Life, landscape and a felt experience

Ellie Sarri-Neate uses the ancient craft of felting to create the landscapes and animals near her Yorkshire Dales home. Catherine Scott reports. Pictures by James Hardisty,

ELLI Sarri-Neate just loves nature. Having been born and brought up in Greece, the Yorkshire countryside near her home in Wensleydale is a far cry from the landscape of the Athens home she left to study in the UK. Now she creates life-like sculptures of the animals she sees on walks with her dogs and landscapes of her adopted Yorkshire countryside – all using felting techniques.

“I did a degree in graphic design in Athens where I grew up and then gained scholarship to do a PhD in Environmental auditing and packaging in the UK where I met my husband. Around 18 years ago we settled in Yorkshire,” explains Elli.

“My passion for nature and environmental protection led me to undertake research about the environmental issues affecting the design process in particular about the life cycle of packaging and product design.

“Most importantly, I changed the way I view the world and how choices we make affect our habitat. As a result, when I had three toddlers and the opportunity arose I moved to the countryside aiming to bring up my children to appreciate nature and respect our natural habitat.”

Since 2006, her home and studio have been in Aysgarth, a picturesque villages in the Yorkshire Dales National Park surrounded by wildlife.

“I particularly love the unique light and reflections that change constantly. I was inspired to paint and draw and I had a great pleasure doing it,” explains Elli

“I worked in different mediums from egg temperas, acrylics, soft pastel, colour pencils to oils but found using wool makes my work more special.”

Through her interests in textiles and sustainability she came across needle felted animals and in 2015 bought a kit and a few books and taught herself the ancient crafting technique with a special interest in creating three dimensional animals.

Inspired by the tactile nature of wool she experimented incorporating it in her artwork. She started making wet felted

NATURE: Elli Sarri-Neate at work in Aysgarth in the heart of the Dales. Her work uses sustainable wool fibres sourced locally and ethically to create unique, felt paintings and sculptural art.