An artist and printmaker from Croscombe who made enough facemasks for the whole of her home village has been reflecting after her efforts gained attention around the globe.

Shelley Dyer-Gibbins and her team of dedicated sewers have created a stockpile of fabric facemasks so every villager has access to one, and they are striking by featuring her own Cinegirl design.

More than 600 masks have been made and they are being made available for free for every person in Croscombe.

Shelley told Nub News: "After watching the news saying about lack of PPE, I decided to make my own masks from fabric I had laying around the house.

"Years earlier I had had some of my artwork printed on to fabric which happened to be the Cinegirl design.

"I made several masks with it and gave some to my friend Claire Sully from Tickbox Marketing, who saw there was a story in it after I handed Cinegirl artwork masks I'd made for her and her family.

"With her help I heard from local, regional and national press, TV and radio and then the story went global.

"The last few days have been a crazy, mad media ride. The Press Association's photographer Ben Birchall came to photograph myself and some of the village recipients of the art masks which was great fun and slightly odd to see people about, obviously adhering to the two-metre social distancing.

"Ryan Evans from Westfield Medical Ltd donated the precious SMMS medical fabric after a Facebook post he had sent out to our village.

"Myself and others responded to form a volunteer group which made the plain blue masks. I was still making my art masks but combined the SMMS fabric with them also.

"The other volunteers who have done an amazing job are Louise Tully, Kate Egan, Alison Hodges, Ann Watson, Elaine Watson and Hilary Shergold.

"Their great work and with precious time, they spent making the blue SMMS masks. These have been stockpiled along side with the bespoke art masks that have also been distributed in the village and further a field."

Originally trained as a graphic designer, Shelley worked in London, Bristol and Bath for more than 20 years.

Based in Croscombe, she's now an artist and printmaker, mainly specialising in linocut printmaking as well being as an artist in schools throughout the South West of England, teaching and lecturing printmaking.

Being self taught she produced Magpies, which was sold to The Atkinson Gallery for their private Collection in 2017.

Shortly afterwards, she won the 21st National Open Art's Original Print Prize with Cinegirl, which is the biggest open art competition in the UK with more than 4,000 entrants.

The winning entry was exhibited at the critically acclaimed Pallant House Gallery, home to one of the best collections of Modern British Art in the UK.

The NOA was a platform to help boost her creative career and in doing so, she has gained awards, various solo and combined shows with other artists such as Illuminati Neon, Darren West and Damien Hirst.

She has recently exhibited at the Bankside Gallery, London, as part of the National Open Print Exhibition and will be part of UPFEST 2020, the street art and graffiti festival in Bristol, which is held within the heartland of Banksy.

Shelley said: "Art provokes emotions within people, that's the whole point.

"When I'm creating it provokes an emotion and a feeling during the process. People see my pieces and go 'that's me'. They find a connection, they find their story with it.

"I think it's quite wonderful when we're all facing something as frightening as the coronavirus, how incredible we are as a community, we pull together, in order to help one another for the greater good.

"The other sewers and volunteers have done an amazing job also, making masks for our village."

Shelley is now selling the art masks online with a proportion of sales going to help food banks. Visit her website for more info: www.shelleydyergibbinsart.com.