Jen­ny Watson
Fab­ri­ca­tions

“In July and August of 2014 I had a res­i­den­cy in France. CAMAC is an old château, left to the region by a jazz enthu­si­ast who had had a radio sta­tion there and invit­ed peo­ple like Duke Elling­ton to par­ty after their gigs in Paris.

It’s iso­lat­ed, 200 kilo­me­tres east of Paris, in a small town, Mar­ney-Sur-Seine, with the near­est larg­er town being Nogent.

The château hous­es 8 cre­ative peo­ple at any one time, all from places out­side of France.

My plan was to work with local fab­rics and I was direct­ed to a large ware­house that seemed to have every­thing, from vel­vet fur­nish­ing fab­rics to chif­fon and chintz to old damasks. As I love to work with the ​“atmos­phere” of fab­rics, this place proved to be an Aladdin’s cave.

I also went to the Anvers area of Paris, also full of hab­er­dash­ery stores. Here I sourced cot­tons and organza.

My stu­dio was a love­ly space, with a high ceil­ing, sky­light and my own ancient door open­ing onto a small boathouse on the Seine.

In the last Sun­day of every month the stu­dios were open to the local people.”

Jen­ny Wat­son, 2015