The cyan-blue of the fabric panels was produced through the alternative photographic process of cyanotype and printed with flora and fauna collected in the northwest of England. Originally, cyanotype was a Victorian botanical printing method in which blue develops when exposed to light and patterns are made in darkness in areas that light cannot reach. The cowrie shell became a textile motif within my work after discovering that beyond its symbolism as an object of fertile creation, historically, it could be found in women’s sewing boxes as a natural darning egg to patch holes and mend wear. Blue became a colour emblematic of the dialogues in my research between the domestic and the divine. Observably, it is rare in the natural world, and the historical scarcity of blue pigments for dyeing provokes a royal, ineffable, remote symbolism, it is a cerulean sky high above us, passive and mystic. Within my own research, I investigate the permeable boundaries between the cosmic and the materials of everyday life. In the words of poet Cirlot, ‘blue is darkness made visible’, this piece explores the hidden and observed worlds of quiltmakers, she exists at the centre of her own stitched universe.

I dream of seeing this somewhere blue