Estelle Woolley

10/03/2026

It was wonderful to speak with Dr Hannah Harry yesterday at the launch of the 'Dressing Through Pandemics' special edition in 'Fashion, Style and Popular Culture', guest edited by Dr Elizabeth Kealy-Morris, and to hear the other contributors present their papers.

It felt like both a privilege and very affirming to have a peer-reviewed academic paper written and published about my Pandemic Nature Mask project, and for my image 'Sneeze' a photographic self portrait wearing a mask of dandelion clocks, to be selected for the front cover. The event offered a chance to reflect on the methods and processes behind the work, which were shaped by the constraints of such a monumental time in History - the Covid-19 lockdown which began six years ago.

Thanks to Elizabeth for organising, Hannah for interviewing and writing about my project, friends who showed up to support us, and all the support and many opportunities that have come out of this body of work. It was so satisfying to see this one finally come into fruition, since being approached in 2020!

06/03/2026

Busy preparing for our presentation for the upcoming international academic journal launch of Dressing Through Pandemics this Monday, with the wonderful Dr. Hannah Harry.

She has written a beautiful essay on my photographic self-portraiture wearing facemasks that I made from foraged materials during lockdown, 6 years ago, whilst I was staying at my family’s dairy farm and surrounded by wildflowers every day.

13/02/2026

Every time another valentines day rolls by, I look back with a strange kind of melancholy over the pieces of artwork I've made whilst healing from times of heartbreak; a phenomenon which I find happens very privately and internally, but then carries on resurfacing until it's fully accepted and acknowledged:

1) 2010 - Heart, red onion and sewing pins
2) 2010 - Heart, xray of red onion and sewing pins
3) 2022 - Water Your Pillow, gallery installation- pillow and wildflowers
4) 2021 - Forget Me Not, photographic self portrait with honey and wildflowers printed onto handkerchief

If you'd like to read more about these pieces, there's some written information on my website:

www.estellewoolley.com

13/02/2026

Excited and grateful to be involved in this international academic journal launch on March 9th, 'Dressing Through Pandemics' in 'Fashion, Style and Popular Culture', which can be found on Eventbrite. One of the contributing papers is a visual essay written by Dr. Hannah Harry - exploring my Pandemic Nature Masks 🌿

Abstract
"In the summer of 2020, during lockdown restrictions, artist Estelle Woolley walked the lanes surrounding her family farm, foraging plants and wildflowers that she then used to make a series of floral masks. Woolley subsequently took a series of photographic self portraits wearing her ephemeral creations; it is these self portraits that form her artwork... Key themes of discussion points include isolation and the power of creativity to connect us, the symbolic potential of plants and other natural materials and the link between technology and imagination. Woolley’s imagitive process translated natural elements of British fields and hedgerows into symbolic art forms, capable of speaking to people - thanks to technology - across boundaries of time and space; she used the natural landscape as a means of connecting with others at a time when we were locked away - from ourselves, from nature and physically, from each other".

It was lovely to be approached with floods of opportunities for this project, and it’s so exciting to see this one come into fruition, with thanks to 🙏

13/02/2026

Anyone is welcome to tune into this international academic journal launch, Dressing Through Pandemics, on March 9th:

One of the papers is a visual essay written by Dr. Hannah Harry exploring my Pandemic Nature Masks 🌿

Abstract
"In the summer of 2020, during lockdown restrictions, artist Estelle Woolley walked the lanes surrounding her family farm, foraging plants and wildflowers that she then used to make a series of floral masks. Woolley subsequently took a series of photographic self portraits wearing her ephemeral creations; it is these self portraits that form her artwork... Key themes of discussion points include isolation and the power of creativity to connect us, the symbolic potential of plants and other natural materials and the link between technology and imagination. Woolley’s imagitive process translated natural elements of British fields and hedgerows into symbolic art forms, capable of speaking to people - thanks to technology - across boundaries of time and space; she used the natural landscape as a means of connecting with others at a time when we were locked away - from ourselves, from nature and physically, from each other".

Join us for a virtual celebration of fashion resilience during tough times at the 'Dressing through Pandemics' launch.

01/02/2026

Delighted to have an image from my project 'Fashion On The Rows' printed in Cheshire West and Chester Council's Culture Manifesto, launched last week.

Fashion On The Rows was a community engagement project, commissioned as part of CWAC’s Refresh initiative; a cultural recovery programme designed to bring high quality arts and cultural activities back into Chester, including the Heritage Action Zone bid in which culture and creative activity is inspired by the distinctive heritage of the Rows. Highlighting Chester's millinery trade, the history of promenading along the Rows, and the closure of Browns department store, whilst engaging with the local community and collaborating with other creatives.

My choice of natural materials in the various headwear, such as taxidermy and curiosities, were inspired by a Victorian aesthetic and a nod to how the Victorians with their taste for the unusual celebrated the rows when they were in danger of closing in the 1800s.

I was joined by a creative team from across the UK on the day of shooting, including previous collaborator - Edinburgh based portrait photographer Jaime Molina.

The photoshoot incorporated people from the local community and the University of Chester, alongside models from Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Cheshire, and hair and makeup artists from Merseyside.

The project included a competition, workshops and an exhibition at Contemporary Art Space Chester, as well as commissions with other Chester based creatives - Sam Ryley, Clare Owens and Ashley Fayth.

This was my favourite hat - a nest I made from foraged birch, willow, blossom, ivy, wax flowers and blown eggs, modelled by the ever supportive

I've also included a couple of other images from the day. To see more please visit and search for the film on YouTube!

31/12/2025

Looking back at some of the highlights from my year:

- Selected for the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition in London
- Successfully managed the smooth running of our studios and gallery space at NAS Chester without burning the place down and got over my fear of risk assessments
- Co-curated Remember Nature, exhibiting several pieces of my work plus 14 other artists from the UK and overseas (this was a huge undertaking!)
- Had a little solo window exhibition and experimented adding living plants into my sculptural assemblages
- Exhibited in the Chester Photo Festival with my performance Rollo's Danube
- Filmed an experimental improvised collaborative performance with found natural materials
- Launched my website (why do I still feel like an imposer?!)
- Took part in, and facilitated several workshops building on my floristry/foraging, aromatherapy and clay skills ✨️
- Visited several inspiring and moving exhibitions (Flowers at the Saatchi, Helen Chadwick's Life Pleasures at Hepworth, John Renshaw Retrospective in Stockport, ANEW Way To Peel An Orange at Castlefield Gallery Manchester, Marina Abromavic's Balton Erotic Epic, David Nash at Ruth Craft Centre)

All this whilst navigating a weath of personal challenges including the death of my Dad, of which I organised a cracking send off for him

Here's to more artistic endeavours in 2026! ✨️

22/11/2025

It’s the last weekend to catch the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition at Mall Galleries in London, just off Trafalgar Square.

I’m feeling so honoured to have my film Penelope selected out of more than 6,500 entries. Thank you to judge Richard Ansett for choosing my piece!


Penelope began while I was living on my family’s dairy farm in Cheshire. I filmed her chewing and staring directly into the camera. It's an idea I’d had in the back of my mind for many years, and the right moment finally presented itself to capture the footage as I’d imagined it. I didn't even need to loop it - she stared right at the camera for a solid two minutes without breaking eye contact. It was perfect.

I wanted to pair her confrontational gaze with a version of myself in soliloquy with her: a softly spoken poem exploring my thoughts, feelings, and life long experiences of forming intimate bonds with these beautiful animals and the ways in which I spoke to and interacted with them. The poem explores my reflections on objectification and power, refering to Penelope as the number on her eartag, yet is balanced with a deeply compassionate and gentle humour.

In the second screen I am chewing gum whilst leaning against a graffiti wall, wearing hooped earrings with cow eartags, and staring right at the camera.

20/11/2025

Untitled
2010
Spiders legs, plug and sink

Recently on show at Remember Nature, Castlefield Gallery New Art Spaces: Chester

To anyone who came to visit our exhibition and left wondering why there was a dirty old sink in the gallery. It wasn't a pretentious attempt at reinventing Duchamp's Fountain! Inside the sink is a delicately crafted chain constructed from linking delicate spiders legs together. On first glance they look like a rusty chain, but to the keen eye unfolds an uncanny and uncomfortable transformation using the legs of an insect that you'd perhaps encounter crawling from such a sink and recoiling in fear. I love how this sense of cognitive dissonance, of both attraction and repulsion is felt in the viewer. (I don't really experience it myself but I could perhaps relate it to the sensation I felt when I experienced Helen Chadwick's 'Carcass' at the Hepworth recently.)

I exhibited this in my degree show at The Cube Gallery in Manchester, at Mill:24 Islington Mill in Salford, and at Wunderland, Tactile Bosch Gallery in Cardiff, to name a couple. It was great to give this piece another outing recently. It's one of my favourite things that I've made over the years and is also one of the most delicate things I've made, and I love that tension - that it could collapse at any moment. It requires a bit of re-mending (from recently deceased spiders and precision jewellery glue) every time I take it out and find a suitable sink to house it in!

19/11/2025

Shoe Horn
2013

Ballet shoe and cows horn

Recently on show at Remember Nature, Castlefield Gallery New Art Spaces Chester

Photo: Peter Davies

18/11/2025

Rose Tea
Teacup, saucer, and thorns on stand

Recently exhibited at Remember Nature, Castlefield Gallery New Art Spaces: Chester, this precariously balanced sculpture explores the playful tension created by juxtaposing a comforting object with something sharp and unsettling. The result is a piece that feels almost tactile. Its fragility and discomfort are felt just by looking.

I’ve always adored gathering thorns from hedgerows, and this was one of the first works I created with them back in 2013. Other early experiments included placing thorns around bicycle wheels in cement.

Placed on a thin metal stand in a very unstable manner, the work creates a further sense of delicacy and tension.

Photo by Peter Davies