Making Processes

Making process

Kath rescued over a 1000 wet-wipes from a wipes factory. These were pre-consumer waste, completely and beautifully clean, unused and fresh…. just the wrong size. She invented the process of using a princess-pleater, traditionally used for smocking, to add bulk to the fragments of fabric. Sometimes the princess pleater is threaded with cotton, other times wire. Piece by piece, the wipes are fed through the pleater to form long thin banners.

Themes around motherhood, domestic labour and sustainability are explored through traditional drawing techniques. These drawings are then scanned into a digital embroidery machine, stitched onto the banners and dyed using waste from Kath’s kitchen: beetroot peelings, red onion skins and raspberry tea. The pleats are sometimes released to create frills. Through this time consuming, meditative way of working, Kath explores the mundane, the everyday and the process of care.