Derbyshire based artist RUSSELL WILSON is a painter, ceramicist and maker of delicate felted bird sculptures.  He concentrates here on a collection of remarkably lifelike British birds – a reminder of how the numbers of these erstwhile common birds are disappearing from our gardens and hedgerows and upsetting the balance of the wide web of life. Russell creates them by ‘needle felting’ – a process of turning wool fibres into solid form by stabbing the wool repeatedly with a barbed needle, blending the individual fibres together. He combines natural and dyed wools with recycled woollen fabric to suggest plumage and marking.  Hand and machine stitching complete the bird form.  Through his clever interpretation, he captures the essence of each bird, giving each a character of its own.