The use of textiles in my work developed whilst working at Cumbria College of Art and Design, from visiting the textile resource area and trying to recreate the embroidery samples in Porcelain. This led to a body of research into Elizabethan textiles, my Lizzie Bet Range.
Not content to just roll embroidered fabrics into my clay I started pouring Plaster of Paris over everything and anything, to capture textures. I used these plaster blocks to impress into clay slabs to give positive low relief effects. Using my pattern pieces, just like a sewing pattern, the results looked like they were made of fabric, complete with their own fabric trims and buttons. I like that. One material characterising another.
