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The Carpet Forest

The inspiration

I had the idea of The Carpet Forest when I was Arts Development Officer at Wyre Forest District Council and Director of Kidderminster Arts Festival which I oversaw for 11 years.

I saw the remains of the carpet industry, which originated in Kidderminster each day I travelled to work. The waste from the few remaining outlet stores strewn on the streets, the old factory’s abandoned or repurposed, the street names inspired by the industry. After the factories closed the prospects for the people in the town took a downturn. Though nature started to flourish as the polluting dyes were diluted and the waterways opened up again. This gave me the inspiration for the Carpet Forest. An immersive environment to tell a heritage story in a new way.

I decided to create a brief for a commission, I knew who I wanted to work with and what I needed to make it happen. I went to Brintons Carpets to seek support in gathering materials and research. I approached artists Jo and Kate DeBurgh who live in Malvern as I knew them to be versatile artists with an interest in environmental issues and reuse of materials, they would be ideal to interpret my idea into a large scale piece.

Funded by Arts Council England, Wyre Forest District Council with support from Brintons Carpets and The Museum of Carpet. I brought together a group of artists to collaborate on the project.

The image shows a bird box made out of cardboard with headphones coming out of it

the image shows a close up of a cardboard which has been stencilled with green grid patterns and a round paper disc with holes punched in it painted red, it represents the foliage and fruit of a tree

My intention was to create an immersive environment. A woodland that grew from the floor of the Town Hall that was built for the Carpet workers. This temporary space would be inspired by the building. It would be made from carpet waste, the tubes from inside the rolls, carpet scraps and offcuts. It would have a soundtrack that was created from the sound of the looms that made the carpets. The trees would have bird boxes that told stories from the last generation of workers that saw the old factories before they were computerised. The style should reflect the amazing designs of historical carpets through the ages.

The Carpet Forest – Kidderminster Town Hall

The Creative Team

Jo and Kate DeBurg; were my first choice of artists to work with on this project. I was delighted when they accepted. It was the largest scale piece of work they had created to date. I’d worked with them on smaller projects in the past and had a great working relationship with them. It was a really positive experience developing the project with them. They both totally understood the aesthetic I was trying to achieve, and as the project evolved and they saw how the public interacted with it, they understood the power of such an environment.

People gather for opening night in a forest made of cardboard and carpet — Opening night at KAF

The image shows brightly lit cardboard trees — Close up of trees in All Hallows Hall

The images shows brightly lit trees made out of cardboard — Beautiful lighting adds to the atmosphere in All Hallows Hall

The image shows a forest made out of cardboard. A small white girl walks through it she is wearing a yellow dress and a blue bike helmet — Child in the Carpet Forest Bristol

The image shows a tree made out of cardboard — The perfect ceiling

I enlisted Andy Edwards https://drummerandyedwards.blogspot.com/ who teaches at Kidderminster College’s well known music department. Andy has an interesting musical history of his own.

Heather Wastie http://www.heatherwastie.co.uk/ a local poet and musician undertook the task of making an intimate sound archive. Heather worked with older people in the community, collecting their stories, recording and editing them and weaving some into folk songs. These were accessed through MP3 players hidden in bird boxes and listened to on headphones.

Reaching the Audiences

To entice the audience into this underused space I carpeted the street. This acted as a trial run for the forthcoming square renovation that was to happen in the coming years. Each morning I vacuumed the carpet giving me an opportunity to engaged with people, explaining the project and sparking their curiosity enough to go inside.

Babis Alexiadis a London film maker and animator who visited Kidderminster on many occasion to record the installation both indoors and out.

The project attracted large audiences many of whom made repeat visits. The Forest subsequently went on a small tour, to Bristol and to Malvern in December 2014 where it wore snow, hosted carol singers and ballet dancers.

Flyer for Carpet Forest Malvern edition designed by Loz Samuels

The image shows a colourful flyer advertising the Carpet Forest — Carpet Forest Flyer – Bristol Edition designed by Loz Samuels

Flyer for Carpet Forest Bristol edition designed by Loz Samuels

The Koukla Four

At a rare visit to Malvern Antiques Fair, I bought four porcelain dolls hands. The guy said they are Victorian but my gut feeling is they might be 1940’s.
I couldn’t resist them, I had no idea what I’d do with them. They just evolved like much of my work does.

Dolls hands are a bit of a theme in my life – but that’s another story.

Each one seemed to take on their own personality. Even though they must have been poured into moulds they are all different, each is a slightly different size. They are all truly one of a kind.
I love finds like this, they conjure childhood sentiment, imagined histories, and have a romance all of their own, they are precious finds as most do not survive.
It is a joy to give them a new story and hopefully preserve them for many years of enjoyment of a slightly different kind than that they were designed for.

Koukla Pin

This was the first. This silver and antique porcelain pin has its own tiny cuff which has a working clasp, don’t worry it’s done up super tight so it’s extra safe. It has a plain bezel giving it an elegant simplicity.

Koukla Pin is now sold

Koukla Charm

This silver and antique porcelain pendant has a pierced cuff and a tiny charm bracelet with a heart charm. The heart has a little hole in it to remind the wearer that a little space is always a good idea.

Koukla Charm is now sold out

Koukla Love

This silver and antique porcelain pendant features a gently scalloped cuff embellished with a tiny heart . It has its own cuff which is made in three parts and has a functioning clasp – it’s very tight and secure so no danger or losing it.

Koukla Love is now sold

Koukla Etched

Silver and antique porcelain pendant with etched cuff. Every doll deserves a little lace so this cuff has a cut and etched bezel to give it a little fanciness.

Koukla Etched is now sold

The Winnowed Prince

This crown is made of brass, copper, paste stones and ‘found’ fur trim. It was inspired by crowns on religious statues seen in many countries. I often visit churches. I’m intrigued by the craftsmanship it takes to make everything in them. The symbolism, the colour schemes and the smells all draw us in to a powerful theatrical experience.

When the enclosures act came into being the common man could be blinded for poaching the king’s deer. This is to remind us of the history of our game. If you would like to find out more about this visit the Three Acres and a Cow website

This skull was given to me by a gamekeeper in Herefordshire over 20 years ago. Its horn was sawn off, to be used for a walking stick handle. I have had the skull for many years not knowing what to do with it. Learning silversmithing gave me the opportunity to transform it and make reference to politics which horrifies me.

Perhaps this young deer was the future king of his herd. We are told culling is necessary to keep the herd healthy. I would suggest that’s only the case because there isn’t enough territory for them to be healthy and get the nutrients they need because we have colonised it all.

The gamekeeper was a traditional man, making his life from the land, he seemed to be a very caring man and was happy he dispatched the deer quickly. I thought a crown would be a good symbol to honour him in his death, especially as deer used to be associated with royal families and aristocracy. For them to hunt exclusively while the peasants starved.

Not technically taxidermy but still using the remains of an animal whose life was cut short because of humans.

Sketch Books

Here you’ll get a peek into my sketchbooks where I show my workings behind my finished pieces or my observations of the world around me. I find it hard to keep sketchbooks sometimes. Pages of doodles would flow out of me when I was a more prolific sketch-booker, every scrap of paper that entered my life would be drawn on.
It is easy to let the distractions of life eat into the time I’d use to sketch in my earlier years.
My Master’s has seen a renaissance and became an important part of my research. I’ve also done some online art journaling courses with Jo Beale which I highly recommend.

Quite often my work evolves from materials rather than plans thought out in sketchbooks in advance.

The materials lead the process, especially as many are found.

The image shown is of the maquette that formed a taxidermy squirrel. Sketches evolve around the animal and the building process.

When I’m working on a piece of taxidermy the sketchbook and the piece inform each other, the page will include measurements and notes.

There will often be blood, observational drawings or an outpouring of ideas.

Drawings of elements of the build help focus my mind and improve on methodology and technique.

I’m often as intrigued by the look of the mechanics of the build and the materials used as I am with the finished piece. This is the inside of the squirrel sketched in pencil. You can see the final work here.

Over lockdown and beyond I started drawing with a group of artists online. We followed the book ‘Drawing with the right side of the brain’ by Betty Edwards.

I try not to be precious about sketching, I use anything to hand as inspiration or as a drawing medium

Ignorance is Bliss

This piece has seven, male, ten day old chicks playing on a metal bed with a thick mattress made of wood wool and feathers. The piece represents the naivety of those who purchase battery eggs, poultry for meat and down filled bedding and clothing without knowing what they are buying into.

They play in the feathers of a bird who has suffered at the hands of an industry which serves our comfort. The bed symbolising the archetypal image of comfort, safety and luxury. Comfort is something these birds were never able to feel.
This piece is not intended as a protest it is merely intended to raise awareness and inform.

Key:

Stuffing sequence and any damage found upon defrosting:

Chick one: 10.12.10 – no signs of damage
Chick two: 18.12.10 – burst gut
Chick three: 19.12.10 – broken leg
Chick four: 31.12.10 – beak detached from skull, abrasions, to the wing
Chick five: 01.01.11 – laceration on the wing
Chick six: 02.01.11 – no signs of damage
Chick seven: 11.01.11 – no signs of damage

Chicks are sold in packs of ten upwards, frozen immediately after death and sold in pet shops for food for birds of prey and reptiles. There is a huge amount information on how chicks are farmed for the meat and egg industry.
Male chicks are of no use as they will not grow enough to be used for meat as they hail from a special breed created just to produce the greatest egg yield though not to hold body mass, therefore they are disposed of after just one day of life.

Each year, approximately 30 million day-old male chicks are ‘disposed of’.
They are sorted using conveyor belt systems, and either sent live into a grinder or put in sacks or crates and taken to be gassed.

Female chickens they will go onto a life of egg production, after having their beaks sliced off by a machine. They will spend the rest of their short lives in either a barn, a battery cage or free-range, which effectively is an overcrowded barn with some access to outdoor space in general.

One kilo of eggs requires 3 kilos of grain (in the form of chicken feed) to produce. The conversion of crops by farm animals into food for humans is grossly inefficient. It is not only food (grain) that is wasted, each battery egg takes approximately 180 litres of water to produce. Consider the volumes of water human beings use in developing countries: in India, for example, the poorest use an average of only 10 litres of water each per day (O’Brien, 1998).

It took around five hours to complete each bird. I tried to give each bird it’s own personality which seemed to evolve organically as I worked on them, as obviously each bird like all animals do have their own personality – even chickens.

Sleeping Beauty

The Squirrel was found on a street in Malvern in Worcestershire by the De Burgh sisters. They said it looked like it was sleeping, perfect and beautiful, just a smudge of blood on it’s nose to give it’s injury away.

On inspection the entire skull was smashed to pieces, only the bottom jaw in more substantially sized pieces. I set about reconstructing the skull with ‘Milliput’ to enable me to complete the piece.

To do this I skinned another squirrel to use for reference. The book is from a charity shop, Dickens ‘A Tale of Two Cities’. The title made me think of the tale of two squirrels, the maligned grey who is a rat with a fluffy tale in the eyes of many, demonized because of its battle for territory with the native red, which I’m sure would never be called a rat with a fluffy tale as obviously it is a far more superior specimen.

Perhaps we need to think about that for a while and reflect on what the real differences are, and why we are so keen to demonise one species over another. All either want is the space to survive.

So the maligned grey squirrel, a female who was in good health until she presumably met a passing car is now peacefully sleeping on a book, oblivious to the complexities of the society that condemns her and not the car without a thought.

Her head rests on a small posy of flowers, she may not be native but to me she is still very beautiful and her life was as precious as any other.

Her eye’s are slightly open as she glimpses the world from her sleepy state. The book is from the 1920’s and had a blue ink inscription inside the cover from it’s owner. I took a photograph but lost the image so now the providence is sealed inside and lost forever.

Gallery

close up of squirrels muzzle and feet — dead squirrel

Positioning pins keep everything in place throughout the drying process

Park Life

Close up of drunken taxidermied squirrel sleeping

This piece was a commission for a 60th birthday present for a man who managed the Parks Department in London Local Authority, the birthday boy was partial to a tipple of London Pride.

The piece was commissioned by work colleagues who thought a squirrel would be appropriate and wanted it to reflect the nature of the London parks that its new owner looks after.

Parks are public spaces that are strewn with N.O.S canisters, I could imagine they’d be a bit of an issue when mowing lawns. I’ve no idea what the wildlife make of them.

Animals like squirrels have to live alongside humans and all their waste on a daily basis. I am sure when parks are invaded for events it must be terrifying for them, though I’m also sure squirrels are clever enough to know that there will be a ton of scraps to pick at when the crowds have left which might give them an interesting diet.

This squirrel was living in Droitwich when it died. It is a juvenile male, fit and healthy. He was shot by a land owner with an air rifle. He suffered two wounds, one on his shoulder which smashed the bone and another which penetrated the torso and remained lodged under the skin in the stomach area. I like to do the eyes slightly open so you can just see the shine of the eye. I think it may draw the viewer in to see the face more closely, it also makes him look a bit drunk.

I’m sure squirrels sleep with one eye open, they always seem to be rocket fuelled, they don’t look like they’d be heavy sleepers.

taxidermied squirrel asleep on Boys Own manuals with a London Pride Beer can for a pillow

This piece is now in a private collection and is not for sale

Mothers Ruins

This piece features a ten day old male chick looking up at the heaven’s contemplating his lot. He would have never seen his mother; she will be caged a long way from where he hatched.

He stands on a pile of chicken bones which form a rough nest. The plinth is made from reclaimed wood which has been distressed and burnt. It is covered in Chinese money, and has leather on its feet.

The bones of 13 chickens were used to create the nest, they came from the carcasses of chickens cooked for Sunday dinners from Bristol to Birmingham. Thank you to all those who donated them. As chickens are consumed so voraciously and have a notoriously raw deal during their lives I was drawn to work with them again.
This piece encourages people to consider what they are consuming and its journey to their plate.

This chick was sold in pack of ten, frozen, hopefully, after death and sold for food for birds of prey and reptiles kept as pets.

There is a huge amount of information on how chicks are farmed for the meat and egg industry. I find it strange how we are so unconcerned about what we eat.

People often comment on how cute this chick is, they never question how or why it is there. These male chicks are of no use to those who profit from farming, they will not grow enough to be used for meat as they hail from a special breed created just to produce the greatest egg yield. They are small, to take up as little space as possible and cannot easily increase body mass, therefore they are disposed of after just ten days of life. Each year, approximately 30 million male chicks are ‘disposed of’ as waste.

Chicks are sorted by sex using conveyor belt systems, and either sent live into a grinder or put in sacks or crates and gassed, though I’m unsure if this is accurate, it would make more sense considering the brutality of the process to skip the gassing and put them straight in the freezer. My money is on the later.

Factory-farmed female chicks will go on to a life of egg production, after having their beaks sliced off by a machine to stop them pecking each other or themselves.

They will spend the rest of their short lives in either a barn, a battery cage or free range, which effectively is a over-crowded barn with some access to outdoor space in they are lucky enough to reach it.

It takes 3 kilos of grain to produce one kilo of eggs. This conversion of crops by farm animals into food for humans is grossly inefficient, it is not only food (grain) that is wasted. Each battery egg takes approximately 180 litres of water to produce.

Consider the volumes of water human beings use in developing countries: in India, for example, the poorest use an average of only 10 litres of water each per day (O’Brien, 1998).

Studies of farm animal housing have shown that egg farms have one of the highest farm emission rates of ammonia gas, a serious environmental pollutant linked to acid rain and the pollution of our water ways.

When working with the chicken bones I found a significant difference in bones from free range/organic chickens to factory farmed birds. The bones from the later were much smaller and more brittle.

Each bone is drilled and wired together to form a dense structure. There are no wish bones, how could there be luck in this piece? I’ve saved them all for another work. The collection of bones continues at a slower pace, they are so nice to work with, I love the texture and colour of them when they are displayed on mass.

Gallery

Hippocratic Rabbit

This rabbit was supplied by the London School of Taxidermy (which seems to no longer exist) and apparently complies to their their ‘ethical’ supply of animals.

The box of rabbits arrived I had left the room for a break. My fellow delegates had taken the fluffy ornamental ones. I was left with this strange-looking fellow. These were bred for food for zoo animals or similar. These rabbits were not killed humanely as far as I could see.

I would never attend the school again.

I stuffed this rabbit when I was at the beginning of my journey and he didn’t get his surroundings until much later. When I saw the poor creature I immediately thought of archetypal rabbit imagery which he didn’t really conform to; Bugs Bunny, Easter Bunnies, Rabbits in magician’s hats – then lab rabbits, bred for experiments. I thought of the hypocrisy of it all and I decided to look at the Hippocratic Oath. It is interesting to make a connection between the ethics of medicine and the place these animals fit within it.

The Hippocratic Oath has been written and reduced over the centuries. I despair at how animals and humans are treated as a result of medical professionals being under the thumbs of this oath and the pharmaceutical companies. It’s all a mess which doesn’t look set to be resolved any time soon. When money is at the heart of everything, the heart seems to disappear.

I think of the likes of Monsanto. The postcode lottery people face when they seek treatment. The terrible state our lives often become when we reach the end. When compassion seems to go out of the window and the medical profession keeps us alive no matter what while the pharmaceuticals profit from our misery.

Like a clown preacher standing on his antique bible, holding his wilting hearts surrounded by death and a scavenging hornet, he is a reminder of the crazy system of ‘health’ and ‘care’ we have created.

The inspiration

The Creative Team

Opening night at KAF

Close up of trees in All Hallows Hall

Beautiful lighting adds to the atmosphere in All Hallows Hall

Child in the Carpet Forest Bristol

Doing a bit of gardening

The perfect ceiling

Reaching the Audiences

Flyer for Carpet Forest Malvern edition designed by Loz Samuels

Carpet Forest Flyer – Bristol Edition designed by Loz Samuels

Flyer for Carpet Forest Bristol edition designed by Loz Samuels

Koukla Pin

Koukla pin

Koukla Pin

Koukla Pin

Koukla Pin

Koukla Pin

Koukla Love

Koukla Charm

Koukla Love

Koukla Love

Koukla Love

Koukla Love

Koukla Etched

Key:

Gallery

dead squirrel

Taxidermied squirrel

Squirrel skull fragments

Positioning pins keep everything in place throughout the drying process

taxidermied squirrel

park-life

Gallery

Gallery

hypocratic-rabbit

Wilting hearts and fallorn rabbit

Hypocratic Rabbit

Dried hornet sucking the life out of the drooping hearts

Hippocratic Rabbit

Hornet resting on wilted hearts

Hippocratic Rabbit in his dome

Hippocratic Rabbit in his dome

Close up of Hypocratic Rabbit

Close up of Hippocratic Rabbits ants