Final Module Results - oh my word!

Our results were published today, so as soon as I woke up at 5.30 am, I went on line to find out how the marking went.  First Sitting mark (prior to moderation by Examination Board) -  82%!  How good is that?

I worked very hard for this module, and I think that when I am frustrated with myself, I am very tiresome.  But it has all paid off and I am very pleased with the result.  My Mum has not been here for 13 years now, but she would have been proud of me.

So now it is time to reflect on the whole process and maybe share the learning points with the second years.  So in no particular order:

Practice staging your work, privileging the best pieces, and taking the idiosyncracies of your room and your position within it into account.

Allow plenty of time to stage work, so the inevitable problems do not stress you out.

When planning your semester's work, include a week's down time at the end as a contingency plan, so that if you are ill for a week, you can still hit the deadline.

Let the development work be fun.  I had a copy of Keri Smith's Wreck This Journal, which I completed to the theme "My Mother's Work" focussing on jam making as I received it at that time of year.  It made a lovely sketchbook, and I very much like it as an object in its own right, because I had fun making it.


Use knowledge gained from all modules in the Final Major Project.  I was the only person who wrote artist statements for each collection, and submitted it for assessment in the final module.  This is how I explained the concept of each collection, which I think made the work more powerful.  I am uncomfortable with my face on the artist statement, so I used photos of my hands working on each piece, as it reinforces the manual nature of My Mum's role, and the hand worked content of each piece.  We learned about artist statements, photography and self promotion in Enterprise &Employability which was an excellent, well taught module, yet I appear to have been the only person to apply it in the final module.  The only thing I think I could have done better was how I used my 1950s dress.  I chose not to submit it for assessment, as it is a marketing tool to associate me with my work at Private View and New Designers.  I did not want it to appear as a fashion application for my ideas, staged on a mannequin.  However, I could have put a luggage label on it, stating it was a marketing tool, and folded it on top of the box of samples.  This would have shown further analysis, and an understanding that customers are buying more than the item - you, as the maker, are part of the product.

Work as a team and critique each other's work.  Practice using appropriate academic language to state what goes well/badly with each other's work, and suggest solutions.  Be encouraging, accept peaking and troughing as normal and overcome the words "I don't know" as an answer.

Make sure you have a concept and really chew over what it is, that you want to say.  It is normal and acceptable for this to take ages.  

Accept that the stress of exhibiting deadlines produces the best work.

Refine your analytical skills.  Constantly look at things and exhibitions and ask questions.  Go to a wide variety of exhibitions (not just "your" subject).  Have an A5 exhibition book (this is the best piece of advice Vanda gave me). On 2 facing pages only, note the exhibition title, date, venue.  Draw something.  Look at the subject matter, staging, lighting, layout, order of works.  Note your opinion of what you looked at. Note ideas you had, that in any way related to your work.  Buy one postcard and attach in an original way to the page (I am a stitcher, so I use lots of different ways of sewing).  Be critical and apply your thoughts to your work.  

Keep a blog and chew over anything you are considering.  Blind alleys are part of the creative process, and show development.  If not used in the current project, they will be useful at a later date.

Be aware our degree is Contemporary Applied Art.  It is not fashion, product design, or commercial textile print.  Contemporary means it is of our age.  I found this difficult to understand and still struggle to define it.  Historical issues can influence our work but we should not do a historical representation.  Our degree is about Art applied to something - and we use the forms of textile, ceramic, glass and jewellery.  Therefore we need to do a lot of art.  I found it strange that I did not do an art class at UH, as part of the degree, but have the resource and motivation to do this outwith the university.

Read the verifiers feedback from previous years.  And use it.  This is how I realised the importance or documenting my artist research, and making it clear which artists influenced each of my pieces of work.  I wrote their names on the cover of the research folder, to make it easy for the verifiers to see who influenced me.  

Private View

All the way through this course, I have learned things at unexpected times.  I was very wound up about the catering for the Private View as our organisation was a complete shambles, but comment from Vanda proved completely true - guests came to see our work, not to be fed at a buffet!    The food became almost an irrelevance, although it was all eaten, and my cakes went down a treat!

We saw the External Verifiers before the show and they said our show was the best in the last 3 years, and the student work had improved greatly since mid semester review, when we were all very negative.  They asked what we thought we had learned, and I said I had discovered I was a thinker, not a maker.  Freddie, the verifier from the RA, looked very surprised at this.  Later Lisa reminded me that Freddie is a knitter (who works in bold colour), and given I had 5 complex knitted pieces on display, she might have found evidence that I am an advance knit maker.  However, I know my thinking skills have developed a lot on the Contemporary Applied Art course, whereas my making skills have developed far less.

The Private View went extraordinarily well.  I wore my red 1958 dress, made from my kitchen utensil fabric, and it got a lot of attention.  I was surprised at how pleased I was that my 5 guests turned up and really looked at everything!  My friend, Pat, from the swimming pool, enjoys modern art, and I expected her to understand the work, but I was very surprised when Wendy and Alan, our retired dentist, cycling, friends made some very perceptive remarks about the varying amount of concept in different people's work.  Kitty's work is challenging but strong on concept, and they grasped what she was doing.  My brother and his wife came along and spent a lot of time looking at my work, did not really get the concept, but thought I depicted our Mum's work in some strange ways, but liked the fact that I chosen her as the theme.  I was also very pleased that former students took the time to attend, as they were interested to see what subsequent students had chosen to represent and in what way.  It was a celebration.

I also found out that NAFDAS (National Association of fine and Decorative Art Societies) had visited our show and asked our tutors to nominate students for Most Improved Student, and Best In Show.  Rosie, who worked on the theme of fire and ice, for jewellery got the Most Improved Student award (£50) and I was given Best in Show (£100!) for My Mother's Work.  When presented with the cheque, I said I would spend it on a day out with my sister-in-law, who cares for her Mum who has Alzheimer's.  We would have a day in London: go to the Tate in the morning, pick up some lunch, the go to a matinee theatre, and be home in time for her Mum coming back from a day's respite care.

Staging the Show

As usual it took far longer than expected to stage the show.  It took me 6 days.

I went a day early, while the show build was taking place, and discovered the magnets I planned to use to suspend my coat from the ceiling were too small!  I checked the order, and discovered I had ordered 10 x 3kg magnets, but 20 x 1kg magnets had been supplied.  The original supplier's website was now stating the 3kg magnets were out of stock, so I ordered a couple of 5kg magnets from a different website.  I was more relieved than upset, as at least I had identified the problem while I still had time to resolve it.

On the first day of staging, I discovered going up and down the ladder aggravated my back, so Jim became chief staging assistant and did this part of it for me.   He was an absolute hero, constantly moving the magnets around the metal suspended ceiling bars, in order for the work to hand just right.   It took me a long time to work out which pieces were best displayed in which position, but once this decision was made, I was able to paint grey panels on the wall, in order for the knitted samples and roller towels to show up clearly.

My Mother's Work - Supportive

My Mother's Work - Cyclical (plus me in my matching dress)

My Mother's Work - Unfinished

My Mother's Work - Unending

Most students were quite well organised and by Thursday a lot of them had completed their staging.  Two textile students had a good extensive display, and were going on holiday for a week on Friday as a reward for their organisation and work.  Others had used washing lines to stage their textile work.  The jewellery/ceramic students had laid their work out beautifully.  The glass student spent all week working and communicating diligently to have false walls built with the assistance of the technicians, then put special strong fixings in, and attached her hand-drawn, slumped panels.  She worked very, very hard and it paid off.

However, on the last day, I found it quite fraught.  One student turned up at 1pm on the 5th day of staging, assuming she would just hang her work and go.  We had been told about a month ago that no drilling into the walls was allowed, which gave me a lot of angst until I realised magnet fixings were actually more flexible for staging, and I did not have to use a drill (drills scare me!).  This student discovered she was not allowed to drill into the walls, complained that she had changed her work in order to hang it this way, blamed the tutors and technicians for the problem, cried, then threw a tantrum and started shouting at Antje for not sorting out the studio!  This deteriorated into a first rate row, where  Antje shouted back and said the final degree show was the students' show, and the student's  responsibility to stage it, and turning up on the last afternoon was not acceptable.  At no point did the student seem to accept any of this was down to her.  I found it all very stressful and removed myself from the arena as soon as I could.

This led to me thinking about self directed learning (again).  As a mature student, I have read the university guide, and made myself aware of the university's self directed learning style.  I have frequently railed against it, and moaned about having to find external classes to investigate things that interest me, …… but I have tried to be a good student, and just got on with it.

What I don't understand is: where is the defining line, for what self directed learning should teach?  If we don't teach the subject, should we teach how to learn?  If so, should we be taught how to communicate, how to analyse, how to conduct ourselves with professionalism by showing the appropriate behaviours.  Or is this also to be worked out for ourselves, just by reading the criteria upon which we are assessed?    Some of the seminars I have attended have been truly painful or pointless, depending on your point of view.  Many students do not contribute at all, and I am  not sure whether this is because they are disinterested and bored; stupid; selfish; not prepared to contribute to other people's learning ….  Others appear unable to answer simple probing questions from the tutor and their standard answer to any question about their work is "I don't know".   Surely students should be given feedback that they are being assessed throughout the course on their ability to communicate, so they know they need to buck their ideas up?  Should we be running flip chart sessions on what students need to consider when staging their work?  Should we clarify what planning and organising skills are required to be a professional artist?  Should there be a flip chart session to identify typical questions to ask when working out what goes well/badly in our work so we can self assess?  Or is this also part of the learning that we are expected to find out ourselves?  Even if it leads to our tutors (unfairly) being on the receiving end of temper tantrums?

Another defining line that I am puzzled by, is what is the role of feedback in self directed learning?  I believe strongly that robust feedback is required at every stage of learning, and thought it essential in self directed learning.  I benefitted hugely from the weekly classroom crits at Curtin, even though I found them stressful, often hurtful, and it made me cry on one occasion.  The hurtful stuff was fair comment (unfortunately!).   And you always had a lot of feedback before assessment.  Yet in the UK, we only receive feedback (brief) after assessment.  So this would seem to indicate that feedback is not a part of self directed learning in the UK.  The more I chew it over, the more I seem to be suited to a taught degree.

Having observed the behaviours of fellow students who conducted themselves well during staging, I wonder whether it is their previous work/life experience that gives them a positive, self-reliant attitude.  Two students have spent time working with a self-employed parent (off licence and garden designer).  Each student communicates clearly and is able to articulate their requirements and expectations (in very different ways).  Neither of them blames the tutors for their own shortcomings.   Each student plans and organises her work, by thinking ahead and identifying material and time requirements.  Have they gained these skills by working in the family business?  I suspect so.

My Mother's Work - Supportive

My Mother's Work - Supportive


A lining to a garment supports and improves the experience of wearing it andextends its life, and is symbolic of the way in which women's work supports,enhances and improves the quality of life for people around them.

The lining on this coat is used as an allegory to the consequences of my Mother'swork.  The wooden spoon used by my Mother, has a worn edge and is warped, from being immersed in boiling jam, during her 42 years of marriage.  Over this time, she made 3,200lbs of jam for the benefit of her family.  While the coat is being worn, the high quality lining is unseen but supportive.  When the coat is removed, the lining is visible and gives voice to both the volume of workcompleted and the impact upon the implement used.

The silk satin lining of this 1960s original coat is designed to give feelings of warmth and affection towards all women who are remembered and recognised for their role in supporting their families.

My Mother's Work - Supportive

My Mother's Work - Cyclical

My Mother's Work - Cyclical

My Mother found being a homemaker to be cyclical in many ways - daily repetition of preparing and clearing up after meals, weekly cycles of cleaning and caring, and annual cycles of preserving and baking for seasonal celebrations.

Within the kitchen, there are many utensils that have a round shape that symbolises the cyclical nature of women's work - mixing bowls, saucepans, plates, cups, colanders, and plug holes.  Manual utensils have been hand drawn and printed on round tea towels.  Cross stitched words link the emotional feeling  of using specific utensils to describe the consequences of cooking processes she carried out, while also  recognising the value of her role and that the cycle continues rotating.

My Mother's Work - Cyclical

My Mother's Work - Unfinished

My Mother's Work - Unfinished


This collection of knitted pieces arose from a conversation in my favourite wool shop.  I was admiring the christening shawl pattern and laceweight wool chosen by a group of Polish ladies, who I discovered were migrant workers.

We were discussing the complicated pattern for the christening shawl and laughing about how long it would take to make.  I said the baby at the centre of the ceremony would be unaware of the time and effort put into making the complicated and delicate knitting.  One of the Polish ladies commented that it was unusual to have someone comment on their skills to be able to make such a shawl, as normally a shawl was admired only when complete, and wrapped around a new baby.  I reflected on how work typically carried out by women, often required high levels of skill, but while incomplete, was unacknowledged.  I also mused on how marginalised and minority people are frequently unrecognised for their skills, and decided to create some knitted pieces, where the most highly skilled work was positioned on a margin, as a border.

These knitted samples celebrate the quiet practice of women, like my Mother, who used their unsung and unrecognised skills for the benefit of others.

My Mother's Work - Unfinished

My Mother's Work - Unending

My Mother's Work - Unending


This collection of roller towels demonstrates the unending nature of women's work.  The roller towels emulate the style of a traditional glass cloth, and the printed words focus on the work involved in cooking.

The first roller towel is a classic length and the printed words describe making a cake.  The second roller towel describes making a shepherds pie and reaches the floor, indicating how repetitive meal making can make a cook feel dragged down.  The last roller towel is about making a lemon merengue, which was her son's favourite pudding, but gives the realisation that my Mother's work was unending!

The embroidered words on the body of work are phrases that my Mother used repeatedly.  She truly believed that "Vegetables need to be cooked thoroughly" and that "Gravy won't be nice without Bisto" and these sayings are celebrated in family storytelling, ensuring her legacy cannot be forgotten!

My Mother's Work - Unending

Artist statement: My Mother's Work - Unseen

My Mother's Work - Unseen


This collection of 64 jam jar covers refers to the quantity of jam made by my Mother each year, for the 42 years of her marriage.  Utensils that are used to make jam have been hand drawn, then sections of these drawings have been machine embroidered on jam covers.

Every year, my Mother would pick raspberries, strawberries, blackcurrants and blackberries, then wash the fruit and make the jam.  She always commented that jam making took place at the hottest time of year and made her legs ache.  The jam would be consumed, and the high quality produce would disappear.

Only the jam covers remain to give memory to her labour.

Embroidered jam covers, prior to being staged

Final notes for the sketchbook

My Mother's Work - Supportive

How the Concept fits the object:  A lining to a garment supports and improves the experience of wearing it and extends it's life, similar to the way in which women's work supports enhances and improves the experience of living to those around her.

How the work evolved: originally this concept was to be applied to upholstery for a rocking chair or settee, to play on how women's work cushions and supports against life's hardships.  However, I discovered I did not have the skills to hand stitch the quilting on the detachable cushions to my chair, and did not have the furniture renovation skills to strip a wooden ercol settee.  However, I did have a 1960s original coat belonging to my Mother, and the concept was tweaked to support and enhance, rather than support and cushion.

Skills developed:  Pattern cutting - turned coat inside out and measured all dimensions of lining.  1960s patterns are cut with more shaping than modern coat patterns!

Difficulties overcome:  I was reluctant to give up on the idea to work on larger scale items, but concluded my skills were not up to the image I had in my mind's eye.

Key artistic influences:  Georgio Morandi - drawing style.  Stephen Cohen, A seat for the rich on the lap of the poor (chair upholstered with fabric where the imagery comments on the object).

Staging takes forever

I went to uni on Monday intending to practice staging 3 of my pieces.  Famous last words!  I managed to stage one, and concluded that I am not a good maker!

I was staging my lined coat.  First I discovered the magnet hooks I had purchased, were not the ones I had ordered.  I had ordered 10 3kg magnets and the company supplied 20 x 1.5 kg magnets.  The coat is considerably heavier than I anticipated, and it took 6 magnets to be strong enough to support it from the ceiling.  Also, I noticed that I had a small stain beside the embroidered numbers, probably from the soluble canvas I used to stitch the cross stitch accurately.  And despite carefully creating an accurate pattern before cutting the fabric, the lining hem does not sit right.  More careful stitching required!  Also I had the coat staged far too high, so next time I hang it, the fishing line needs to be a lot longer, so it is positioned closer to eye level.  All this experimentation took all day!

Debates about Pricing

Everything is comparative.  Students at uni complain bitterly about he cost of digital printing at UH.
Fabric for the digital printer is priced at 1.8 x cost price from the wholesalers, and every print job has to have a half metre wind-on cost.  My fabrics vary between £7.70 for poplin to £30 for hemp ramie, or £36 for silk satin, per metre.  Add to this the cost of the digital inks, for which I have had to pay between 48p - £2.56 per metre.  Students have to steam and wash the fabrics themselves, and iron them.

Then I looked at the University of East London Fabpad website.  This is a business run by students at UEL as a commercial print bureau.  Their prices are similar to UH for fabrics, but have a £30 per metre print cost (!), plus 20%VAT if you are not a UEL student!!!  Fabpad steam, washes and irons the fabric for the customer.   Fabpad lists mostly high end fabrics for customers to select from.   But then, if you were paying £30 per metre to print it, you would probably feel spending £7.70 for poplin to be unjustifiable, and be more likely to target high end fabrics.

Pricing polocies then state you add in your design costs, and double the whole amount to calculate the final costs.

When Lucy asked me how much I would sell my red poplin for, I said about £50 per metre, thinking this was a price at the high end of "reasonable".  However this is inadequate once you enter the commercial digital print world.  £50 per metre would be cost price without design costs or profit.  Hmm!  Need to rework the costings.

However, today I had a lovely day making my dress for our Private View.  I had bought a 1950s original dress pattern, in a size 16.   Oh dear, oh dear!  British women have changed shape since the 1950s!  I had to adapt the bodice - another 6" on the waist (yes, really), and another 3" in depth from shoulder to waist.  I added 1.5" at the armhole, and another 1.5" at midrib level.  So far I have made the bodice, attacheded the skirt and faced the neckline.  I tried on the dress, and I was delighted that my considerable alterations had worked, and the pattern fitted!  Tomorrow I need to insert the zip, sleeves and hem.

Policy and Politics

I have struggled with one of my tutors stating my work is very political.  I have never seen it this way, merely that my work is about recognising the work of under-valued and under-recognised groups.

However I had a conversation with Val Inns at uni yesterday, which gave me a different insight.  I have spent a lot of time working out how to apply various policies at work, particularly equality policies.  Provided I agree with a particular policy (!), I put a lot of thought into how behaviour (mine and others') demonstrates compliance or otherwise with a policy.  Val made the point that this is what politics is all about!  I had never thought of this before. I had viewed Party Politics with considerable disdain, because of all the posturing and weasel words spouted by elected politicians and party leaders.  As policy defines what is to be achieved and strategy defines how it is to be executed, I have a lot of experience in defining and applying strategy.  So given I am clear about what the purpose of my work is, and the reasoning behind it, my work must be political.  Perhaps I interpreted my tutor's statement as saying he took a different political stance to me!

Yesterday I printed some linen fabric as a repeat pattern.  I had all my hand drawn images, and Lisa thought it would make a lovely apron.  So we printed a metre.  It came out very well, although not to my taste.  I think the beige ground fabric makes it look like a vintage fabric, and I am not aiming to create a product for that market.  I liked the bright red cotton poplin repeat print that I made, as it is more contemporary retro, and I am happy to target that market.

Repeat print fabric after steaming

Close up of the pastry cutters

And my favourite jug

My favourite drawing of my Mother's worn wooden spoon.

One pattern repeat of the steamed fabric

Response to Progress Review Form

Knowledge and Understanding

I have developed a broad knowledge and understanding of the art textile field by research at V&A (Embroidery and Tapestry class), Fashion & Textile Museum (Artist Textiles exhibition and others), and Warners Textile Archive.   I have also investigated into the portrayal of women in art in the last century at National Portrait Gallery, Tate Gallery, British Library and other art establishments.

I have found the integration of concept into the finished object to be difficult, particularly to achieve the quality of finish across a wide range of making techniques. Some potential applications of my ideas have been conceptualised but not worked, due to my lack of practical skills to create the object that links with the concept. I have enjoyed the thinking that "My Mother's Work" has engendered and have discovered that my thinking and reasoning skills are stronger than my making and  finishing skills.

The integration of the intention to the object has a major impact on my professional practice in the contemporary arts arena.  As "My Mother's Work" has a strong link to equality policies relating to gender, age and ethnicity, a key market for my ideas is any exhibiting organisation that receives funding  from Government and is required to demonstrate how they target and celebrate various under-represented groups.  Additionally for my degree show, my concept has been applied to art objects, but could be developed for commercial repeat pattern fabric (fashion and upholstery).  I have used "My Mother's Work" imagery for professional promotion by creating fabric to wear at the Private View and New Designers exhibition to associate me with my artistic product.

Skills, Attributes and Conceptual Skills

I have linked the under-recognised skills of women, with a personal interpretation of a commonly held experience, and applied this concept to a variety of domestic objects that resonate with the subject.

I have thought extensively and broadly about the traditional role of women, and sought to identify how they are represented in the fine art and contemporary applied art fields.  I have looked at fine art work, read widely, visited exhibitions, museums and galleries, to inform my view, then applied my findings to my artwork and a selection of pertinent objects.

While taking ownership of my work, I have found it ponderously slow to analyse what goes well/badly, but have maintained motivation, and sought feedback.  It was easy to identify the concept; narrow the theme to women, their under-valued skills and contributions and my Mother's kitchen implements.  I found it difficult to identify how to portray the theme; to narrow down to one artistic style, (creating form by cross hatching), and to have the confidence to run with creating artworks that recognised and celebrated the skills of women.

Practical Skills

I have experimented with emerging media (digital textile print, Photoshop) and traditional techniques (hand and machine embroidery, knit, dressmaking), and to link tradition and innovation with a concept.

Development and refinement of making has been demonstrated by the selecting of different fabrics and edges (jam covers); innovative use of non-standard, uncoated fabric on the digital printer (roller towels); and creating an appropriate shape and stripes via the use of photoshop (tea towels), each of which were combined with a hand intervention.  Less experimentation has been implemented when a classical object was desired (coat lining) or where high skill levels were already possessed (knit), as a contemporary message was embedded within the traditional technique.

Transferable Skills

I have worked steadily and persistently to the deadlines.  I made best use of time by changing between projects when conceptual or creative obstacles impeded progress, and blending research visits with intense periods of making.

I actively seek out new information and experiences and constantly question and listen to people who are different to me.  This enriches my life, by demonstrating there are many right answers, and many right ways of expressing a concept.  I have constantly questioned what goes well/badly at every stage of the making process.  I conclude that my thinking is more refined than my making, although I have discovered the impact of the parasympathetic nervous system when handling fabrics considerably aids my ability to reflect and then draw conclusions.  Once I have completed my analysis I am able to argue my case articulately and sum up with one pithy statement.  I have shared my analysis and feedback skills with the student group.

I am a confident communicator using formal presentations, informal seminars, and casual conversations.  I can write in a manner appropriate for the audience, using correct grammar and punctuation.  I have delivered presentations to business audiences, student seminar groups and the Tapestry and Embroidery class at the V&A and the Women's Interfaith Network.  I contribute to other student's work by considering and giving feedback during seminars.  I draw a lot, both in classes and at exhibitions to embed my observations into memories.

I have used information from journals and articles on Studynet, books, museums, exhibitions and galleries.  I am constantly curious and enjoy speculative visits and outings to seek out people whose experiences have been different to mine.  I listen to a lot of people talking knowledgeably about their subject, via lectures (Tate, National Portrait Gallery, V&A) and at exhibitions (Spirit of Womanhood exhibition; Knit & Stitch).

I have been persistent in the pursuit of  my studies.  I have built an extensive network of contacts by attending various events.   I always talk to the organisers and tutors, to express appreciation of their efforts, and ensure management know of their staffs' successes!

Wrapping up things for the Professional Portfolio

2 year Personal Development Plan

June -October 2014. Travelling in USA.  Continue to consider under-valued and
                                   marginalised groups - Migrant workers; carers, lorry drivers .....

November 2014        Graduation

November 2014-       Sketchbook, art history and humanities classes at Missenden
August 2015.             Abbey, City Lit etc.  Continue with general artist research at
                                   museums and galleries

January 2015.             Start search for appropriate MA course.

September 2015-        Part-time MA
May 2017?


Marketing Plan

Current work fits demographic of middle aged and older women.  Exhibiting potential at Knit & Stitch, or Festival of Quilts.  Knit and Stitch exhibits at locations of Alexandra Palace, Harrogate and Dublin.  I would happy to attend any or all of them!  Festival of Quilts is at NEC, Birmingham.

The concept of "My Mother's Work" can be marketed to various Government funded exhibiting organisations, such as V&A, Horniman Museum, National Portrait Gallery.  All organisations receiving funding from Government are required to have an equality policy that states what action they take in order to represent and serve all parts of the community.  An exhibition receiving articles from the general population could be curated on the theme "My Mother's Work" which could be structured to positively portray women and apply the equality policy on the grounds of gender, age, ethnicity and faith.


Price List

My Mother's Work - Unseen ( Jam Covers).              £600
My Mother's Work - Unending ( Roller Towels).       £500
My Mother's Work - Unfinished (Knit).                      £400
My Mother's Work - Cyclical (Tea Towels).              £800
My Mother's Work - Supportive (1960s coat)             NFS

I don't expect to sell any of them but if the university wanted to buy them, this is what I would charge for them as works of art.  Additionally, if my work was selected to go to the Knit & Stitch, I would not be able to sell them in advance, so pricing them out of the market would not matter.  In my dreams!

More thought required.

Press Release

Cathy MacTaggart uses traditional hand-craft techniques to create textile art collections that draw attention to the female condition.  Hand and machine stitch, and hand knitting, are skills usually held by women and are techniques strongly associated with the domestic environment.  She reflects on the manual nature of kitchen tasks by hand drawing the objects that were handled by her Mother within this environment.

While drawing the kitchen implements, she developed an interest in the feelings created by the repetitive use of various utensils and a symbolic link with an associated domestic textile.   "My Mother's Work  - Unseen" is a collection of jam jar covers which are used to represent the work of the jam making season, which is unseen once the product has been consumed.   "My Mother's Work - Unending" is a series of roller towels that demonstrate the dawning realisation that food preparation may become more skilled and complicated over the years, but is ultimately a continuous loop of work.  "My Mother's Work - Unfinished" is a group of incomplete complex knitted pieces.  They symbolise how hand made craft that is incomplete, is often unrecognised for the considerable skills involved.  "My Mother's Work - Cyclical" uses round tea towels to symbolise the repeated nature of preparing food.  "My Mother's Work - Supportive" uses a coat lining as an allegory.  A lined garment is more comfortable to wear and has a longer life, giving a better experience of the item of clothing, similar to how the quality of work done by many people's Mothers, supports and improves the experience of life.

Cathy MacTaggart aims to articulate the experiences of her Mother, on behalf of many women.  She aims for viewers of this work to be able to identify with the subject matter, and for it to inspire a wry smile of recognition and the thought "My Mum did that too!"

Digital print coming off the printer

I have been a big brave girl at the dentist, braces removed, and am now half way through work on my bottom jaw to gain more space.

Jim drove me to uni so I could collect the fabric that Lisa had told me was ready.  The red silk fabric looked great with just one wooden spoon printed on it.  The red poplin was very interesting.  There had been a fault in the printing after about 1m so Lisa had stopped the 4m print run, which was as well as there were a couple of mistakes in how I had created it.  I steamed the fabrics to set the print, and then feeling exhausted, Jim and came home.

Red lining before steaming, with one image for back of coat
Note the stripes from where the fixative is uneven.
It does not appear to affect the final fabric after steaming.

The day before Easter, I washed the fabrics and they looked great.  I took my 1960's black coat, turned it inside out, and took all the critical measurements and made pattern pieces for the front, back and arm lining fabric.  Then the moment of truth - I had to cut the silk!  I positioned the wooden spoon in the centre of the back, where it could be seen with the coat open.  Once cut, I cross-stitched at the bottom of the spoon, the number of pounds of jam my mother had made over her lifetime.  I carefully ladder stitched the lining into the coat, while watching Harry Potter on the television on Good Friday.  I have to say I think it looks great.

Stitching the lining onto the cuff

Stitching the lining into the coat

My half drop repeat fabric.
I think the motifs are too close together and need some careful editing.

The steamed lining fabric

I am not at all sure my tutor will like the hand drawn object on a coat lining, as he does not seem to get my work at all - but middle aged women always do!  And something else that has occurred to me is that my tutor Steve was very keen that I should identify a venue for my work.  The place that I can see my work being appreciated and understood, is at the Knit and Sitch show at the Ally Pally, or the Festival of Quilts.  These events both have exhibition spaces for serious textile artists, and we have had a previous student invited to display there.  The audience at both of these events would understand my work.

Good Progress leads to a sore shoulder

Excellent progress over the weekend has given me a very sore shoulder, so I am off to the chiropractor tomorrow.  I was cross stitching my tea towels, and spent about 25 hours working on them over a week.  I think they look great but I have an acute pain in the middle of my left shoulder blade from holding the hoop.

Driving aggravates the shoulder so I have to reduce how often I go to class.  Also, there will be a delay in getting my coat lining fabric and dress fabric printed, as the printer is out of ink and Lisa is awaiting its supply.  I hope my fabrics are printed by Thursday morning, so I can steam them and work on them over Easter.  Therefore I need to work from home for the next couple of days, finishing something else.  So I have decided to machine sew comments from my Mother onto the roller towels, rather than hand stitch them.  I can free machine embroider quite well, and have some spare roller towel fabric and dissolveable fabric,  so I can practice writing.  I bought red machine embroidery thread, for the writing, but now wonder whether black would look better.  Most of my other pieces combine red, black and white, so maybe this one should too.  Time for sampling!

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Activity ramping up

Lisa and Lucy spent a whole day printing half of my roller towel. They made a sterling job of a difficult task, printing on non-standard cloth that had been manually coated with fixative (rather  than coated by a commercial textile company).  I spent most of the day steaming and washing it.

How to lay out a 16m x 27 cm roller towel on a 5m x 130 cm steaming cloth 

How to ensure the printed strip does not transfer dye to itself.

Rolling ready for steaming.

I have been thinking about the difference between a degree and an apprenticeship.  One of my main criticisms of this degree is that, as a self directed learning qualification, we are not taught.  I found it very fulfilling today to pin out my fabric and learn how best to fit a long narrow length of cloth into the steamer.  If I were studying an apprenticeship, I would have been working with an experienced fabric worker, learning the techniques from someone who knew the 'one right way" of doing things, so that learning involved minimal waste of materials.  With self directed learning, it is usually much more wasteful of materials, because learners do things wrong because there is no-one around to instruct in best practice, or through ignorance.  Sadly, I identify strongly with this statement!

Best H&S practice:  Baker's gloves, sensible footwear,  nothing dangling that could get caught.
Mop ready to clean slip hazards.

Unrolling a hot steamy cloth.

Inspecting the cloth to see how it has fixed.

The moment of truth -
has the manually fixative-coated fabric successfully fixed the dye? 

I was delighted with the outcome, and started to come up with more ideas about how to present it.

The first idea was to just display on a acrylic pole, with a short, medium and long version.  Now I wonder about adding a cross stitched comment on the short one "bake for 30 minutes at Reg 4.  Or a cross stitched shopping list.   Or typical comments about her baking "Vegetables need to be cooked thoroughly"; "Potatoes need a lot of salt, or they won't be nice", "You can't make gravy without Bisto!", "I always make lemon merengue for his birthday".  Or where there are a couple of errant spots of dye - what about a couple of darns?   Hmm.  How much hand stitch can I do before the degree show, without knackering my neck?

Time to start thinking about Press Releases.

First draft is:

Cathy MacTaggart - "My Mother's Work"

Headlines Degree Show - 2-7 June 2014 1000-1600
Private View -  29 May 2004 1800-2200

In My Mother's Work Cathy MacTaggart has quietly challenged social conventions about gender politics and the domestic object.  She uses hand drawing to acknowledge the manual labour of her Mother, and applies the imagery to mundane textiles.  These textiles make a wry observation on how the work done by many women is seen, and illustrates the feelings derived from the traditional domestic role.

This collection aims to focus attention on women as an unsung group of workers and to give positive recognition to their contribution.  If this collection makes the audience think 'My Mum did that too', along with a wry smile of recognition, then, as a woman, Cathy MacTaggart has achieved her aim.

Frustration leading to progress

I spent all week waiting for my four textile print jobs to be done.  This was frustrating but the textile technician has about 30 jobs queued and had been instructed that the Ted Baker competition jobs were to be prioritised.

So to use my time to best effect I had a couple of days out.  Shirley and I went to the National Portrait Gallery to see the WW1 portraits.  Excellent. The layout of the Leaders and Followers room demonstrated how staging enhances an exhibition.  The Leaders were on one side, demonstrating traditional portrait style, personal profile and identity, authority via uniform and stance, and gallantry via medals.  Brighter lighting.  The followers were on the other side of the small room, and were portrayed as down-to-earth, ordinary people, possibly off-guard, anonymous or generic types.  Softer lighting.

Then we went to the Oxo Tower to the Spirit of Womanhood exhibition.  Annabel Rainbow's quilt was wonderful.  She does nude self portraits in art quilts, and this one was of her at her sewing machine , with a lot of embroidered script about how women form 50% of the population but hold title to 1% of the land and other statistics.  Absolutely brilliant.  I had a long chat with the invigilators (a very ethnically diverse bunch of women), talked quite a lot about my uni work "My Mother's Work" amd was most gratified that they really understood the theme.  These ladies were interested to come to the degree show, and some lived quite close to Hatfield.

Annabel Rainbow - "Life 5  - What did you do today dear?"
How fantastic is this!?

Then on Friday I went to uni, and one of my print jobs was done!  So with a couple of other students we had a a steaming and washing session.   I have plenty of work to be going on with over the weekend - cutting out, binding edges, attaching labels, cross stitching comments.

My four cyclical tea towels, freshly printed

Pinning the printed fabric to the steaming cloth

Rolling

Tieing

After steaming

Washing
When you wash something with as much red as this design,
the rinsing water looks like blood!

My class also had a seminar about portfolio preparation.  I am confused about what needs to go into the portfolio, but I can get on with preparing photos of my assorted projects, writing my cv, preparing business cards.

Synopsis

My Mother's Work - Unfinished

How the concept fits the object:  The skills required to make something are usually unrecognised until the object is complete.  As the knitting on display is incomplete, it plays on the idea that "a woman's work is never done" and that the skills required are unrecognised.  The pieces on display require advanced knitting skills and a lot of time, due to the complexity of the patterns and the fine gauge of the the wool.

Skills developed:   Knit skills already developed.  Thinking skills developed by reflecting on how the concept of my Mother's work being unfinished could be demonstrated by using skills that are more commonly held by women.

Difficulties overcome:  Very fine yarn is difficult to rip out as the thread will break.  Patterns had to be read very carefully and knitted right first time.

Key Artist Influences:  Marisa Merz, 1969 Untitled knitting, Tate Gallery

My Mother's Work - Unseen

How the concept fits the object:  The jam covers are all that remain once one year's worth of jam making produce has been consumed.  The jam produced by my Mother's labour has been consumed and is now unseen.  Jam and marmalade making involves a lot of manual layout and the imagery stitched on the jam covers portrays a section of kitchen equipment that is manually handled.

How the work evolved:  This piece started with experimentation with displays of jam jars (full and empty); jam labels, drawings of jam.  Then it evolved to work about jam; the invisibility of the product once it has been eaten and the labour involved.

Skills developed:  Machine embroidery skills already developed.  Thinking skills developed by exploring how to move on from creating artwork from an object, to artwork about an object.

Difficulties overcome:  Fabric curls up when exposed to heat.  The original idea was to pin individual covers to the wall in a grid, but the fabric curls in the atmosphere of the studio.  They are also quite fragile as they are cut on the bias, so cannot be handled a lot. Decided to stack them vice Edmund de Waal, so the pieces are "in conversation with each other".

Key Artist Influences:
Edmund de Waal - display of work, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 2013.
Alice Kettle - free machine embroidery in straight lines to build the density of effect

My Mother's Work - Unending

How the concept fits the object:  The roller towels develop my Yokes piece from the previous semester.  The roller towels get progressively longer, demonstrating how my Mother's work was unending.  The writing on the stripe emulates the script on an old-fashioned glass cloth, but alternates My Mother's Work and a verb that describes a working action of cooking, on an object that constantly rotates.

How the work evolved:  The original idea was to repeat hand drawn objects on a long roller towel.  This was too easily read.  Words are important to me, so the imagery was replaced by words.  I sought out words used in the used in the kitchen, and various forms of kitchen towels and the two came together well in the use of words on a glass cloth.  My Mother's most unending work was cooking, so working words from the cook's vocabulary were appropriate.

Skills developed: Preparation of plain fabric to be suitable for digital print.  Development of photoshop skills to manage memory requirements and basic colour and script abilities.

Difficulties overcome:  To ensure the work read as a roller towel, I had to ensure the fabric was the right width and feel.  I could not just cut a piece of fabric and turn the edge.  I had to source a 40m roller towel to get the right fabric with a selvedge edge, and then experiment with coating it with fixative chemicals for the digital printer.  I soaked the fabric in soda ash solution, dried it carefully, to avoid creases and tidemarks, and rolled it ready for printing.  We were then told we could not drill into the walls, so  I could not use traditional wooden mounts.  I had to create an innovative solution to display the roller towels via acrylic rods and magnets and fishing line.

Key Artist Influences:
Philippa Lawrence, The Fabric of Making 2013.  The use of verbs, in a straight line
Joetta Maue, Breaks My Heart 2009.  The use of materials and place in which the work resides.  The domain of the home and the female

My Mother's Work - Cyclical

How the concept fits the object:  This piece evolved from the roller towels.  Work that is unending, is often cyclical.  There are many circles in the kitchen - hob rings, colanders, plug holes, drainage holes, crockery.  So the cyclical work of washing up, is demonstrated by having a circular tea towel.

How the work evolved:  Tea towels were originally printed with a hand drawn kitchen object in the centre.  This looked pedestrian and did not explain the circular shape.  Then I embroidered the cyclical routine of cooking around the edge and the concept was more clearly embedded into the work.

Skills developed: Photoshop skills with use of different shapes and circular stripes.  Accurate use of hand embroidery.

Difficulties overcome:  The first samples looked wrong in proportion to ordinary rectangular tea towels.    I measured the area of a standard rectangular tea towel, and discovered that for a circular tea towel to have the same proportions, it needed to have a diameter of 61cm.  Now the proportions look right.   The embroidery needed to be really accurate, and cross stitch on paper was not easy to stitch or wash out.  Soluble canvas (punched gelatine sheet) was a convenient solution.

Key Artist Influences:  Timorous Beasties, 2012  commission for National Galleries of Scotland, National Portrait Gallery.  Use of circles, use of bright colour, use of imagery and sections of objects.

My Mother's Work - Supportive

How the concept fits the object:  The settee has simple removable cushions.  Women's work in general supports, softens, cushions and enhances the experience of life at home.  Therefore the equipment used by my Mother in the kitchen is depicted on upholstery that supports someone resting, and also makes a comment that fits the object portrayed and how a person might feel after using said object.

How the work evolved:  Original thoughts were to fit the imagery to a chair and stool, but this required more advanced upholstery skills.  Settee selected because of simple shape of cushions, while fitting the concept of comfort and support.   Words were originally to be embroidered on the cushions, but were applied to care labels in order to be less obvious.  The original drawings were redrawn with pieces of collage background, to introduce the colours of raspberry (pink), marmalade (orange), and aluminium (grey) to fit with the jam making theme.

Difficulties overcome:  Stripping the settee frame, as the varnish was badly chipped, was overcome by simple hard work.  It was hard to get the right shade of grey (the first sample turned out beige!) but by using the colour picker in photoshop, on a piece of collage, an appropriate grey was identified.

Skills developed:  Selecting colours in photoshop, layering colours behind hand drawn imagery.

Key Artist Influences:
Giorgio Morandi - cross hatching drawing style
Stephen Cohen - A Seat for the Rich on the Lap of the Poor 1987

My Mother's Work - Overlooked

How the concept fits the object:  The curtains have hand drawn imagery at various sizes.  Most kitchen utensils are at actual size, but the wooden spoon has been enlarged to 2m high.  This will not be noticeable until the viewer stands back and looks at the curtains at a distance.  Therefore the wooden spoon is easily overlooked, in a similar manner to a lot of the daily work done by my Mother.

How the work evolved:  incomplete

Difficulties overcome:  incomplete

Skills developed:  incomplete

Key Artist Influences: Giorgio Morandi - cross hatching drawing style

Mrs Angry and Mrs Calm

I have had a couple of difficult days.  I had a dreadful day fighting photoshop to get my roller towels printed.  Talk about Mrs Angry!  I nearly jacked the course in, with sheer frustration.  I just do not have sufficient understanding to do things quickly and efficiently, right first time, and do not seem able to predict the intensity of colour when printed.  However after 2 days work, I have put my roller towels in the print queue.  I have failed to resolve any of the critique that I received, but given my skill level, it will just have to be good enough.

Additionally, the same day I was told our exhibition room has changed, and nothing can be attached to the wall.  No drilling in, no sellotape, no blutack.  Given I need a float shelf, and want to wall mount my knitted samples, roller towels and curtain, I was dismayed.  The relayed instructions were to "identify innovative solutions"!  I was seriously hacked off.

But after a swim, I worked out most pieces could be suspended from the ceiling with magnet fixings and fishing wire.  I have become Mrs Calm.

So now I am drafting more artist statements

My Mother's Work - Unfinished

This knitted collection reflects on how work typically carried out by women, often requires high levels of skill, but while incomplete, these skills are frequently unrecognised.  This piece aims to celebrate the unsung and unrecognised skills of people like my Mother.

My Mother's Work - Unseen

This collection of 64 jam covers refers to the number of pounds of jam made by my Mother each year for 42 years of marriage.  Each cover is embroidered with a section of a utensil that is handled make jam.  Every year the jam would be consumed, and the labour involved disappear.  This piece celebrates the unseen labour of one year's jam making.

My Mother's Work - Unending

The roller towels demonstrate how the unending nature of women's work slowly dawns on the individual.   The words on the roller towels are the verbs used in recipes to make a cake, a shepherds pie, and a lemon merangue - favourite dishes cooked by my Mother.  The shortest roller towel alludes to the simple pleasures of making a cake; the second towel shows food preparation is a long term process; and the longest one gives the realisation that my Mother's work with food was never ending.

My Mother's Work - Cyclical

Many domestic tasks are repetitive and are carried out regularly.  There are many circles in the kitchen - pots and pans; plates; cups; mixing bowls; colanders; drainage holes; and plug holes.  Won'The cyclical nature of  my Mother's work is alluded to by the circular shape of the tea towels.

Unwell and exhausted but still working

Felt absolutely terrible most of the weekend, aching all over.  But kept working, by staying indoors, and doing stuff that required little energy.

5th knitted sample

This took 3 evenings' work to make up a sample that is 3" long and is about 50 rows of knitting.  Once again I have picked another difficult pattern.  I now know about 5 ways of making bobbles!  None of the samples have the same method!

Lemon Squeezer on collage

And again

Colander on collage

Mixer on collage

Mincer on collage

I am still messing around with how to use the collage section.  I like the introduction of collage, but find it difficult to envisage how it will look on fabric.  Firstly the collage changes its appearance once scanned, as not all of the paler tones come out. This gives quite an interesting effect.  Also I like to put a pale coloured ground on the rest of the background fabric, which makes the tonal variation less stark.  Also once in working in Photoshop, you can crop out some of the collage if it appears too great an area, and also reduce the intensity of colour.  I still feel I am an amateur playing with photoshop and my inadequate digital skills are going to impact on the quality of output.  But all I can do is try my best.  Keep pushing at it!

So for someone who felt really ill, it was quite a productive weekend.

A good few days then frustration

I had some positive feedback at art class.  The maslin pan on a grey ground got a  rave review.    The tea towels were legitimately criticised ( but I am going to ignore most it as I cannot deal with the level of detail required to rectify it!).

Red needs to be adjusted - agreed.
Try making it white.  No, I hate white.  
Don't use a binding around the edge, leave it raw.  No, I hate raw edges, tea towels never have raw edges, circular raw edges would go ragged very quickly and look shoddy.  
Don't put end of binding at top - too easily seen
Sew binding more accurately.  Maybe.  I doubt most people would see slight wobbles in the stitching, particularly when hung.

Then I went to uni and had a most frustrating day.  The studio was packed with a  print class, using the fan heaters, screen dryer, baker, steamer, so it was really hot.  I was told to roll my 40m roller towel onto a pole ready for printing.  I chose a short clean plastic pole, and carefully ironed and rolled it so the left edge was absolutely aligned to unwind perfectly on the printer.  And was then told I should have used a cardboard pole as only these ones fitted on the digital printer.

Then I tried to adjust the colour on my roller towel to get a less orange red.  Lisa could not remember how to set the printer to pick a standard colour, and suggested I create a selection of reds, do a test print, steam, wash and choose from that.  This is just too much bother.  It would take at least a week, and  would stress me out too much.  All I want to do is pick  from the sample chart, and use it. 

I then tried to prepare the print document for the roller towel, to the stage where all that has to be adjusted is the colour, and the document was slow saving, then ran out of space on the disk.

Finally, the traffic on the way home was appalling and it took 2 hours to drive home.