Creative Project

A starting point for the module was Appropriation. Although my ‘Comforter’ references Tracy Emin’s 1998 Turner Prize Winning My Bed: my Comforter installation is more oblique. The concept evolved from my depicting a figure, to making what could be worn as a shawl, to a sleeping mat, to a sleeping bag, to a quilt and then finally, a ‘Comforter’ which in the U.S. is the term for counterpane. It echo’s Emins’ ‘unmade bed’, (her original title for the work) but seen through a mirror lens, presenting an opposite viewpoint.

By installing a ‘nest’ from which security is sought, I wished to highlight the necessity and desire for self care and self-nurturing in the person who sleeps here.

A detail suggested by my tutor was pockets in the Comforter. For this I added some additional baby socks and kept the tops open. I inserted a collection of toothbrushes, toothpaste, painkillers, Anti-Inflammator Gel (for sore feet) and a back scratcher. The headboard is opened out aluminium foil Oatmilk cartons and I borrowed the lamp from one of my sons to complete the idealised scene, along with the square of bedroom wallpaper. Although on the floor; in contrast to Emin’s, My Bed: my ‘Comforter’ is carefully and lovingly made, like the makeshift berths I’ve seen in shop doorways. This is the only security this person has got. I imagine this is ‘set’ in a women’s homeless hostel. It is her attempt at having somewhere to call home.

With the addition of the blanket borders the quilt became very heavy and unwieldy to work with slowing me down Work I’d done 2 days before was pulling apart, necessitating a full day of tacking all the new sock quilting work together before i could complete the outside edging and oversew. It was a labour of love.

Prop details/concept: Over the weeks, I collected/washed out/cut and flattened around 15 Barista oatmilk cartons to make into something, I knew not what. At this point i was not sure if they were for lying on, or what, but they seem useful and inside-out especially as the interior is a waterproof metallic film. This is another example of discarded resource to add to my Appropriation/wasted Resources scenario. With this idea, I was heading into the realms of an installation. It percolated up over the very last fortnight of making. I was not consciously aware of what ideas I was having until the ideas kept persisting, re-surfacing and popping back to wave at ‘Conscious Me’. I really feel as if it was my subconscious which did all the work. My partner Bob, inadvertently threw away my collection of used ‘barista’ oatmilk cartons. Undeterred I gathered four more, which was enough for a headboard. For the temporary nature of the install and a quick ‘get-out’, I fixed these to the wall with sticky Velcro tabs.

Picking up on the Change Please campaign for Dental Resources for Homeless persons, I decided to make dental hygiene paraphernalia as developments in Ceramics class with Claire Adams, Ceramics Tutor and Curriculum Head at City of Glasgow College. Weekly from beginning March 2026.

BA3 Cap Exhibition at SWG3

Pre and post opening of the one day class exhibition at SWG3 on 19th March 2026. I am pictured still putting it together. On the day before mounting, I experienced technical problems with the college sewing machine. On Tuesday 18th March, I did late working at college which closes at 21.30hrs. I was rushing to finish just before 9pm, when threads caught on the lower spool causing the work to get stuck in the machine. I had to leave it overnight, and unable that night at home to do any more, but the next day, as my work was to go on the floor rather than hang on the wall, did my best to catch up for the purposes of a good display, but missed my classmates’ experience of having their work hung at SWG3. A fun development after I got to the venue at 3pm, was Steven Granger, Industry and Enterprise tutor, suggesting a performative element and by wearing the work it would ‘activate the space’ which we tried out. I was still evolving it at that stage, and am pictured wearing the quilt. For the installation and assessment, being figurative did not provide the clear narrative I was looking for however at the Opening event I circulated with it around my shoulders. When asked, this performative element provided an opportunity to answer questions on my rationale for the piece.

Although my posts on the making of the blanket/sleeping bag/quilt (only after SWG3 did I come up with the idea of a ‘Comforter’) may seem prosaic, but because of technical difficulties involving the two machines I made it on I have chosen to show some of the construction. The college machine was quicker at oversewing adjacent seams with a stabilising backing strip on the reverse. This was the most reliable way to adjoin the socks, retaining their individual character or identity.

My final concept was gestating away underneath.

If it was to be a sleeping bag, then to make a base (reverse side) out of socks would need a lot more time and energy, so decided on not to do so. I had bought dyes to transform a single white cotton mattress protector, to make into the reverse of the sleeping bag I was proposing.

Crochet bench in memory of my (pictured) Mum’s best friend, the late artist and designer Rita McGurn. This bench was ‘crochet bombed’ by her daughter Mercedes Richardson, Artist and Clyde College lecturer, who lives close by and to her late Mum’s house near Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens. Mercedes describes the making of this commemorative work, saying in 2015, when she received word of her mum’s illness, she was sitting on this exact bench.

18 February 2026 Cap Degree Industry and Enterprise lecturer Steven Granger shared this link for the AIDS quilt which he has helped negotiate to come to Glasgow. I am citing it as an influence because the period was so busy in class time with every day having a lecture or workshop, the exhibitions I managed to attend, were not quite so module specific to the Creative Brief as I hoped but also I loved the vibrancy of this quilt.

11th Feb to early March. Very much still problem solving at this stage. Top pics show me trialling the layout before sewing. I started with quite a plain aesthetic, unsure how attractive to make the object, but looking for a balance between lights darks, tatty and cute. The black, pink grey and cream section on the right was the starting point. I had a lot of quite funky socks. I made a point of not agonising about what was to go where. I picked it if it was the right size.

Due to me not having access to a machine for the first month, much of the work at this stage, was hand sewn. I couldn’t keep that up, or I’d never get there.

One idea I had had at the beginning (early January) was for a suit of armour made out of the socks.

This sounds like an oxymoron, and is.

My tutor didn’t like the sound of it, so I so I did not pursue it or attempt to convince.

Today had a surge of ideas, so for posterity (that is, my tutors and also this Tumblr) felt I ought to record them.

The sketches endeavour to show my progression away from a preoccupation with a seated figures, which is either like a Nana (see Artist Reference Rita McGurn) but not crocheted, nor made of socks, nor wearing the creation itself.

Retaining the integrity of the sock shape was deliberate for the material to dictate the direction it was to take towards a coherent statement.

Inevitably this produced logistical challenges, but I viewed it part of the process and holistic.

With the aim of producing a substantial body of work, I sorted into types, counted, and photographed. Pretty soon realising that size and shape would lead the way. Thereafter, I reorganised them into batches of similar lengths, long to short.

I did this based on an idealised sketch of socks fitting along each other’s contours in descending size.

Organising them the new way, would make it easier and quicker to progress the artwork. the had I found time to develop it, would have made a fun print. I considered etching the drawing and even had the material and tools lined up to work on it.

Aspects of this project have inevitable turned out be focussed on the mechanics of attaching the small items of various materials comprising individual discarded socks, including the machines I used. The one featured is an antique electric singer whiuch came with a very strong needle. It sews straight, forwards and reverse only, which had its uses, but at weekends meant progress was slower.

The name Change Please highlighting a shift from charity to agency, so the story goes it originates from a street seller’s sign which was seen, stating: "I don't want your money. I want change please.” , and (pardon the pun) appropriated by the coffee producing organisation Change Please for its charity wing.

The only Logo Change Please currently has is its square blocked lettering as seen on the website. Following on from my ideas to develop with Continuous Line drawings, I considered working on some kid of Logo or emblem which i could use for Screen Printing a poster for Change Please.

Drawings which explore my thinking towards making a three-dimensional representation of a person sitting vulnerably on the ground nursing a baby. The images reference an unforgettable encounter I had at around 20 years of age with a homeless mother and baby girl in London’s Kings Cross Station, having just stepped off a train from Glasgow to audition for a theatre show. It was so stark a contrast and so took me aback, I immortalised in a poem and the encounter still haunts me.

44 years later I have in-gathered 56 baby and children’s socks. I was considerinng making a baby bean shape out of the baby socks.

The bean shape was one of my ideas also with reference to the slogan Change Please from the charity supporting the transition from homelessness to work , housing, stability and purpose.

A sculpture would necessitate internal structure which along with making a figure I discounted on the basis it was too literal.

Top photos show design layout. The patchwork design is beginning to work. I used a mixture of hand sewing and machine. Late working on Tuesday and Wednesdays at City of Glasgow College 2026 was when I was able to make more noise in the room. The idea of noise making whilst others were working, I found intimidating.

I therefore borrowed a college sewing machine and stayed till 21.00hrs 2 x a week. At first it was very slow going. I was not sure how aesthetically pleasing the item should be, if at all. I’d asked for (clean) old and odd socks. They could be “holey and done in” I said, but my natural inclination was to try and keep an aesthetic balance.

The blank canvases of white, gave name the idea to put Change Please on ‘the blanket’ as it was inevitably evolving into.

I decided to go with something simple because at this stage, all I seemed to be doing was solving technical problems.

Each sock had a distinct shape and a story. My tutor Louise Ritchie often counsels that it is only when you start to make the work that you begin to ask questions and get answers.

Making a decision to let the material inform as to where it was going, and what it was going to be was the decider.

Project Inventory & Materiality

The initial phase involved a rigorous audit of 293 individual socks and 13 gloves, categorized by color and type to determine potential color combinations.

I listed:

Black Socks: 47 all-black, 12 with colored heels, 20 slip-on liners, 2 knee-length pairs.

Colored Socks: 24 Gray, 13 Blue, 9 Red, 14 Brown, 20 Pink/Striped, 38 White.

Kids' Socks: 58.

Gloves: 3 leather, 6 work, 4 fabric.