Moments of Being
Guest blog post by Debbie Lyddon. Debbie is a textile artist who takes inspiration from experiencing and paying attention to her surroundings.
Moments of Being is a new body of work to be shown at The Knitting & Stitching Show in London and Harrogate this autumn. The work is inspired by a series of vividly remembered encounters and engagements with the marshes and beaches of the North Norfolk coast. It comprises a major new body of work - The Sluice Creek Cloths and other smaller works.
Each work notates the memory of a commonplace event or observation: the sun moving over the marsh and creating shadows, the clink of halyards knocking against masts, the shape of a bend in the creek, or the way saltwater marks cloth and clothes.
The series of seven Sluice Creek Cloths is inspired by weathered and utilitarian cloths found in a coastal environment. The holes sewn into the linen of each Sluice Creek Cloth are edged with thread-bound iron wire and evoke the small eyelets and fastenings found in vernacular tarpaulins, boat covers and sails. I have placed each of the finished Sluice Creek Cloths into the sea several times to speed the change and degeneration of the linen cloth by rusting the iron rings.
The use of salt in my practice has become intrinsic to my exploration of the processes of change within the environment and of the passing of time. The series of salt works, Liminal Objects, comes from my memory and imagination. They could be the remains of creatures that have been washed ashore and caught on the strandline - the threshold between land and sea.
Debbie Lyddon writes a regular blog that documents her encounters with the Norfolk coastline.
Moments of Being by Debbie Lyddon will be on view at The Knitting & Stitching Show.
Alexandra Palace, London, 5-9 October
&
Harrogate, 24-27 November
Quote SVG16 and pay just £12* for your entry ticket (Talk sold separately for £9).
Visit www.theknittingandstitchingshow.com/london to book.
*£2.50 off adults / £1 off concessions until Tuesday 4th October. Terms and conditions and booking fees apply.



