After doing the layered pieces, I was considering the use of pattern in my work and how it was the pattern and not the decoration or ornamentation that was important any more. It was about PATTERN and all of it definitions.

Pattern is a way to control the materials that I use. Pattern, as a term, can also mean template, but I associate it when stating that it organises surfaces and structures in a consistent, regular manner. Continuing from that tessellation is the tiling of a plane using one or more geometric shapes with no overlaps or gaps. Zellige a form of Islamic art uses geometric patterned mosaics to ornament. Mandalas, although not a form of geometry take on the pattern/symmetry aspect - these are used to represent to cosmos, a microcosm of the universe.

I regret that pattern [in terms of a decorative floral pattern] is dying out. An issue of this was when Chintz introduced people went mad for it. So much so that the English were importing so much of this India styled patterned fabric, that the native mills were suffering. This lead to government banning the importing of Chintz [with loopholes of course], so that the mills could once again prosper. A pattern has left the building, although now it is used for upholstery more than anything. Another occurrence of something effecting pattern is the Ikea effect [not the cost but the styling] how when Ikea came long everyone did away with the chintz and the patterns, the loud clashing colour the nick nacks. They tidied it all up, they went for minimalism and monotones, with only small bursts of colour. Pattern had left the building.

With this new direction came a new type of work. However, still in circular form. I was still hung up on the idea of the portal, and from doing the concave board with the idea of going 'down/underneath', I started to look at man-hole covers. These metal grates were often designed to be decorative [and helpfully circular], in Japan each district has its own painted design. The type of design of the covers, lead me back to an experiment [Exp.4 ] that I had done for the Crypt Show. This entailed of a two flat layer design. The background had a series of fabric shapes, tessellated. The foreground had a series of fabric shapes, but these were not tessellated and so with gaps between meant that you could see the background fabrics.

Experiment 4, lead to the latest series of work. A Crossing of Windows… …Into a Labyrinth of Circles. The design for these was based off an earring of mine with composites of rose windows, which I then edited to make more symmetrical and coherent. The board would follow the structure of Exp. 4 with two flat layers of shapes. The materials used would only be floral fabrics this time, because as with a  window, it is flat; so lace and textures would take away from that ideal. While making these pieces I was thinking more of the making than with any others, partly due to 'an example of excellence' [See Below], and because of how precise I needed to be so get the finish I was after. This meant that, even though it resembled more of a patchwork than any previous work, there would be no stitching involved. The shapes would all be glued and this was down to control. I am no master embroiderer and so to get the perfection and clean edges I was after, a hemmed shape was glue to paper first and then glued to the board. Although if I did have stitching, that would give me another line of pattern.