Ann has been a bobbin lace tutor, designer and maker since 1980. She learned the traditional laces from her mother and soon began to adapt old patterns and design new ones. Studying the City & Guilds Lace Course opened a whole new world of design possibilities, where the strictures of traditional lacemaking could be stretched, manipulated or even broken.

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‘B-leaf’ was created for the 98 Lace Group exhibition at The Bowes Museum in 2012. To be visible at a great height, under the low lighting conditions of a textile gallery, the work needed to be large, bold and light-reflecting. To be self-supporting, it needed constructing from a material of great intrinsic strength, so Ann began to experiment with and work with 0.5mm copper wire.

Since then, the use of wire has been developed both through her teaching and in her own work.

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‘Fleur’ was selected for the Lace 21 exhibition at Waddesdon Manor in 2014. Inspired by a tiny flower from a piece of antique Brussels lace, ten overlapping petals became a 3-dimensional flower basket, with silver-lined beads topping stamens in the centre. The black fabric-covered base greatly enhanced the silver colour, while protecting the valuable antique bureau on which it was displayed.

In 2017, a black wire sketch was created for ‘Colour Coded,’ 98 Lace’s exhibition at Mount Grace Priory. The design for ‘Tracery’ was developed from the shapes and shadows of the ruined remains of window tracery in the priory chapel. The colour source was a black and white engraving from Rev. John Graves’ ‘History of Cleveland,’ published in 1808. Hanging against a plain coloured wall, the shadows created additional interest.

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Having always admired Czech lace with its simple, but extremely effective designs, Ann created ‘In the Groove,’ for The Westhope Group’s 2023 exhibition, ‘Elemental.’