This work combines multiple elements to echo the layered structure and varied colours of Blue John, the rare banded fluorite mined in the Peak District. The mix of media—paint, steam-bent wood, stitchery, and fragments of poetry—creates texture, depth, and a deliberate awkwardness, reflecting the difficulties and impossibilities of mining Blue John..
Poetry snippets are taken from John Betjeman’s poem 'Matlock Bath:
“O God, our help in ages past,
How long will SPEEDWELL CAVERN last?”
The base is a vintage tea chest veneer of birch. date-stamped 1980. Originally owned by the Deckiajuli tea estate in India and constructed there from Asian grown birch planted around 1920. Deckiajuli produces a strong black Assam tea packed in to the chests, travelling about 6,500 miles to the UK. The chest was found in a charity shop in Nottingham, used to hold brushes and brooms etc.bringing its own history and journey into the work.
