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.

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)

Knitting Socks

I've begun to knit my very first pair of socks. This is the first sock. 
I'm using up some old wool, as I'm expecting to make lots of mistakes. This is the rib; I'm starting the sock at the top of the rib, and working down the foot. I'm not looking forward to turning the heel; it looks pretty complicated. I think I'll be getting some assistance with that!
Everyone is ribbing (!) me about how I'm a bit late to be knitting socks for Xmas presents! Ha, how right they are. Perhaps for next Xmas?

Spinning; with a drop-spindle!

Well hat's off to the ladies (spinsters!) of any parish who used the drop-spindle as they were doing other things! The above is my very first attempt at spinning wool using a drop spindle! it looks more like my friend, Paul's, dreadlocks, than a skein of wool!
I made a bit of a 'mullack' (mess) with varying thicknesses throughout the length of the wool, rather than a nice uniformity.
As the electricity was off (builder and electrician working in the garage!) it was something I could do without needing power...except my own hands that is. Took a while to do; and was quite complicated....I thought maybe if I had 3 hands, it might be easier to manage the fleece!


But what has pleased me, is that the fleece I used, was the one I brought back from Islay last summer; that I dyed using procion dyes from my textiles course; and that I've now spun, into 'wool'....or the nearest thing to 'wool'! I'm going to use it on one of my textile prints, rather than knit with it.

Dyed Fleece 2

Dyed Fleece; the fleece I brought back from Islay.
The bottom of the photo is just washed fleece; the chunk of wool at the top of the photo, has been dunked in a dyebath of oak leaves. It's a very, very subtle shade of beige. Both of these pieces of fleece have been carded/combed. All ready for using in making future felt pieces!

Dyed Fleece

A small piece of the fleece I got from Islay last summer; dyed with the procion dye from my textiles course.
I have to card it yet; it's dyed patchily, but I think that will be quite effective. It's quite dark; with some lighter areas here and there. 

Felt & the Uffington Horse

Some embellishment on a piece of felt I made recently on the G&Guilds course. Based on my visit last year to Wiltshire, and camping at the site close to the Uffington Horse.
I'm stitching onto a second piece of felt which will sit with this one....a diptych of felt/s!

Dye-ing, Spinning & Weaving

Today I've spent a lovely afternoon, in gorgeous sunshine, at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. There was a demonstration from the Hallamshire & District Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers.

Some photos I took, show the plant-dyed wools from North Yorkshire Wool; spinning using wheels (it was like being in the middle of a fairy tale!) and drop spindles; and weavings done with a peg loom, and a back strap loom. It was a fascinating afternoon, and I longed to get my hands and feet on the spinning wheel, and have a go!

Understandably this wasn't encouraged!

 

I had an interesting conversation with the woman from North Yorkshire Wool, who told me about using Cow Parsley as a dye.

I remembered when I was a child, cow parsley was known as 'mother die', and that if you picked it, your mother would die!

Well, I had the realisation that I'd go the word wrong; it was Mother DYE! Cow parsley is the mother of all dyes! Quite a few other people remember this folk tale from their childhood, so I'm not the only one.

The whole afternoon begins to take on more and more of a fairy tale experience!

                             

Felt 5

Another piece of the felt I made on the C&Guilds course. 
The portfolio of work I put in gained me a Distinction; which was lovely, as I feel such a beginner in the Felting field. This example was 'nuno' felt; and so has some hessian there in the mix, for the felt to adhere itself to.
If I'd used a thinner open weave fabric, it would have wrinkled beautifully, and created a very textural surface.
I'd like to experiment with that a bit more in the future.

Felt 4

A piece of shibori felt I made for my City & Guilds course....now, thankfully completed!
The coursework has been finished, and portfolio handed in. I'm using the final session to make a piece of felt that is just for me! I made the first section last week; tomorrow I'll make the second section. Then it will be a case of adding embellishments and joining the two pieces together. I can do that at my leisure.

Felt 3

Mosaic felt; the pink wavy sections were cut out of a second half-felted piece, and then inserted into the cut-out sections of the grey half-felted piece. I spent hours and hours stitching the pink and grey together.....extremely tedious! As I told Christine, the tutor, 'I'll never use the mosaic technique again!'
After then half-felting the two pieces of felt; then cutting out the sections to insert, and stitching them together; I then had to complete the felting process on the whole piece. 
It seems a very faffy way of inserting a second section of felt onto another piece. I think there are easier methods. And to add insult to injury, I have to re-felt this piece, as it's not completely felted. Ah well; steep learning curve and all that. 

Felt 2

The second piece of felt I made for the City and Guilds course. It's a piece of 'Grid Felt'. 
We made the felt piece, and then cut out sections of it, to create the 'grid'. I would've liked to make the grid from strips of wool that are then felted, but the tutor, Christine said this took longer and was trickier to do! So I did the 'easier' version.   
I've used undyed wool; the colour comes from the natural shades of the sheep fleece. I've added some inserts of transfer hand-dyed organzie, and embroidery using space-dyed thread.
It's based on the limestone pavements that are found in North Yorkshire, and in Ireland.

Felt 1

My first felt sample piece for the City and Guilds course. The red flecks, are from sheep fleece I collected in Shropshire last year, and dyed with procian dyes. I wanted to include some fleece that I'd worked on; though this isn't the Islay fleece. That piece has been in the onion skin dye-bath and is now out and drying, ready for carding. I hope to use that in one of my felt sample pieces, over the next few weeks.


I've been up at the studio today, sewing with mono-filament.....blimey! I couldn't see where I'd stitched! I'm sewing it onto some solufleece, water-soluble 'fabric' that I bought from Harrogate. My eyes were aching after a few rows. I'm using it on my second felt sample for the C&G course, where we created holes.


We have to have a theme for our work; mine is 'natural forms'. Though when I thought about it more, I also realised that I was using a limited palette, which is a change from my usual work practise. Doing textile/fabric work, is informing my painting and drawing work. There are changes coming through; which is interesting, and exciting; and also challenging.

Sheep Fleece & Felt

On holiday on the Isle Of Islay, back in August, I collected some sheep fleece from Finlaggan.....which is the site of where the Lords of The Isles had their headquarters.

I'm currently reading a book I got whilst on Islay, by Alistair Moffat called 'The Sea Kingdoms; The History of Celtic Britain & Ireland'. It's giving me a fantastic background on Welsh and Scots history.

The creative textiles course has begun again, and I'm 3 weeks into it. So taking on some of Christine's suggestions, I went and bought 2 metal toothed dog-brushes. They are a pretty good imitation carding combs!

And so have started to 'card' the fleece from Islay, using said dog-brushes! I've got quite a nice little pile so far, but there's a LOT of fleece left! It was lovely last Saturday, sitting in the hot sun in my garden, carding through the fleece. I did think though, it was a good job I wasn't doing it on piecework rates! I'd never make a living at it.

Funnily enough, I did once work in a wool factory, decades back, in the 1970's. Not in the carding shop though; I worked on the wool-spinning machines. Very noisy, and dust-full.

Saturday was quite a different experience from the wool-factory.