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During the 18th and 19th century, poverty-stricken Londoners would search the shores of the river Thames to find things they could sell. They would find things like coal, bones, copper, iron, etc. during those times the Thames was significantly more dangerous than it is now, with it being far more polluted with strong tides and thick mud. To this day the general idea of mudlarking has remained the same but nowadays people don't do it for money but more of a hobby.

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These days mudlarking is seen as a hobby and some people have been very lucky with what they have found. A lot of historical objects have been found, from a 16th century iron sundial to many medieval artefacts. Some of the most common things you’ll find is pieces of pottery, white clay pipes, animal bones, etc.

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At the start of this project I was looking at personal collections and antique trinkets, I found a guided expedition called ‘in the footsteps of mudlarks’ with the intentions of gathering some research but this is what changed my whole idea. It was very informative and the guide told us a bit about the history of mudlarking on the Thames shore then took us under the millennium bridge to explore for ourselves. To mudlark alone you need to have a permit, which is quite hard to get, so this experience was perfect for me. You aren’t allowed to take anything you find however I got lots of pictures to inform further research.

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A selection of photographs taken on my mudlarking trip.

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On my mudlarking trip I found lots of exciting things. I came across pieces of pottery from the Georgian period, historic animal bones, clay pipes and what i found the most was blue patterned pottery thought to be from the Victorian period. This is what inspired my project idea.

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After doing some research on the style of pottery I found, I believe that it is tin-glazed pottery from the 17th - 18th century with decorations of flowers, geometric shapes and patterns, ferns, etc. During this time, colours of English tin-glazed pottery was mainly a rich cobalt blue on white, inspired by fashionable Chinese porcelain, which only the wealthiest people had.

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As I mentioned before, on the tour I was on you weren’t allowed to take anything home with you but you could take as many photos as you wanted. I managed to get a range of good quality photos to inspire my initial sampling but I wanted to have the physical pieces to work from. I found a seller on Etsy who was selling some of their finds, I purchased a collection of blue and white pottery pieces relevant to my project. I can’t guarantee that these are all 100% authentic however their physical appearance works with my idea.

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This is a scan of the pottery pieces I received, allowing me to further examine and capture pattern and colour.

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This is a link to my Pinterest board with inspiration and Sampling plans.

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75 Alternative ideas unit 10 in 2025 | textile art, sea pottery, sun prints

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Mar 27, 2025 - Explore Kitty Bristow’s board “Alternative ideas unit 10” on Pinterest. See more ideas about textile art, sea pottery, sun prints.

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To start my sampling I started looking at dyeing fabric. A technique that stood out to me was Shibori, which is a Japanese resist dyeing technique where binding is used in specific patterns block certain areas of fabric from being dyed. Some of the shibori techniques I tried were Kumo, Ne-Maki and a few that I ‘made up’ (didn’t stick to a specific pattern). During my tutorial with Mel, she suggested that I stick to using mostly natural fabrics, so I have been experimenting with cotton and calico. I have been using DYLON fabric dye in the colour ocean blue, which gives a nice blue colour however it’s not 100% the colour I’m after. It sometimes comes out slightly purple and it’s not as rich as I wanted. After the Easter holidays my plan is to spend some time experimenting in the dye lab.

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In my previous project I experimented with cyanotype on fabric to expose images, this time round I have been using special cyanotype paper to expose shape and colour. I gathered these designs from tracing a selection of my photographs.

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One aspect of these findings that stands out to me is the unique and random shapes. These pieces of ceramic have been naturally broken and polished simply by tumbling. The patterns on these pieces vary and I find it interesting to think about how the pattern might have continued. I have digitally drawn onto an image and carried that pattern on.

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I have cropped and zoomed into a collection of my photographs, focussing on pattern, texture and colour.

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I have taken a photo of my studio space before the Easter holidays so I can look back over this project and see how my idea and sampling has developed.

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‘Willow’ is a traditional British blue and white pattern created by Thomas Minton. This design is heavily inspired by China and Chinese porcelain, it features Chinese-themed patterns of trees, birds, florals, etc and is accompanied by a decorative border. Traditionally this design consists of delicate drawings using a rich cobalt colour on clean white porcelain, giving it the well known look and colour palette.

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I discovered this technique on Pinterest, it involves preparing your fabric in the style of Shibori and using screen printing on top.

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This is a collection of some quick il pastel drawings, taking inspiration from the willow bowl and the pieces of china on display in my studio space.

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Polychromatic with acid dye on wool Delian 

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Polychromatic with acid dye on wool Delian 

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after doing this technique with direct dye and not finding the colour i was looking for, i moved over to acid dye where theres a wider range of colours. I worked on a fashion screen for this sample.

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This is my studio space in preparation for out formative presentation.

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Using the a2 scanner I individually scanned my outcomes in 4 sections and put the pieces together using procreate. They aren’t perfect but if i end up using this design to digitally print I will redo it.

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Using the scans of my polychromatic outcomes i designed a rough idea of what i might make as my final outcomes. To do these to the scale I intend, i will get them printed outside of uni to make it a bit easier.

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Seeing as the first outcome i made using this technique worked well, i created another one with a similar but different design. I intend on scanning the outcomes and having them digitally printed as that will keep the hand done effect whilst allowing me to work on a much larger scale.

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Using some scans of my drawings, i inverted the colours and printed them onto acetate so i could use them for Cyanotype. These were test pieces to see how the colour came out, and initially it was successful however I didn’t wash the dye out properly so as i left them to dry the dye continued developing resulting in the samples coming out a lot darker. Since this i have bought the proper fabric wash so this shouldn’t happen again.

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throughout this project i have enjoyed working on a larger scale, so i created another quick oil pastel design the size of 3xA3 pages and again scanned, inverted and printed them onto acetate to create a stencil for a larger Cyanotype sample.

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Apoor Vavarma is a textiles artist and painter based in Canada, she uses the polychromatic dyeing/printing technique a lot in her work. Although we don’t share the same ideas, the techniques she uses are similar to mine. Vavarma states that she uses this technique as she enjoys watercolour and painting and it allows her to keep the hand done effect whilst being able to work large scale on a range of materials. I also find her website/ portfolio very inspiring.

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Apoorva Varma
is an award winning Textile Designer/Artiste as well as a Painter based in Mississauga. She graduated from OCAD University's Material Art & Design Program in 2017. Her work investigates narrative and story-telling qualities art can possess. She is fond of looking at inspiration through an abstract lens, translating ideas through different mediums such as textile, surface pattern design and painting. Her Textile Installation 'Fantasy Foliage' for DesignTO 2020 was recently awarded the People's Choice: Favourite New Work.

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About Me - Apoorva Varma - Textile Explorer

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WELCOME! Apoorva Varma is an award winning Textile Designer/Artiste as well as a Painter based in Mississauga. She graduated from OCAD University's...

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Matthew Harris is a textiles artist based in london. Harris’ practice relies heavily on chance. He uses dice to determine what he does, from pattern repetition to brush size, etc. thinking about how a lot of my inspiration of from these found and broken pieces of china, the idea of chance is heavy within my project. My samples/ drawings are hand done, I don’t plan them, i see where the brush takes me and

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Textile artist Matthew Harris lets a roll of the dice dictate his artistic choices. We spoke to Matthew about his unique creative process, the interplay between paper and textile, and the roles that improvisation and chance play in his art practice.

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I found this willow pattern bowl in a charity shop and has been inspiration for a lot of my designs. Being able to look and hold something physical rather than an image it allows me to see the small details and work from them. When creating the designs for my polychromatic prints i was looking at this bowl and directly taking inspiration from it.