Textiles Day

Today has been a 'textiles day'! I've been sewing using these organic cotton threads (from Greenfibres) and boiling up some onion skins to make a dye-pot. There are 2 pieces currently 'stewing' in the pot; one is a length of organic white cotton; the other is a bundle of mistletoe leaves wrapped in organic cotton. When these are ready to be removed from the pot, I'll pop some of the washed Islay fleece into it, and see if that picks up any remaining colour. I'll card that later.


The bundle had been pre-mordanted with soya-milk, so I'm hoping for a good result! The length of cotton will have the left-over onion skins wrapped in it, and 'bundled', then dunked again into a dye-pot.

Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice 2011
The tree is up, and decorated; we light up the dark!
Tonight is the longest night; the shortest day. And three days remaining till Xmas.
This years tree is massive! I always have a real tree; and as our house is very small, I try to get a tree that will fit comfortably into it. But it's funny how a tree that seems a reasonable size in the garden centre, is huge when it's standing in the living room! Still, it does look beautiful. And the sweet resinous scent that greets us when we open the door in the mornings, is so evocative. Once the tree is up, I feel Xmas has really arrived.

13 Moons

At Westgate Studios recent Members Exhibition, I showed one of my giclee prints, '13 Moons'.
As the title suggests, it has 13 small paintings of my observations of the Moon, over a lunar year (hence 13 moons), and runs from January, to January. This photo shows the first 3 months, January, February, and March, with April just to the right. It has a lovely reflection of the room where the exhibition was held! In the past, I would have dismissed a photo which had lots of reflection/s on it. But I'm coming round to think that sometimes reflections make something else out of the image in the lens.

Plant Dye-ing

Linen painted with soya milk, then dyed in an oak-leaf dye bath. 

I think I have cracked this plant-dyeing! Not being a chemist, the processes involved in creating dyes using plants is a bit of a mystery to me. But after reading, and experimenting, I think I've learned how to get good results.
As I've been using cottons and linens, because I don't want to use silk, I'm working with cellulose, and plant dyes don't tend to be as effective on these. They work best on 'proteins'...which are the wool and silk materials; basically materials that come from animals. Which leaves me working with materials that are difficult to use plant dyes on. Hmm, talk about making things hard for myself! Well, that's a common thread! 
BUT; using soya milk, creates a 'protein' on the surface of the linen/cotton, and allows the plant dye to adhere to the fabric better. And I've seen the result of that in the piece above. It's a massive step forward in the dyeing I've done since August.


I have just received a sample chart/s from Greenfibres of organic cottons, linens, silks, and hemps; organic wool/s (plant dyed!); and organic cotton threads. Their silks are 'wild harvested'......so maybe I could experiment with them? Of course, they are very expensive, certainly compared with fabrics I can buy locally. But I'll be looking into their products in the future.
www.greenfibres.com 

Wentworth Verdigris

On a recent visit to Wentworth, Rotherham, in order to look round Wingham Woolworks, I noticed this ironwork in one of the gardens. The sun was bright, and caught the highlighted metal and brickwork.

Knitting and Stitch at Harrogate

Yesterday I went to Harrogate to the Knitting and Stitching Show at the conference centre. It's the first time I've been. I bought some 'stuff'; and saw some amazing creations, made from wool and textiles. 
There were some wonderful objects on display, some notable ones were;-
Beryl Dean's ecclesiastical embroideries. Huge bishops copes etc, laid out as works of art.
Valerie Huggins' altarpiece based on her inspirations of Mexico. Her e.mail is; -
http://v.huggins962@btinternet.com
Linda Sadler's knitted work and felted fabrics, based on corals, seen through a microscope. Her blogspot is at: - 
http://lindasadler.blogspot.com


Been up to the studio today, using some of the new materials I bought; and organising myself for what I need to do for the final session of the textiles course on Tuesday. 
I've also had an idea for a textile piece using the plant-dyed fabrics I've been making since August!

Talks and ArtWalks

I gave a talk at Chantry Chapel last Monday, 21st November, based on my M.A. dissertation. Called 'The Sacred Landscape', it explored the influence of the landscape upon twentieth, and twenty-first century artists; including Barbara Hepworth, Paul Nash, Chris Drury, Aaron Watson, Berenice Henson et al.

I'm just reading a book about John Piper, and realised I missed him out of my research completely!

I've put some work into the exhibition of resident artists work at Westgate Studios for the next Artwalk on November 30th November 2011.