Made in Europe - Sandra Newton

Sandra Newton

United Kingdom

Blackberrying

Detail

Growing up in a village in rural England, blackberrying was a much loved late summer tradition. We would set off, arms full of plastic boxes and bowls, scramble over the abandoned brickworks by the river, and pick berries all afternoon. We returned home, scratched and juice-stained from our adventure with hoards of fruit. Mum made blackberry and apple jam, the pans steaming in the kitchen all evening.

From half a century later it seems that blackberrying was a celebration of the freedom of our childhood as much as a late summer's harvest tradition.

When I first read 'Blackberry picking', Seamus Heaney's words evoked this experience so clearly and conveyed a shared regret for the past harvest. I have used some of his lines in this piece. Seamus Heaney, 1939-2013, won the  Nobel prize for Literature in 1995.

Screenprinted with procion dyes ; applique : raw edge, bonded and stitched ; free machine quilted and hand stitched.

Cotton organdie, linen.