GREAT-GRANDMOTHER Anne Harris has begun a fortnight as artist in residence at Guggleton Farm Arts at Stalbridge.

She will be in The Milking Parlour Gallery until Friday, September 8, working on a project close to her heart – the impact of the human race on the planet.

Anne, from Stalbridge, took her hobby of kiting to the extreme in the 1990s, designing and creating giant inflatable creatures, using a domestic sewing machine.

And she was invited to kite festivals all over the world.

Anne soon found out that when there was no wind, she could inflate her creations using blowers, and they were even inflated indoors.

In 1995 Anne was first invited to take inflatables to the Theatre & Circus Fields at Glastonbury Festival.

She also created a 120ft high silver pyramid using layers of flags with a 30ft phoenix appliqué lit from behind, to depict the first Pyramid Stage, which had burned down the previous year and rose again in 1996.

Anne continued to do bigger and bigger displays at Glastonbury, where she made her first non-flying inflatables, such as Merlin, a 33ft high wizard.

Her last Glastonbury Festival as a performer was in 2004.

The inflatables were also present at the side of the Thames near Tower Bridge for the Millennium celebrations.