Mapping the Territory.

I should start by saying that I felt it was really important for me to do this in textiles. For a start it is easily portable and easy to store in a way that would be very destructive to paper. This map needs to survive at least the length of the course and the intention is obviously that we add to it over the duration. This seems much easier to do for me and making it in pieces that were stitched together means that I can indeed add to it over time whilst keeping the integrity of the piece.

I went to Dunelm Mill to buy a large piece of cotton as the base piece or as something I could cut up to stitch together. I always rummage through the remnants bin. Always have done, wherever I go. Always look in the oddments – little gems that can go into your stash for later use (wool, fabric, anything…). Whilst rummaging I found that they sold off all of the previous season’s upholstery fabric swatches in bagged groups. Perfect – an easy way to introduce colour and interest into a piece that might otherwise be monochrome.

My initial intention was to stitch all the words and items I wished to express. However, after the first piece of fabric, I reckoned I’d be lucky to be even half finished by the end of the course. So I decided to write on the fabric instead with marker pens and rollerball ink pens. I tried some colour – which didn’t really work, so mostly stuck to black. When writing on some fabric, I had to use biro as the ink would otherwise bleed too much.

As it is some of the pieces bled quite a lot and have rendered some bits a bit unreadable – well as time goes on it will be. Therefore I am going to transcribe all the component parts here too for posterity – just in case!

In one of the packs of samples there was a piece of Macintosh inspired fabric – so I used this as a starting point of Art Vs Craft. After stitching the few words I did, I then started to write. The 2nd piece I knew I wanted to make was about knitting, so I knitted an i-cord which I could coil into the word and stitch onto fabric to write around. I then began to ‘brain-dump’ as required, onto pieces of fabric, large and small and collated them until I had enough to start forming.

I started to group similar themes together (with the help of one of my cats who was completely drawn to this project!) and begun to stitch them together.

After this initial combination, I could see gaps (although I intentionally wanted some in between the pieces) where I needed to expand. I wrote more and more and then went back and reread the brief and wrote some more. As I started to stitch these pieces together I realised that there needed to be some structural reinforcements as the piece as a whole was a ‘bit floppy’. If hung, there would still need to be several points joined up to one point – or I would have to add a piece of reinforcement to the top. I had some long lists to add – of the art books (and non-art which are relevant to my work) I own and of galleries I have (and haven’t) been to. This was a really, really useful exercise as it’s great to have my library listed so I can instantly glance at it to see if I have anything relevant already. And also amazing to try to think of what galleries I have been to and those that I still want to visit.

Both of these long lists I put on offcuts of blackout fabric as this is rather stiff and strong and gave structure on the sides (it also allowed me to write in biro on one of them as the list was hugely long and difficult to write on in ink as it bled so much – biro was so much quicker!)

I’ll now start to list what each panel says (indicated by a bullet). If there is any explanation needed I will add this under the bullet in italics. I will save the long lists to the last.

• GRAPHIC DESIGN – messages to convey
  Precise.
  Measured.
  Functional.
  WHITE SPACE.
  Typography.
  Photography.
  Illustration.
  Books.
  Brochures.
  Posters.
  Advertising.
  Composition.
  Colour.
  Framing.
  Image manipulation.
  All of the above is what I do in my ‘day job’. All of these elements are vital to what I do in that role and are bound to have an influence on my art. As an artist, I am ‘tight’. As a graphic designer, I am very ‘loose’. I am employed to make things look ‘beautiful’ and appealing. This is to someone else’s taste. Making my art is making something beautiful to MY tastes.
• COLOUR – Mix it – blend it
• PROCESS is very important to me.
  “Knitting is akin to mediation”
  Counting stitches calms my mind, calming.
  FELTING Doing the layers of felt is calm and considered.
  Bedding the layers in is a frenzy of stabbing – either by hand or machine – very cathartic.
  I like to make pieces that are calm, soothing and comforting. I’m not about confrontation. I am quite frenzied at times and any process that takes that out of me is very therapeutic. This can be hammering metal, machining, knitting etc. It is both cathartic and productive. The end result and the process I used to get there, both enrich my artistic temperament and well-being.
• painting with FELT
  drawing with STITCHES
  recording with PHOTGRAPHS
  working with MEMORIES
  making with TEXTILESThis is how I see my art. These are the processes I currently use as I see them.
• Get it done, make it GORGEOUS!
  This is one of my favourite mottos. It came from some stickers in Creative Review or Design Week many years ago. I used to have it stuck on my pc screen for years. 
• CRAZY.
  Sometimes my life feels crazy. Making things and using the processes I do, calms me. It is cathartic. I like to take my tensions out on my work. I like physical processes. I like hammering, but I don’t really do anything that requires that! But stabbing the felt, using the machine and its furious noise and frantic knitting all help to expel the crazy beast inside and calm me. The beast needs to express itself – like a volcanic god, it must be appeased.
• CALM.
  Peaceful.
  Stable. This is how I’d like my life to be. And how I find myself after a good creative session. 
• I have a NEED to make things. – CONSTANTLY. I must make things. I must be doing something with my hands constantly. Maybe this harks back to my ceramicist days, constantly pawing and checking the work for impurities, lumps and bumps. Constantly smoothing, feeling, touching. Always fiddling with bits of clay. My hands will find things to do. Pick at things. Create things from nothing. From beer mats, crisp packets, candle wax. Anything. Better to give them something creative to achieve. 
• Happiness from HUMOUR fun. I like to retain a sense of humour at all times. It is too easy to be depressed. Better to try harder and be happy. My life is nothing without a good laugh and fun! That doesn’t mean I don’t know when to be serious, I do. But life is better when you keep it light. 
• Anxiety. Worry. Stress.
  I’m very good at these 3 things. I’d like not to be, but I am. And right from a very young age. I have to fight against them constantly lest they take me over, by trying to keep things light. When things are in my control, so are they. When things are out of my control, they are too.
• The devil makes work for idle hands. So the saying goes. My hands could be destructive if they aren’t given the right things to do. So far the main victims have been things in pubs like candles, so no real damage done – yet.
• Keep Calm and Make Art. This should probably be my new motto.  The keep calm range is everywhere at the moment. We used to have keep calm and carry on in the office. It was put on the wall by the East German lady in our office. I don’t think she understood the irony of it or where it came from! Doing our ‘don’t mention the war’ thing we didn’t tell her either. But now you can get everything with those words. Another office poster would be keep calm and eat cupcakes!
• EXPLORE
  MARKMAKING on paper, ink on fabric, stitch on paper/felt/fabric, holes in paper & light thru, paint & stitch on fabric. Embellish
  MOVEMENT wind, car lights, cities, sea, clouds
  LAYERS ON LAYERS translucent, layered, woven & collaged backgrounds
  TYPE as structure, as message, printed on paper & fabric, layers, poetry, landscape made up of
  ABSTRACTS
  LONG STRIPS
  COLOUR
  TEXTURE
  I have really enjoyed using ink on the fabric and would like to try drawing and mark making on fabric – as well as with stitch. I would like to include maps too – as part of the places I am trying to recall. I also have some large pieces of letterpress type and would like to try making landscapes out of letters – bringing together all my skills. From something I have written below I would also like to explore the fleetingness of memory. That it fades over time and can be like a ghost. Strong at first, but fades over time and altered and more fuzzy and unsharp. 
• EXTREME close ups.
  I love the uncertainty and ambiguity of extreme close ups. I have always taken photos along these lines and continue to do so. I love to challenge the viewer to work out what it is that they are looking at. Is it man made, is it natural, living, dead, inanimate? I would like to be able to translate these into textiles. Creating images that leave you asking where what you are looking at came from.
• FOUND OBJECTS e.g. shells, pebbles, twigs AS INCLUSIONSI would like to include found items from places I am portraying in order to make it somewhat commemorative. A memory of something with a keepsake in it. 
• SEAWEEDI really love the complexity and physical forms of seaweed. I would like to study this further
• LICHENSame with Lichen. The colour and often the contrast against the material it is on, is fascinating and something I have found inspirational on Skye. I wish to look at this further when I return there and fully explore this avenue in my work
• Robert Morris.
  An American sculptor who uses felt as his main material. Cited by Polly Binns in her thesis. http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A4108&page_number=11&template_id=1&sort_order=1
• LAYERS
  I love working with layers. In felt, in machine embroidery. In coiled pots. In transparent forms, lit from behind.
• KNITTING & STITCHING SHOWI’ve been going every year for most of the last two decades. It is where I found out about the MA as OCA had a stand there in 2010. I often find inspiration there, breakthrough materials and nothing beats being able to pick up and touch materials before you buy. It also means you get a great new list of suppliers and ideas every year.
• THE 62 GROUP of textile artists. Changes annually. Collaborative group of textile artists. Chosen annually. Regularly check up on these to see what the latest developments in members and works are. http://www.62group.org.uk/
• Pre-Raphaelites
  One of my favourite art movements. Colour, nature and precision all in one.
• WHAT MAKES A PIECE ART NOT CRAFT?
  Intent.
  Scale.
  Display.
  Use of craft to make art (Tracey Emin, Grayson Perry)
  Why does it matter?
  What defines one or the other?
  Function?
  Decorative?
  Tapestry of Walthamstow is clearly art (Perry) – but created using a craft
  amateur > craftsman > artist
  Does scale, intent or the way you display something make the difference? Tracey Emin and Grayson Perry are both respected artists, yet both use craft skills to make their art. Emin does wonderful appliqué and states that she is ‘really good at sewing’ and loves embroidery. Is it because she puts confrontational statements or text on them? Does the function or decorative quality make it one or the other? Is there a scale you move through to become an artist?
• DEPRESSION. MENTAL HEALTH.
  I have (and still do) suffered depression. It’s no longer something that bothers me. It’s well under control, but there has been a lot of recent research (particularly by Betsan Corkhill ) into how knitting helps as therapy for depression, chronic pain and anxiety. I find this all very interesting and have, myself, benefitted from using knitting to manage anxiety. Both at home in bouts of depression and in planes (which I was phobic about) to occupy my mind and hands during flights (it was all wrong, I had to undo it on landing, but it occupied my mind well).
  
• Orla Kiely.
  PATTERN
  I really like Orla Kiely’s use of colour and retro pattern. I have several of her bags and re-appropriated her stem pattern into pieces I have made as exploration of colour and precision in felting.
• TEXTURE
  Love it, study it, explore it.
• FILMS & DOCUMENTARIES
  Imagine – Anish Kapoor – BBC
  In Confidence – Tracey Emin – Sky Arts
  Manufactured Landscapes – film by Edward Burtynsky
  Joanna Lumley in the Land of the Northern Lights – BBC
  Hockney on Photography – Sky Arts
  Venice – BBC series on DVD
  Check out BBC4, Radio4 and Sky Arts programming regularly
  Check iPlayer regularly
  The Culture Show (BBC)
  Look out for BBC special seasons – such as the season they did on Sculpture inc. Henry Moore, Paul  Nash and Anish Kapoor
  I’ve added this since I photographed the piece. I had been watching some of them whilst I was stitching the piece together, but completely forgot to include them! These are programmes or films of artists or subjects of interest. Either because they relate to landscape, artists I like or should know more about, or subjects I like to use for inspiration.
• NATURAL PHENOMENON
  northern lights
  volcanoes
  waves
  tornadoes
  clouds
  storms
  lightning
  earthquakes
  space & the solar system
  I also have a fascination with natural phenomenon. All of the above are monumental moments in nature – they are an extreme of normal nature. I like watching documentaries on these topics. To understand the physical workings of them. I long to see the Northern Lights. I have been up several volcanoes (Vesuvius, Tiede and some long dormant ones) as well as having seen Etna spouting smoke whilst sailing past. To see one of these phenomenon are all memorable moments. My mum has seen a tornado. Nowhere exotic… just out the back window of my parents’ house in Cambridge. People travel miles and spend thousands chasing tornadoes and Mum just glanced up and saw one while she was doing the washing up (Dad thought she was mad, but it was reported on the news that night)! These are like the extreme knitting version of my memories of nature. I just haven’t managed to see much of them in person.
• TEXTILE ARTISTS
  Gwen Hedley – abstractions of the natural surroundings: colour/texture/pattern.
  Shelley Rhodes – layers, patches, colour & pattern.
  Alice Kettle – machine embroidery. Layers. People.
  Sarah Burgess – layers/print/photo/stitch.
  Rosie James – transparent layers – of figures over prints, loose and stray ends.
  Roanna Wells – markmaking by hand & machine. Wind, clouds, rocks, triptychs
  Bernie Leahy – Economic, not decorative stitches, stitched sketched faces – like etchings, long stitches.
  Andrea Butler – sculptural forms in textiles.
  James Hunting – draws directly onto fabric without planning. “Sketches record thoughts, images & ideas, but not pieces”. His work is “an evocation of feeling or thought”.
  Sandra Meech – natural subjects, layers, mixed media.
  Kim Thittichai – fabric landscape vessels, stone walls.
  Angie Hughes – words.
  Bethan Ash – abstract pattern from urban landscapes.
  Linda Gleave – painted fabric with stitching over.
  Wendy Dolan – flat sided landscape vessels.
  Sara Impey – Quilt blog!
  These are all people whose work I admire, have similar subjects or styles to my own or aspects to their work I can learn from. On looking at their work I realise that my intention is very much along the lines of these artists. My work may not be as comprehensive or rounded as the above people’s but that is where I aspire to get to.
• FELT
  Dry felting
  Wet felting
  Needle felting
  Layers on Layers
  Felt is “a non-woven cloth that is produced by matting, condensing & pressing woollen fibres”
  Nomadic people. Rugs. Tents. Yurts. Hats. Clothes.
  Renewable Ecological Textile
  Fulling (shrinking of knitted woollen items)
  A dampener in industry & musical instruments
  JOSEF BEUYS
  fuzzy felt
  sheep, fleece, washed, carded > READY TO FELT> spun, balled > READY TO KNIT
  LANDSCAPE – sheep in fields, shear them, [above process > me > art about the LANDSCAPE.
  Felt is a fabulous fabric. It can be very simply made without any special machinery from fleece. It is still used by Nomadic people to make their dwellings and clothing because it is fantastically waterproof as well as thermal. It is touted as a new ecological textile because it is renewable. Fulling is the term given to knitted items that are felted by shrinking them in very hot water (we’ve all done it!). Not all yarns are appropriate for this – there must be a substantial wool content to facilitate the fulling. Yarns such as mohair seem to felt themselves as you actually knit them because of the long hairs in the yarn. Make a mistake and they are virtually impossible to undo. Felt is still used in industry (on machinery and cars) as well as in musical instruments as a dampener (e.g. to dampen the strings in a piano). Josef Beuys did some work in felt because he developed an affinity with the material after he was wrapped in it to save his live during WWII. Childhood memories of gorgeous fuzzy felts. Then I started to think about where the fleece came from and its relation to my work. Sheep live in the landscape. They are part of it. You shear them, the fleece is washed, carded (brushed into long fibres all in the same direction), it comes to me (either before or after carding – sometimes I buy fleece uncarded) and I make it into work about the Landscape. The cycle is complete. For knitting, the carded fleece is then spun into yarn and balled into wool.
• FLOCK
  TRADITIONAL/HISTORICAL PATTERNS
  DEVORE
  UPHOLSTERY
  WILLIAM MORRIS
  DRESSES
  WALLPAPER
  REGAL
  A piece of the swatch fabrics reminded me of flocked wallpaper. This made me think of fabric that had that sort of texture and what it was used for. Also how fabric pattern had changed and had lots of historical references. For royalty, how these patterns and textures portrayed wealth and how that filtered down into pubs, restaurant and homes.
• KNITTING
  Knitted trees
  Blankets
  Stories
  Symbolic
  Knitting nation
  Useful, functional, pattern, colour > Kaffe Fassett
  Jumpers
  Aran (fisherman’s) sweaters made with untreated wool to retain oils & waterproofing. Stitch patterns have traditional & religious significance & were (mythically) used as identification
  Stitch & Bitch
  Knitting & Stitching Show
  Jean Moss
  Debbie Bliss
  Erika Knight
  Nicky Epstein
  Childhood memories
  Babies
  Old Ladies
  New Fine Art > Robert Hillestad, Jenny Hwa Park, Laura Kamain, Debbie New, Donna Lish, Lindsay Obermeyer, Carolyn Halliday, Adrienne Sloane, Lisa Anne Auerback, Anna Maltz, Janet Morton, John Krynick, Karen Searle
  Socks
  Skills passed on Nana > Mum > Me.
  Nana tested patterns for Woman’s Realm/Own/Weekly mag
  Flash Knitting
  Guerrilla Knitting
  Code language
  K1 P2 psso, sl1 p2 psso
  garter ss
  skills passed on my hand
  shared time
  family taught
  hereditary skills.
  I love knitting. The soft rhythmic motion, the yarn slipping through your fingers and the magical alchemy of stitches and fabric appearing from nothing. I have been knitting for more than 30 years now. It is something I learnt from my mother and something she learnt from her mother. This is really important and has, until recently, been a dying art (or craft depending on your viewpoint). Obviously it has its function and its traditions. And without those we would be lacking many of the stitches and yarns – which all have historical significance. Recent stitches and yarns are far more avant garde than is traditionally expected from knitting and knitwear, but help to keep it fresh and moving forward. Kaffe Fassett has long been the colour knitters dream and magically blends colours into beautiful combinations on fairly conventional knitwear. But there are new knitwear designers who have made even baby knits trendy and beautiful and desirable with yarns to match in price and luxuriousness. There are also the new knitting groups springing up. Stitch and bitch groups that regularly meet to gossip and knit together. Groups that meet in pubs and even flash mob knitting events or knit on the underground days. Guerrilla knitting has also become a new thing were everyday items are covered Christo style in knitting – such as trees and lamp posts. Knitting has its own language too. It’s a code with abbreviations for stitch names that look almost hieroglyphic to the outsider. K1 s1 k2tog psso – meaning knit 1 slip 1, knit 2 together, pass slipped stitch over. I love that it’s a secret code, only for those initiated ones! And then there are the artists that are bringing knitting to the contemporary art world. Making knitting with ephemeral qualities, with humour (sweater for a giraffe) and oversize sections and sleeve and well as those experimenting with the very texture of the knitted surface.
• Charles Rennie Mackintosh
  Saw my first piece of his work in the MET in NYC.
  It was furniture – a dresser.
  Is it art or is it not?
  Is it craft?
  What is it?
  Besides beautiful?
  ARTS & CRAFTS.
  Arts not crafts.
  Arts or craft?
  This argument is something I feel passionately about and indeed wish to challenge some current thinking on the matter. That’s one of the things that I instantly thought of when I saw the mackintosh. What is it? Art or craft? Why is he in art museums if he is crafts? What about William Morris et al with their arts and crafts movement. What are they? Did they make are or craft. Or both and what defines it as one or the other? Where is the grey area? How far can I push my way through that fog?
• Quentin Blake 
  I love Quentin Blake absolutely adore his illustration. Everyone has the memory of his illustrations from the Roald Dahl books, but for me, my favourite was Grimble and Grimble at Christmas. A story written by Clement Freud about a boy who has very scatty parents always off travelling around the world. I passed Clement Freud at Waterloo station once and always regretted that I never told him it was my favourite childhood book. So I took the opportunity to tell Quentin this several years later when he had a retrospective Dahl exhibit and lecture at the Courtauld. His drawings are how your mind sees things when you are a child. Exaggerated scales and features with a feeling of constant movement, just about to rush off to the next thing in your mind or your reality as you do when you are a child.
• DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE
  Wedding dress – CRAFT OR ART?
  Is it craft until it’s shown in a gallery?
  If the pattern & stitches were shown on their own would they be art?
  Are they craft in the dress but art out of it?
  So the lady that created the dress is a designer, the embroidery is a craft skill, but what are the embroiderers that made it? Is their day job as a textile artist? A restorer? A what? Where is the line crossed? Is it about how neat, tidy and finished the work is? Is it not avant garde enough? If you left the threads uncut and unfinished and gave it a fancy name does that make it art? What does?
• MEMORY
  What colours do I see?
  What colours do I feel?
  What is my viewpoint?
  Interesting angles
  What do I feel?
  Calm? Relaxed? Fast? Slow? Crazy? Mad? Frenetic?
  Take that memory, those feelings and recreate them visually.
  Heighten them.
  Enhance them.
  Make the memory hyper-real
  Give others the gift you got to see
  make them see the element(s) that made it special for you
  make them FEEL it.
  Make them want to experience it.
  How are they contained the memories? Should a container be made that shows them off? They fade over time. They are never as strong. You change them to suit the mood you felt. Duller, brighter, wetter, colder, hotter. You can’t hold them. They slip from your mind like silk through your fingers. They become ghosts. They lose clarity, become fuzzy and unclear, out of focus. They become more and more transparent.
• SEE IT.
  FEEL IT.
  SHOW IT.
  MAKE IT.
  This is in relation to memory. See something, feel it, show how it felt by making it. 
• POLLY BINNS
  Landscapes.
  Memories.
  Coastlines.
  Painted & stitched canvas.
  Puckers.
  Edges.
  Sea.
  Sand.
  NO FRAMES.
  Hanging threads.
  Raw edges.
  Hung away from the wall.
  I’m doing my case study on Polly Binns. Initially because I thought her work and mine were very different – but on further investigation I found we are really very similar. Her concerns are around using craft skills to make fine art. Her work is about the memory of an experienced landscape – specifically Blakeney on the Norfolk coast. She uses paint and stitches on canvas fabric, which is hung away from the wall, with nails directly through the piece. Her work is painted, stitched and textured with raw edges and finishes. She concentrates on a specific part of the coast and how this changes with time and tide.
• My studio space SOFA
  Watching TV.
  Need to work.
  Comfortable.
  Good light.
  TV a good distraction for mindless tasks.
  Allows creativity to remain free by letting ‘chattering mind’ concentrate on the TV or Radio.
  Mind ignores TV when occupied.
  Helps avoid ‘blocks’.
  Materials all around me.
  Easy to work at any time.
  I don’t have a dedicated studio space. The work that I do now doesn’t require lots of space and I am probably quite happy with that at the moment. I have an office – which I use for working from home – but at a later stage this could be made into a small studio should my working circumstances change. At present though I am coping as I am.
  I have 2 working spaces – the first one to look at is my sofa.
  This is where I sit to relax. But to relax I need to make things – always. It is somewhere comfortable to sit and do some of the mindless tasks (such as repetitive stitching, stabbing or knitting). This means I can occupy the active part of my mind with TV. Watching Eastenders or documentaries – either sort is just as effective as the other. If I really want to watch a programme, then standard knitting is great as I can do that without looking at it, but keep my creative sensibilities occupied.
  I have a good dedicated and moveable light near me, all of my materials are in my large footstool or in a box next to me and it means I can work at any time I feel like it.
  Having the TV on also means I avoid large mental blocks. I just stop working and watch TV for a bit and let the ideas ruminate in the background until they push to the front once they are fully formed again.
  I have always been able to work with noise. In fact I find it harder without. I used to revise for exams by listening to familiar music with headphones on. Whole albums would go by and I would wonder why – I was just blocking them out. I find this much easier than listening to something fresh and new. Because I HAVE to listen to the changes and what is new, my mind is distracted.
  When my mind is occupied, I can ignore the TV altogether. It is just background noise and ‘company’ in the same way the radio is.
• TEXTILES are great for small spaces all components are small & finished pieces are thin & can fold
  I have found with this project, one of the many advantages of textiles is that you can fold pieces away. In a house with no dedicated studio space, this is fabulously advantageous. I cannot imagine surviving if I painted. Nor would the paintings survive. They would become relegated to the garage out of necessity and all the traumas that may bring to a piece (mould, damp, eaten by things or damaged in various ways by the car). Textiles are easily stored and much less of a worry!
• TEXTILES AS CURRENCY
  Cultural differences.
  Textiles regarded highly in other cultures.
  Used as dowries.
  Women work on them their whole lives up to the point they marry.
  It is all they have, their sole worth & all they have to offer.
  Practical AND beautiful.
  Is that a crime?
  Is it a piece of craft if it has a practical use?
  Then what are ceramics or clothing/hats?
  Are they works of art?
  Or just clothes.
  Does the price or exclusivity make it art?
  I watched a programme by Griff Rhys Jones about Indian art. From a series called Hidden Treasures. I missed the first 2 because the title wasn’t obvious! I heard him talking about it on the radio and it was meant to be called Primitive Art (yes I would have got it instantly then) but apparently this title was politically incorrect – another labelling point there then! So it had to be called Hidden Treasures.
  The programme about Indian Art was fascinating. They showed all the techniques that were still in use, how valuable these were in Indian society and how they were revered in the past. The précis for the programme is as follows from the BBC website:
  ‘In his quest to find out if traditional art still thrives among the indigenous people of the world, Griff Rhys Jones goes to India in search of exquisite textiles. Can he solve the mystery of an extraordinary Indian floor cloth kept in Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire for over 300 years? Who made it and does the skill that produced such a work still exist?
  Griff travels to Gujarat in India, famed throughout history for its beautiful handmade textiles. He goes off the beaten tracks to the towns and villages of the north-west plains and discovers how centuries-old printing, dyeing and embroidery techniques are still the cornerstones to a way of life.
  Finally, he travels to the heart of one of the most reclusive and fiercely traditional societies in India, the Rabari, who are famed for their toughness and their astonishing embroidery. Here, women spend years sewing dowry gifts – but can the custom survive in the 21st century?’
  Would love to watch the ones on Australian and African art too, but these are sadly no longer available on iPlayer.
• CATH KIDSTON – kitsch
  Cath Kidston does very nice bags. Very nice printed fabrics and is ‘oh so trendy’ right now. She is also very kitsch. The piece of fabric I wrote this on was specifically because it reminded me of her work.
• IDEAS.
  I’m an ideas kinda girl.
  Love thinking.
  Love making.
  Not so keen on writing it up.
  Sometime (and particularly in my day job) I am better at ideas than even pulling them through to making or a finished article. I enjoy exploring all the avenues. What happens if you do xyz and then add abc? This means that I am also very good at problem-solving (sometimes seen as negativity, because I can see the pitfalls of things long before others). This is sometimes a bad thing because I don’t work well with too many options. I can come up with the options, but find it hard to narrow them down.
• WHY LANDSCAPE?
  BECAUSE:
  I grew up in a city
  In a very flat part of the UK
  Where beautiful architecture
  Was my alpine vista
  I moved to hills &
  Lived near water
  A feast for eyes & senses
  A new menu every day
  As seasons come & go
  Colour is never as real or pure
  As it is in nature
  Seen in real time
  Stored in memories
  Enhanced & enriched over time
  Take me back to see & feel it
  I didn’t really mean this to come out as a ‘poem’. It was meant to be a series of statements, but once I started to write on the fabric, it just came out that way. But I really like it! And it says exactly what I wanted to get across without me needing to expand on it. Maybe I should try this again. This would be ideal to do with the letterpress type.
• PUBLICATIONS
  Oh Comely
  Artists Newsletter (AN)
  Fibrearts
  The Knitter
  These are publications I subscribe to. I also subscribe to Making It (craft mag) and BBC Focus (science monthly), but these aren’t really appropriate for the MA! I think it would be great to eventually get something published in Oh Comely.
• SUPPLIERS
  Oliver Twists
  Rainbow Silks
  Colinette
  Knitting & Stitching Show
  eBay! (bulk wool) anything else!
  Dunelm Mill (swatches, fabrics, remnants etc.)
  Forest Fibres (felt/fleece)
  Magazine ads
  Google it!!
  What it says on the tin. These are suppliers I use for materials and yarn. And where to find them.
• RAIN
  Drip.
  Drop.
  Splish.
  Spash.
  Jo Keeley and I were discussing nature and artists that work with it and how they look at degradation and decomposition of nature and of their work. This made me think about the fabric I was writing on with ink and how that would look if it was rained on. That the landscape had made its own marks on my piece. So I dripped water on this section of cloth. Note to self – permanent marker pen is just that! It will not bleed further when water is added – must use soluble ink for this to work!
• FOCUS.
  Excel.
  Don’t spread yourself too thin
  Because I am an ideas person, I get lots of them and lots of things I want to try out. Not always in the same medium, subject area or even known techniques. I must reign this in and become expert in a limited field. If I have a strong and necessary need to make something (that fits within the body of my work, but is not ‘normal’ for one reason or another) then that is OK, but not to do this regularly. It stops progression. It stops understanding. It stops development of ideas and technique. I don’t want to be ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’.
  I want to excel and explore. Textiles has a big enough scope to give me a more than adequate repertoire!
• Anne Morrell – book Contemporary Embroidery – exciting & innovative textile art
  Another artist cited in Polly Binns thesis. When funds allow I will definitely be getting this book and inhaling the contents.
• ART FAIRS
  Frieze
  Affordable
  Origin
  Open Studios – Cockpit Arts
  I don’t go to very many art fairs (mostly because I might be tempted to spend vast amounts of money and because otherwise going became depressing for me because I longed to be doing it myself. I also then didn’t have a decent enough reason. Now I do!). But I should go to more. I regularly go to the Cockpit Arts open studios (I am going again in June to their 25^th birthday celebrations and incorporating a Tracey Emin visit too) because I love to envy their studios. See their work. See how it develops and BUY THINGS! Most of the Cockpit artists are in the grey area of craft/art and I like that a lot. These are hi-end people whose buyers are John Lewis, Selfridges and the like. People to aspire to – which I did when I first went there.
  Origin is an exhibition organised by the Crafts Council which, again, spans both realms. Many of the items I see there cannot be explained away as craft – as they have no function and exist solely for the sake of looking beautiful – but are pieces of art made with craft techniques. Fabulous source of interaction, discussion and inspiration.
   I will endeavour to go to the Frieze fair and also the Affordable art fair from now on!
• RETRO patterned fabric
  I like retro patterned fabric. I like to make things from it or hang them as pieces of art stretched over canvases.
• EDWARD GOREY – Allegory
  http://www.edwardgoreyhouse.org/index.html
  I actually think I meant Amphigorey. I think this book is at my parents’. I must retrieve it and bring it home.
  I love Edward Gorey’s illustrations and poems. I particularly love his Gashlycrumb Tinies alphabet:
  ‘A is for Amy who fell down the stairs,
  B is for Basil, assaulted by bears.
  C is for Clara who wasted away,
  D is for Desmond, thrown out of the sleigh.
  E is for Ernest who choked on a peach,
  F is for Fanny, sucked dry by a leech.
  G is for George, smothered under a rug,
  H is for Hector, done in by a thug.
  I is for Ida who drowned in the lake,
  J is for James who took lye by mistake.
  K is for Kate who was struck with an axe,
  L is for Leo who swallowed some tacks.
  M is for Maud who was swept out to sea,
  N is for Neville who died of enui.
  O is for Olive, run through with an awl,
  P is for Prue, trampled flat in a brawl.
  Q is for Quinton who sank in a mire,
  R is for Rhoda, consumed by a fire.
  S is for Susan who perished of fits,
  T is for Titus who flew into bits.
  U is for Una who slipped down a drain,
  V is for Victor, squashed under a train.
  W is for Winnie, embedded in ice,
  X is for Xerxes, devoured by mice.
  Y is for Yorick whose head was bashed in,
  Z is for Zillah who drank too much gin.’
  Each letter is accompanied by a darkly gothic illustration of how the poor child met its demise. I used to have a poster of this on my wall for many years, then in the office and eventually stored away once I got married. I then gave it to a friend.
  These illustrations have a machine embroidery quality to them. They are dark and brooding and I would love to make my own version – perhaps about landscape that has met a demise! Or perhaps the flipside of it being unappreciated. Gosh I would LOVE to do one of these alphabets. Maybe about cities. Maybe pairs of good places and bad in a city? Very excited by that idea… Or even as a story about things you see in the landscape
• SUCCESS
  Did I enjoy making it? Successful technique
  Do I like the piece? Proud. Successful aesthetic
  Fulfil brief? Successful understanding
  Does it sell? Successful living (ultimate aim)
  The latest PC AS got me thinking about this and the above is what success means to me. I know that to the man on the street it means being famous and making loadsa money these days, but to me, answering the above criteria is what matters.
• QUILTS
  Collaborative.
  Celebratory.
  Historical Folk Art.
  Storytelling.
  Commemmorative.
  Some of the best pieces of art that reach out to the average person are collaborative & about their community.
  Art is then inclusive & not exclusive, so they become interested & are no longer alienated or frightened to explore more.
  It’s not removed or in a museum they can’t relate to.
  I like quilts. I’m not sure I have the patience for making them, but I really like contemporary quilts. They show a lot of them (maybe not so much now, it might be its own event) at the Knitting and Stitching Show.
  I saw a quilt exhibition at the American Folk Art museum. There were some quilts of the type I expected – so showing immense skill and pattern at the top of their game – and others that I hadn’t. Some of them were very political and therefore contemporary. Neither of the pieces I am thinking of would look out of place next to one of Tracey Emin’s quilts.
  The first was in the foyer and was a piece about lost servicemen and women of America. It commemorated their lives and showed them as children (using photos transferred to the fabric) for their faces and the rest quilted in the traditional shapes. Thus asking us to consider what has been lost for the families concerned. The unfulfilled potential. The label that went with it was an excellent explanation and the two together moved me to tears.
  The second from the museum was one that has the word Freedom repeated on it over and over again. We don’t know what from, but it is clearly a heartfelt plea. When these are hung on the wall in a gallery context, they become more of a piece of art than a craft piece. This is what the museum’s website (http://www.folkartmuseum.org/) says about the piece:
   ‘Jessie B. Telfair (1913–1986)
  Parrott, Georgia
  1983
  Cotton with muslin backing and pencil inscription
  74 x 68 in.
  American Folk Art Museum, gift of Judith Alexander in loving memory of her sister, Rebecca Alexander, 2004.9.1
  The concept of a freedom quilt can be traced at least as far back as the Civil War, when women were urged to “prick the slave-owner’s conscience” by embroidering antislavery slogans and images into their needlework. Although the existence of Underground Railroad quilts has not been documented except through oral tradition, the idea that quilts were used to encode paths to freedom has persisted into the present. This is one of several freedom quilts that Jessie Telfair made as a response to losing her job after she attempted to register to vote. It evokes the civil rights era through the powerful invocation of one word, “freedom,” formed from bold block letters along a horizontal axis. Mimicking the stripes of the American flag, it is unclear whether the use of red, white, and blue is ironic or patriotic, or both.’
  The last piece I want to refer to, is also from that museum, but is more traditional. This would still be regarded as craft, but I want to include it because it was a ‘work of art’ and was a communal piece. It was created by a local community as a commemorative piece as a surprise gift for a friend.
  ‘Various quiltmakers
  Plymouth, Michigan
  1856
  Cotton with inked and embroidered signatures
  87 x 82 1/2 in.
  American Folk Art Museum, gift in memory of Margaret Trautwein Stoddard and her daughter, Eleanor Stoddard Seibold, 2003.2.1
  During the nineteenth century, occasions for members of a community to come together were as varied as the nature of their living circumstances, and were different still for men and for women. Relationships within the social network in cities, where the population was dense and transient, was not the same as that in established rural communities in New England, or widely scattered homesteads in the West and plantations in the South. This type of quilt represents a gesture of friendship from many members of a community to one of its own, and was often made upon the occasion of an engagement or marriage, or as a gift when a beloved member of a community moved away. Quilting afforded a traditional opportunity for women to gather in a communal act: This was enhanced when the quilt was a participatory project intended for presentation to a friend or neighbor.
  It is not known why this particular quilt was made. Each block bears the name of a friend who contributed to this “surprise” for Mary A. Grow, as the quilt is inscribed in ink on the back. Mary Ann Hackett (1817–1896) was born in England and moved with her family to New York State, where she married William B. Grow, a minister. They moved to Plymouth, Michigan, after 1839.’
  Commemorative art is one of the easiest ways to make art accessible. For people to get involved. For them to feel included and that art is for all and not just for ‘stuffy’ museums.
• CONFIDENCE.
  Grow.
  Show.
  Exhibit.
  I must grow my confidence. Both in myself as a person and in my art. This will allow me to show and exhibit work and eventually get where I want to be – a practising artist, full time. But to do that, my confidence must develop in all areas of my work (technique, understanding, writing, exhibiting etc.)
• SPACE.
  My spaces have to be multi-use.
  No dedicated studio space.
  As with most things these days – in a world where space is now at a premium – the space in my house must be multi-functioned to allow me to live as well as work as an artist.
  The lack of space can be limiting in what I can make, but until I have explored all of the areas I currently wish to FULLY, this isn’t really an issue for me. Any studio I have would have to feel like a piece of home. My desk at work is full of clutter and things that remind me of home – a little piece of home at work. My home is very important to me, so working within it for me is ideal at the moment. It is easy to recall memory here where I have so many prompts and feel so relaxed.
  My studio space KITCHEN TABLE
  Felting Machine
  Sewing Machine
  Table Easel
  Music/Radio/Graham Norton!
  Messy area
  More space
  Better for focussed work
  Chunks of time rather than dip in and out
  My kitchen table is another studio area. I use this for larger pieces, that are not easily hand held and for messy work. I have more space available here. I can make a mess in a protected area whilst still having the radio or music on. I often look forward to 10am on a Sat and plan what I can do around listening to Graham Norton. So working in my kitchen then is ideal. This area is better for focussed work such as painting or drawing and has a stable surface suitable for using my sewing and felting machines. I have a table easel which makes painting in this area (with its tiled floor and oilcloth covered table) really easy and convenient. This location is much better for spending large chunks of time in rather than dipping in and out.
• TOP 10 CITIES
  Venice.
  Paris.
  New York.
  Stockholm.
  Tallinn.
  Rome.
  St Petersburg.
  Verona.
  Barcelona.
  Istanbul.
  Venice.
  What can I say about Venice? It is my favourite place in the whole world. I don’t think I could ever tire of it. The light there is brilliant. The water reflects all the light up onto the beautifully painted, decaying buildings and they in turn reflect their brilliance back into the water, which creates an ever changing canvas of jewels.
  Paris.
  One of those cities where there is something famous or iconic to see around every corner. You can just start walking and never be bored or fail to find something of interest in Paris. And that is without all of the fabulous art galleries. Even the metro signs are works of art.
  New York.
  Wow! Crazy. Friendly. Manic. Enveloping. Engaging. Absorbing. Cultural. Too much to do and see. Don’t think you could ever run out of things to do and see here – and the museums are just SO vast. Impossible to take it all in. The scale of everything in this place is extreme. The museums are massive. The buildings are massive. The stores are massive. The traffic jams are massive… scale and madness are what I remember from here.
  Stockholm.
  The real secret to Stockholm for me is to arrive by boat. Stockholm is an archipelago made up of around 30,000 islands and inlets. The scenery is stunning and surprising and ever changing.
  Tallinn.
  I was completely blown away by Tallinn. I wasn’t expecting anything from it and it was amazing. Someone had told me it was like a fairytale city – but that doesn’t seem likely. But it really, really is. It looks like something out of a childhood book, with turrets and castles and all on a hill surrounded by trees. I also found they have a great tradition of felting here. One of my other lasting memories was the Kiek in de Kök (actually a Peep in the Kitchen). And the fabulous orthodox Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, with its black onion domes. All pedestrianised. Just needs a damsel with a long golden ponytail waving out of one of the turrets windows and the fairytale would be complete.
  Rome.
  Again, scale. Antiquity. Famous iconic structures. The seat of the Roman empire and the seat of the Catholic church. I’ve been into St Peters and seen all the sculptures (this is how our churches are – plain decoration with colour coming from the light through the windows), walked through the Vatican museum (adored the antiquated maps painted on the corridor walls) and into the Sistine Chapel – which was mind- and eye-blowing – and gives you really bad neck-ache and makes you dizzy. If only you could lay down in there to take it all in.
  History, iconic art, almost mythical structures that are round every corner and you can walk through. What’s not to like?
  St Petersburg.
  I have always loved looking in places of worship. This stems from going to a monastery chapel in Romania in 1988, where the building was very simple and plain, but the painted decoration on the inside was exquisite, which seemed so alien to me. Therefore I have always been intrigued by the way different cultures celebrate their religion in the buildings they use for worship. In St Petersburg I went into St Isaacs Cathedral, St Pauls (where the Tsars are buried), The Church on the Spilled Blood (a copy of St Basil’s in Moscow) and to a cemetery. The places of worship here are different again. St Isaacs is quite plain on the outside, but commanding with columns, but inside has beautiful mosaics. The inside of the Spilled Blood is beautifully and intricately painted and reminds me very much of William Burges’s Castle Coch and Cardiff Castle in the opulence and intense detail and colour. St Pauls was very opulent – lots of gold and marble and painted surfaces – I remember this place being very white, gold and green. The cemetery was also ornate like the Pere Lachaise in Paris. Lots of ornate tombs and mausoleums.
  Verona.
  The architecture of Rome (fabulous coliseum here) mixed with all the colours of Venice. Nothing more I can say about it. Gorgeous. Just on a smaller and more manageable scale.
  Barcelona.
  Vibrant artistic city with the gorgeously wild and whacky Gaudi locations. A man who mixed wild ideas and colour with the landscape. Parc Guell is one of my favourite places in the world. And it has great views over the city. It is also great to see a monumental cathedral being constructed and how it has progressed each time I visit.
  Istanbul.
  Where east meets west. Looking inside the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia was incredible. The Hagia Sofia has stood such a test of time and is vast. It is constructed on a scale that beggars belief for the time period. It is also really interesting how this building has been reappropriated over time. Through different religions and finally to a museum. The sunlight streaming through the windows here into the carvernous centre of the building was magical.
  The blue mosque is covered in tiles. None of which are allowed to portray any people or animals to avoid icons (in the religious sense). Instead all the tiles are covered in plant and flower motifs and the space is huge and uncluttered, but amazingly busy with pattern.
• TOP 10 LANDSCAPES
  Pamukkale.
  Loch Coruisk.
  Snowdonia.
  Skye: Plockton, Elgol, Coral Beach.
  Florida Keys.
  Marmaris.
  Wittering.
  Etna.
  All of these places were amazing to visit and are etched into my memories for their colour and the feelings they gave me when I was there.
  Pamukkale is an amazing place near Hierapolis in Turkey. http://www.pamukkale.org.tr/eng/
  It is place with massive mineral deposits that make the entire area white. It appears as if it is covered in snow, but it is baking hot there. Brilliant cyan blue pools of water are dotted around like water lily pads. It is now a world heritage site and only part of it can be walked on at any given time to preserve the pristine colours. It is definitely real, but appears unreal. It is SO bright in the sunshine and the pools are so blue. You can bathe and sit in some of the channels and pools, but can no longer roam over the whole surface. Unesco says of the site ‘Deriving from springs in a cliff almost 200 m high overlooking the plain, calcite-laden waters have created at Pamukkale (Cotton Palace) an unreal landscape, made up of mineral forests, petrified waterfalls and a series of terraced basins. At the end of the 2nd century B.C. the dynasty of the Attalids, the kings of Pergamon, established the thermal spa of Hierapolis. The ruins of the baths, temples and other Greek monuments can be seen at the site.’
  We also passed some vibrant red ones on the way to Hierapolis.
  Loch Coruisk. Truly one of the most naturally beautiful places I have ever been to. It is unspoilt and because it is only accessible by sea, has few visitors. Next time I go I will wear better footwear and be able to explore the loch a little more. It is very rocky and mountainous with still, still water in the centre that causes perfect reflections so it is hard to tell which is real and which is the reflection. Pure. Unspoilt. Secluded. Almost secret. I remember it being still, mysterious and full of colour and intrigue.
  Snowdonia is very pretty for the same way as Skye is. A landscape of contrast that has been sculpted by the weather. I remember this as being a wet and windswept place with lots of greenery.
  Skye
  Plockton – a small quaint little village (with very nice vegetarian haggis on the pub menu with live folk music later) with a beautiful bay. The water was still and although a little chilly at the time, I sat there for a whole afternoon watching the tide go out and how the colours in the sky and water changed as the afternoon progressed. As the tide went out, a causeway was exposed to a small hillock island in the bay and this made it all very secretive and special. There were castles and cottages to be seen, sailboats and dinghies and the ever changing vibrance of the reflections. Somewhere I will go back to without a doubt.
  Elgol – you catch the boat from here to go out to Loch Coruisk, but it is a beautiful place itself. It has great big black rocks that are covered in yellow ochre lichen that shimmers in the sunshine. In the background are the blueness of the mountains around Coruisk and the sparkling sea. The pebbles on the beach are grey and white and there is a limestone cliff face that has been eroded with honeycomb holes that are begging for you to put items in to make your own art. It is also quite sheltered under that cliff and can be a right little suntrap! A hot place with colours that scream for attention.
  Coral Beach – that isn’t really coral… but calcified seaweed and algae. Stunningly white though and in odd stark contrast to those beaches you have walked along to get here. I remember the colours as being oh so punchy, the sea freezing (even through my wellies), looking for the ever-elusive dolphins and whales and watching the sun set. Midges weren’t really a problem on this day… not sure why. So many things to look at. The brilliance is one thing I can’t forget. I would like to explore the shapes of the ‘coral’ on the beach more next time.
  Florida Keys – they are another place where I could not get over the brilliance of the sand and the utter vibrance of colour. The brilliance was trying to get into your body through every orifice and by any means. Through heat, through your ears and closed eyes. It was almost interrogative. But beautiful at the same time. Intense. More intense than I have ever experienced elsewhere. Really pure. Really clean. Really clear.
  Marmaris – I remember being high up on a cruise ship here and looking out over the mountainous landscape. It was blue. So, so blue. A grey blue sea, slate blue mountains and a cerulean blue sky. The sea sparkled and pinged at you, and the sun was hot. Being high up meant you got a breeze, so I just remember feeling warm all over. Like the view gave me an inner warmth too. I get that each time I look at my photo of it.
  Wittering – on the south coast, not too far from where I used to live. I remember this as being a rather windswept place, where I almost got cut off by the tide and got very wet feet and trainers trying to get back! The sand is gorgeously fine and golden and they have brightly painted beach-huts there. Somewhere that man’s intrusion into nature with colour and structure works very well to make it an enhanced experience. The beach-huts are very exclusive to buy and must be well kept. They are all painted bright colours, which on a sunny day sing their happiness to all those having fun on the beach. It is also a nature reserve, so long grasses are prevalent, small dunes form and there are excellent boardwalks out into the reserve. Man and nature blend very well in this environment and it is a great place for fun and happiness for me.
  Etna – what can I say about this? Sailing up the Messina srait on a cruise ship meant we were passing Etna for nearly 2 hours. All the time a cloud of smoke was drifting out the top of it. I wouldn’t let us leave a window or deck until I could no longer see it because the light had faded. My husband was thoroughly bored by then. I could have carried on watching it much longer in the hope of seeing lava glowing. But… It’s the closest I’ve been to a volcano that’s going off. I’ve been up Vesuvius, and that is active, but in a dormant phase – just pushing out steam from small crevasses. I just remember feeling a sense of wonderment in these places. Feeling how insignificant I was in the grand scale of things. That nature had all the control and I had none, and I was taking a chance today and she had been kind to me. I also remember feeling very small and insignificant the first time I was out in the Atlantic on a cruise ship, where you see nothing other than see for days. The flying fish around Bermuda were cool though.
• OVER THE BRIDGE TO VENICE
  OVER THE POND TO NEW YORK
  OVER THE SEA TO SKYE
  These are probably my 3 most important sources of inspiration. They all involve water and they all involve having to cross an expanse of it to get there (at least 2 of them are by bridges…). Water is very important to me. I find it relaxing. The sound of it. The constant movement and changing shapes and colours of it. And most of all, the sound of waves. The sound of the ocean. That is my favourite sound in the world (apart from a cat’s purr).
• IMPRESSIONISTS
  The impressionists are the flipside to the Pre-Raphaelites for me. Fabulous colour, landscape and ethereal light. Monet’s water-lilies are painted how I would like to felt them. The way the paint breaks apart and makes appearingly insignificant marks that together, from a distance, all become meaningful. Yet the close up of the paintings are just as interesting as the overall. I would like to ‘reappropriate’ some of Monet’s work. I took many close ups of his work I came across in New York. It is something that pulls at my inside because I can see the layers in the painting and how I would recreate them in felt.
• GALLERIES
  Tate Britain.
  Tate Modern.
  Tate Liverpool.
  Tate St Ives X.
  National Gallery.
  National Portrait (& BP Awards).
  Hayward Gallery (& Tracey Emin X).
  Fitzwilliam (do again soon).
  Kettle’s Yard (do again soon).
  Ashmolean.
  Yorkshire Sculpture Park (lived in it for 1 year, studied in it for 3!).
  Leeds City Art Gallery.
  Saatchi.
  Dali Universe, London.
  Espace Dali, Paris.
  Theatre Dali, Figueres.
  GAUDI (Casa Mila, Parc Guell, Sagrada Familia).
  The Courtauld.
  Royal Academy.
  Walker Art Gallery.
  One Church St, Gt Missenden.
  MoMA, NYC.
  The Met, NYC.
  St Peters, the Vatican Museum & the Sistine Chapel.
  The Guggenheim, NYC.
  American Folk Art Museum, NYC.
  Hepworth Wakefield X.
  MoMA & Met again & again X.
  The Louvre.
  The Orangerie.
  Musee d’Orsay.
  Musee Picasso.
  Musee Marmottan.
  Rodin Museum.
  Pompidou Centre.
  Museum of African & Oceanic Art, Paris.
  Barbican Centre.
  Rembrandt Museum, Amsterdam.
  Van Gogh, Amsterdam.
  Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
  Rufford Park, Notts.
  Nottingham Contemporary.
  British Museum.
  V&A.
  Touring/special exhibitions (ongoing).
  Every church & cathedral anywhere you ever visit (e.g. Duomo, St Marks Basilica, Church on the Spilled Blood, St Isaac’s) – ongoing.
  Acropolis Museum.
  Uffizi, Florence X.
  Peggy Guggenheim, Venice X.
  Cambridge Colleges.
  Cairo Museum X.
  Luxor/Valley of the Kings X.
  The Pyramids & Sphinx, Giza.
  Saqqara & Memphis, Egypt.
  Watts Gallery, Compton, Surrey
  These are all of the galleries I can remember having visited and those marked with an X are ones I would like to go to, but haven’t yet.
• BOOKS I HAVE
  Why cats paint
  Lady Cottington’s pressed fairy book
  PIP travel photography guide to England
  GAUDI an introduction to his architecture
  Catherine Palace – the Amber Room
  THE EARTH FROM THE AIR – 365 DAYS
  Lonely Planet landscape travel photography
  Parc Guell, Barcelona & Gaudi Guides
  Travellers book of colour photography
  VENICE – Francesco da Mosta (see also DVD)
  MONET in the 20th Century
  DERREN BROWN portraits
  History of British art
  LIZZIE SIDDAL – the tragedy of a Pre-Raphaelite supermodel
  Faeries – Brian Froud
  Coco Chanel – friends, fashion, fame
  The poster handbook
  Salvador DALI
  Botticelli
  ANDY WARHOL
  SISTINE CHAPEL
  Cats gallery of western art
  Roy Lichtenstein
  ANDY GOLDSWORTHY a collaboration with nature
  DALI’s mustache (sic)
  The essential ANDY WARHOL
  Tate Modern
  Beaton Portraits
  Walt Disney Imagineering
  The Shroud – a guide
  Magazine design that works
  Brochure design 7
  Creativity for Graphic Designers
  The End of Print DAVID CARSON
  Minimal Graphics
  Maximalism
  Universal Principals of Design
  Synonyms & Antonyms
  Idioms
  WHATEVER YOU THINK, THINK THE OPPOSITE
  Beautiful Beaded Jewellery
  The home guide to craft
  Macrame
  Flower painting through the seasons
  Wire jewellery
  Spellbinding bead jewellery
  Crochet with wire
  Jewellery manual
  Precious metal clay in mixed media
  Art clay silver
  Moods in wire
  Metal clay magic
  Creative metal clay jewelry
  Basic Jewellery making techniques
  Adorn (new jewellery)
  Working with precious metal clay
  Gemstones
  SHIBORI KNITS the art of exquisite felted knits
  THE ART BOOK
  Knitting block by block
  Knitting on the edge
  THE SUBVERSIVE STITCH
  The ultimate knitting bible
  Rod Bugg In Parallel
  Polly Binns – Surfacing
  COAST FROM THE AIR
  COASTLINE UK
  Cloud Collectors Handbook
  NEW YORK VERTICAL
  Colour in art
  Art textiles 3
  ABSTRACT ART
  Colour
  Wordplay (ambigrams)
  ART TEXTILES 2
  Ways of seeing
  HOW TO BE AN ARTIST
  Seven days in the art world
  My LANDSCAPE SOURCEBOOK
  Interviews – Artists 2010
  My CITYSCAPE SOURCEBOOK
  DRAWN TO STITCH
  Mason Dixon Knitting
  FELT TO STITCH
  Simple knits for cherished babies
  EXPERIMENTAL TEXTILES
  Complete feltmaking
  CONNECTING ART TO STITCH
  The Handmade Marketplace
  MONETS WATERLILLIES
  Print & Pattern
  HANDMADE PRINTS
  PRINTMAKING FOR BEGINNERS
  The Eragny Press 1895 – 1914
  V&A pattern – the fifties
  The treasures of MONET
  Sukie – iron on decals
  ANDY GOLDSWORTHY parkland
  KNITTING IN ART
  The Weirdstone of Brisingamen
  GRIMBLE & GRIMBLE AT CHRISTMAS
  Photographing New York
  The Smashing book
  Dictionary of graphic design
  Graphic design cookbook
  Color
  Color2
  Coming up Roses & right as rain
  Counting your chickens & raining cats & dogs
  The advertising concept book
  Packaging & design templates
  CENTURY
  Creative outdoor photography
  Collins complete photography course
  LONELY PLANET URBAN TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY
  READY MADE – how to make (almost) anything
  Remake it – home
  Landscape in Embroidery
  Making handbags & purses
  The DMC book of embroidery
  Creative Cloth dollmaking
  The Tapestry Book
  Jill Gordon’s tapestry collection
  Encyclopaedia of Embroidery techniques
  Knit a fantasy story
  New Knits
  200 RIPPLE STITCH PATTERNS knitting
  Glamour (knitting)
  BIG STITCH [extreme] KNITTING
  Viva poncho
  Textured knits
  Knitting to go
  KNITTING WITH WIRE
  Vogue teen knits
  Stephanie Pearl-McPhee casts off
  Custom knits
  Knit & crochet with beads
  Knitting with beads
  Harmony guide to crochet stitches
  Things I learned from knitting
  At knits end
  Fabulous felt hats
  Hand felted jewellery & beads
  I’m really pleased to have a list of all my art related or massively influential books. It helps me to see what I have for reading and research at a glance. I also helps to prompt me as to who I like and whose work I have seen a lot of.

Because the piece is so large, it is really hard to capture all the component parts. It is also very hard to professionally photograph the work without personal elements creeping in! The only place I could spread the map out in the house was on my bed. It was very hard to exclude these personal items – including my cat, Sidney, who was rather obsessed with the piece. Whilst I would normally not include such images for a submission, they do at least give a sense of scale, as it is very hard to use standard scale items (coins and rules) in a piece that is so large and so busy.  Sidney and the king sized bed at least put it into a recognisable scale context.

I have also included some blog photos from mid-way through stitching the component parts together.