Buttons

Buttons have a special place in my world. 
My mother was a milliner and a great sewer too, so any garment needed just the right button.

She had the best button box. Sometimes we were allowed to play with it. It was a heavy wooden box housed down in the tall, hall cupboard. 

To me it was magic. Brass, leather, fabric, shell and even handmade ones. You could sort by colour, style or just count. 

One day she had a clean out and it went to the dump. She regretted it for the rest of her life. 

When I got married I decided to make one. Mine was a rectangular handcrafted and larger than her square one. 

It brings me a lot of pleasure to rummage through to find a suitable adornment or fastener for something I’m making. 

In my own handknit business I made matching buttons and baked them in the oven. A kitchen has many uses when you are a maker.

Female Form

Quirky art is something that appeals to me.

I focus on work I care about and these women have their own story. The connection between the past and the present gives them their own voice. Recycling, retelling, remaking and re-using old parts to give a new life to items from the past.

Maybe I've made my own fashion parade.

Suitcases and Studio Storage

No matter how much space you have it never seems enough. My purpose built studio often has every surface covered with things. It's great to be able to create and return when time permits.

Sometimes I feel I've joined Pam Ayres poem about ‘Heaps of Stuff.’

I like to be surrounded by things as they are my inspiration for making but I can’t see my shelves dwindling too much.

It's amazing how recycled stuff can work as storage.

My tips for storage

I use a mapping drawers for my paper.

Cotton on wooden dowels

Yarn in wooden cubby holes

Old chest of drawers for knitting needles and magazines (these need sorting out!)

Cane basket with dividers for paint brushes

Old suitcases

Docket spike for Bernina bobbins