samples.......

Fragment of one of my small samplers. Top right, some tweed from my dad; top left black cotton discharged with bleach; bottom; a lovely old hankerchief which has original embroidery on it that I've embellished. It was put into an avocado, and put into the compost heap last year. The blotches come from that process. This is one more work in progress........ 

rend & mend #4

Completed.

rend & mend #3

This is just about completed now. The close-ups show the stitching nicely I think.

bleached fabric; dispersal

Black cotton folded and Domestos bleach dripped onto the folds. I left it a few days, until I could see the fabric lighten. Rinsed it out quickly so the bleach didn't rot the fabric, and create holes.....though that could turn out to be a happy accident? Next time?
The fabric really is black; the second photo shows a more true colour.

I pinned it onto the cotton/linen mix fabric that I'd dyed using black bean water. It's a bit too heavy, so I'm experimenting with different ones. I'm stitching that seed stitch I'm so taken with. The next thing really is to get the right fabric to attach to it. Then I can stitch away to my heart's content........is one's heart ever content?

sample #1

For my City & Guilds course I have to make 7 samples, of A3 size, and a completed piece. This is Sample #1.
It involves pole-wrapping/tie-dyeing; transfer dyeing; stitched embellishments. And at the bottom is a piece of rust-dyed silk, stitched on.
I used the collography plate I made at home, as a surface for transfer printing. 
I also made another collography plate using lace and netting, especially for this process. I've been ironing the transfers onto fabric, ready for use. It feels that the work I'm making for this section of the C&G is showing a development of my skills.  

collography & stitching

I've been working on the collograph print that I made t'other week. Using a mix of different threads, I've stitched onto the linen/cotton fabric. 
It feels too busy. I've begun the next printing plate, which is much more limited. It has fewer textures glued onto it. But this is an experiment, so it's all playing, and seeing how things fit at the moment.
I'm at that stage of 'unknowing' now. Don't know what to do with it. So I'll put it aside for now, and pin it on my studio wall, to look at it out of the corner of my eye, and hope it speaks to me to show the next step.
More felt-making to come; preparing the felt that I'll later print onto. 

Woolgathering

The Exhibition 

'Woolgathering', 

                        1) to engage in fanciful daydreaming; the idle or absent-minded indulgence in fantasy.

                        2) gathering tufts of wool shed by sheep & caught on bushes.

After spending some time dreaming of, and counting sheep, Jan & Jill have gathered wool from various sources and created a series of art works using wool, and incorporating fabric.

They have made 2D & 3D works, reflecting their different interests and influences. 

Jill has been making felt for a number of years, recently completing a City & Guilds course. Jan became interested in wool and felt-making, and began to explore textiles as a medium. Through experiments with dye-ing using plants, stitching and mark-making, Jan is extending her artistic practise into the material world.

The artists; Jan Millington & Jill Halsall

The media; Felt and Textiles

The venue; Project Space, Westgate Studios, Wakefield

The date; Wednesday 28th November 2012 as part of Wakefield Artwalk

               (to view by arrangement with Westgate Studios after 28th)

Blue SeaScape

A textile piece I started on the Creative Textiles course last year; only recently completed. Well, a lot of hand stitching went into it. It's layers, and collaged fabric, and machine & hand stitching. I think it's finished now....knowing when to stop, that can be difficult.

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.

Uffington Horse 3

This is the second felt that goes with the brown felt (below) that depicts the Uffington Horse; the second piece of the diptych.
The colour has changed; the tiny stitches at the forefront of the felt, isn't blue, as it appears here, the cotton is a 'silver-grey', from Green Fibres, an organic cotton thread.

Felt & the Uffington Horse 2

I've been embellishing the Uffington Horse felt piece. Using space dyed cotton I dyed on my course, I stitched these marks. In the background is the stitched Uffington Horse.
The second part of this diptych is about completed I think.