How wallpaper can be political

I've been printing  a lot this week - all day and sometimes most of the night...the kitchen has become my print room - apologies to those I live with. Inspired by Peggy Angus (also known as The Red Angus for her political views) and all her lovely designs that we still print at Ivo's, I have rustled up some wall paper for our new hall way.

Fave trip out of the kitchen was to the Grantchester Pottery show at the Jerwood Space. Here's what they have to say about living, loving and decorating - and I'm sure Peggy would agree:

'How we live is political; having, and more importantly the ability to have a home is political; how we inhabit, design and structure that home, physically and psychologically, is political...if we have any choice - and this, nearly always, comes down to our economic situation - the scenes we create for ourselves to inhabit, hopefully, will be born out of, and perhaps filled with love.'

Back to work

Just gone back to work at the wonderful Ivo's. As always blown away by the colour and pattern all around me in the factory - feel very lucky to be a part of it.

Dazzle and Shadow

Here are my latest indigo print print designs - contrasting Shadow and Dazzle patterns. They are inspired by the wonderful natural shadows thrown by sunlight falling through leaves and the more geometric dazzle patterns from my trip to Portsmouth (see November 2013 post).

New Studio

Here are some prints from Honami and me. Inspired by our time together, the colour of the pool (too much algae says the pool man) and an envelope arrived in the post....

It is a bit crowded in our new studio - we are sharing our space with lots of boxes and a boat

New patterns from old

These samples are from my last printing and dyeing session at my old home in Crystal Palace. I was experimenting with simple marks that could transform an existing pattern.

In:Site Graduate Festival of Creativity Commission

Inspired by the pattern of the cathedral glass and the young muslim women I found praying there - I designed a series of patterns that could be overlaid as a way of describing peoples' overlapping experiences and journeys.

I printed these as resists with people passing across the Cathedral Square during the course of the 2nd of September, before letting the print dry and dyeing the whole piece with indigo. We then removed the resist - revealing a new and complex pattern. 

Many people came back to see our final piece and find out how their print had been combined with many others - discovering, I hope a strange and new harmony.

Watch a short film of the work  being created at www.insitefestival.wordpress.com/2013blog

Many thanks to Craftspace for giving me this opportunity to continue my community pattern-making experiments, to Honami for making our matching aprons, to Karin for making the journey and to everyone who helped make the print

Chelsea Celebration

Here are some pics from my final show at Chelsea College of Art - thanks to everyone for coming along and to all my friends for all your love and support. These patterns are for you!

Pre show chaos...