Following the intensive two weeks I spent in Shetland in March, I arrived back in Brighton full of ideas and information and laden with reference material. I laid it all out, turning my studio into something resembling a knitwear resource, with hundreds of images of knitwear, knitting patterns, design work produced during the workshops and, to complete the ambience, an oral history of Fair Isle knitting playing through the speakers.
From this immersion – an intense period of studying and drawing – came these designs. The designs are inspired by Fair Isle knitting – in particular berets – richly patterned and highly coloured, which is just what inspires me, one of the many reasons I am so excited about this commission. I took particular care to pay attention to traditional colour schemes and typical patterns and used the designs the children had come up with as inspiration towards the final designs.
The sculptures have become nicknamed as “toadstools” due to their shape. I have designed five to be sited in clusters in an elongated, meandering row, to take full advantage and make the most of the space.
The view here is looking out over the hills with the school building on the right hand side.
WEDNESDAY 17TH MARCH
Today I worked with the older class (primaries 4-7) on a slightly more challenging activity. I set them the task of creating life size mock-ups out of cardboard of simplified representational shapes for the structures, which will be built out of concrete in the school playground. The eventual structures will all be cylindrical and constructed out of solid concrete, and I hope, if the budget allows, to create “toadstool” tops for them, but until we have got quotes from builders, tilers and mould-makers, this is uncertain. If the budget cannot stretch to wider domed tops, which will be attached separately, I shall endeavour to put curved corners around the top edges and possibly round the face by hand.
I chose various dimensions – differing diameters and heights – to see which ones work best in the space. The children worked in teams of three or four, so it was a good team-building activity, and succeeded in attaching a flat circle of stiff cardboard to a flexible side of corrugated cardboard. Once the mock-ups were completed, the groups carried them out into the playground, battling against the winds, and positioned them along the grassy space chosen for the site. I invited the pupils to walk amongst the structures, getting a feel for their presence in the space, and imagine how they might interact with them if they were real and could be used as seating, to run around, jump from to the next, etc. The children were then asked to look at the size of each structure and feed back which one/s they thought worked better in the space and why. I also invited the teachers to have a look and give me feedback. It was a very helpful exercise for me, not only see how these objects fitted into the space and to find out from the children and staff what they thought, but also to see what changes needed to be made to design a successful solution for the site.
MONDAY 15TH MARCH
The second workshop day. The wee bairns came in the morning, and the bigger ones in the afternoon. In the development of the Fair Isle knit theme, I had been to visit several outlets of modern knitwear. Most of the garments are fairly classic, albeit with different names – for example, gansey is jumper – but I have been informed by various sources that the in-thing are Fair Isle hoodies. Very nice they are reputedly too. In my wanderings, I had been eyeing up the berets. Given that I have decided to design circular “plinths” for want of a better word for the playground, and I plan to base the designs of the mosaics on Fair Isle patterns, the berets are perfect! So today I set all the children the task of designing their own beret-inspired circular designs. They produced with some beautiful work. The younger class also tried their hand at clay, having not done clay with me before (at my interview I had to run a workshop and I did a clay session with the older class). I worked them hard! But they had a lot of fun.
SUNDAY 14TH MARCH
My first day off! I was determined to see something of Shetland beyond the view from the windscreen. I set off for Sandness, on the west coast. I took the same road for Weisdale, only this time I could see! Stunning (of course!). And trees! Trees cannot survive the fearsome winds in Shetland so there are practically none. I presume the valley of Weisdale is moderately sheltered so that it can support a few clusters of trees. Continuing west, I arrived at Sandness and the first thing I noticed was how fiercely the wind turbines were spinning. Great day to pick for a walk! Determined I was, however, and off I set facing the oncoming wind. Well, it did not let up for a moment and it was quite an experience, to be blasted relentlessly like that for three hours. It was also colder on Sunday than usual, and I reckon with the wind chill is was well below zero the whole time. But it was amazing. The sun came out and I was treated to stunning views of Papa Stour, an island famed for its rocky reefs and sea caves. Foula, one of the most remote islands, loomed mistily on the horizon and the most sensational part of the walk was the magnificent Hesti Geo, with its sheer cliffs dropping straight down into the sea and rugged stacks beyond.
SATURDAY 13TH MARCH
COMMUNITY WORKSHOP
One of the requirements of the commission is to run two workshops with the community, so the first one was in Voe Community Hall, between 10 and 3, as advertised on Shetland Radio and in various other places… On Friday I went to see potential accommodation in Sullom, a couple of voes away, and when my extremely hospitable hosts invited me in for a cuppa and inquired as to what brought me this far north, the easiest way to explain was, very conveniently, within the leaflet advertising today’s workshop, which had been enthusiastically thrust upon anyone entering Voe shop in the last few days and happily had landed in their hands too. One word from me and my maybe-landlady disappeared only for a moment to reappear clutching my photograph. If only successful publicity were always so simply far reaching!
For the workshop I had prepared a clay activity. When I found out that weaving had been an important industry in Voe, I decided to pay reference to that through weaving in clay. It is a very effective, manageable activity and it was well attended by various parents, children and a few more adults supporting the project. Everyone created texturized clay using a variety of materials to impress into the clay surface and then cut their slabs into strips, which I taught them how to weave. All were impressed with the end results. I promised to fire them, having sourced a local kiln, although they are very fragile.
