Series from the Motherhouse Stroud:

Inktests: I made my own ink from hedgerow blackberries picked while walking home from school with the kids, then tested it on different papers with various applicators and began to incorporate stitching, the one shown is taken from part of a drawing done by my son, which i think looks like cells or chemical diagrams.

Stitched: I also began interventions on prints that i’ve made – using sandpaper, adding ink, holes and stitching.

Cyanotypes: Found objects (grasses) printed as a cyanotype and reverse print. No 3 is taken from a project of my own called ‘Leftovers’ – where i take the leftover bits from the kids’ creative endeavours and make them into work of my own. This one is offcuts of snowflake making, soaked and twisted into strands, dipped in cyanotype chemicals and dried then exposed.

Nightlights/Night: Since the children were born i’ve worked at night where possible, amongst paid work, shooting night-for-day and also documenting the abundant fireflies that came each year to where I lived in Italy.

Eclipsed Lunar/Solar: These two pieces were made after the Mother House in Stroud pilot. For one month, each time i washed my hair, i collected the strands that fell out while brushing it. Then i made an eclipse shape from the resulting mass and exposed it. I photographed this eclipse, then made a positive of it to print in reverse. It is a personal response to the feelings of me, my work, my ‘lost’ness being completely eclipsed by their arrival… but also knowingly surrendering to it completely and willingly. Alongside this are things that are more directly symbolic for me – 2 kids boy and girl, paper choice, medium.