sculptural wall hanging
60 x 38 x 7cm
wool roving, silk, wool gauze, flax
wet felting, free machine embroidery
£180
Celtic Connections II
sculptural wall hanging (round)
25 x 25 x 10cm
wool roving, silk organza and velvet
wet felting, free machine embroidery
These works reference ancient Celtic jewellery and domestic artifacts (around 100-50BC) discovered in Britain; in particular surface design elements found also in stonework and weaponry. The shape of Celtic Connections I is reminiscent of brooch pins from around this time. It has textured felt reflecting the highland landscape and overlapping peat blocks.
£130
Celtic stones I and II
sculptural wall hanging
60 x 38 x 7cm
wool roving, silk, wool gauze, flax
wet felting, free machine embroidery
Building blocks of Scottish culture or perhaps gravestones memorialising the past these stones bear signs of peat cutting scars and slate from the Isles in Western Scotland (stone I), and fishing nets, driftwood and gorse prevalent in the Outer Hebrides.
£120 each
How long ‘til I catch one, dad?
wall installation
150 x 60cm
wool roving, wool yarn, wool gauze, photographic slides, photographs, metal
wet felting, knotting, hand embroidery
Fifteen consecutive childhood summers were spent in the seaside town of Millport on the tiny island of Great Cumbrae, just off the west coast of Scotland. Family activities became routine and dependable. Fishing for mackerel for our Friday night’s tea was one of those “dad times”; a warm memory that returns with the sound of seagulls today.
£390
Treasures
sculpture
30 x 20cm x 20cm
wool roving, wool yarn, seaweed yarn
wet felting, knotting, hand embroidery
A desire to capture the essence of these summer holidays at the seaside, acknowledging that many more moments still slip through the net unrecorded. This features a handmade net from seaweed yarn.
$180
Cumbrae Rockpools
wall installation
120 x 50cm
wool roving, wool yarn, canvas deckchair fabric, wooden deckchair frame
wet felting, natural dyeing, hand embroidery
Endless days spent exploring rock pools while parents dozed in deckchairs. The bottom edges of shorts with permanent salty tidelines. A tiny habitat to be discovered between rocks, sea anemones prodded, crabs uncovered. Each pool leading on to the next, connected in wonder.
£350 (excluding frame)
Australian intertwining (3 framed pieces)
Eucalyptus I
Eucalyptus II
Kookaburra
30 x 30cm x 4cm
wool roving, wool yarn
wet felting, knotting, free machine embroidery
Wool roving and yarn dyed using leaves from different eucalyptus species creating hues of brown and grey. Cords intertwine and stretch across the canvas while splashes of the colourful native birds pop out and surprise.
£160 each
Big Gum
wall hanging
160 x 230cm
wool roving, wool yarn, polyester fabrics
wet felting, ecoprinting and natural dyeing, free machine embroidery
While in Sydney, Australia, I study the majestic Eucalyptus tree outside my window – casting endless strips of bark and dappled sunlight in rhythm to the calls of kookaburra and cockatoo – my Sydney.
£690
Bush Memories (4 oval soft sculptural wall pieces)
37 x 26cm
wool roving, wool yarn, silk, banksia seed pods, gum nuts
wet felting, ecoprinting and natural dyeing, free machine embroidery
£120 each
Banksia (round soft sculptural wall piece)
28 x 28 cm
wool roving,wool fabric, wool yarn, silk, beads, polyester motifs
wet felting, ecoprinting and natural dyeing, free machine embroidery
These five works have been created using wool felt, cloth, yarn and silk that have been naturally dyed shades of brown to red using leaves from species of Australian eucalyptus. Felted and stitched textural details echo the tree barks and banksia seed pods.
£130
