Creating the robe.

Although a simple shift and a swathe of tartan would place my ‘sister’ into context with the Scottish witch trials, I fear it would be too literal. Instead I’m playing on the design of the material and the dress to be timeless.

I’m going to use the old map of Nairnshire acquired from the National Library of Scotland as a pattern.

my process is going to involve screen printing the map onto a simple calico. Simplicity is the look that I want to achieve.

There were several complications here.

• The sheer size of the map was too big for the largest textile screen available

• The detail of the map means the screen was drying quickly which required two separate washouts to keep the image printing.

• The size of the bed and squeegee meant I was unable to pull the image without the help of Ben.

• Handling 4 meters of fabric required extra hands.

But the result was great. I chose an earthy red/grey/brown for my printing colour. It wasn’t until I had finished that I realised what I had done was simply print a map!!! That made me smile.

The next step is to plan the pattern pieces relative to the map.

At home with the fabric and it’s time to create the dress. I literally had to cut my cloth to fit my image. This took several attempts at laying out the pieces onto the fabric.

The idea of pattern matching was never part of the plan. I am indeed simply thinking about high frequency detail onto the dress.

Ultimately I can see two issues.

The whole thing may come across as ‘twee’. A word that I would hate to be attributed to my work.

The second problem is that it may just all disappear into the background. This I don’t mind. It’s almost as if I’m processing my ‘sister’ into being through deep consideration of the cloth and forms used.

I’m hoping to ‘test’ this at the Millbank show in two weeks. !!!!