some of Preston's old Textile Mills today

I'm often looking up at buildings, admiring their structure, their architects and builders, wondering about the lives that have been lived inside their walls. Lately I've been a little obesessed with the old textile mills, Horrockses, Tulketh and others here in Preston but I've a feeling I shall be travelling further afield quite soon to try and capture more images but here is a small selection of some I took a couple of weeks ago.

I hope to soon visit a Textile Mill not far from Preston the Queen Street Mill in Burnley, Lancashire it is a working museum, and I shall be taking my camera with me!

Thier sheer size is so imposing and whilst some have been redesignated as Antique and furniture warehouses and factories others have become homes and offices. However the ones that really capturing my imagination and morphing into textile art and surface pattern are those that are bound and tethered in wire. They are captured in barbed wire, weldmesh and chain link like huge brick elephants held on the ground, prevented from going about their business. I've read recently (can't recall where) that 37,000 textile workers once worked in these mills.

Most of my raw fabric comes from Whaleys (Bradford) Ltd based in Bradford, where this nobel work is still carried on, I would encourage anyone who uses raw fabric to make their purchases from Whaleys too, and help keep whats left of our textile industry going and increase our GDP! Their goods are high quality, excellent value and the staff are helpful and friendly,
here is a link to Whaley's website  Please note that Whaleys mill is not featured in any of the images below....

Anyway watch this space and my website for the artwork that is being developed around the mills and their bindings of wire......

 

 

 

 

I've done a little more on the 'Becky Attenbourough Jacket'

Whilst trying to squeeze time in for working on my beautiful daughter Rebecca's recycled 'Becky Attenborough Jacket' is like trying to teach my little dog to sing, almost impossible, but all the better when it finally happens......
I've been able to get a bit more done but I'm not sure it's going to make her birthday, more like Christmas at this rate.

  

The back is a 'Tree of Life' piece, the tree has bark made up of strawberry and barbed wire fabrics (reminds me of her when she was a teenager), the owl has been included as she is quite wise and has been since a little mite. Plenty more to do on the tree but the photo shows where I'm going I think. 

 

I wanted a couple of medals for her, one is for her heroics in looking after her little brother. These were many and varied but one particular time springs to mind.... we were living in Zimbabwe for a time and John (her little brother) had a favourite pastime of catching lizards, on one notable occasion he thought (who knows how 9 year old boys brains work?) that it would be a good idea to kiss one, a largish one. Mistake. It caught hold of his lip and hung on through his screaming and running about. Despite tugging at it neither of them could dislodge it so Rebecca filled the bathroom sink and plunged her brother's head into it, luckily the lizard had to let go or drown so a wet John was saved. A babysitter was in attendance but Rebecca at the age of 10 was oh so much more sensible.

  

 

Another badge is one for her love of cats, this is for one cat in particular, her beloved Oscar.
Rebecca also adores the colour purple so had to include a little splash of it for her.....