Lasting Impressions: Cloth Taxonomies at Salts Mill, Saltaire

You may remember that last year on a trip to the Saltaire Arts Trail, I took part in textile artists, Hannah Lamb & Claire Wellesley-Smith's Lasting Impressions project which you can read about here. To put you in the picture, we were asked to leave imprints of our clothing on small porcelain tiles and in doing so, to consider the value of cloth and clothing and to complete an information tag about the garment.  One year on, the artists were back in the Spinning Room at Salt's Mill, so I went to see how the project was developing.

The Lasting Impressions project laid out

The imprinted tiles had all been fired... 

Imprinted fired tiles

My tile, 234, bearing an imprint of my cardigan, was there too...

My tile is no. 234

The garment information collected on the tags last year, was being used to create a series of weavings.

Finished woven strips

The fibres identifed as making up the garments were selected and woven into fabric strips incorporating the information tag.
 

Table showing various fibres

 

Fibres

 

Fibres on cones to be selected for weaving

I worked on no. 27 and was given the tile and the tag in a cardboard box.  I had to weave a section of the fabric strip using the information on the tag.  It said that garment was made of viscose and polyester.  From the cones hanging above one of the tables I chose two strands of fibre - one viscose, one polyester, each about 2 metres long.  Next I threaded the tag onto the fibres so that it was in the middle of the length of fibres.

Tag 27

Table loom

Under instruction, I operated the table loom so the fibres and tag were incorporated into the woven strip of fabric.  A piece of red thread identified the start and end of my weaving.  Once my weaving was completed, the associated tile was stored away such that the tiles moved from drawers at one end of the display to the other end as their information was catalogued through the weaving process.  The loom was now ready for sometime to carry on and catalogue no. 28.

My completed weaving for garment no. 27 lies between the two lines of red thread

It was interesting to see the project develop and to be involved in this new stage.  Fibre content was the aspect Clare and Hannah had concentrated on, and the chosen method of development leant itself well to audience participation, also to exploring what the different textile fibres look and feel like and how woven fabric is made.  


What might be next?  They could explore the garments' country of origin, age or what people like about them.  Or perhaps they could scan the tiles and print out the textures on fabric and make some composite textural piece or country of origin based piece?  Who knows, we'll have to wait and see.

Maria Walker & The Lightfoot Letters

"A woman's work is never done" uses screen printed images of Maria's grandma - Maria Walker

  
Recently Maria Walker came to talk to the City of York Embroiderers' Guild.  Maria is a artist who works primarily with textiles and her talk was about her work based on The Lightfoot Letters.  This bundle of letters, about a working class family from Widnes in the 1920s, was discovered by Maria in an antiques shop in Cheshire.  They are writen mainly by the mother of the family, Ada Lightfoot, but also the father, Peter, to their daughter, Frances, who had moved to live with an aunt near Oldham.  They provide minute details of everyday life and gossip.

An extract from the Lightfoot Letters - Maria Walker

Work based on the Lightfoot Letters - Maria Walker

Initially Maria's work involved picking out particular phrases from the letters and combining these with old photos from her own family to make textile pieces that brought the phrases to life.

"I will have to use a knife and fork but I would rather have a spoon" - Maria Walker

In one letter, the Father, who was going to a hotpot supper, bemoans that he will have to use a knife and fork.  Maria has expressed this through a piece featuring disposable wooden spoons painted with a crackle glaze to look like old enamel with the text collaged on top.  Maria comes originally from Sheffield where her father worked in a cutlery factory and so the links to her own life resonate in the way she has interpreted this piece.  

"Make me a dress the colour of the sky just after a June sunset" - Maria Walker incorporating poetry by Angela Topping

During an artist's residency in Cheshire, Maria met Angela Topping, a poet, who it turned out was the granddaughter of the letter writers Ada & Peter Lightfoot and the niece of Frances.  They collaborated on an exhibtion inspired by the letters which incorporated some of Angela's poetry and actual pictures of the Lightfoot family.  

A hanging depicting one of Angela Topping's poems about her father (Frances' brother) skating, originally exhibited coming out of a typewriter - Maria Walker

"...the iron made it hurt very badly" - Maria Walker

A lot of the content of the letters relates to the difficulties of getting the laundry done and so much of the Maria's work is expressed through text and items of clothing made with fabric and to patterns contemporary with the period.

"... and would not be dressed without it" - Maria Walker

The techniques Maria uses in her work include screen printing, the layering of fabric backgrounds using vintage and modern fabrics and drawing vintage items she has found, in stitch, creating reverse applique with her fabric layers together with a lot of stitched text, which is sometimes cut out.

Various works - Maria Walker

Altered book - Maria Walker

It was fascinating to hear about the letters, their content, the coincidence of Maria and Angela's meeting, their subsequent exhibition and all about the work that came out of it all.  Thank you, Maria.

Maria Walker

Maria's more recent work has involved large scale textile pieces using old sheeting, stitched with an overlocker and looped exploring the concepts of memory, decay and continuity.  Some of this was exhibited recently at the Saltaire Arts Trail.

Lasting Impressions in the Spinning Room at Salts Mill, Saltaire

One of my recent trips was to the Saltaire Arts Trail where I visited The Spinning Room at Salts Mill.  Textile artists, Hannah Lamb & Claire Wellesley-Smith were there encouraging us to leave imprints of our clothing on small porcelain tiles and in doing so to consider the value of cloth and clothing.

Porcelain tiles

Every participant was given a porcelain tile and a numbered tag.  You left an imprint of your clothing by pressing it into the tile and numbering it to match your tag number.

My tile with an imprint of my cardigan

Then, on the tag, you gave some info about what garment it was, where it was made, what from, how long you'd had it and why you liked it.

Information tag

The tags were then hung up so you could read what people had said about their garments.  It was interesting to read through them.  Some people's clothing was special because of comfort and familiarity, practicality, where it had been bought, who had made it, or from remembering happy times when wearing it - a "material" representation of memory and experience.

Everyone's information tags

The tiles were stored in drawers until they could be taken away to be fired.

Imprinted porcelain tiles

As a reward for taking part, you could have a gold or silver stitch made on your clothing - one lasting impression in return for another.  Thanks to Hannah for my silver stitch!

Silver stitch on my cardigan - another lasting impression!

I am looking forward to hearing more about this project and where it is going next.  I'm sure we'll be hearing more about it soon.