The Visible Maker
2015

I inherited my ‘Nannar’s (grandmother’s) Singer treadle sewing machine made in 1919 in Clydebank, Scotland. The machine was always in the background of my maternal family’s life. My Nannar’s life at work and home was about all about stitch. She worked in the factories and mills in Derbyshire, in the East Midlands, England. She was an ‘invisible’ mender, picking up lost stitches to finish garments ready for sale. She also stitched at home for ‘pin’ money and was always mending clothes.

I received a bursary from Coventry based Ludic Rooms which enabled me to explore a new enquiry for my work - textiles in performance. With creative technologist Ashley Brown, I devised a method that could link the treadle plate of the sewing machine to a computer software programme, which would then output collected family audio recordings or project portraits onto a theatre wall - all being triggered by the amount of times I rocked the treadle plate beneath the machine with my feet. I also worked with dramaturg Chris O’Connell from Theatre Absolute to generate text for a scripted piece about my Nannar and family. In tandem with the newly coded sewing machine, I then performed this whole work live to an audience, whilst also sewing a ‘peg bag’ at the same time. The peg bag was a copy of the very first thing I learnt to sew with my Nannar, as a gift for my mother. I was ten.