'Our Future Earth' - my Artist's Residency with the Festival of Tomorrow.
- Mar 17
- 3 min read
Recently I was privileged to be asked by the Festival of Tomorrow to be its first ever Artist in Residence.
The Festival is an action packed exploration of the wonders of science, innovation and the arts to share new discoveries and technologies to help choose the future we want to see. Centred in Swindon, the hub of UK research and innovation, the Festival shares the knowledge and research which will shape the future of the World.
The Festival's theme this year was 'Our Future Earth' and my role was three-fold, to a) deliver a creative community project with Swindon groups, b) to work with the Festival to deliver its first Open Art Exhibition and c) to deliver a range of visual arts workshops during the Festival itself.
This post focusses on the community project and here's a summary of what we did.
I love to draw from nature, so inspired by the theme of Our Future Earth I decided to use stitch to explore nine endangered/threatened plant species found in Wiltshire. I worked with three wonderful groups of women from The Harbour Project, Changing Suits and Swindon City of Sanctuary and together we created three bespoke stitched panels showcasing the variety and fragility of some of our most rare plant species.
Download this spreadsheet to learn more about those plant species
The process
I worked with each group over two sessions, and took with me some prepared images on embroidery canvas. I drew these in advance and applied them to the canvas using a heat transfer pen.
The Harbour Project worked with the Bluebell, the Common Rock Rose and the Bird's Nest Orchid.
Changing Suits focussed on the Snakeshead Fritillary, the Pheasant's Eye and the Burnt-tip Orchid, which is also the County flower of Wiltshire.
Swindon City of Sanctuary explored the Fly Orchid, the Cornflower and the Red Helleborine, a type of orchid.
Above, one of my original drawings of a Pheasant's Eye and the image transferred on to embroidery canvas.
In the first workshop group members chose which species of flower they wanted to work on and had options as to how much stitching they wanted to do, depending on experience and personal preference. We coloured some of the images first, before sewing in to them.
Below, examples of the images we worked in to.
In between the workshops, many of the women in the groups took their flowers home to stitch, including this beautiful Pheasant Eye and Bumble Bee.
Above, a beautiful Red Helleborine being stitched by a participant from Swindon City of Sanctuary, using a whip stitch.
Below, Dorin, from the Harbour Project working on a Common Rock Rose.
Below, Sravanti incorporating the Changing Suits logo in to the design.
Below, a Fly Orchid, using straight stitch and French knots.
When the flowers were completed, the groups arranged them within a stitched circle on a canvas frame which I had previously coloured with spattered green, yellow and bronze paint to create a natural looking background.
Below - work almost finished on The Harbour Project's panel, and we're working out a pleasing arrangement of the flower elements.
Below - all the flowers on the Changing Suits panel are stitched down.
Below, Swindon City of Sanctuary arrange their flowers.
Here are the finished pieces. All three stitched panels were displayed at the Festival of Tomorrow's Open Exhibition at The Carriageworks, in February 2025.
Thank you to the Festival of Tomorrow for the opportunity and to the amazing groups and wonderful women that I worked with, and to young producer, Clarissa, and my mum for all the help with the final push of stitching all the flowers down.
Changing Suits
Swindon City of Sanctuary's finished panel.
The Harbour Project's panel, with its logo added.
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