networking

Lochmaddy, North Uist,
Outer Hebrides

Glen Coe

A great day yesterday in Edinburgh, talking the talk with a fellow artist. We all work in such self imposed isolation, forgetting that a different yet empathic perspective always helps us to move forwards.

Thanks Jenny! Good inspiration.

My colleague Joanne Kaar does the same for me too: so far away.

Thanks Joanne!

This week I have to dismantle the work in my studio to take up to Taigh Chearsabhagh, North Uist.

Mixed feelings now, I lived with this inner world for so long, moving among the suspended silk. Will the studio echo?

The journey north is daunting, not a good time to travel with delicate cargo. Here's hoping for a heatwave, no wind and empty roads.

This is where I place the silk forms, among the seaweed. They can drift away, almost unobserved.

This is what I've been developing recently; almost like vessels. It's still silk, using the same processes but moving it forwards into new forms. I've scorched the silk to create the fragmented appearance.

suspended

This gives an idea of how the work looks when installed in a dedicated space; in this instance, my studio.

shibori

New shapes for me. Working on a much larger scale with silk; scorching, clamping and stitching.

new techniques

I spent some time in Sutherland during the summer of 2008, developing the work, responding to the shoreline way up there. This is the studio Timespan provided for me, the flat there was great. My colleague, Dr Cathy Treadaway, Reader in Creative Practice at UWIC spent a week with me. We worked on our project, I'll talk of this later.

This is more what I need now, delicate, fragile yet strong.

These are quite small, only a few inches high. Made from silk habotai, wax, pigment and metallic threads.