When I’m teaching or talking to people about my work I’m often asked about what inspires my work or where did an idea come from. I thought I would share some of the things that inspire me, how I record this initial inspiration and how I move on to create fully realised pieces of work.

These photos were taken using my phone from our walks around Scarborough. I always use the camera as a full screen so I can capture as much of the inspiration as possible. Photos can be easily edited if needed but I like to do this later at home. I was drawn to the colours, textures and objects in the images.

Inspiration can come from the strangest places, I once got inspired to create a piece of work looking at powerlines in Leeds Train Station. I don’t always have access to a notebook because I’m out walking so I will often take notes on my phone about an idea. I’ve also made notes on a photo that I’ve taken on my phone using the gallery tools.

Phones can often have useful tools in the gallery settings and whilst I don’t love the over use of AI in art it can help me create an embroidery design. The images above were created using a filter and printed onto a wash away interfacing to transfer them onto fabric.

Inspiration can come from the strangest places, I once got inspired to create a piece of work looking at powerlines in Leeds Train Station. I don’t always have access to a notebook because I’m out walking so I will often take notes on my phone about an idea. I’ve also made notes on a photo that I’ve taken on my phone.

Sometimes when I take photograph it might be years before I use them to create an exhibition piece. Fancy Goods started as a few photos more than ten years ago and I only started making pieces in 2023.

I don’t use a sketchbook in the traditional sense as I find drawing doesn’t always help my creative process. My sketchbooks are a combination of photos, inspiration from museums and galleries and some drawings of ideas for work. I might also include the embroidery designs and samples of thread. I sometimes use a folder with plastic wallets to keep leaflets, exhibition guides and magazine pages together.

If you’d told me when I left university that I would still be interested in making mood boards I would have laughed but they are also a helpful part of my process. They can bring together the main inspiration images/objects, a colour palette and materials/threads I might want to use.

I like to store all my photos in cloud storage so I can access them from my phone and laptop. I name the folders so I know what’s in there and all my similar ideas are grouped together. Sometimes that research might stay there for years, sometimes it never gets to the stage of sampling but you never know!

The images above are finished pieces inspired by small things that caught my eye:

Left, an embroidery workshop sample inspired by a plate in my kitchen. Centre, a hand embroidered piece inspired by a process photo for Instagram. Right, an exhibition piece inspired by my photographs of Scarborough Harbour.

As you start to find your own inspiration, you will find a way of recording it that works for you. There is no right or wrong way to do this so try a few different ways and see how they work for you.

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