Steph Cade

Project Description

Fibres of the Flock is a celebration of wool - its origins, its potential, and its deep-rooted connection to the land, the people, and the animals who produce it. This project honours the rich, nuanced palette of natural dyes, embracing their vivid hues and natural beauty. My collection redefines the technique of needle-felting - a craft traditionally associated with sculpting ornaments and figurines - into a method for creating intricate, expressive designs for contemporary textile pieces.

My approach brings together material, process, and place. Using wool sourced directly from farms in my home region of Devon, I engage with every stage of the fibre’s journey: sourcing, washing, scouring, carding, naturally dyeing, felting and finishing. My farm-to-fabric ethos is rooted in traceability, ecological responsibility, and craftsmanship; a conscious departure from synthetic systems to embrace regenerative, local design.

I work with wool as if painting with pigment. Using my hands to blend and guide the wool fibre, I punch it into a base fabric with a felting needle to build seamless gradients, detailed patterns, and rich textures. This method allows for an extraordinary level of control over form and tone, opening up new visual and tactile possibilities for wool textiles. Each piece in the collection takes between 60–80 hours to complete, embodying a philosophy of slow design, sustainable luxury, and artisanal excellence.

Intended for functional, lived-in spaces - such as blankets, upholstery, or soft furnishings - my textiles unite beauty, durability, and environmental responsibility. Each design draws inspiration from the geodesic architecture of The Eden Project in Cornwall, a charity dedicated to ecological education and regeneration. Eden’s focus on sustainability and reconnecting people with nature mirrors the values at the heart of Fibres of the Flock, which, like Eden, is rooted in respect for the land, natural materials, and the cycles that sustain life.

Fibres of the Flock is a vision for the future of textiles - rooted in heritage, shaped by hand, and guided by a belief that meaningful design and sustainability can go hand in hand.