Cloth Stories (eBook)

Visual Thinking

I don’t know about you, but my thinking doesn’t exist in ordered bullet points. Therefore, when I first discovered Tony Buzan’s book How to Mind Map back in 2002 it resonated with me as a brilliant way to capture my rather scattered thoughts on paper, and I used the process regularly in my work life at the time.

However, it wasn’t until six years later, on the first day of my City & Guilds in Experimental Embroidery, when our tutor told us to create a mind map around our chosen theme, that I thought to use this process in my textile work. What a lightbulb moment! It’s a process that I’ve embraced and used ever since.

I love that my thoughts become visible. What has previously been a vague notion whirling around inside my head becomes an actual thing; something of value that can be explored, organized and remembered.

Over the years, I’ve gradually developed the mind-mapping process into a personal way of working that I now call creating threads of thought.

Why capture your thoughts?

The most immediate answer to this question is to remember them. I’m a thinker; I have lots of random thoughts and ideas popping into my head, and as daily life seems to fill my brain’s storage capacity, I need to write things down to remember them.

But there’s much more to it than that.

I find that creating threads of thought allows one thought to lead easily to another. This takes me in unexpected directions, enabling me to explore a subject from many different angles. If I’m willing to take a bit of time, it will lead me far beyond the obvious ideas, and in so doing often uncovers an underlying emotion. For me, this is the essential part for an interesting and absorbing project: I need to feel an emotional connection to it.

To illustrate what I mean, let’s take the theme of ‘home’ and use ‘the kitchen’ as an example.

One approach would be to think about kitchen-related items. I love old china and beautiful teapots, and my life often revolves around the kettle and the next cup of tea. I could therefore decide to stitch a little kitchen piece featuring a teacup and saucer; perhaps a plate with a slice of cake or a biscuit. This would make a pleasing combination that would work well in appliqué and stitch. I can pretty much picture the end result, and it would look rather lovely.

But what would happen if I ignored this first inspiration in favour of exploring further, digging deeper and setting off on a journey for which I have no idea what the end result will be?

To create my threads of thought, I’d cast my eye around my kitchen and jot down what I see. To me, this is the equivalent of making quick preliminary sketches. For example, currently on my kitchen table is a jar of cutlery, a vase of flowers and a messy pile of letters and papers.

There’s always a pile of envelopes and mail on my table – which, incidentally, drives me mad. It’s mainly bills and junk these days, but I remember when I first left home to start textile college. Aged seventeen, I kept up to date with all the gossip from my friends by writing and receiving letters. There was always a great sense of anticipation when these arrived on my desk in my flat.

Immediately, I have one, or maybe even two, threads of thought to follow.

I love having a bunch of flowers on my table. Now these mainly come from my garden, but I can’t help thinking about when I was newly married with our first baby at the age of twenty-three. My ex-husband and I were very hard up. I used to go around the supermarket mentally adding up the cost of every item as I put it in my basket. If I bought crisps, I couldn’t buy chocolate biscuits, and if I had to buy washing powder then I couldn’t buy any biscuits or treats at all. But one day, several years on, I threw a bunch of tulips into the basket. I actually spent a couple of pounds on flowers – a luxury at the time. We’d made it through the very worst of times financially, marking a significant period in my family life. I remember this story simply by looking at a vase of flowers. To this day, when there are flowers on my table, I have a huge sense of wellbeing. There’s so much personal emotion around that thread of thought.

However, I can take it further. Thinking back to this time, when we were struggling and counting every penny, makes me think about the many families currently living below the poverty line within the UK and around the world, and the huge increase in dependence on food banks. By following my threads of thought, I’ve found myself thinking socially and politically. This could take me in several completely different directions, far from my original cosy domestic thoughts. This provides me with many strands of inspiration that I may, or may not, choose to pursue.

I could keep going with an endless stream of stories as I allow my thoughts to wander. A glance at the fridge takes me once more to food, and not only the sense of appreciation of having enough, but also to growing, sourcing, allotments versus air miles, countries of origin, animal welfare, favourite recipes, different cultures, family traditions. I could carry on, and I ’ve not even left the vegetable drawer!

You’ll find that by working on your own threads of thought you’ll access memories, stories and emotions that lead you through each stage of making. If you find the curiosity and willingness to take time to see where your initial idea takes you, you’ll create art that is personal and heartfelt. For me, this is deeply satisfying.

Tools and materials

Paper

I like every part of my making process to be stimulating, so my choice of paper is important to me. I gravitate towards old and discarded paper, and have a particular love of brown parcel paper cut or torn into manageable-sized sheets. I clip these together on a clipboard for working.

Finished pages can be glued, taped or stitched into a sketchbook to organize them, or machine-stitched together into a makeshift book.

Of course, you can work straight into a sketchbook if you wish, or use pristine white or coloured paper – whatever sets your heart fluttering.

For many years I created my threads of thought on the backs of used envelopes. I found that if I worked straight into a sketchbook page, I could easily get side-tracked. I fretted that my writing wasn’t ‘pretty’ enough, or that my layout wasn’t ‘arty’ enough, and I’d find myself editing my thoughts before capturing them on paper. This didn’t happen with an old envelope.

But use whatever works for you – some people draw their mind maps on their tablet or computer.

Pens

I like to have two or three colours of pen, including a highlighter in a colour that will stand out from my main writing.

Additional items

Additional pieces of scrap paper or luggage labels are useful for adding notes. I collect offcuts from other projects – lined papers, vellum, graph paper – and keep these to hand in a tin. I like to use these to add extra information and notes, particularly if I am collating everything into a sketchbook.

Getting Started

The process of mind mapping or creating threads of thought is simple. Try not to overthink or censor your thoughts, and write quickly without steering them in any particular direction. The key is to allow words to flow until they feel forced, and then stop.

Let’s start our journey around the house by going back to the kitchen: the hub of the household for many.

• Start by writing the word ‘kitchen’ in the centre of your page. Take yourself to your kitchen, or imagine yourself there looking around.

• Quickly jot down the things that immediately catch your eye until you have five or six headings – perhaps items like table, fridge, sink, washing machine, cooker and shelves. Write all around your central title, leaving space in between. Each time you write something, draw a line from the word kitchen to connect it.

• Next, look at everything you have written and choose one title that attracts your attention. Highlight it in some way, perhaps with a different-coloured pen.

• Now start writing down your thoughts. Relax and allow one to lead to another, jotting down everything, however random, and making connecting lines between.

• Cooker could take me to cooking, baking, favourite recipes and the people I...