Rob chats to creative partner Kate O’Farrell about the creation of the textile pieces in Are You Lost?

Her work draws from the cotton mill weaving practices of East Lancashire, the textile traditions of Gujarat, where a significant diaspora in Nelson is from, and natural materials and processes derived from the Bowland landscape. Fabrication techniques include spinning, embroidery, wet and dry felting, botanical contact printing, rust printing and natural dyeing using gorse, bracken, rowan, birch, oak and peat. One piece has been created from felted wool gathered from Bowland farms, whilst the others are based on hand-woven cotton khadi made by artisan weavers in Gujurat.

Greystones Textiles: https://www.greystonestextiles.co.uk/ 

Resources:

Gandhi in Bowland: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-15020097

Bowland’s Felt Hats and the Slave Trade: https://lahs.archaeologyuk.org/Contrebis/Workman%20Lancaster%20hats%20.pdf

Facing the Past in Lancaster: https://www.facingthepast.org/

Documenting the exploitation of enslaved people by Lancashire traders: https://blackhistory.shareyourstories.live/history/every-lancashire-slave-owner-and-how-much-compensation-they-received-from-the-abolition/