snowy studio #4

The view to the studio, from the house. 

I've been popping in and out, looking for fabric to use on my boro shirt; and also investigating materials I could use on a collagraphy plate. I've cut up an aluminium beer can, to create the basic 'plate'. Now, to create the marks, using the materials I've collected, that will constitute the printing plate.

The snow brings me the perfect opportunity to stay indoors, keeping warm & stitching! I'm drawn to adding patches to the shirt I've been working on; my 'boro' project. Perhaps it's the colours in my hand I crave, when outside all is monochrome? 

I'm using running stitch; all done by hand. Gives a lovely rippled effect to the fabric; 3-dimensional textures. 

Went out for a walk in the snow yesterday, and took some photos of Alverthorpe Beck, including the lagoons. Work is still being done on the flood defences up there. I don't envy the security man having to sit in his portacabin in this weather. He must get cold.

'boro'; stitching and patching

Inspired by Saskia, Grace, and other women following Jude Hill's stitching web-classes, I've bought a man's shirt, and am in the process of using running stitch (sashiko stitches in Japan) to attach patches of cloth to it. This has the benefit of layering the cloth, to both strengthen it, and give it more insulating properties. I believe this is in the spirit of 'Boro'...if not exactly the technique!
'Boro' is another Japanese term, which refers to the mending, and re-using of cloth. It fits well into my ideas about re-cycling and mending.
This shirt is being made with the cold of winter in mind; to keep me warm. However, I'm a very slow hand stitcher, so it may very well be next winter, before I get the benefit from it! In the meantime, I can stitch away, with no pressure. It is a pick up, and put down project.

Palimpsest

 Three photos; not quite matching up......overlaps.

The stitched and layered 'jigsaw' piece; using sashiko stitches; organzie overlay; map lines; aerial photography earth lines.

'woolgathering'

Sections of fabric, hand sewn with 'sashiko' stitches; organzie, machine sewed, layered over it. 
Some of the fabric is hand-dyed; others are scraps from my textile 'grab-bag'. Pinned on the wall of my studio, trying to get enough light on it, to photograph.
I now have to put some small stitches in, to attach the organzie to the fabric behind. I'm hoping it will go into the 'woolgathering' exhibition I'm having with Jill Hallsall at Westgate Studios Project Space, in November, for the Wakefield Artwalk. 
You can see another photo of this piece at 'stitching & dye-ing'#2 dated 17/06/12.

Stitching & Dye-ing 2

A 'work in progress' of the organzie overlay of stitched collaged fabric/s. This is the 'top' of the length of organzie. Approximately one third of the length of the whole piece. It's quite a small piece, 28cm wide, and 91cm long. It has an almost three dimensional quality, too, as the organzie puckers and crinkles under the machine stitching.
I like that.

Stitching & Dye-ing

Using the fabric that I've dyed during the textile course I've been attending, I decided to sew rows of stitches....sashiko-style.....The blue/pink fabric is dyed using procion dye; the stitches are sewn using sashiko thread; and overlayed this, is a length of organzie I'd embellished with machine stitch, more than 12 months ago.

I'm making a collage of fabrics onto which I'm stitching rows, and overlaying these, with the embellished organzie.

The top photo shows the layers; the bottom photo shows the fabric in the process of being stitched.

The starting point of all this was seeing photos taken from the air, of features in landscapes which are invisible from the ground. Air photography has changed the way that archaeologists have looked at the landscape. They show us hidden forms.