The lining of this velvet cloak reveals a map of the world, made with appliqué and hand-embroidered. It depicts the trade routes exploited by the flamboyant trader Sir John Millward, owner of Sutton House in the early seventeenth century.

This is part of a collection of soft sculpture objects made for Davies & Daughters’ fantastic chests at Sutton House, Hackney. These chests were designed for particular rooms of the house and contained objects and games to illustrate the lives of some of the important inhabitants, Sir Ralph Sadleir, Sir John Millward and the  St Croix family. (National Trust)

Georgian dressing-up clothes, made of hard-wearing but beautiful fabrics, these costumes are designed to be worn by visitors. They are easy to put on: (petticoats or shirt-sleeves stitched into the dress etc) and designed to avoid kids shedding their own garments and leaving them in a treasure trail for parents or teachers to find....

.

Soft sculpture keys, made of faux  leather. Part of the collection of Sutton House objects: Sir Ralph Sadleir was interested in codes and ciphers. Can you “name Sir Ralph’s steed”?

Henry VIII Embroidered and painted soft glove puppets of historical characters which can be used to enact stories.

Detail of the vegetable plot, illustrating that the house would have provided its own food as the M&S down the road didn’t yet exist.

This patchwork shawl is a map of Hackney as it would have been in Tudor times. It is intended as an outreach tool to demonstrate how Hackney would have been fields when Sutton House was  originally built, with soft sculpture  models of the buildings showing features that are no longer there like the mullioned windows  of Sutton House; and the orchard and well. It also shows St Augustine’s Tower and the original body of the church.

From a detailed Map of Sutton House and St Augustine’s Tower:- intended as an outreach tool to demonstrate how Hackney would have been fields when Sutton House was originally built, with soft sculpture models of the buildings showing features that are no longer there like the body of the church.

This hand puppet of Anansi the spider was one of three puppets, rat, dove and spider, long-time inhabitants of the house and tower, who assisted a story-teller with an ambulatory tale about St Augustine’s Tower and Sutton House.

These hand-embroidered gloves depict the sixteen children of the St Clair family who lived in Sutton house in the eighteenth century. The original idea had been to have individual finger-puppets, but I suggested embroidered  gloves as  in keeping with the eighteenth century and obviously being less likely to be mislaid.

This mask, made of papier maché, is part of a collection of objects used in a guided family tour of Osterley  House  (National Trust). Visitors are given fans, gloves, wigs etc to play with and provide a discussion point about Georgian life.

Georgian dressing-up dress, made with padded petticoat and adjustable fastenings, for the Snuff Mill, MordenPark

Skeleton Rag Doll:- this  was a  four  foot  high rag doll designed as a ‘body-map’ for under  five-year-olds as  part of the Livesey Museum for Children’s  last exhibition. It had removable heart, lungs, stomach and intestines made in a variety of textures, and an outer body making it like a large rag doll.

Made in a variety of fabrics, textures and colours, these soft sculpture objects had to be matched to the cut-out servant characters (commissioned by Davies & Daughters for Osterley House, National Trust).

Soft sculpture  objects had to be  matched to the cut-out servant characters (commissioned by Davies & Daughters for Osterley House).

Storybags for the Cuming Museum, London – I was asked to make bags to transport the story-making objects to schools and other outreach programmes. I made each bag out of fabric relevant to the story objects culture e.g. Afro-Caribbean, Indian, Chinese and British. The bags could be spread into  circles and laid on the floor to sit around, and there were internal pockets for the individual objects

The Green Man and Blodewedd: Stilt Costumes made for  Syrcas Circus in N. Wales, with whom I’ve done a number of theatrical and community circus projects, including ‘Immortals’.