In my studio I have accumulated a collection of vessels, old tins, fragments and objects. This is not a conscious collection, but more an instinctive response to things old and worn. Objects with a history. The very nature of their worn edges and faded surfaces suggest a life lived, a purpose, a utilitarian function or ornamental pleasure given. The intangible made tangible. Touching the past.

Of course I can be guilty of allowing my thoughts to stray too much into the past, to sit in a nostalgia that is no doubt playing me false, and with so much to enjoy in the present, I try to resist too much of this.

However, we can also learn much from the past and whilst residing there for too long is not good, resting for a short while, allowing thoughts and memories to ebb and flow, is, for me at least, an often peaceful time of contemplation from which I emerge ready to move forwards again.

The old vessels have a practical purpose in my studio, holding collections of dyed threads and ribbons, offcuts of fabric, buttons, labels, scissors, brushes, string and various items that would be homeless clutter without these containers.

However, they contain more than these tangible effects. They hold memories. Both mine and those of its past purpose, making me the keeper of those hidden, possibly mundane stories.

It is the wear that attracts me and this extents well beyond a container.

We recently spent a few days visiting old haunts in Suffolk, including one of my favourite churches; Blythbourgh, which rises out of the flat marshes that surround it.

You push open the time studded oak door and step onto the worn brick and stone flagged floor and you see a story everywhere in the wear of this church filled with light. Here everything is worn, has been touched and stepped on a million times. It breathes a palpable presence and tells a thousand stories.

The same is true for cloth, only its survival is far more remarkable given the fragile nature of its fibres. For me cloth is the most  personal of artifacts, as it has been worn and inhabited, taking on form and shape, travelling with the wearer wherever they may have gone, absorbing whatever they have experienced, felt or seen.

My grandmother was a collector of cloth. Over the years acquiring a collection of fabrics and scarves from all over the world. These she kept, cared for, wore most elegantly and loved. Ultimately these passed onto my mother, who has added her own to the collection and which will no doubt one day pass to my sister and I. Each occupier imprinting their own stories indelibly into the fabric, creating more whispered memories. These are also vessels, carrying the form and emotions of the wearer and  created for both practicality and beauty.

When I create a scarf, I am always creating with these things in mind. Those people, those memories, that inherited thread and connection that binds past and future. Something to wear and enjoy in the now, but that will also hold a lifetime of memories for the future.