Unit X Cressbrook Mill
What I have tried
to achieve with every unit at level 4, is to find a greater understanding of
who I am as a textile Artist. This unit
has taken me closer to that creative voice, as I continue to explore why
textiles stimulates my creative practice.
Working in collaboration with Lisa, has been a truly educational
experience as I would normally prefer to work alone. This experience has helped me immensely, as
her enthusiasm and encouragement for my work has kept me going when at times I
have found being in TIP quiet isolating and although on the surface I may
appear to be self-directed what I require on some occasions is positive
feedback.
The choice of site
location ‘Cressbrook Mill’ was quickly established between the two of us, as we
both have personal memories of the area.
I find that making a connection with the subject that you are working
with keeps your motivation and response to it fresh. From my primary research which was based at
the local history information Centre in Chesterfield Library, unveiled many
articles about the history of the mill.
Before the Mill was built, John Baxter had been granted the land as part
of the enclosures Act of 1764, and he built a three story house into the corner
wall of ‘Water Cum Jolly’ now used by many climbers in the area. The sheltered South facing aspect of the land
around his house was suitable for cultivating, along with aromatic herbs Baker
also planted the hillside above his house with Filbert Trees. (Walnut Trees) Other connections that I found in my history
research was the large number of children were brought up from London to work as
apprentices in the mill, I could almost let my imagination run riot and believe
that I could find my ancestors transported from the slums of London to
Derbyshire to improve their chances of an education.
In my other life
as an employer, I was also interested to read that the first employment laws
were established because of the appalling conditions that the apprentices had
to endure whilst working in the mill.
During our initial
meetings Lisa and I went to visit a Textile show in Manchester, thinking we
would not get much from it as it was geared more to crafters, we were both
pleasantly surprised to meet Rachel Powel, a textile artist who was exhibiting
her work from her recent residency at Ormesby Hall in Middlesbrough. What caught my attention with her work was
the beautiful muted colors she was using in her work. Whilst working at the hall for over a year,
Rachel had dyed wool and fabric with whatever plants she could find in her
immediate surroundings resulting in some very subtle colour changes from winter
through to summer.
With this new
found insight into colour and from the history research that I had carried out
I felt quite a number of connection for me to develop this unit.
Unfortunately, starting
this project in January meant there was very little plant life in the
surrounding area.
From my research
into Natural dying I came across Jenny Dean who has worked with dye plants and
natural dyes for over 20 years. As I
have never attempted any form of fabric dying before, I decided to follow her
experiment of trying to create 25 colors from one dye bath. In my ignorance I started to make my own
mordants from copper and rusty nails. This
process alone took 2 weeks. The Kate Egan workshop that I attended at the
Whitworth a few years ago, brought back the memory of the slow movement. This process is certainly slow, when the
mordants were ready and I had scheduled in the time to start dying my wool, I
then read that the wool should soak overnight to allow the fibers to open to
take up the dye. If I continue to down
this route of natural dying for my final exhibition at level 6, then I need to
start planning now as the madder plant takes two years for the roots to
establish before they can be used.
This exercise took
over one week to complete, and I gained an enormous amount of experience in
preparing the mordants and modifiers each having an effect on the colour of the
wool. Once this was complete I started to
use other natural dyes and plants from around the home, using onion skins, ivy,
and plants that were appearing in early spring.
During my research I looked into the techniques and the effects that can
be created by wrapping fabric around metal objects such as rusty nails, which
act as a mordant then stored in jars of dye bath anything up to a year to
create interesting marks on the fabrics.
Amongst these techniques is Shibori, the Japanese term for Shibori which
means to wring, squeeze or press. Fabric
may be plucked and bound, stitched and gathered and folded and clamped or
wrapped around poles and pleated to form various patterns. I attempted several techniques in the time
available, but soon realized that what I was trying to achieve has taken some
Artist years to learn these skills. I
soon realized that what I enjoyed about natural dying that I was creating my
own fabric that I could use in various projects in the future. The process was exciting as I was never sure
what the outcome would be, similar to mono printing when you peel back the
paper to reveal the marks.
Along with working
collaboratively with Lisa, I also worked with a small group of children from an
After School Club. I organised an outing
to Cressbrook, where we discussed the working life for children who used to
work in the Mill. We also buried three
fabric wraps, each containing different plants and metal object, these were
left in the ground for 3 weeks to let the natural mordants in the soil have an
effect on the fabric. Back at the club the children responded to their visit by
drawing the mill and making a large color collage after I explained to them
that I was working on a colour project for my homework. Although I felt that my work with the
children was turning into a history lessons, it did create some interesting
conversation about Arkwright who built the mill and what was really exciting
for them was finding out about the name Arkwright which is one of their houses
at school. We also had a dying session
using turmeric as this is a cold water technique which was a safer options to
use in school. The children really
enjoyed the wool and the fabric changing colour and were very eager to see what
other colours could be achieved. We are
hoping to use the fabric that they dyed to teach them how to weave and the large
colour collage will be turned into fabric and made into sketch book covers
during the summer holidays.
I have never felt confident using
colour in my work before, but now feel that mother nature is there supporting
me and that I just need to explore the process and let the plants reveal their
true colours.
I have diliberately just looked at
one Artist for my reseach. Paul Klee has
influenced many textile artist because of his use of colour. The book ‘Dialogue with nature’ helped me
understand the extent of his enthusiam for botany, at an early age Klee started
collecting and pressing plants. In
Richard Verdi essay ‘Botanical Imagery in the Art of Klee’ describes Klee’s
early work that leads him to consider the fundamental paralles between natural
and artistic creation. Working with
nature feels right to me, it feels intuitive its as if the fabric has new life
added to it and if it fades that is nature just doing its job.