Working across diverse media, including porcelain, thread, wire, stitch, and enamel, Jilly Morris combines traditional craft techniques with conceptual approaches to explore time, place, and experience. Throughout her residency, she documented her processes and reflections in a blog, charting both her artistic development and her immersion in the Tarset landscape.
Having moved from an urban environment to the expansive moorlands of Northumberland, Jilly established a daily walking practice as a way of connecting with her new surroundings. Each walk became both a data collection exercise and a form of meditation, with information such as distance, steps, and calories forming part of her creative framework. This ritual of gathering and mapping shaped a substantial new body of work that responded to the rhythms of the natural world and the shifting light and seasons of the Tarset valley.
Her exhibition presented a series of works that combined meticulous craftsmanship with conceptual clarity. A simple walking stick became a timeline of the year; large photographic prints documented the changing verges and the encounters she made along the way — captured through photographs of the feet of those she met. These pieces quietly charted her integration into a new landscape, revealing her sensitivity as both observer and maker.
Among the larger sculptural works, Jilly’s Paper Stone Wall stood as a central piece. Constructed from stones made entirely of stitched local newspaper, it embodied her interest in material transformation and the layering of place and history. As Jilly explained, she wanted “to build something that held a strong sense of both chronicle and place — something old recreated with today’s news; something enduring made from the fragile.”
The residency also gave Jilly the time to realise Heart to Heart, an artwork that encapsulated her long-held fascination with heart surgery and the emotional and physical resonances of the human heart. This piece, along with her other works from the residency, was presented at her end-of-residency exhibition in September 2010.
During her residency, Jilly led a series of community enamelling workshops, introducing local residents and school groups to the technique. Participants created enamel tree labels for Tarset’s new community orchard and collaborated on a welcome panel of enamel tiles for the North Tynies Centre in Bellingham. These projects reflected Jilly’s commitment to sharing skills and embedding creative practice within the fabric of local life.
