The Seaweed Series

In 2016 on a trip to a beach in Fife I found a huge blade of sugar kelp still attached by its holdfast to a rock, I produced this seaweed tapestry shortly after we returned. As a compulsive reader of any subject I am interested in I soon realised that my knowledge of seaweeds was pitiful despite a childhood spent in rockpools. I had long been obsessed by seaweed attached to rocks without ever considering why only some species did this this and could like most people name only one or two very common species. For the last couple of years I have read, explored and painted producing tapestries ceramics and paintings celebrating this fascinating, diverse and ecologically vital life form. I now scour the strandline on beaches and explore the intertidal zones on our coastlines - below is the woven work I have produced so far from those expeditions.

Miniatures woven from watercolour studies of seaweed

Seaweed on Shell

From one of my watercolours, this tapestry was a real pleasure to weave.

Bladderwrack and Irish Moss
Woven on double warps at 5 and 10 warps/inch in cottons, silks and mohair.

Oarweed and Barnacles

Hornwrack and Eggwrack

Hornwrack is not a seaweed, it is composed of tiny animals called Zooids that feed on particles in the water. The Eggwrack pods which grow at a rate of one a year, are woven so they pop out from the tapestry surface.

Bladderwrack and Redrags miniatures

Turn of the tide at Boggle Hole

Woven for Interface - a joint Canadian and English touring exhibition - see link below.

tapestrytouringinternational.weebly.com




Turn of the Tide at Boggle Hole was inspired by an early morning visit with the University of Hull on one of their marine citizen science trips, looking at environmental change. It is woven in embroidery silks and sewing thread at 10 warps to the inch. It depicts Bladderwrack and Red Rags growing on a sand substrate amongst rock pools and gullies.