'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.



'the Source: Nornes; Urd, Verdandi, & Skuld'

This is the weaving, completed; attached to hawthorn, and beautifully framed up by Carl Hardwick, based at Westgate Studios.
The thread that creates the pattern is hand dyed.
It's ready for the exhibition on Wednesday.
More than I am!
Stitches to complete yet!

spring and autumn silk

Silk, coloured by honeysuckle berries, blackberries, amongst others. The silk folded, with the berries amongst the fabric, then hammered into pulp!
VERY therapeutic!

A close up view. I left it for ages; just sitting there folded. Then put it on top of a pan I was boiling pomegranates in. Steamed the silk. I'll iron it, to try and retain the colour, though it may prove fugitive?

The silk before the hammered berry process. In spring I picked bluebells and random blue flowers, and folded them into the fabric. Then steamed them. Left it all for months, before adding the berries. The blue had faded some.

weaving

The weaving has been completed; and went up to the framers yesterday. I'm looking forward to getting it back nicely framed up. I'll attempt a photo, though the glass might reflect....see how it comes out.

My exhibition at Westgate Chapel is called 'The Infinite Contained'. It's part of the Wakefield ArtWalk.

happy Hallowe'en

Time Bakery in Wakefield, celebrates Hallowe'en by baking a pumpkin out of bread! Lovely!

plants....gifts.....

My friend Jean has moved to Scotland. She and Steve have bought a house, but she was down in Yorkshire to try and empty her polytunnel.....well....she's got hundreds, nay, thousands! of plants in there! So she's invited her mates round to take away whatever plants they want. On Friday I drove over, and filled my van with plants! Needless to say it hardly made a dent in her collection!

But it will make a significant difference to MY garden! Above is a selection of the plants she gave me. So this is my job for the autumn/winter. Clearing space/s to plant up. I have never had enough money to go buy this many plants; so to have them GIVEN to me, is an absolute joy! I'm so grateful to Jean. Such generosity.

And the twisted hazel has the catkins already. I've been out chopping it back; letting some light into the garden, and cutting out the straight growths to maintain the twisted branches. The pyracantha has to be massacred once the berries have been eaten; and there'll be more space and light in the garden; that will allow me to have a sense of the structure of my garden, and allow me to make better decisions about where to plant up.

 Just love the sculptural forms of these seed heads!

And writing of gifts; this is  gift to my 14 year-old self! Who wanted to learn guitar; and never had enough money to buy one; and my parents couldn't have afforded to buy this for me. I've spent some of my redundancy money on this beautiful guitar. Went to the local music shop, and asked their advice. Have been strumming it for the last week or so; but I'm going to see about lessons.
Because I realised if not now, then never. Time slipping away.   

tending/mending....completed!

This is it.
Finito.
I need to stitch a couple of loops onto the back, so I'll be able to hang it for the exhibition in November's Artwalk in Wakefield.
It has plant-dyed fabric (brown=walnuts; blue=woad; green=existing commercially dyed); hand printed, and hand-stitched, elements. And a lot of running stitch, which you can see better in the earlier posts. I think I've just got 2 more 'samples' to complete now. Best get on with it!