The Ground Cloths introduce new materials and processes to my practice and they are an exploration into methods of colouring cloth exclusively with materials gathered from the ground beneath my feet and an experimentation with traditional techniques of waterproofing and preserving cloth.

Sails and tarpaulins can be found everywhere on the coast and I take inspiration from how they are made and used. Traditionally, sailors and fishermen would protect sails, ropes and nets by ‘dressing’ them with a mixture of linseed oil, wax and red ochre to give protection from the elements.

I have experimented with, and subtly altered, the traditional recipe by substituting red ochre with locally-collected materials – chalk, sea-coal and yellow ochre – to produce a blend that both protects and preserves the Ground Cloths and links the materiality of the environment (the actual matter that landscape is made up of) with the utilitarian use of cloth in a coastal location.