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                                                                 Plants on the Edge

Weeds are overlooked and disliked by society. Our garden borders are tidy and weed free and our lawns are perfect.  Hedge grows and wild flower meadows are disappearing and weeds move to the edgelands.

 Victoria Bennett in All my Wild Mothers says

‘The weed moves ever outwards, rooting itself into spaces nobody wants to claim’

Weeds flourish on disused railway lines and canal paths. These under-appreciated plants that grow feral and undisturbed have so many useful and unusual properties: medicinal, nutritious, edible, therapeutic and they are excellent for biodiversity. Many, are also a source of natural dyes and are high in tannins. Buddleia, ivy, dock, nettle, oak leaves and bramble all give botanical colour with little intervention.

In this project I have developed the work done in my previous project, Edgelands 2023. For these larger pieces bramble has been utilized to create botanical contact prints and buddleia, ivy, nettle, dock and oak give colour. Using materials that are abundant in my local area helps me to work sustainably and reduce my impact on the planet. My hand stitch is intuitive, repetitive and takes time. My aim was to create work that is as delicate and complex as the natural world it portrays.

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