Fabulous felted animal sculptor Zoe Stainton shows us round her home and studio in Holmfirth

The main sitting room is enormous and is warmed by a wood-burning stove. One of the sofas dates from the 1930s and is still going strong and has a new look thanks to being recovered.

The vintage toy dog on wheels and the old desk are from a charity shop in Holmfirth while the colourful print above the leather easy chair is by York artist Emily Sutton. The room is also home to a beautiful picture of a curlew by printmaker Gillian Tyler.

Upstairs, the main bedroom is large and airy with shades of soft blue. The bed was new buy and works well with the original fireplace, which is topped with one of Zoe’s wool felted horses sculptures. The Japanese painting above is by printmaker Ian Phillips whose studio is in Tywyn, Mid Wales.

Along with her vintage finds and upcycled bargains, Zoe’s property is full of her work and that of other artists and makers.

Etched glass maestro and wordsmith Andy Poplar made the mirror in the downstairs loo, Corolla Van Dyke made the owl cushion in the work room and there is work by woodblock printmaker David Rowlands.

She likes to support fellow makers and often meets them at selling events in Yorkshire and beyond.

Zoe studied ceramics at the University of Wales and lived in Cardiff for ten years. She says: “I was a part-time lecturer in ceramics and I was a community artist in the Welsh Valleys working on various art projects including murals, mosaics and community gardens.

“I was there for ten years but when I was in my early thirties I had a yearning to come home to be closer to my parents in Yorkshire.”

She did just that and fulfilled an ambition to make a living as an artist-maker thanks to the house she had bought in Cardiff Bay.

“I bought it for £36,000 and three years later the area became fashionable and the property had trebled in value.

“I bought a house in Slaithwaite outright, which meant I had the time to establish my career up here without worrying about paying a mortgage,” says Zoe.

Her now 14-year-old twins prompted the move to the end terraced house in Holmfirth 10 years ago and it was and remains perfect for the whole family.

There is countryside on the doorstep and Holmfirth town centre is a short drive away. There’s also plenty of space as the property has two reception rooms, four bedrooms and a large garden.

The double garage was a bonus and doubles as storage and a workshop/studio, though Zoe’s main workspace is in the second reception room.

She turned to needle-felting when her children were young.“I would’ve had to work on my ceramics in the garage/workshop, which would’ve meant leaving the children, which, of course, I couldn’t do. That’s why I started looking at alternatives.”

Inspiration came from Leeds-based Mister Finch, who makes fairytale creatures out of scraps of thread, wool and fabric.

“I was inspired by the possibility of textiles and that’s how I came to needle felting with wool,” says Zoe. “I love its tactile qualities. It’s warm, it feels nice and it is something I can put down and come back to later if I need to, unlike ceramics.

“I’m still sculpting but I’m using wool rather than clay, though I’ve started to incorporate ceramics in some of the plinths I put the animals and birds on.”

For others she uses vintage elements, including old mill bobbins and interesting bits of wood.

Her work is hugely popular thanks to her great attention to detail. It is also very labour intensive and involves building a wire frame to wrap her felted wool around. The form is then created by using barbed felting needles which compact and sculpt the wool.

Her needle-felted hares are hugely popular and she gets plenty of inspiration for them as the real life versions are often seen in the fields around her home.

Her birds too are best-sellers and she has branched out into making needle felted bears and horses.

She sells online via her own website and also at fairs and in galleries, including the Yorkshire Gallery in the Piece Hall in Halifax and Hawksbys in Haworth.

*You can find Zoe’s work at www.zoestaintonsculpture.com and on Instagram where she posts as zoestaintonsculpture