'On visits to the Art Farm Project in previous years, I fell in love with the barn wall: whenever I went there, I wanted to take it home with me!'

This year, embroiderer Stef Francis is interpreting the barn wall through colour and texture to produce a series of abstract panels and 3D textile works.

Stef works primarily with yarns that she has dyed herself to make wall hangings and wearable art, including bags, vessels, jewellery and clothing. Worked mainly in hand stitch, and incorporating metal, wire, beads and sequins, her pieces are rich in texture and pattern. Colour is a driving force, and, inspired by Indian art, Stef's work is marked out by its rich, jewel-like hues. For the Art Farm, though, she uses a new range of tones: 'Colour is still the focus, but working with a new palette is making me look at things differently.'

Alongside her creative work Stef runs a thriving family business selling space-dyed yarns and creative textile kits. The business began quite literally at the kitchen sink when, as student, she started experimenting with dying yarns to achieve colours she could not source elsewhere. Her richly coloured threads soon became popular with her fellow students and the business was born. Though she exports her work worldwide, Stef still does all the dying herself at her home in the Rocombe valley.