April Moon 2016

The completed April Moon, 2016. 

This one has a lot of stitches on it; and various silks that came from a fabric sample book: re-purposed silk. I've been making sketches of the stitching I've done on each Moon. My idea is to make a drawing of all 12 moons, which I'll get made into a giclee print. And sell. A small print; affordable. Ready for September, when the textile works will be exhibited. I am stitching........and gardening......and working......

February Moon 2016

Completed; and photographed on a camping trip in May. I took some fabric and stitching stuff along, so I could work on this project. It was beautiful weather, and I worked on this, and another piece. 
Very slow stitching.

12 Moons

 12 Moons; completed

 12 Moons; the backside

 in process

 in process

in process

It's taken a few months to complete this; I was determined to get it finished before the end of the year! Cut the last thread last night. It's the first stitched piece of a planned series. I usually work in sets; this one continues the habit. This has no dyed fabric in it; the set will have much more plant dyed fabric. I've got a huge stash of fabric I've dyed, and I love the process of dyeing. But it's time to begin using, as well as colouring. 2016 begins with creativity!  

slow stitiching

 Nine Circles; complete.

 Close up; and incomplete

How one piece begets another......Twelve Circle.......unfinished.

honeysuckle....Vessels

Work ongoing on the honeysuckle frame; printed paper; stitched together and onto the frame. It's tough on the fingers. I use a thimble. I need to bind the frame together with less 'twist' in the honeysuckle. It has a tendency to pull in different directions, which makes the stitching even harder. More thought needs to go into the initial frame. A steep learning curve!

Tee-shirt commission

So I was asked to print a tee-shirt; a paid commission. Course, it's done on 'mate's rates' which means the cost in no way came close to the amount of time it took me; but that doesn't matter.
Above is the completed design...sideways on. All hand stitched...I couldn't get to my sewing machine, due to various furniture being moved around. And hand-printed.

Close-up of the print, and some stitching detail. I printed from a collagraph plate I made a while ago. It had feather, and seed-heads on it, which you can see has been picked out in the foreground of this photo.

This blue fabric is from a pack of rather wierd and wonderful fabric....which is somehow impregnated by chemicals that make 'photograms'. You place objects, or made stencils, on top of the fabric; leave out in the sun, and you get this change of colour. Solar printing I believe it's called. Took me back to the days of doing black and white photography in my loft!
The tee has ended up with 2 methods of printing; and hand-stitching used on it. I have more pieces of this fabric, so I'll be making some stencils, that I can use on them, in different permutations.  

stitching eclipse........

work in progress......

 Starting out!

 

 the stitched lines

 

The silk before stitches.

Dyed with pomegranate; I made it in a project with some young people at work. We did a project on Labyrinths, and plant dyeing.

The silk has been lying around, while I decided what to do with it. Then, looking through blogs, I found a reference to the native grasses of New Mexico; and how they (like all grasses) hold the soil together. An image came; and from that, I began stitching. This is very minimal, and with very neutral colours.   



tending/mending

It's almost completed, this one! Just the final few stitches to add, and then it'll be already. The exhibition I'm having will be in November, so I shall be busy completing everything for that. At the bottom, is a photo of the Chapel where I'm exhibiting.

I was in Westgate Chapel last weekend, when they were open as part of the Long Division Festival in Wakefield. Lots of bands to see; and some, performing in the Chapel itself. Here are some pews, and stained glass windows. Oh yeah...and some people! 

 

'bandaged heart'

 Close up; the 'heart' with loose threads.

 The complete piece. It's turned out like a small cushion.....so for the exhibition in November, I'm thinking to put it onto a chair, and just hope no-one sits on it!

I printed onto a bandage, and stitched the fabric/s together.

Layers; and stuffed with quilting fibre.

Then stitched onto denim, as the background fabric. 

This was one day in spring, in the very early stages of making, when the sun shone in through the studio door, and illuminated the procian dyed polyester! You can see the texture of the bandage more clearly in this photo.

Experimental Printing

Machine stitching onto blown plastic; with organdie fabric laid over it.

Inked up with fabric paint, and printed onto;

Above; printed onto an old road map.  

 Same print, on water-colour paper.

 Same print; onto fabric

Close-up; of fabric, with additional stitching.

I took this away with me this week, when I went off to Anglesey camping in my van. Sitting in the sun, beer in hand, stitching away.

Just playing, and seeing what happens.

Standedge Tunnel Marsden

 Withy tunnel, of willow, at Standedge Visitor's Centre, Marsden.

 Standedge Tunnel, Marsden.

Up high in the Pennines, on the border, between Yorkshire and Lancashire.

The river at Marsden, tumbling over the weir. We went on Easter Monday, a couple of weeks ago. It was a gorgeous sunny day....surprising for a bank holiday! And now we have another bank holiday, so I'm in the garden, tending.

And stitching!



studio wall

Some of the collage samples I'm currently working on, pinned up on my studio wall. I'm using lots of the plant-dyed fabric I've made over the last 12 months or so. And I'm going through the fabrics I dyed on the City & Guilds course, and various fabrics I've collected, and been given.
These are all going towards an exhibition in November. It seems a long way away, but it will soon come round.

heart stitched

 On such a dreach day as today, all it's fit for is to stay home and stitch!

This rain; rain; rain. Flooding in the south of England; dreary wet here in Yorkshire.

sky & stich

The winter sky, reflected in the lagoon near to where I live. Strange how the sky didn't seem quite that shade of blue when I took the photo? Cerulean.

Seed stitch on different fabrics; at the bottom is the walnut dyed silk; top left is onion dyed cotton; 2 re-cycled slices of red silk stitched onto a cotton/linen fabric dyed in a black bean dye-pot. The black on the right is gifted silk.

rend & mend #4

Completed.

rend & mend #3

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

rend & mend #2

Throughout December I've been stitching this. I cut up the Rend & Mend collography print (printed on rust and woad dyed cotton), and added black reclaimed silk and plant-dyed silk pieces. Then proceeded to seed stitch over the surface. 
I've also been thinking and designing some small pieces. They're still in the early stages.
I may incorporate some beautiful wool fabric (tweed?) that came to me from my dad, via Rob. It's old; my dad was going to have it made up into a suit, many decades ago. He never did get that suit, so mum gave it to Rob when my dad died. And Rob never got that suit; so it's come to me. There's loads of it, so I've given some away; and could quite fancy a skirt, or pair of trousers made from the remainder! Meantime; I've got a lot of wool to use for my fabric work.

crazy shirt

Back

Not quite a 'crazy quilt' because I've not done any padding/quilting on this shirt. But it is 'pieces' I've stitched over the shirt; the purple cotton underneath. I started it last winter; as part of my plan to keep warm throughout winter/s, and also an attempt to reduce my heating bills; in this country we have people having to choose between eating, and heating. So; having come across sashiko stitches, and learning from Saskia about 'Boro' and the way fabric and stitches are used in traditional Japanese working-class communities, I decided to 'just sew' and patch a shirt that I could pull on over my clothes, and layer up to keep warm. Because it's so random, and un-designed, it won't matter about keeping it clean, or neat, or tidy. I can just chuck it into the washer when it needs washing; I can just put it over layers, and put a fleece over the top of it if I want. It's cotton, so it's not too bulky; I can use it in the studio; in the garden; camping; it will be useful in all sorts of situations.  

Front

And it's on the final push! I've stitched almost all the way round the shirt, and am onto the left-hand front side. Gonna leave the sleeves as they are. The patches are a mix of bought fabric; gifted fabric; and fabric hand-dyed by me.
The stitches strengthen the fabric; they create increased insulation; they add texture; and each one made by hand!

As I'm typing this, R6 Tom Robinson show is playing music in tribute to Nelson Mandela, to mark his death. And tonight is the anniversary of John Lennon's death. Feels a dark time, as we lead up to the longest night.
Dusk fell early. I was out in the garden pottering about; watching a stunning sky of orange clouds illuminated from below.

dorothy caldwell

A couple of Thursdays ago, I went to the Knit & Stitch Show at Harrogate. I bought plenty of supplies & equipment. And filled my eyes with the artists on display.
The loveliest by far was the textile work of Dorothy Caldwell.
She was on her stand, and I managed to catch her when she wasn't busy, and grab a quick word. She was friendly, open, happy to talk. And happy to allow me to take a photo (top) of the huge textile piece. Which can be unusual at Harrogate, where there are lots of notices saying 'No photographs please' where people are displaying their artwork. I told her I'd read the article about her in the most recent edition of 'Embroidery' magazine. She liked it, as did I; it was my first introduction to her work. I asked about her friendship with India Flint, whose blog I follow, and books I read. We both expressed our admiration for India.
Dorothy talked about the similarity between inner Australia and sub-Arctic Canada; that both were 'deserts'. An interesting concept, given that one is baking heat, and the other is biting cold.

Extremes of landscape; something that I'm unfamiliar with, living in Britain. We have a very temperate climate; a blessing really. Although the last two years have been fairly extreme in our weather; 2012 was almost continual rain throughout the whole of the summer. Then we had a very cold, very LONG winter, which seemed to go on until April 2013.
This summer has been glorious sunshine; hot, warm, and balmy. But, interestingly, we've not experienced much of spring or autumn. We've had beautiful spring blossom, and fabulous autumn colours on the trees. Yet I've missed that feeling of moving through from one season to the next; it's been more of a sudden abrupt shift.