Susan Bell

The study of Persian carpets, prayer rugs, 'Hand of God' designs, Islamic architecture and ceramics presented fascinating possibilities for artwork and for further opportunities to study the Islamic world. Having learned something of the culture and the geography of the region, Year 7 pupils then explored the themes of Islam, looking particularly at Islamic designs and patterns which are incorporated in architecture and ceramics. They used their discoveries to enhance studies they had already made of traditional carpet designs.

We very much wanted Susan Bell to help develop pupils' exploration of pattern-making into new and unusual areas. Susan is our Artist in Residence for 1998; she studied Textiles and Fashion at Manchester University before moving to Bristol. Her work explores structures in the natural world, using of fabric, fibre and thread. Leaf structures, wasp-nest structures, skeletal structures, etc., gave rise to strikingly original fabric sculptures that hung for a long while from the art room ceiling.

These sculptures gave children the opportunity to question Susan about her work, her starting point and the influences upon her. They discovered that Susan found the work of the contemporary sculptor Andy Goldsworthy quite exciting, with his delicate leaf sculptures. She also drew inspiration from the study of traditional Japanese wrapping and packaging techniques, which involve skilfully and creatively stitching together bamboo leaves, palm leaves, rushes, rice straw, etc., for wrapping eggs, dried fish, bean pods and a host of other items.

The pattern work that the pupils developed from their studies was quite detailed and complex, and had qualities reminiscent of the fine tracery of leaf skeletons. A decision was made to trace the patterns onto card and then to cut these to create stencil designs, in order to exploit the tracery of lines in a more concrete way. This also presented pupils with the opportunity to lead into print-making, and to create some very unusual examples of relief construction with overlays of different coloured stencils.

The results of the study seem far removed from their starting point, especially the experiments with coloured stencil overlays. Working creatively often takes the artist in unusual, unexpected directions from even the most simple, basic beginnings. Susan Bell has helped us to achieve a better understanding of this process, whilst introducing new skills to use with familiar materials.