Caroline Zoob trained first as an opera singer and later as a solicitor before serendipitous encounters led her into the world of design for which she had no formal training whatsoever.

Caroline trained as a solicitor before discovering embroidery in her late ‘thirties. She won both the Editor’s Choice and Best Stand awards at her first Country Living exhibition in 2000, and has been embroidering and designing professionally in various media ever since. A forerunner in the use of antique textiles for decorative accessories, her designs have been used for bed linen, textiles and several popular ranges of china. Caroline has always been inspired by old, worn, faded surfaces and likes to mix her work with decorative antiques and vintage-inspired homewares. Her restrained colour palette and liking for folk art and all things French combine to create a very particular look which has led to interior styling commissions.

Caroline started to devise and teach a variety of embroidery and mixed media workshops in 2012. She designs workshops with particular themes and shares her skills and techniques generously, enabling people to make their own creative journey while using her ideas. Students also have access to her collection of vintage and antique materials. She is always inventing new ideas to inspire students, such as her way of using antique papers for collage and papiers colles work, and most recently, the idea of combining paint and stitching on antique linen. She is the author of three books, Childhood Treasures, The Hand Stitched Home and Virginia Woolf’s Garden.

Her workshops are held at the houses of close friends in Surrey and Oxfordshire, at Cowslip Workshops and a very beautiful chateau in France.

For ten years Caroline and her husband rented Monk’s House, the former home of Leonard and Virginia Woolf, which they opened to the public twice a week on behalf of the National Trust. Gardens and the countryside are a key source of inspiration for Caroline and she is now absorbed by the creation of a tiny new home and garden in East Sussex.

Caroline will be exhibiting at the Winter Brocante at Cowdray Park near Midhurst on 24 and 25 November, where she will also be running a series of mini workshops.