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