Embroideries passed down as heirlooms are a tangible link to family never met and actions never seen. They highlight how repetitive actions are an integral component of the everyday, the generation of knowledge, identity and heritage. As a scientist I have observed that my own physical actions via repetitive experimentation inform my thinking. By producing embroidery with wire I have embedded the outcome with the action and introduced ideas of adaptation, knowledge and heredity.

I’m in the middle of such repetition, making a hardanger tablecloth. A friend has calculated how many woven bars she stitched in her cloth. That’s adding craziness to an already insane activity.