1999
machine knitted wool
installed at the Crafts Council Gallery, London
Noway in the collection of KODE – kunstmuseene i Bergen, Norway
Legroom in the collection of Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum

Photography: Ed Barber/Crafts Council

COSY NOSY 
, 1999
machine knitted wool, log 
180 × 410 × 120 mm

Private Collection

She’s Out of Her Tree, 1999
machine knitted wool, log 
70 × 520 × 70 mm 

Private collection

Comfort Creature, 
1998
wool, felt, plastic
 330 × 120 × 90 mm

Private Collection

Comfort Sheep, 2000
wool, felt, plastic, paper
 approx 210 × 180 × 90 mm

My awareness of textiles came through Janie, a rag doll made for me by my Aunt. Janie’s orange wool hair was a great comfort to me, I would tickle my nose with it. Her hair would gradually wear out and my Godmother would give her a new lot, always wool, always orange.

My Godmother became my greatest inspiration. She was always making things, not frumpy, lumpy things that you hid in your wardrobe, but fashionable, desirable toys and clothes. She was a free spirit. She lived alone, was unmarried and just got on with her own thing. I associated textiles with her and therefore with freedom.

I loved the Clangers, they were knitted. My Godmother taught me to knit, it was difficult, she was left handed. I loved knitting.

I was further inspired by the knitwear designer, Patricia Roberts. She did not rely upon traditional textile images, wholesome flowers, but turned instead to the contemporary urban world for inspiration. She was bold. I entered knitwear design competition in a craft magazine. I won. I was academic but I was also creative. I knew which path I would follow, the one that represented individuality.

Photography: Douglas Atfield

1997
machine knitted yarn (mixed fibres), rubber glove,
recycled sweater sleeves

Photography: Douglas Atfield

1997
machine knitted wool 960 × 520 mm
In the collection of the Crafts Council, London.

Hand of Good, Hand of God is one of my earliest pieces. It followed on from my series of Odd Gloves. It plays with mathematics and pattern writing. The large glove being a multiplication of the number of stitches and rows in a regular knitted glove, the smaller being a division. The large glove is 3 1/2 larger than a regular glove, the smaller is 1/4 smaller. I have made this piece as large as I could without having to seam pieces together. My aim is to make a much bigger piece (possibly to be called A Bigger and Better God) with more “layers” of gloves. This could either be done by seaming pieces together or by the use of large, industrial machinery, which I have begun to use in the production of my large-scale work, Anyway 2002.

40:40 – forty objects for forty years

Online exhibition celebrating forty years of the Crafts Council Collection featuring Hand of Good, Hand of God
http://onviewonline.craftscouncil.org.uk/4040/object/T165









Photography: Heini Schneebeli, courtesy of Crafts Council