As a lifelong crocheter, I have created votive objects or fetishes for aspects of the Power Station’s deity, intended to evoke consideration of Liddell’s people, place and purpose. Humans venerate and placate deities in the natural environment. My Liddell Thinking Caps respond to the perhaps-ironic respect that Liddell employees have for the Liddell environment – a dangerous provider-goddess.

Liddell was originally conceived by a mostly male workforce as female. She was ‘Lady’ because women were ‘fickle’. I’ve used crochet to create a series of hardhats, which are symbols of workplace protection, using a process that is traditionally considered to be ‘women’s work’. This focus is a gentle reminder of other times, ‘norms’, and gender roles – it acknowledges lady workers and the Lady herself.

My series begins with flecked, off-white and natural-fibre hardhats. These reflect the Lady’s basic protective role. Then lurid synthetic greens, hi-vis oranges and yellows bounce against black, reiterating light and shade. Freeform lacework reveals contrasting inners. Assorted widths and directions of rib showcase ubiquitous parallel and intersecting lines, in the patterning of Liddell’s structures.

Finally, Schroedinger’s Big Picture Hat for Lady Liddell, is a reversible, continuous-surfaced, cranium-confection, combining past, present and future. One side of the Big Picture Hat holds an aerial image of Liddell, complete with miniature power station embellishment. On the reverse, a complex double-rainbow; a reminder of hopes and concerns, but ultimately a delight for the goddess.