My travelling ‘campaign bag’
The term campaign in association with bags/luggage is historically associated with the military from the time of Julius Caesar up to the start of the 20th century. It was used to describe the furniture and various paraphernalia that could be broken down or folded up for easy transportation when “on the move”.
More recently it has been associated with leisure and sporting and has a more “luxury” connotation - associated with a bygone era.
The Bag
I stitch, sketch, draw and paint.
My travelling campaign 'bag' is something I can pick up whenever I am leaving home for more than a day - be it a trip to Norfolk to my mother, London to see my son and family, France to visit my daughter and grand-daughter or going on holiday. It contains all the essentials to enable me to carry on my creative practice wherever I find myself.
I do not consider my travelling campaign bag a luxury item. It is essential to my life and well being. For example, even when I am at home it is a reference point for my current daily slow-stitching, I always know where to find my thread, needles scissors etc. It is more relevant when I am away from home as my 'bag' will hold not only stitching tools but also art supplies for sketching, drawing, painting wherever I am. And last but not least - my laptop may well be in there too!
Looking back, I now realise when away from home, my mother often travelled with a rug making kit and knitting items as well as letter writing accoutrements. My sister does the same and I now recognise that I have always liked to travel with some kind of 'bag' which contained enough ‘kit’ such as pencils, watercolour, mixed media, in order to record whatever caught my eye, in particular when on holiday in Cornwall - the striped rocks, pebbles on the beach and the waves.
Sketching in Cornwall
I sometimes use a small plastic bag like you get in airports for liquids under 100ml. I also use a much larger woven bag with leather handles bought at Jigsaw a few years ago. This is when I’m travelling by car and I can add my laptop as well as drawing and sketching materials. Sometimes all of these go into a backpack. I found this essential while on our recent Cornish holiday as it meant I could ‘grab & go’ whenever we went ‘out and about’ and could use any available opportunity to sketch or stitch.
Since before Lockdown I have, and continue, to use a small ‘wash bag’ zipped holdall in which I have watercolour and other media plus small sketchbooks and postcards to make paintings on. When out walking at home I often use an even smaller pouch/bag which contains very few items, as it is easy to carry and access when I need it.
In October 2023, encouraged by Lesley Samms, I started a 20 minute daily slow stitching practise giving myself certain rules which included using linen thread to make experimental marks/stitches on pieces of my Artisan Linen which I had eco-dyed in the 2020 Winter Lockdown. Knowing that in the middle of that month I would be travelling on Eurostar to Paris I selected a very small bag made from my Artisan Linen to hold said linen, a few linen threads, needles and, as suggested by a friend, nail clippers rather than scissors. The bag was made in the early 2000s by Marnie, who worked for me in The Linen Shop, before she returned to Canada in 2007.
Linen campaign bag with Japanese scissors
I think my choice of 'bag' probably reflects my personality - if it is large I can include too much stuff. Interestingly, as I have to decide in advance what I put in and what I leave out, it has focused my creativity. It gives me an opportunity to think ahead a bit more.
An idea I have been musing on recently is possibly ‘designing’ a travelling campaign bag that could be manufactured and sold to the public...! Watch this space...
The contents
The contents of my 'bag' have changed as my creative practice or travel needs have evolved.
My stitching kit always includes needles, scissors - one of these is a specialist Japanese pair - my current pieces of stitching and the appropriate threads. On holiday I travelled with a large cone of blue linen, like those used in an Industrial Mill for making a warp. This caused many comments from my fellow holiday makers. In addition my campaign bag has recently included an unusual shaped piece of charcoal which I found on the beach - a remnant from someone’s barbecue maybe?
When I started my slow stitching ritual I worked intuitively with a small palette of linen threads starting on a new piece of eco-dyed linen fabric each month. After about 6 months my stitching started changing course. At that point I only had odd shaped pieces of eco-dyed linen left. I decided to join a couple together having first made ink marks on one piece using a handmade feather brush.
Slowly I realised my stitching was mirroring my art project which had developed from an online course I joined in May 2024 where I had focused on a Walnut Tree in my daughter’s garden in France.
I’ve now learnt to pre-select yarns/thread specific to the current pieces I am working on. If a new month starts while I am away from home I like to have this new work ready to start on, although more recently I have been working across several different pieces irrespective of the month.
I try to be selective in what I put in my 'bag' otherwise it can get crammed full!
At the moment I pack items for my stitching followed by a selection of art supplies and tools. On our recent Cornish holiday I took a watercolour box, a small bag of stone shaped wax crayons [useful for me & when playing with my grand-daughter] a couple of sketchpads and wooden boards with clips. These were particularly useful when I was working outdoors on the beach in preparation for a ‘Day on the Beach’, a workshop I’d booked that started shortly after we got home.
Cleaning my 'bag' when I return from travelling happens rarely but I do carefully sort and re-order my home sewing desk/area.
Nor have I ever shared my bag with others. I guard it carefully; so far there has not been an occasion I can recall where I have shared it. I would feel bereft if I found myself without any means of creating.
Special and significant memories
In May 2022 I visited my new grand-daughter in France. I took an appliqué wall hanging I had been working on for several years. While there I did a lot of stitching when Molly and/or her mother were resting. It gave me a perfect focus at this exciting and slightly overwhelming time, especially as I finished it while there and then left it for her on her wall.
In May 2023 I visited my mother in Norfolk. At the time I was taking part in a Pure Arts Group daily ‘Making in May’ challenge which we posted on Instagram. My theme was noticing rust - on objects and/or in nature. I travelled with some of my collection of rusty objects plus the zipped holdall for my paints etc. My mother reminded me to do this daily painting which validated it for me.
Rusty objects
When in Cornwall in June 2023 I had my ‘travel kit’ with me with the intention of practising using the wind to draw on paper. This was research in preparation for a workshop that several of us gave in April 2024.
Wind drawings
In Cornwall this year (2024) I thought I might run out of linen thread, I visited a specialist textile shop I had spotted - Estuary Textiles, in Wadebridge. I rummaged through this treasure trove and unearthed some very interesting vintage sewing linen made in Scotland by Knox, a name I hadn’t previously heard of.
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