You can’t see what we’ve done 2023
This film features conversations with women carrying out invisible mending as they check and repair high quality cloth for fashion designers and tailors so You can’t see what we’ve done. See more.
Short threads 2023
This film compliments Anything with your hands and features a student on work placement at Fox Flannel in Wellington, Somerset learning to mend suiting fabric before it is sent to the finishers.
anything with your hands 2022
I liaised with the archivist at Sunny Bank Mill in Leeds in November 2021 to meet with a local retired mender, June Pearce, to talk about her experiences as she started work at the mill when she left school. The footage is of the conversation with Joan, the archivist and me over cups of tea. See more.
warp mend 2022
Mending the warp at Bristol Cloth Mill in November 2021. Manipulated to create a short film layering to indicate the many processes and movement within the commercial weaving process. See more.
double cloth mend 2021
Double Cloth Mend made at Melin Tregwynt heritage Welsh woollen mill in August 2021 with Paula Harding the youngest of four generations of women menders. See more.
checking cloth 2021
This short film takes up the challenge of using one short clip as its methodology. It is looking at the invisible mending and checking of cloth being done as part of the process in the manufacture of high quality cloth. This is Karen filmed at Stanley Mills, Bradford in November 2019.
walking twelve miles a day 2020
The text is taken from Jacqui Stearn’s poem ‘walking twelve miles a day’ - written in response to the darning team at WSP in Stroud in 2019. See more.
always blue and grey 2020
An investigation of the darning and mending skills required in modern manufacturing processes: contrasting the slow pains taking activity within a highly mechanized factory situation. See more.
under-over-under-back 2020
The film celebrates the skill of mending fine fabrics used in wig making, threatre curtains and wedding veils. All produced on vintage machinery. See more.
timeline stitching 2020
Timeline Stitching made during lockdown in 2020 as a way to capture the thinking and making process of both an artwork and film document.
Gansey Project 2018
Filmed on a GoPro camera during my residency in Falmouth (2018) investigating traditional patterns, this film documents my walk from Fish Factory Art Space to Truro Wool shop, undertaken while creating a collection of sample patterns during a series of walks around the area. See more.
one walk event 2018
Pilot project for PhD research. See more.
Cherry Colour Buttonholes 2017
In the story, The Tailor of Gloucester by Beatrix Potter, mice stitch the one and twenty buttonholes because the tailor was taken ill. Nowadays the skill of hand stitching buttonholes has virtually ceased to be used because buttonholes are pre-programmed on machines, thus reducing the time consuming necessity of sewing by hand. The film Cherry Colour Buttonholes features the making process through people using their hands.
A group of women gather to hand stitch the 21 buttonholes in cherry colour twist. Sharing skills before they are perhaps lost forever. Selected as the Best Experimental Film at WOFFF 2017. See more.
Embroidery in Madeira 2017
Embroidery houses on Madeira successfully continue practice their traditional hand embroidery skills in an age of mechanized industries. The embroidery skills currently in use on Madeira are largely lost in Europe and reflect historical styles from the 18th and 19th centuries.
While filming I was able to begin to understand the importance of embroidery’s cultural place within society with embroiderers still visible stitching in the street. See more.
sharing stitch 2015
The film, Sharing Stitch, continues my exploration of sharing skills and how skills are used today. In this piece I am considering the meeting of two people who work on their textiles while travelling on public transport, meeting for the first time and sharing their passion. See more.
thinking stitch 2014
Thinking Stitch shows a conversation between people demonstrating textile skills to capture working methods in current usage and to record why particular skills are retained and passed on. The moving image shows how a sharing of skills could suggest a brief and intimate encounter rather than a more formal meeting.
As the majority of making textiles takes place in domestic settings behind closed doors I am exploring my interest in the significance of the private space often employed by women to make textiles.
physical stitch 2014
Physical Stitch evolved from a conversation with my friend Liz Harding. Through our discussions it became obvious that we shared an interest in documenting the making process. See more.
walking 2013
I am interested in the historical representation of art through textiles, its links to craft and domesticity and its relationship to current practice. I collaborate with both professional and amateur women to create documentary style films. In the film, Walking, I am reflecting on the motion of knitting historically as a necessity reminiscent of what would have been needed in the past. See more.
darning 2013
A celebration of the work done by the darning women, Anne, Avril and Heather. Their work has changed very little in the past hundred years. They are responsible for the quality of the cloth before it is processed and key to the factory's production. See more.
Jane and me 2013
Jane looks after the weaving shed. See more.
sharon and me 2013
The film, Sharon and Me, is part of my ongoing research linking women, textiles, knowledge, skills and history. Filmed in the warping shed this film is part of a series made at WSP in Stroud. It was first shown in my MFA exhibition at Goldsmiths in 2009. See more.
Landscape with two women 2013
In the film Landscape with two women, I aim to consider the relationship of domestic arts to art practice and question the amateur/professional relationship through a celebration of skills currently being used. See more.