Helen MacRitchie originally trained as a pharmacist, completing a PhD in pharmaceutics, but relocation abroad led her down a different path, and into textiles. After studying a City & Guilds Diploma in Embroidery in 2016, by correspondence, she realised this was her first love and textile art continues to be her working focus.

Helen generally bases her work on wet felted wool, adding other fibres with free machine embroidery to create layered textural surfaces. The versatility of this medium allows her to create a delicate work with movement and translucency, or work with structure and depth, as the design dictates. 

Helen focuses upon the detail found in nature and science, often drawing upon her years of research in the pharmaceutical industry for inspiration and metaphorical representation. 

Her current work explores the themes of belonging, home, ancestry and personal connections with the landscape.  With ancestry in the Outer Hebrides, her formative years spent in Scotland and her last 15 years in Australia, these experiences have influenced her changing perception of home and appreciation of environmental issues.

Website: helenmacritchiedesigns.com
Instagram: @helenmacritchie

Press

Creates Magazine (2020) Spring issue p20-21

Be Creative with Workbox (2019) issue 157, p39-43