Challenging my creative block……. the answer has been to gather information and get the creative cogs turning once again.

To help me with this I have discovered the joys of investigation and I have decided to combine modern and traditional research techniques to explore the vast array of avenues this project could take me down.

My project as you hopefully know by now, is about the Kitchen gardens at Felbrigg Hall and celebrating the work that goes on behind the scenes. However, for me there is no escaping the historical aspect of the project and so I decided to see if there were any archived plans from when the garden were first designed. This led me to visit the Norfolk Record Office; my hopes were to find beautiful plans of the gardens similar to those I had seen at other historical gardens such as Kew. Alas, even with the help of the friendly staff in the archive centre I could not find any detailed records of the gardens, but it was not a wasted trip because I did come across a stunning scripted parchment that was titled “Contents and quality of the crop in the kitchen garden belonging to William Windhan Esq. 1781”. As you might imagine it was ornately scripted with fascinating detail of the quality of the produce of the gardens and this has thankfully got those creative juices flowing once again.

The produce of the gardens still plays an important role in the modern day Felbrigg, with food from the gardens been used in both the café and brassiere and I think it would be very interesting to tie in this historical reference within the visuals of the project. Creating a much-needed layer to a project that is after all based on a National Trust property.

If you want to visit the Archive Centre do check out this link for more details: http://www.archives.norfolk.gov.uk/

So that’s the traditional research but I have also discovered the joys of Pinterest, which I am using to create visual mood boards to put the project in context. In Pinterest own words it “lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web” and I am finding it very useful indeed!

Please check out my pin boards at: http://m.pinterest.com/rugartist/

Take care

Anna x