Jennifer Black is a self-taught textile artist, based in Anstruther, Fife, working under the name of wooltide. She handmakes all of her work from recycled fabrics and materials to create light-hearted, decorative and useful 3D creatures and objects. She uses colour, shape and texture with some added humour to create her wooltide characters.

Using recycled textiles to create her work means that each small batch is unique. The process of making with preloved fabrics requires imagination to work with the given material and also produces minimal waste. Each batch becomes a limited edition.

All patterns and designs are her own.

Jennifer’s most popular items are her hookheads which are 3D textile animal heads mounted on backings of recycled wood with hooks at the base. Her aim is to capture the essence of each animal and design these animal heads with a relatively simplistic and humorous style. The animals Jennifer makes include Scottish, wild, and fictional creatures. She also creates commissions of pets and people in the same style.

Recently Jennifer has been experimenting with paper mache creating human figures who have opinions.