MA Stuff

Sooo these are the current product designs showing the development of patterns on various products that could be sold in a gallery gift shop or in this case an outdoor theatre, hence the use of umbrellas, cushions and lampshades for the cafe bar perhaps.

Cultural Appropriation brief exploring Native Americans and Indian artefacts to inspire decorative cloth and screen printing on fabrics.

Fifty Bees #4 exhibition at Frome’s wonderful Black Swan gallery. 

This is my response to the habitat and lifestyle of the Lobe Spurred furrow bee.

I enjoy using found and repurposed materials in my own arts practice, so this is created entirely from fabric washed up the beach at Charmouth and fishing line, horsehair and natural fibres to stitch with. This bee was virtually extinct in the 1980′s but then made a dramatic come back, to now becoming a species with no risk to its population. My quest to discover the reasoning behind this encouraged a journey of discovery and research to try and understand its story.

I travelled around to visit habitats of known sightings, scrubland, agricultural sites, beach cliff locations but did not find my bee. I did discover though,  that the prevalence of Oilseed Rape planted on a mass scale across the UK in the 80′s had a detrimental impact on many indigenous insect species particularly bees. The nicotinoid pesticides used in agriculture was the culprit but fortunately for the lobe spurred furrow bee, it thrived on the blooms of rape and where others perished it increased in number.

My piece uses loopy stitching and intense surface coverage to signify the bees activity. The yellow plant dyed colour references the rape blooms and the undulating surface is linked to the patch of land investigated on site.

Exciting A level work, developing samples from observational studies of fruit. Fab colour palette and adventurous textiles techniques explored : )

A parking fine inspired me to channel my frustration into something more positive. The yellow colour palette and use of repetitive imagery and text were the focus when creating this new sketchbook. Surprising what can inspire you!

Got my work selected for the Millfield Summer Show exhibiting now. Come and visit, some great work this year!

Rusted and naturally dyed fabrics from salvaged and scavenged materials found on daily walks, plotting the ancient field boundaries. Visual diary. Slow-stitched cloth. Recording traces and tracks.

Out and about gathering visual research for future projects. Grids and nets to start the journey. Once you start looking you can’t stop seeing!

Getting my colour mixing mojo on. Painting outdoors in the Spring sunshine feeling inspired by the fresh colours around me in the garden and from walks in the surrounding fields, lanes and woodland.I had forgotten how much I love this!

In the late 1980′s and early 1990′s after graduating, I worked freelance as a textiles designer and also travelled to South America after winning a travel bursary award in a design competition. I was inspired by the pre-Hispanic, ancient textiles of Peru, where the Incas and other ancient civilisations used natural dyes to create their woven cloth. I travelled through Peru, Columbia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina and down to the very south of Chile and had the best time. I researched natural dyes, spending time of the beaten track, living with indigenous people and learning from them. We picked roots by moonlight and gathered plants on specific dates linked to the Inca calendar, there was lots of superstition surrounding the dyeing process but also much wisdom and understanding of the life cycle of each plant and when it would give the best sources of colour.

On my return, I spent most of my time mixing colours from gouache and saving the match pots in 35mm film canisters as sample colours. This was pre-digital when everything was hand painted and drawn out in detail for selling to design companies. I had forgotten my love of colour matching and mixing and remembered my workshop space had literally hundreds of these hand mixed colour swatches lining the shelves for reference when recreating new colour palettes.

Thes images show my process of stretching fabric, priming, layering colours over a series of days with time between to ponder what colours to mix and add for balance, harmony and also composition. Enjoying myself!

Happy days....experimenting with mixed media and textiles.

Today...lace dipped in porcelain with stitched wire....fired!

New favourite beach. Wonderful rock formations and so many beautiful pebbles, each one so unique and inspiring. Jurassic and Triassic. Very photogenic and lots of ideas forming. Making drawing tools and using them to capture the scale and drama of the place.