Diagonal Twills

Deptford, where my studio based, is an amazingly vibrant part of London, with new architectural landmarks jostling for space among the mission churches and charity shops. When I moved to the studio here about eight years ago, the Laban Dance Centre had just opened. Looking out onto the Creek, the steeply banked lawns are a favourite summer lunch spot where you can watch the dance students going through their paces while eating your sandwiches.

For the last few months on my cycle to the studio I have been watching another landmark building going up. It is a huge monolith, entirely clad in perforated brass sheeting. I'm not sure how I feel about it - it needs to bed in for a while, but there is something very appealing about the diagonals which step across the surface - like a giant twill weave. I took this photo on my phone a couple of months ago as they were adding the final panels.

Poster Boys

Yesterday Peter and I went to the McKnight Kauffer show at the Estorick Collection up in Cannonbury. Although I didn't know much about McKnight Kauffer, a lot of the pieces were very familiar. He was probably best known for his posters - for London Underground, Derry and Toms, and this - my favourite - for the Daily Herald. The poster is huge - well over 6 feet tall, and the composition is so strong. I love all that yellow, with the really graphic feeling of the movement in the birds. Perfect.

Upstairs in the permanent collection is a room full of etchings by Giorgio Morandi. Although I love Morandi's still life paintings I haven't seen the etchings before. They are so sensitive and beautifully observed. It is incredible how he conveys light and shadow with the weight and density of line - they feel very poetic. The Estorick is well worth a visit - it is a real treasure.

The Much Bigger Picture

A couple of beautiful public art murals...

Long long before I trained in weave, I did a History degree at the University of Birmingham. Last week I popped into my old faculty, where this beautiful Peter Lanyon mural is installed in the foyer. Lanyon was one of the second generation of the St Ives painters, and was a also a passionate glider pilot. Many of his landscapes incorporate abstracted arial views of the Cornish coast - I love the sense of place.

This is a new commission by Tod Hanson in the new overground station at Haggerston. It references the 17th century astronomer Edmond Halley who was a local resident, and explores his concept that the Earth was hollow and composed of a series of concentric rotating rings each with their own magnetic poles. I really like the graphic quality of the pattern.

The Bigger Picture

Just the before we left for New York last month, a lovely man called Juriaan Booij spent an afternoon in my studio filming for the V&A / Crafts Council exhibition 'Power of Making'. The footage has been edited and spliced to show details of a number of different making processes. It's a fascinating study in the rhythms, textures and materials of making. I am really intrigued by the film made in Moorfield Hospital of the process of constructing glass eyes - truely extraordinary.

http://vimeo.com/28673785