This ‘Ghost Mills’ project began in the Nailsworth Valley; with the remnants of the leats and ponds, and the materials, processes and associations of cloth-making, pin-making and water. Two elements rose to the surface — pins & teasels.
Pins attach and join, pierce and mark; they are superstitiously bent and thrown in water; they are used to transform the woven cloth into its final form.
Teasels were once valued for use in fulling Mills, raising the nap of the cloth, but metal replaced organic bracts and the teasel became weed, a populator of waste ground.
The final work traces natural remnants of the valley’s mills and associations through the materials it once produced: cloth, pins and water.
6th – 14th September 2019 Ghost Mills, Walking the Land at the Stroud Valley’s Artspace – part of Wool & Water Festival 2019.
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