In the centre of the busy tourist village of Blanchland is a gift shop, Jaspeh Crewe, and its filled with artisan crafts of all descriptions, including the work of Janice Hutchinson.
Janice, a Leadgate girl whose father was a local miner and her mother worked at Shotley Bridge Hospital, has had a varied career. Working at the TSB Bank in Consett, she enjoyed her job until poor health forced a change and she found herself going back to college and studying floristry and holistic therapy. This led to opening a shop promoting holistic therapies with friend Lorraine, which went really well, but it was her love of floristry and a passion for needlework that took Janice to her dream job.
Painting with wool is the complicated process of teasing and pressing strands of wool and combining it with fine needlework to create beautiful images. As a girl, Janice’s grandmother had taught her needlecraft, but it wasn’t until her Romanian teacher taught her the art of making felt that it all fell into place, and she was able to transform strands of wool into fabulous individual artworks. Aided by her husband Ian, who frames the finished works, Janice also had a solo exhibition at the Botanic Gardens, Durham in July.
Please look her up for a far better description of the process or better still visit the shop in Blanchland.