Xmas.........Present.........

And this beauty was handmade for me, for xmas! The handle is deer horn, from antlers I got years ago. I passed them on to my friend, Trev, who is a woodworker. The deal was, could he make me a knife with a horn handle. Didn't he just!
The sheath was made by my friend Tracey. I am a very lucky woman! With lovely friends.

Knit and Stitch Show; Harrogate

 Stella Harding; 'Moon Bloom' willow, flax, rattan.

 Joyce Stalker; Heartfelt: Excerpts from the publications 

of a washed up feminist

Printed text onto tea towels

 Margaret Johnston; Transformation (above) 

Links to the Land (below)

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.

leaf prints on linen

Did these a while ago; going through my fabric pile/s I rediscovered them.
I remember doing a lot of dyeing on linen, and pre-mordanting with soya milk. As you can see, there are a lot of creases in the fabric! I don't mind that.
I'm currently looking at some leaves dipped in iron water, in a silk bundle and steamed. Not used that technique before....so I await the result with interest.

Eclipse

The completed piece. Found fabric; dyed fabric; stitched fabric. From the eclipse in April. The moon covering the sun.

Close up.

12 Circles

12 Circles; remains unfinished.
The last 3 weeks have been lost in a blur of labyrinthitis. And the future looks pretty hazy too........I get a couple of 'good days' where I feel better......then stumble back into illness. I'm not daring to work on this, in case I mess it up; so I'm pulling out fragments of fabric; and stitching them together in a random linear fashion.
To go in the exhibition at Westgate Chapel for the Artwalk on 30 September.
Since Kate died earlier this year, there's been no-one to co-ordinate the Artwalk exhibitions at the Chapel; so I offered to take it over.
Six exhibitions a year. Organising publicity through the website, and facebook page. Not massively onerous. And, of course, contacting artists. I've got 5 of the 2016 slots filled; one more to go. Next year may prove a busy one then! 
 

slow stitiching

 Nine Circles; complete.

 Close up; and incomplete

How one piece begets another......Twelve Circle.......unfinished.