Stirling Steward - glas



Drawn to colour of River, in River.

Absorbing, expressing, echoing surrounding environment.

Water transparent yet we associate it blue.

Reflection of sky.

I see multitudinous tones & shades of green & blue & brown & grey… with white & black, occasionally purple, silver & gold. Reflection & accumulation of rock & mud & tree & plant life. In this territory of subtlety I’m fascinated particularly by the fine lines between blues & greens. I find that language too blurs these boundaries. In many languages colexification (different meanings being expressed by the same word) occurs with colours too, for example historically Japanese had a single word, "ao," that encompassed both blue and green > Blue sky: 青い空 (aoi sora) and Blue ocean: 青い海 (aoi umi). Mostly the distinction between blue and green became more pronounced as cultures and languages developed. Yet there is nuance in these words that inhabit an in-between, especially when describing the natural world. The Welsh, Cornish, and Breton word glas is usually translated as 'blue’ yet it can also refer to the colour of the sea, of grass (in Welsh glaswellt), and the old Welsh words tir glas mean ‘green land'.


In tandem to visits to the river I collect fabrics in a wide spectrum of ‘river colours’. Asking friends and family for any material scraps or old clothes not good enough to send to charity shops, that might otherwise end up in landfill.

I patch-work to create a ‘river’ of discarded colours, a waterscape on land, at my sewing machine. At first I imagine taking this ever growing river cloth to the river, into the water, wondering what may be evoked through immersing it & moving with it there. Yet I’m aware my creation contains fabrics with fibres of many origins - natural & synthetic. So with potential to release chemical content or micro plastics into the river this idea stalls.

I research the huge volumes of water used in fabric production & in washing our clothes; the pollutants as a consequence of much of the textiles industry; waste due to fast fashion/cheap clothes that are not durable. I watch videos of piles of clothes burning in the desert; absorb information about micro plastics in our water & inside the creatures for whom rivers & ocean are home (35% of micro plastics come from doing laundry in our homes!) I read about rivers that have zero oxygen left in them to support life.


And I wonder what I can do?



Small every day choices,

my commitment comes and goes, some habits are deep set, consequences less felt in my own immediate experiencing take longer to assume responsibility for.

I can >

*Wash my clothes less;

* Install a filter on my washing machine outlet, or a mesh bag to wash my clothes in, to catch microfibres;

* Buy natural fibres;

* Buy clothes second hand rather than new;

* Find places to take end of ‘life’ clothes & cloth products - this is harder than it sounds. Mixed fibre cloth has been considered hard to recycle, the natural & synthetic fibres are near impossible to separate and make new fibres from. However many new technologies & ideas are being developed to turn mixed fibres into carpet underlay, insulation, stuffing for furniture & bedding, even to make furniture. However the percentage of cloth that actually gets recycled is tiny compared to cloth that ends up in landfill, and collection of cloth is not municipal and so is reliant on individuals to research & action this themselves. Here’s a good resource for finding places close to you to take fabrics for recycling > https://www.recyclenow.com/how-to-recycle;

* Connect with local environment river organisations, find out more;

* Write to Dwr Cymru to ask for clearer, faster action to clean up our rivers…


Is making art part of this picture?


I spend time on the riverbank in a wild spot, close to human habitation but no human comes here I am sure. There is life in abundance. From the tiny multitudinous many species of flying insects (I have learnt they spend months, sometimes years, as larvae in the water yet only hours or days on the wing in the air) to brightly coloured dragonflies, jumping fish, heron, otter, mink (contentious in their presence, yet still enchanting to witness going about their watery existence). Perhaps the base line is altered from generations gone by, and I am marvelling at what was once fuller, more densely alive, yet I am grateful & hopeful sitting here on the bank.

And I swim, wade, immerse.

Absorbing the texture, colour, sound, touch of this unique part of the water web through my skin, from within the weave of life, not separate to it. I watch for elements that stay the same in the river scape ever moving… a flat rock that is variously under, above or at water level, in midst of continual movement & change. Noticing the water movement, patterns in repeat. I do not want to bring many people here, preserving the secret wildness.


And so I continue to sew the river cloth. It becomes my way of taking a representation of water to others, hopeful that moving with a river of clothing and textiles, that would otherwise maybe have ended up in landfill, might offer a chance to stop & think.

To play, to tangle, be above or beneath,

emerge, submerge, wearing the ‘water’…

How can we get creative around these issues without heaping on the guilt that can be so paralysing? Shine a light, offer some choices, acknowledge we are all in this together.



Maynard Abercych



1 Penrhiw, Abercych, Pembrokeshire, SA37 0HB