As the image says, I hope it will be a good one

i should really be posting work but in a way this is work as all the letters have been taken from my current project.

i hope one and all have a great Christmas and wonderful 2015

 

New work, a start

it has taken a time but one weekend retreat and some new found enthusiasm has motivated me. 'STA' are having an exhibition at Ilminster Arts Centre next year. Theme is 'On the Edge' so i have been looking at people and in particular people on the edge of society.
sometime ago i bought a box of men's white collars, beautiful things in their own right but all together they create an interesting mass.

Box of 'Summit' collars

heavily starched they don't feel like textile, more like cardboard and the idea of wearing them - no thanks!

 i am using them as my metaphor for society and white collar workers however i found them too rigid and straight so decided to deconstruct them. this was easier psychologically than i thought it would be, the fun creative side winning over the accredited conservator. it was actually highly therapeutic.

this is still very much work in progress. as before i am using text and building up individual words but you can see how exciting the collar has become now it is deconstructed, like deconstructing society to find those on the edge.  

Faces of Conflict

just met Paddy Hartley who is making new work for an exhibition next year at RAMM (Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter) such a lovely man. Really looking forward to it.

 

Pathways at Ilminster

yesterday i delivered my work to ilminster arts centre for inclusion in the South West Textile Groups exhibition 'Pathways' that opens tomorrow until 25th October.
the piece i have included although small took a long time and with much angst but here it is! 

the story shows how we learn from an early age to write and sew, stitching samplers and on to dress making and reading

samplers and lazy daisy stitch shapes

join the dots when learning to write

 

giant cross stitch on gingham

i have used wool, linen, ramie, paper and oxidised metal to make this 70" long sampler incorporating letterpress print. each numbered section is an old fashioned 1"

What the difference a day makes

spent yesterday working on prehistoric remains from dartmoor to posting monoprints from Summer School wow!
this year i went to the Textile Study Group Summer School at Farncombe and worked with Sarah Burgess. we were mainly working with mono prints on papers and textile, cutting and inserting and wrapping things.
the workshop was called 'Landscapes of the imagination'

 my inspiration for the workshop included these images taken from the top of a bus on the way to Lyme Regis on a wet day. i have been working with these images and other 'voids' for a while.

my inspiration board

my inspiration board with a few of my monoprints. i loved the effects achieved on tissue and abaca.

based on the images above

i also had a go at wrapping some pine needles found at Farncombe and using the pine needles as masks for the actual printing hence the odd 'people' shapes above.

insertions of hair nets and printed organdie

printing black on black then cutting and inserting brought items

 i have since been playing with a piece of black organdie i printed on the workshop but that has a long way to go and other things are calling at the moment.

Stitch Textile Artists

i have recently joined the Stitch textile Artists masterclass with Sian Martin. we met at Ammerdown and had a wonderfully relaxed but hard working weekend. the day we arrived was absolutely glorious so we went in search of interesting items from their grounds. mainly organic as the grounds are so well kept there wasn't much interesting debris!
However armed with our items we were firstly given the task of drawing them each in 30 seconds. i chose to draw onto some ramie i had with me. progressing on we used chance to determine how we should now proceed with them. i cut mine out and attached them onto linen and then using chance linked them to form a path or border. my items included garden twine, a piece of slate,a twig, a piece of wood and a label.

a quick sketch of garden twine

god knows whats happening to blogger as my images are all over the place and i can't seem to add just text. anyway after the image below should come this one! i made stencils by drawing around my images and then used gesso to stencil them onto linen using the same stitching as on the last image to link. it took ages to pull out the threads for my connecting line which i then coloured with dye.

detail of stencilled images.

 the reason this seems to be all over the place is we have a new computer without my beloved photoshop elements so i am using my husbands laptop and his Corel paintshop which i don't like. anyway hope this shows what i have been up to and it might also explain why i am a bit reluctant to post recently!

 

 

 

here is the finished piece with various drawn items attached to the linen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's always one who brings fabric i was told

i recently went on a letterpress weekend course. it was great and i am converted although it wasn't difficult as i love using type anyway.

 i had an epiphany moment and started using stitch and masks which i was really pleased with. i used a Ramie that i had painted with fabric paint and then starched so it was nice and crisp, ideal for taking print.

 i also used some abaca 'paper' to print on which also worked well but there had to be less pressure on the press otherwise the fibres broke.

organdie also worked well and i discovered that taking a second pressing onto paper after it had been printed onto textile gave a weave print.

i am using some of my results in my latest work so watch this space. 

New Work

it seems a long time ago that i last posted but i have been busy with lots to think about. i have to admit that i cannot multi-task which i am meant to be able to do as a woman but i cannot. i can however think of more than one thing so i am mentally thinking of other works whilst getting on with the current one. SWTG have an exhibition at Ilminster this year with the title 'Pathways'. i have been working on a theme of learning and sampling; how people used to learn from an early age to write, count and later to embroider and make things.

so i have been working on a range of small randomish samples to be joined together which will eventually turn into the spine of a book.....? using some traditional techniques and stenciling etc. so the ones above from right show how we learn to write by joining the dots, then looping through holes, ways of forming letters and counting. these are about 11cm wide.

 
the above three still in the working stage show the ideas of embroidery; the one on the left a representation of 'daisy' stitch

NEC

Just come back from the NEC and thought I would share a couple of pictures showing my pieces in situ.

i thought the colour schemes all worked well together

it was great to see Siân again and to meet Judith at last

Finished

at last i have finished my pieces for the NEC 20th March - 23rd March so anyone in the area please visit the South West Textile Group stand.

'socks'

'tablet void'

 it took a while but i am happy with the results, hope others like them too!

New Work

i have been working on something to show at the NEC in Birmingham in March as part of the South West Textile Group. the brief was to use a 30cm square canvas and have a Romano, Celtic, medieval theme using a certain palette of colours.
i have been thinking of 'voids' for a while now. spaces left by things that are no longer there so for this piece i have been looking at Roman wax writing tablets and the marks left behind on the wood.

wax would be melted into the middle section and then words scraped into the hard wax with a metal stylus.

as usual i got carried away with various drawings.

got a bit carried away with the colours on this one.

 i then made a sample of undyed merino wool felt with oxidised copper strips stamped with letters. i also made a mould of a stack of strips which i have filled with paper pulp and painted with charcoal. the plan is to have lots of dangly metal strips, paper pulp and newsprint pieces simulating scratched voids.

sample

i have started the main piece so will post more later

I have it!

i have my Diploma certificate yippee. Thanks Siân for being such a great teacher and to everyone else on the course who has ever given me encouragement, comments and companionship at summer schools. please continue to pop in and see how i do..... so watch this space.