January Circle and; British Museum

This circle is the piece I'm working on at present; it goes with the 'star' piece in the earlier post. The whole project will take a while!

And this.......is the Gundestrup Cauldron.......I went to the British Museum to see the Celts exhibition. This was worth the visit! 
The above stitched piece, of circle and star, will include something that refers to the Celts exhibition; not sure what, yet.
And now.....here's February.

leaves dipped in iron water

 The whole piece of silk

The Bundle; steaming

I dipped the leaves (fig leaves, and a plant I can't identify) into iron water for a couple of days, and left them there.

Wrapped them into a bundle of silk cloth; no mordant; an aluminium steamer. It's never cleaned in between dyepots, so has remnants of all sorts of plant dye in it.

I left it for a couple of days, after steaming it. Then unwrapped; and I think it's come out rather well! Am leaving it to settle for a bit; then I will iron it to fix it, which will flatten the fabric.

I'm rather happy with the results.

stitching eclipse........

'The Infinite Contained'

 The fabric collages hanging in the space of Westgate Chapel

 'Portal'

 'For No-One'

 'Lucy'

 'My Family'

 'The Other Half of the Sky'

 'Holding (for PSM)'

 'My Garden'

Visitors to the exhibition

 

It was quite a scarey evening. The work is far more 'autobiographical' than any other I've ever made, so I felt very exposed, and 'on view'. The feedback was entirely positive though. Friends who knew the background to the work, came and expressed their delight. And even complete strangers came up to me and told me how much they liked it.

I have been taken aback by the comments.

And now; I'm spending the holidays having a proper break! No work (re; job) and not thinking about creating ANYTHING! I've decided I'm going to 'absorb' for a while. Spend time looking; at things around me, and at other artists.

Ideas are ghosts in my mind; I want to use the mangle for printing with, so that's one thing I'll experiment with....later. And I want to do some more weaving...that I can then print onto. For now; rest. It's been a very intense few years; and now is the time for consolidation, and resting.



'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.

'hands' #2

The stitched hands.
Used 2 different thicknesses of thread.

plant dyed silk......

Tie-dyed green silk; popped into a pomegranate dye-pot. It's a bit paler than in the photo. Not quite so good definition.

White silk tie-dyed in the pomegranate dye-pot. This looks more 'metallic'; the reality, is greyer.

White silk with blue flowers pressed between it. Seems the bluebells created this blue. I wonder how long it will last? I used no mordants; the pomegranate is mordant enough, most of the time. The blue (bells) I fully expect to fade and disappear. I'll leave it a while, before I use it in any samples.
I've completed another of my samples; mounted it onto a stiff piece of denim. I'm considering using some final stitching on it; to really finish it. It's a relief piece; I used quilting batting for that effect. It's the only sample that has this. So far, anyway!

tree dressing

Yesterday I went out with my friends, Gail and Emma, to some local woods, where we did some simple tree dressing. Gail and Emma had been on a day workshop a few weeks earlier, and thought they'd like to do something creative in the countryside. They invited me; so I did a quick stitched piece that included a heart-shape (seems to be my current theme!) and decided to include an acrostic poem; one which spells out a word made from the beginning letters of each line). 

 Here's the oak tree I attached both pieces to; either side of the trunk.

Last winter I made lots of these small fabric decorations, instead of xmas cards, for friends and family. I have some left, so thought it would be nice to take one for this outing. After all, they were designed for (xmas) trees!

 Gail did this; tissue and flour and water glue; TRUST.

 Emma took a simple and effective red ribbon. Tucked away, discreet.

And this is the landscape I visisted on Wednesday, when I went on a 'Wild Drugs' walk with Sue Salmon, a medical herbalist. She talked about the many different herbs and plants which grew wild, that could help to heal us. We've been using them for millennia; so they work very well with our bodies. They are compatible with us. Some of the plants she mentioned, nettle, plantain, dandelion, all grow in my garden. I was moved to consider using them. So if anyone complains about the weeds in my garden, I shall explain I am cultivating them for a purpose!

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........ 

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.

above & below

And this is the updated photo. Not quite the whole sample; but most of it.

This is one of the samples I'm making. Fabric collages. This one is called 'My Family' and the fabric comes from my dad, and my brother. It has frayed edges. Lots of frayed edges. That we regularly find in families.

 As above......

.........So below.
The sky in March was spectacular. Not today though; we've had 3 days of pollution warnings, and grey, grey skies. Like being stuck in a gloomy November. It feels like a time machine; we're in April, and heading towards spring, yet the world feels as though it's winter....brrrrrr.
Those daffodils were caught on a day of brilliant sunshine. The daffs are almost gone now; but other plants are coming through. I've planted seeds; peas, beans, lettuce, courgettes, tomatoes, peppers. Some are in pots, and on windowsills, some directly into my raised bed, and protected by glass. I'm looking to the future; yet aware of the past.
My mum would receive daffodils from the Mothering Sunday church service. It was Mother's Day last Sunday. I took flowers to the grave where her ashes are. I put some daffodils in. She still had them, for Mother's Day.

pomegranate patterns

This was the cotton, painted with egg, before I dyed it with the pomegranate.

I just brushed it on randomly.

 This was the silk, also painted with egg; the brushmarks show up darker.

And this is my patio, after laying out the wet fabric as I took it out of the dye-pot! It'll be interesting to see how long it lasts, once it rains.



pomegranate dye #3

So this is some linen thread I put into the pomegranate dye-pot. The colour's very different! I didn't use any kind of mordant; just popped it into the pot. Maybe that's why it came out such a lovely golden colour?

Here is the wedding dress bodice, silk, with some man-made fabric flowers. The silk is a pale grey; the man-made fabric not taken at all. I dropped this piece in late on in the process. It wasn't in for long at all. Certainly not as long a time as the silk and cotton lengths. You can see the silk fabric behind the silk bodice. Noticeable how different the colours are. 

And finally the POT!
Direct off the cooker, and still steaming. The wrapped cotton and silk still amidst the mulch!

pomegranate dye #2

 A cut-up silk shirt; dyed with pomegranate.

No pre-mordant.

Painted with marks made by brushing whisked egg onto it.

 Out of the dye-pot, and onto the patio to be photographed; the silk still wet.

 The silk shirt dried. The colour is lightened again, as always.

Here you can see the brush marks made by painting egg onto the fabric.

The close-up shows some of the brush marks made by egg.

It's had the effect of darkening the pomegranate dye.



pomegranate dye #1

So last week I boiled up the pomegranate, and dyed some silk, and some cotton fabric in the resulting slush! Here are the results from the cotton;

 The cotton, wet, from the dye-pot, laid out on my patio. The cotton had been pre-mordanted by soaking it in soya-milk. I folded this fabric into a square, and held it together with clamps



 Still wet, and nice and shiney!

 After drying, this is how it looks; the fabric has lightened as it's dried, which always happens. The white 'squares' come from the clamps. There's a nice black edging to them, where the metal has had some chemical effect. The range of colours is lovely, and really surprising. Black, creams, greys, and browns. The browns look as though I've been rust dyeing.

Above; a close-up of the squares made by the metal clamps.

You can see the black edging, but the photo's not very good otherwise.