sycamore leaf dye-pot

I've spent a productive few hours in the studio today. Put this piece of silk (yes, silk!) into a dye-pot of sycamore leaves.
The silk came from Lynn, who's on the same textiles course as me. So as it's second-hand, it's ok for me to use. Feels ethical. It's a salmon pink colour....not a colour I'd choose, but it will be interesting to see how that changes with the dye bath. Hopefully it will mute it; make it more sludgy. This may be the only time I want a dye to make the fabric go 'sludgy'!
I also began planning what I want to do when the textiles course starts again in 2 weeks time. We have to create 6 sample pieces, all A3 size. So I'm trying to think about how I might use the techniques we cover each week; and use the class to make pieces reflecting my interests.

winter jasmine

Last weekend; more snow.
Me walking out to buy basics and cat food from the local shop.
Dressed in hat, gloves, kagoule, walking boots, waterproof trousers I set out in the slippy, slidey snow.
It was hard work.

Today; most of the snow has gone. Some piled high in the hedgrows, out where it's colder, and the temperatures are lower.
But today we've had sun. Full, bright sun, the sort that warms through! Hurray!
This has been such a long, cold winter. I want spring, and sunlight, and sun-warmth. To not need to wear boots all the time. To cast off some layers of fleeces, and thick socks! Mmmmmmmm.
So here is the last of the winter jasmine, hopefully indicating winter is finally moving, and we can start to make tentative steps into the Spring. I hope so. 

'Halo Moon;Be Alone'

A painting from 2008, when I was busy creating a series of artworks reflecting the lunar year. Thirteen artworks for 13 months. It took me longer than 13 months to complete the set!
This is a big painting on canvas, so I asked the Well Women Centre in Wakefield if they'd like me to donate it to them, as they've recently moved premises, and have some gorgeous big walls to fill.
And there it hangs.

collography and stirch #2

Above is one of the collography prints on paper; in Textiles yesterday I used the sewing machine, and stitched into it. I used a 'foot' that creates loops of stitches. Gives a gorgeous textured surface to the paper!
Below is the plate I printed from; nylon rope pieces, and some lace/net.

mercury retrograde!

                                                           

My friend Shannon sent me this!

I love it!

And today is the last day of this period of Mercury Retrograde! 

Hurray.

collograph print #2

I've just completed my first prints using the second plate I made for collography printing. Above are 2 prints on 100% cotton water-colour paper. The one on the left is the first inking. I deliberately put a small amount of ink on it, to try and vary the intensity of the black. I'm aiming to have a bit more space in the prints, for when I come to stitch onto them later. The second print, I added more ink, and it's quite different. I like the way that a simple act such as the amount of ink on the plate, can have such different effects.

Below; is the print on fabric.
I've used the cotton/linen fabric I've recently dyed using eucalyptus leaves. The fabric without he soya-milk mordant. Again, you can see slight differences in the inked up design.

And here is a close-up of the eucalyptus dyed fabric, showing the print on the right hand side.
I was aiming to include the rust brown splodge (a technical term this) to add tone, and depth of colour to the flat print. I'm pleased with that. Be interesting to see it when it's dry, and I can explore using stitches on it. I think the fact that there's more space in it, will prevent that over-busy look of the earlier collagraphy print I did on fabric.

eucylptus dye #2

 

Top photo is the first dyeing of cotton/linen mix fabric, from a eucalyptus dye-pot.There is a shadow from the washing line! But there is a nice linear pattern come through, due to the folding of the fabric. I wanted to get away from that fixed 'line'. Wanted to make the dye more random, and irregular.
So....I put it into an second dye-pot of eucalyptus. 
Result, below.

It's darkened the fabric. It's softened the lines that had dyed into it. Which is better. Though I have looked onto India Flint's blog, here, where she says that boiling eucalyptus for more than an hour, releases kino, and makes the dye turn more brown. 
So...I think I've been boiling the eucalyptus for too long. Mmmmm; this is the interesting thing about dyeing with plants. You never stop learning, and never stop finding different ways of using plants. I'll try boiling for a shorted time now. 

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. 

the front of the back.....

This is the 'front' of the sample piece I've done for one part of my City & Guilds textiles course.
The 'back' is an earlier post in the blog; titled 'reverse'.
It's all hand stitching; bondaweb (painted); layers of fabric.
We're doing felting at the moment on the course. I'm trying to make some flat felt pieces that I can then use to print on, and embellish.
Lynne, who's on the course with me, has said she has some pieces of silk that she'll pass onto me. I decided I could use second-hand silk, or silk that was given to me. 
I've been stitching on the fabric collagraphy print. It looks a bit 'busy'; and I'm not completely satisfied with it. But it's all experimental at this point, so that's part of the process.
Tomorrow I'm into the studio, and gonna varnish the second collagraphy plate I've made with nylon rope strands, and a bit of lace. Cutting back; linear; simplifying; contours.

'rust never sleeps'

Yesterday was a day encompassing the sublime and the ridiculous. Starting with the ridiculous, when I left the keys in Blanche's ignition (with engine running) got out to open some gates, to park up, and the door shut, and locked me out.....utter panic. Luckily, brother Rob was meeting me, so we raced to my house (yes, leaving Blanche parked up, with engine running!) to get my spare van key.
Well, the complication was that my bag was in Blanche, complete with house keys.....where the van keys were. So, I prayed and prayed that my neighbour Jackie was home, who has a spare set of house keys. She was; so all ended up happy ever after.

The sublime was going down to the Hepworth for a showing of a woman's film, shown on International Women's Day.
It was a performance of Linder (currently exhibiting a selection of her collages) with her band at the Hacienda in 1982. She was dressed in a bodice with stitched on meat (Lady Gaga is apparently a fan of Linder's), and when she turned round to face the audience, had a fastened-on dildo. In 1982 it was stunning; in the 21st Century it's pretty 'everyday'. Shows the ubiquity of sexualisation these days. Hmmmm. It takes a trip down memory lane, to realise how what was once 'explicit', has gone mainstream. You see these kind of images on adverts, and fashion shoots.
Linder describes herself as a feminist. And I'm taken back to all those debates we had where we questioned if using the images of pornography within a feminist context, made them any less oppressive of women.

And above is another rust print. Rust never sleeps, sings Neil Young. Maybe not, but you can sure get some inneresting prints from it, Neil!  

eucalyptus dye-pot

Hmmmmm; not very successful results from the eucalyptus dye-pot I've had on. SO.....this is rolled up again, and popped into the next batch!
I've decided I'm not that fond of the folded patterns. They're not bold enough for me. 
However, this is the cotton/linen mix fabric which wasn't pre-mordanted with soya milk. There are some subtle blobs on the fabric; but they don't stand out enough really. So I've left it in the pot, to see what develops. The other piece of fabric has also been dunked in the second batch. I hope they'll darken. 

weaving #2

This is the 'story so far' of the weaving I began in December. It's still very small; about 3.5 inches high (8.5 cm?). I'm not doing it completely technically 'correctly'.....I'm playing with it, and just trying to make marks that fit with what my ideas are. I'm working with the idea of flowing water; a beck; a river; a stream; the movement of water through a landscape. 
I'm deliberately working with a limited palette; working with a different colour discipline. I'm interested in what effect limitations have upon my work. This is something that's become clearer to me as I've worked with textiles for the last few years.
The 'blue' meander on the weaving is actually a cream/white thread, rather than the blue shown. It's beginning to take on a movement of its own as it moves through the thread.