The Abbey in Bury St Edmunds was constructed largely from flint with a lime mortar. This kind of construction is quite common in East Anglia where little stone is available locally. I have been fascinated by being able to get so close to such old buildings even though there is little left but ruins today.
The flint walls have been a source of design inspiration for the project: Material Dialogues. The hard nature of the crystalline quartz contrasts with the softness of cotton or silk fabrics and threads. Copper shims and stainless-steel woven textiles provide an interesting mid-way point between hard and soft with the added advantage of being able to add colour by heating these metals or using alcohol inks.
Having made numerous sketches of pieces of flint I had to decide how to represent these using textiles. Some led themselves to being drawn with machine stitch onto fabric. I also created a series of photographs and manipulated them using Photoshop. These were then printed on different fabrics using a domestic ink jet printer. The fabric was treated with Bubblejet 2000, ironed and taped to an OHP film. Eventually I found the correct combination after several accidents and having to take the printer apart to extract pieces that had become stuck!The finished pieces have been presented by piecing and being partially obscured behind stainless steel or fine copper mesh. These I have coloured by using a flame from a chef’s torch. The stainless steel produces a wide range of reds and blues.
It will be good to hear your comments!