Tyneham

Over the summer a friend told me about a village in Dorset which during December 1943 was evacuated to provide a training ground for American soldiers prior to the battle of Normandy.  The villagers never returned to Tyneham, a place some families had lived for generations.  When I visited a mist had formed in the valley as I headed towards the coast, through the firing range and twisting roads I finally caught a glimpse of a church and the derelict houses.
I have decided to base my creative project on the village of Tyneham, it's past inhabitants and the way they lived.  The history of the old and decaying buildings is a really interesting part of this story for me as well as the characters who lived in this unique place.  I am hoping to have an exhibition of work within each of the properties, a response to what I have seen there, recorded through sketches and photographs and a journey back in time....

 Disperse dye photograph

 aged lace

 trying new techniques to make old fabric

 Smocking

 photograph from inside the church disperse dye

 The bookcase in the village school

 Smocked fabric, cooked in lemon juice to look like bark

 Recreating plant life

 The village telephone box

 Stitching words

 Photoshop images to see what the pieces would look like in one of the cottages