Touch, sight, natural light and enhanced wellbeing - Liz Tomes and Amelia Wylan

I’ve already shared two of the four graduate showcases from the Harrogate Knit & Stitch show (see my earlier posts showing Kiara Johnson’s and Emily Cox’s work) and planned to do the same for the graduates I’m sharing today, however I only have a couple of photos of their work and much more to share from the show, so instead I’m sharing both in a single post.

I wish I had more photos as their work was amazing, and no less amazing than those I’ve shared previously - so it’s annoying in that respect. But anyway.

Liz’s work takes an exploratory approach looking at the intersections of material, language and touch. She works across embroidery, weave and print creating textural fabrics which just draw you in - and makes me want to touch them, which of course I didn’t (even though I really wanted to!)

GRADUATE SHOWCASE: LIZ TOMES

I loved the colours, I loved the texture and the apron in the photo above - or Convergent Frequencies to give it its title - investigates how rhythm and repetition can behave like sound. She says ‘this collection takes influence from tartan, houndstooth and her Hungarian heritage’ and was inspired by an photograph of embroidery threads strew across her studio table - I definitely know that feeling!

GRADUATE SHOWCASE: LIZ TOMES

I also really love the the design, texture and colours of the fabric with the rust/yellow embroidery hanging on the lower rung of the ladder, which is part of the Auspicious Haptics collection. She says ‘there is an irony in their visibility - they are first seen, yet they invite touch’ and yes, I was already sitting on my hands (while standing up!) viewing this work.

It’s absolutely fascinating to me.

Equally fascinating, but entirely different is Amelia’s work. She too chose embroidery as the specialism for her degree and learnt how to use a wide range of industrial and domestic embroidery machinery as well as techniques to manipulate fabric.

This is textural in a different, almost sculptural way - the green and cream pieces (which are brooches) on the grey fabric are part of her ‘Wisps of Light’ collection which ‘explores the connection between natural light and enhanced wellbeing’ with inspiration from photographic blueprints and more.

GRADUATE SHOWCASE: AMELIA WYLAN

The piece that really caught my eye though, was the olive green hanging in the centre of the picture below. It’s the type of piece that while I’m not sure exactly where it would hang, but one I would happily make space for. The naturally dyed silks are given textural elegance, and the shapes appear fluid but still able to retain their structure.

GRADUATE SHOWCASE: AMELIA WYLAN

I’ve no idea how she’s made them, but I appreciate the end result and the colours used - they’re calming and tranquil, and I can see how these really could contribute to enhanced wellbeing. Which sounds a bit woo, but there you go.

In future posts from the show my plan is to share more from some of the galleries, which both inspired and amazed as always.

The Potager at Scampston Hall

It’s been a while since our weekend in Malton and I’ve been meaning to share more from our visit to the Walled Gardens and Parkland at Scampston Hall. I took many photos (no surprise there) and so I’ll be sharing a series of posts from our visit finally - it’s a great place to visit with a fab cafe too, so if you’re close by and considering a visit, then definitely go.

The Walled Garden was designed by Piet Oudolf in 1999, and while Oudolf is often now imitated this garden remains his largest private commission in the UK. There are twelve sections to the walled garden, and you know how much I love a potager, or a vegetable garden, so that’s where we’re starting.

Along with the cut flower garden, the vegetable garden supplies the house and cafe with a range of fresh flowers and vegetables. As with any productive garden the planting schemes change regularly, but isn’t that what we love about gardens?

Any gate inviting you to come in in a garden is a welcome sight, and this one especially so with it’s modern block design by local craftsman Peter Coates. I seem to have cut my photo off though, so it’s not easy to see that it contains the word Yat, which is the Yorkshire dialect for gate. A gate with meaning, as well as good looks - yes, I’m definitely coming in!

Wow. I so love a productive garden, and when we visited in September many veg plots are at their peak, so it’s a great time to visit.

Just look at that Ruby Chard, I’d forgotten how beautiful and structural they can be - I definitely want these in my garden, even though they’re one of the veg that MOH has been known to turn his nose up at, though thinking again that could be due to the sheer volume of chard we grew when we had our allotment!

I found two of my favourite pumpkins here too, this Turks Turban and the bluer skinned Crown Prince. The third that I’d add to my favourite pumpkin list is the Red Kuri or Onion Squash which I have managed to grow in my previous garden. I’m not sure if I’ll find a space for pumpkins here - they ramble a lot - but if I can I will.

There’s nothing better than fresh sweetcorn on the cob is there, and none can be fresher than these - I can’t wait for the local sweetcorn this year, though there’s a good few months before I’ll see these in the farm shops, let’s hope there’s plenty of sun this summer to make them extra sweet.

I was pleased to see the red chicory growing in a Yorkshire garden - we’re a bit further south, so by rights that means we should be able to grow them too. I love their colour and structure, and I also love them in a blue cheese risotto which MOH makes - it’s the best flavoured risotto, most I can give or take but this one I’ll always have, thank you very much. Many years back I remember we scoured our part of South London for a red chicory without a huge amount of success, but times have changed and I see them much more often now, but to grow my own - and have that risotto almost on tap - now that would be the dream.

I’m also a sucker for photographing cabbages with their characterful, and clearly very tasty, nibbled leaves. I’ve long given up on my long held dream of growing many varieties of cabbages in perfectly straight rows (as once seen at the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall), and would settle for a couple of slightly less nibbled ones that could end up in the kitchen at some point!

The Walled Garden has so much more to see, and not everything that you’d expect to see so look out for further posts in the coming weeks to see what else this fantastic space has to offer.

Discovering the Wallace Line Garden

* I was invited to the Gardeners’ World Live show and provided with a pair of tickets to the show, therefore all my posts will be marked as 'Ad’ though as usual my views and opinions are very much my own.

One of the things I like about the gardens at Gardeners’ World is the history or thinking behind the garden which is often the inspiration for the designers. In this case Dave Hodson Gardens, the designer for the ‘Wallace Line’ garden took inspiration from the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace who travelled the Malay Archipelago collecting plants for scientific research for this formal central canal garden with a twist.

Wallace developed a therory of Natural Selection at the same time as Charles Darwin and also hypothesised about an imaginary line between otherwise close islands which seemed to have completely different species of plants and animals.

This show garden recreates a representation of this line in the long pool and features a Jungle style planting on one side of the line and a a Savannah/Desert style on the other, using the plants shown in the image below.

Now we know the Wallace Line is a result of Plate Tectonics bringing together areas on which Asian and Australasian species had developed separately, which just goes to show that quite often, or sometimes at least, we know what we know even if we can’t prove it at the time!

It’s an interesting approach for me as it shows how you can combine two distinct styles of planting in one garden, and the information board also said that it makes the point “that once you have crossed the line from one eco system to another, there is no going back” which when you think about it, it really makes you think.

I was keen to see how the two distinct styles worked together, and I think they do, as I’m still toying with the idea of three zones for planting in our garden, those being cottage garden style, a productive garden and more exotic plants. I can visualise it in my mind’s eye, but I need to work out a way to get it down on paper in a way that MOH and potential garden designers can also understand.

The ongoing and ultimate challenge! I know where I need help with my idea is how the spaces connect with each other without looking like three different gardens! I’ll get there, and I just need to spend some either drawing it out, or cutting and sticking various pictures - and I think the latter will be quicker, even though it won’t look as nice.

But as this garden demonstrates, it is possible to have a cohesive garden with two distinct planting styles - it’s also given me hope that while my idea may not be the ‘norm’, it’s something worthwhile pursuing. Wish me luck!

* With thanks to Gardeners’ World for inviting me to Gardeners’ World Live, it was quite a show! I’ll be sharing more from my visit to this year’s show throughout the year - I hope you enjoy them as much as I did the show.