About Me

I am a shepherd, spinner, and weaver working on the edge of Exmoor, where the rhythms of the land and the lives of my flock shape everything I do. My practice is rooted in traditional skills, slow processes, and a deep respect for the animals and landscape that sustain me.

Over the years, I have honed the crafts of hand-spinning, weaving, and natural dyeing, creating textiles that reflect the character of the wool, the season, and the place it comes from. In many of my pieces, each stage of my process — from shearing and carding to spinning, dyeing, and weaving — is carried out by hand, ensuring each piece is unique and connected to its origin. I also use small local mills to process my wool into yarn.

Alongside making, I share these skills through carefully designed workshops, guiding others in working with raw fleece, fibre, and traditional tools. My teaching is grounded in practical experience, patience, and a love of slow, mindful making.

Wildlife and habitat are central to my work. Observing the flock, the birds, and the plants of the moor informs the pace, colour, and energy of what I create. This attentiveness to the natural world extends beyond my own practice; it shapes the way I care for my animals, manage the land, and craft textiles that honour the interconnectedness of life.

I hold certificates in advanced bushcraft, wild medicine and ethnobotany, I have over 15 years’ experience teaching crafts and plant knowledge, I hold a level 3 Forest School qualification and am passionate about the ways mental health, nature and crafting come together. I enjoy teaching people from all walks of life, and welcome those who are neuro divergent or part of the LGBTQIA+ community; all are welcome.

Alongside my husband Dru, I run a smallholding on the edge of Exmoor. I am creating a sustainable and wildlife-friendly space full of trees that we have chosen for wildlife habitat, for medicines and plant dyes, and food for us and our animals. 

My flock of rare breed Portlands, Icelandics and Shetlands provides me with high-quality fleeces for spinning, weaving and other crafts, while my West of England geese and chickens roam free and provide my family with eggs and meat. 

Keeping these rare breeds improves the chance of the breeds surviving, in a world of commercial, fast growing breeds. My sheep are rotated through the smallholding, improving carbon capture and fertilising the soils. Their fleeces are shorn the traditional way, with hand blades. Not only does this improve the quality of the fleeces year on year, but it keeps them calm and happy, and it means they have a layer of fleece to keep them warm and dry.

Sustainable farming, regenerating soils, low stock numbers and outside lambing all form part of our values and daily choices on the farm; I am proud to produce high welfare, top quality fleeces and meat from the farm, supporting local food sovereignty, reducing food miles, creating textiles that are free from microplastics and can be composted back to the earth once they are no longer used.

We are creating more habitat through the planting of hedgerows, wildlife ponds, a food forest and orchard, and native woodland spaces. We regularly see deer, owls and kestrels, bats and other creatures grazing or hunting through the wildflower swathes and uncut meadow grass. We always leave areas ungrazed for the mice and voles that our barn owls feed from.

I am a member of the South West England Fibre Shed, the Natural Farming Network, the Shetland Sheep Society, Portland Sheep Breeders Group, and the Land Workers Alliance.

Follow me on facebook and Instagram to see my flock, my workshop dates, and hand woven textiles and fleeces for sale. You can also follow the farm animals on @honeywoodsflock.

www.facebook.com/thewovenbriar 

www.instagram.com/thewovenbriar

Recent media

From Soil to Soil - Land Workers Alliance

I was featured as part of their Land Talkers series.

Country Homes & Interiors, March 2024

Read the article here.

Somerset Life Magazine, Autumn 2023

Country Smallholder, Autumn 2023

Primitive sheep would have shed their fleece naturally, but with thousands of years of human intervention, even primitive breeds don't always naturally shed their coats.

I work with an experienced blade shearer, early in the spring before lambing, not only to reduce any negative impact on the sheep, but to improve the welfare of the animals and their young. Using these traditional skills and farming practices, also benefits the quality of the wool I produce.

I shear before lambing so that the ewes can lamb free of heavy, wet, dirty, uncomfortable fleece. I then get a better fleece before it declines in quality as resources go to producing milk. All of the HoneyWoods Flock lamb outside, clean-fleeced and ready to ‘drop and run’ in a natural, healthier environment. My shearer returns in autumn to get the very best soft lamb's fleece before it has endured a winter out in the fields.

Shearing can be stressful for sheep so by shearing by hand, the process is calmer for the ewes and shepherd alike.

Hand shearing leaves a layer of wool rich in lanolin on the animal which stops them being exposed to the elements. It is a slower process in which the shearer and I can take the time we need to look over the animals and check they are healthy and well, and the shearer has the time to get the very best out of the fleeces. Blade shearing gives us a cleaner fleece with less lanolin and fewer second cuts.

I breed only from my healthiest ewes with the best fleeces to avoid breeding in weakness or poor quality wool. My breed mixes all mean the lambs are slow growing primitive breeds suited to our methods of land management with wildlife at its heart.