A little bit of hand stitching

Took some time out to finish a little piece I started  a while back - the design emerged from some old sketches of burst seed pods. Using painted felt for some dimensional texture on a dyed background I then  drew the design together with hand stitching.

Over in Houston

Over in Houston at the IQA quilt show - even after 4 days not sure I have seen all the quilts........ what is very obvious this year is the increase in the number of digital art pieces - some were basically photographs stitched over - not my cup of tea...but others were images which were manipulated and over printed and or painted - these I liked more - particularly liked one by the Artist  Wen Redmond where the digital imagery is used to such good effect.

Took a colour theory class with Jane Dunnewold - really helpful - whilst I have always felt confident about using colour and have read so much theory including Albers weighty tome on the subject the hands on colour mixing class was very worthwhile. Photos below

These were the pigments we used  to cover  the 12 basic hues

Colour exercises

Rust

I recently was away in Lancashire on a textile retreat - I was just there doing my own thing, others were taking classes, namely a class on rust. Now rust on fabric has never really inspired me - although I have used it in the past to represent rusty nails in a barn door on a piece - but seeing the results of those on the course tempted me to have a go. One of the reasons I had not been too impressed previously was the time it took to see the results. Things have moved on a bit.......

Anyways, having a few hours to spare, I found lots of scraps of silk, cotton, organza etc and decided to try my own version of rusting........ ( the class had mainly used tea (tannic acid) to rust their pieces and also some red wine.)

I tried the following acids:

• black tea
• Citric acid
• Cream of tartar(tartaric acid)
• white vinegar
• red wine
• rhubarb juice (has some oxalic acid in it)

The basic method was to wrap the rusty bit in the wetted fabric with thread and leave to activate the rust, then leave them to dry- nothing scientific about my approach just had time to 'play' for a couple of hours.

A couple of days later it was clear that things had happened see photos below - all had rusted to some degree - the most disappointing was the red wine that just left a greyish hue and a few specs.

Some of the different pieces that were rusted  laid out together.

I particularly liked the effect of rusty nails on silk organza using lemon juice as the activator, see below

With some rusty tools you can see the imprint of the mark as with the file below, whilst it has worked I think I prefer the more random effects achieved with more nondescript items and wire wool.

I do need to label the pieces so I know which acid reacted on which piece! I do know that the large piece below was wire wool on cotton treated with tartaric acid ( cream of tartar dissolved on warm water)

Having played with the rust - it was fun to see what the results were but it is not something I will pursue; however I have lots of pieces to play with and stitch - I will post how I get on!

Catching up

Well, having spent the last five weeks away from base on an extended break in Europe, I am pleased to be back in my space  getting on with some new work. 

I have been using some of my discharged fabric for a piece for the Voyage group. I used various discharge agents and print blocks to remove the dyed colour before I machine stitched the images, really enjoyed the freedom to machine where I felt appropriate.

Sisterly activity

Well after four marvellous days at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham back home with my sisters for company and caught up with some thread dyeing.

My sister Sue, cannot get a decent range of threads when she lives in Andalucia so we decided to produce a range of plain and varigated threads in a range of weights for her to take back with her.

We stranded a selection of white cottons, linen and some silk threads, soaked them in soda ash, drained the soda ash off then added concentrated procion dyes to the thread trays.

We left them to 'cure' overnight then rinsed until clear - it always surprises me that using this method seems to take up all the pigment - very little dye rinses out.  First dried on old towelling then pegged outside to dry. Pleasing result, bright clear colours - but did discover some 'cotton ' perle sold at the FOQ did not take the dye - a little burn test later showed it was some polyester mix thread.

What a way to spend an afternoon

Just came in from the garden and found a message on the answerphone - my pal down the road had made up a pot of indigo dye for some of her shibori work and it was not exhausted - did I want to drop in some more fabric?...........

One hour later and after lots of fabric scraps had been slowly lowered into the deep green vat then pulled out into the oxygen in the air where it converted to blue, I brought a bags of dripping wet fabric home to dry on the line.

Catching up

After a very hectic few weeks - time to find some space to start some new work. Spent a week up in the Lakes on a textile retreat with like minded souls, mainly from the northwest contemporary quilt group. A perfect restful setting for contemplative textile pursuits - Rydal Hall is a large Victorian  house converted into a residential centre.

Even in February there were plenty of sources to inspire work.





















Rydal Beck was in full spate as it tumbled through the grounds into Rydal Water.

I loved the bracket fungus on the ancient tree - I am sure I will use the image in the future.

A lot of time was spent sketching - found some more jug shapes!

The week was the opportunity to complete work and start developing new pieces.  I had started working on
my 2014 pieces for Voyage - an international group I belong to - the theme this year is 'Earth' and I am approaching this  from the perspective of earth marks, marks made by early man  - from incisions on stones and early construction to the early trail marks and pilgrim trails.

My first piece is based on the pots of the Beaker people, who lived across northern Europe around the time just before the Bronze age. My earlier work based on Jugs - helped me here! I researched the shapes and incised marks made on the pots (I found some examples locally at the Lincoln Museum) and then tried to create a design where the decorative marks would appear to float over the surface.

The piece started as usual with white cloth, dyed, then inktense blocks were used to create the pot images and shading. The incised marks were painted on with thickened dye before quilting the piece.

This evening I have been preparing some screens ready for a bit of deconstructed printing on dyed cloth as I need to create a lot of background cloth for future work.

Jean

Away from base

Spent the weekend in Kings Lynn and West Norfolk - Col was keen to see more of the maritime history connected to the old docks in Kings Lynn and more specifically about the explorer John Vancover. Had a lovely time cycling around the area and along the River Ouse and coastline - lovely area for doing a few sketches - an interesting view everyway you turn -but only got a little hand stitching done over the last few days!

I had taken a scrap piece -( muslin that had leftover scrap strips of dyed organza felted into the surface) and some cream thread  and I just randomly stitched tracks across the piece. It is a lovely feeling doing a running stitch through a loose woven piece - very tactile and easy to do. The silk organza breaks down very easily when felted and  produces an unusual  surface finish.

 

The hand stitching spurred me on to more stitching so rummages around and found a space dyed left over piece of silk dupion. I used some wool wadding and an open weave muslin backing to form a quilt sandwich and  played with stitches on this. I used my hand dyed threads of different colours and values to make the 'tracks' across the piece.

 Just a bit of a diversion from current work - but I do enjoy playing with simple stitches...................

Developing the design

I really like this jug shape - having a lot of fun trying out different approaches - decided to cut two templates of different sizes of the same jug so I could try out a range of ideas. I scaled up the design then cut out with some template plastic.

Inktense pencils and sticks seem to be best way to try out my designs; a range of colours that could blend into the background fanbric. I tried first an actual sized piece of the final art cloth  on paper, to see how realistic the sizes of the designs would be on the larger scale. I washed in with a large brush the inktense pencils. I am reasonably happy with the scale of the shapes but realise I need to consider how to use the designs as I do not want whole jug shapes but suggestions of the shapes part line and forms.

Next, I want to try out the inktense sticks and pencils on fabric to see how they could blend in on fabric so a few little tries both on white and coloured backgrounds.

It does look as if the technique might work - but do I background dye before I add the design or after..... Need to think about that over the week end!

New week - new project

 Wet and windy outside - time to get on with a new piece. I have a lovely glass jug - not very big but I have always liked the line and shape of the design - so this is a starting point for a new piece. I took a number of different shots to capture the reflections from different light sources.

  

I then started playing around with sketches and watercolour backgrounds  to see how I could use the line and shape in different ways.

My vision was to use part outlines of the image, repeating itself over a background,  so I continued to play for a few hours. I still have a long way to go before I can feel confident I have a viable design - but content to mull over progress so far and work on this further later this week.

I think I prefer the effect of using the linse of the jug almost as a mask against a coloured background rather than using the line itself - but further work needed!

Busy week

Well it has been a very busy week - had three pieces in an embroidery exhibition in Oakham in Rutland so went off to view the exhibition. As ever with exhibitions I marvel at the inventiveness of others in their creative pieces. I forgot to photograph my pieces before I submitted them- so will post the photo's after the exhibition has finished.

Just been working a stitched and felted piece which I am doing as a commission - felting is not a regular pursuit I have to say, but occasionally I like to play if the medium suit the subject as it did in this case. I recently finished a series based on the Peak District moors reflecting the colours of the moors, the heather, broom and bracken. ( We camped up there in September and took tons of photos which I used as a source.) I was asked to do an additional small piece hence this piece below.



The piece was based on some open weave linen which I started layering with strips of dyed silk, silk organza and silk wools. I felted the base pieces down and added more strips then introduced the yellow and gold for the broom.

There were quite a lot of layers in the end as I could not initially get the impression of swathes of broom amongst the heather - so much so that the linen backing started to disintegrate - you can get carried away with the embellisher!  I ended up completing the felting with an additional piece of navy cotton to hold the piece together! I think I have done enough embellishing /felting for a while...............

Used my usual technique with a frame to decide which part of the felting would work for the final  piece; all I have to do now is get on with the stitching - some hand and some machine I think.  Watch this space!

Quick piece for a suitcase

Just posted off a small 10" X 7" piece for the SAQA suitcase collection, I enjoyed working small scale on this piece having done a number of much larger pieces in the same series. As usual the base was dyed and discharged cotton with painted fusible web and dyed  silk organza pieces before machine stitching and adding flecks of gold leaf.  

Fragments

"An abstract expression of the creative journey taken by the artist, discarding the fragments of previous ideas and designs as they search for   inspiration for the next piece of work."

The detailed photo below shows more of the layers and gold leaf.