Fibrenell

Textile translation

2012-01-25T10:24:00.000+11:00

Fo my 100th post I've translated one of my "off the edge" designs into fabric.
I chose this one

and translated it (loosely) into this

8.24

I actually started off looking at my monoprinted designs which appeared more translucent with the plan of using layered organzas and embroidered flounces, but the created edge felt too different from the original cotton fabric. I opted for a heavier faced edging in the end.

For those interested I took some photos of the process I used to achieve this look.

8.25

The original fabric was extended by applique onto a piece of pale yellow linen

8.26

I created some areas of background circle decoration (that came from a couple of the other designs) but embellishing pink optim roving through from the reverse and free embroidering in circles from the front.

8.27

The 'flower' shapes were added and attached using fine zigzag around the edges. Stripes added using cabling from the underside in perle 5 thread.

8.28

I extended the cabling stripes into the original fabric to integrate them a little more.

8.28 detail

A close up of the embellished background.

8.29

The shaped edge was faced with another piece of linen, and turned right side out.

8.30

Ribbons of petals were added on top to give further depth to the textile and for this I used sheers and silks. The edges were roll overlocked and also cable stitch embroidered. I wanted the ribbons to be subtle and not obscure the flowers too much.

8.31

The ribbons are only attached in certain areas to allow them to curl naturally as they fall.

The finished edge is about 40cm wide by 30cm deep.

Edging along

2012-01-21T21:14:00.000+11:00

I've been looking at creating samples of decorative edges using different techniques - can't promise innovation but hopefully not boredom. These samples are subdivided into technique categories but as usual there will be a bit of overlap. Once I started on this I realised that, aside from samples getting easily lost, they needed to be presented together in some format so I have 'bound' them staggered in a kind of cloth reference book of edges. I'll post photos of them together later but for now each sample is generally photographed separately.

Turned Edges

8.6

8.6 The edge material has been pin tucked on the diagonal then turned up and 3 channels filled with braided cord. The loose ends have been knotted.

8.7

8.7 Wide turn-up created, numerous staggered buttonholes made then felted cords run through them.

8.8

8.8 Diamond shapes sewn in satin stitch, interior cut out then fabric turned up to reveal interesting gaps. A braided cord runs through this channel.

8.9

8.9 Cut out strip of decorated felt attached to fabric edge, turned up and held in place with a gold cord passed through tabs and looped around the cut strip. I've added the scissors into the photo to show where the turn-up is.

Bound edges

These 3 samples are shown on the same photo 8.10 with photo 8.11 showing the reverse side of the bound edge matching the front side.

8.10

8.11

8.12

In the bottom sample, the raw edge is hemmed with decorative fly stitch and turned edge bound with felt braids passed through buttonholes.
In the middle the raw edge is wrapped in a freemachine sewn grid (8.12), held in place with braid tabs.
In the top edge the raw edge was wrapped in chiffon, pattern sewn by free machine (resembling some of the petal design features on the last post) then cut away by soldering on both sides.

Faced edges

8.13

8.13 A shaped edge was created in the black fabric using a turned seam then wet felted leaves free embroidered and added on top.

8.14

8.15

8.16

8.14 These 'drips' came from drawings/prints of large folded leaves in my sketchbook from Module 1 (shown in 8.16). Thin fabric shapes and thick felt shapes were caught in the lower seam of the facing before turning right side out. Another chiffon version of the shape was satin edged and caught in a second fold above that to overlap.

Frayed edges

8.15

8.15 This sample has a black cotton backing with frayed edge with pink frayed muslin gathered and folded to resemble the fluted tops to the "orchid" flowers of the original inspiring fabric. The olive silk dupion was frayed to exploit the 'shot' nature of the fabric and reveal a stripe pattern (as in the original). Cabling with green perle emphasised the stripes

8.16

8.16 This sample similarly looks to the stripes for inspiration and uses frayed black hessian, frayed dyed muslin threaded and knotted through the hessian, and paper beads hanging on the 'tassels' created from the hessian.

Ruffles
Various ruffles were made from bias strips of poly chiffon. I overlocked the edges to give some firmness.

8.17

8.17 Bottom - simple even ruffle gathered along one side and inserted into edge facing. Middle - wider ruffle gather off centre line, folded and stitched down along fold to give a tiered ruffle. Top - ruffle increasing in size l to r.

Flounces

Flounces are cut from circular shapes to give fullness without gathering at the sewn edge.

8.18

8.18 These flounces were cut from 3/4 of circles of cotton with internal circumference approx. 22cm, external circum 44cm. The flounces differed only in the position of the internal circle for cutting (see diagram beside each flounce). The length of the internal circle circumference and therefore the length of the seam was the same in each case. The bottom flounce was set into the facing hem while the others were each sewn into a horizontal pleat in the green fabric.

8.19

8.19 Flounce in chiffon made from 2 complete circles set into a vertical seam. I think this might be useful in my later interpretation of one of the fabric pattern designs for the orchid-like flowers.

Stitched edges

8.20

detail

8.20 This edge was created on water soluble fabric using an automatic stitch pattern repeatedly to buildup the lace then a perle 8 thread couched over lace and fabric.

8.21

8.21 Leaf shapes free machined towards edge of chiffon. Edge of shapes and some internal areas removed with soldering iron. Lace leaves sewn by free machining, attached to this edge using watersoluble fabric.

8.22

8.22 To create a folded lace edge, free machining and cabling done in spirals between two edges of chiffon over water soluble fabric. Once dissolved away, the new lace was folded to create the new edge (8.23).

8.23

To the Edge

2012-01-17T17:12:00.000+11:00

Section 1 of chapter 8 called for the selection of a printed / decorated fabric as inspiration to design "off the edge". Selecting a suitable fabric I found the difficult bit as I don't tend to go for motifs and I wanted to challenge myself instead of plumping for my usual muted abstract shapes.
I eventually went for

since it definitely had strong shapes, a vegetation theme to it and....(I couldn't imagine actually using it in anything!)

I cut strips from it and played with designing off the edge onto A3 paper.

8.1

8.1 The first used oil pastels and watercolour pencils, and kept faithful to the original motifs.

8.2

8.2 The second in oil pastels, watercolour pencils and felt pen, used a simplistic form of the striped flowers and ribbon like petals.

8.3

8.3 Used the orchid-like flowers upside down with rubbings over sequin waste, and the veins of the leaves as an overlying pattern.

8.4

8.4 I decided to be a little more abstract with my patterns, rollering paint over leaf shaped stencils and sequin waste to build up colour then adding decorated paper cuttings for petal and stalk effects.

8.5

8.5 I built up a monoprint background with freehand drawn leaf shapes and stripes through the ink on the acetate sheet then added lines of dots and stylised petals with decorated papers. I'm not sure where the edge of the fabric would lie but it does lend itself to fabric layering of elements if I were to translate this design into fabric.

Now back to some practical edge finishing samples for the next post...

Resolved knitting sample

2012-01-09T21:50:00.002+11:00

The inspiration for my resolved sample came from a photo I took in the autumn out of my 'studio' window. I can see one of the few deciduous trees in our garden from there, and in the autumn it was a gorgeous mass of red.

6.12

I aimed to create a sample that would give a sense of the colour arising from the volume/ bulk of leaves and variety of tone, using a multilayered 'fabric' of knitting elements.

6.13

I first knitted a piece with holes and elongated stitches (15 x 18cm) using plastic strips, then ironed it (6.13) and painted it with acrylics (6.14).

6.14

Small quantities of overlocked braided threads were prepared using combinations of red, green and fawn threads in needles and interlopers. Some of these 'braids' were also created over a thicker core Perle thread (bottom left of 6.14). A piece of knitting was made out of these threads.

6.15

6.16 (detail of 6.15)

Although the piece looked a bit like discarded seaweed there was a plan, really. Since it was made with 3 longish disconnected 'fingers' of knitting, I could weave it out and in the plastic lattice.

6.17

The piece lacked focus and green actually (although the photo does not do the actual colourings any justice either), so I treated some real leaves with polymer sealant and threaded them on to green perle 8 before attaching them by crochet chain stitching them in situ.

Et voila.... my resolved sample

6.18

6.19
( detail of 6.18)

Knitting samples galore

2012-01-09T14:22:00.000+11:00

For chapter 6, I chose the knitting option A for my "constructed fabric" fun and played around with a few odd materials while trying to keep to my tree/ vegetation research theme.
Started with strips of muslin that I had dyed previously to get a handle on the size of knitting pins I'd need.

6.1

6.1 This was olive green but it hasn't come out in the photo. Plain knitting, size 12 by 9cm. Roughly all the samples to follow are about 12x10cm at least.

6.2

6.2 uses raffia, incorporating tiny gum nuts that were strung on green perle and knitted in along with the raffia - bit of a nightmare if truth be told since the raffia continually broke. Detail is shown in 6.3

6.3

6.4

6.4 uses green jute gardening string, playing around here with holes and stretched elongated stitches.

6.5

6.5 is knitted up strips cut from black gardening matting (the kind that retards the growth of weeds through it, when in one piece, obviously). I thought it amusing to tie bits of green hairy fibre through like weeds!

6.6

Since the matting was synthetic and looked a bit like Tyvek I ironed another piece of knitting to get this wonderfully lacey 2D piece. Photo 6.6 shows the transparency of it held up to the light.

6.7

6.7 On the plastic-melting front I knitted up thin strips of transparent food bags then ironed the knitting to get a weblike structure that took acrylic paint well.

6.8

6.8 is a photo of a sample I did for a workshop I taught last year on contemporary lace structures, but I thought that it also fitted in here since it involves layers of painted melted knitted plastic bag strips then machine stitched with scrim and organza. It's something I'll return to for the resolved sample in the next posting.

6.9

I do prefer the finer knitting, so I went back to 2 ply crochet cotton in 6.9. The top part of the sample uses the single yarn while for the lower half, I monkey chained the yarn before knitting.

6.10

More laciness and holes in 6.10 (and detail in 6.11) using overlocked thread as the knitting yarn. The bottom part is knitted from 3-5mm strips of organza with rolled overlocked edging which gives a nice shadowy effect I think. The middle part uses a two thread wide overlock on the same organza, while the top uses the same wide overlock but no structure ie. threads only. I particularly like the top part as the threads look like braids in their own right.

6.11

I felt that I could have made many samples with all the ideas I had on dyeing threads, completed knitting etc but stopped at this point to concentrate on my resolved sample which will appear in the next posting.

The rest of the braids

2012-01-06T10:00:00.000+11:00

I had played around with interweaving cut paper braids in chapter 3 and now wanted to do this in fabric form. I didn't have a computerized machine which allowed me to automatically stitch patterns to a reasonable scale so I cut my own from Kunin felt. A bit boring in black, I collaged fragments of synthetic organza on top of the felt using bondaweb free machined the braid outlines copying somewhat the previous paper braids I'd used. You can just see the stitching outlines in the photo.

5.6.1

I then cut out the braids using a soldering iron along with some hollow shapes for good measure. Yes, I know, those gumnuts again!

5.6.2

I started to play around with these, interweaving them to give some interesting braids:

5.6.3

5.6.4

Mixing in some of the other stitched braids

5.6.5

5.6.6

Below are some of the braids presented on some of the stencilled and stamped backgrounds that I previously prepared. I've tried to go with repeating shapes and patterns as well as colour similarities.

5.7

5.8

5.9

5.10

5.11

Stitched Braids

2012-01-05T16:30:00.001+11:00

Chapter 5 called for a variety of braids to be made using different methods. I tried to keep to the guideline sections but some examples overlap in techniques and by the end I've definitely combined things as I see fit.
The samples are presented over 2 postings since there are 'quite a few'.
They tend to be green and red hues as this was my research focus in Module 1 for trees and vegetation.

5.1 Stitched Braids

5.1 Pattern stitched braids

These are fairly simple lengths mostly using felt strips, some of my own handmade ones, with machine stitched patterns.
From L to R, 1 is stitching of knitting tape, 2 3 4 and 7 stitching on felt trapping fragments of organza, 5 6 stitching on felt and overlocked organza strip, 8 trapped organza and dyed scrim, 9 trapped squares of textured painted felt.

5.2 Wrapped braids

5.2 wrapped braids

From top to bottom:
1 is a 3strand wrapped braid, 2 is plaited around felt then cetrally stitched, 3 4 wrapped with organza and silk then stitched, 5 6 and 7 wrapped with knitting wools, 8 wrapped with scrim stips, 9 organza and tape wrappings in opposing directions, 10 organza couched with gold fibre then wrapped around felt, 11 overlocked organza strip wrapped around machined cord then stitched.

5.3 Stitched Braid Threads

5.3 Stitched cord braids

For this section I prepared machine cords from stuffed tubular knitting cotton hand dyed.
From L to R, 1 has three cords stitched together, 2 has four cords together with another couched on top, 3 has two sets of cord groupings with wavy gold cabling then joined together with a further cord down centre, 4 has seven cords joined with metallic cabling, 5 like 4 except that the central cords have been plaited before joining to others. The 7th sample had brass beads incorporated into the last cord.

5.4 Wrapped frame braids

5.4 wrapped frame braids

For these I made a frame from wire folder inserts that could be separated to remove the braid. The braids are all about 2cm wide.
From L to R, 1 wrapped organza and wool (then cut) stitched with gold cabling.
2 wrapped scrim and wool with central cord couched.
3 wrapped fibres with central machine stitching over ribbon.
4 wrapped organzas over central cords then couched fibre added.

5.5 Water-soluble braids

5.5 water soluble braids

Some of these samples had less of the lacy look and more structure as I used heavier machined cords rather than threads on Solvy.
From L to R, I think most of these are self explanatory but in case they are not obvious, 4 uses cut sections of stitched felt braid, 5 uses circles of felt, 6 uses squares of organza, and the green 'strapwork' design in 7 was made by laying perle in this pattern over stitcky Aquasol then free couching over it and gold fibres to retain design.

Braid Stencils

2012-01-05T12:55:00.000+11:00

I decorated some dark fabric with stencilled braid designs for use later in the module as backgrounds. The freezer paper stencils were cut to resemble the coloured paper cut braids in chapter 3.

I used Permaset fabric printing ink and Lumiere paints to colour the fabric (linen, and cotton homespun and voile)

Where's a paper shredder when you need one?

2011-12-24T11:03:00.000+11:00

Chapter 3 called for an examination of woven structures using paper strips. I remember Anne writing that she had used her paper shreddings for this...but I didn't unfortunately possess such a useful tool so spent a 'while' cutting strips before I could start.
I got quite into the weaving process and then, of course, wanted to use them all up once I'd taken the time to cut them. Some looked too weird for display! I've arranged some of the more successful ones below in 3.1

3.1

3.1 The top row shows closed woven structures using mostly 4 different coloured strips.

The bottom row shows open woven structures, trying to emulate the embroidered strapwork from my research in Chapter 1.

3.2

3.2 Strips of white paper were folded concertina-like fashion then a pattern cut to created a repetitive patterned band (like making lines of snowflakes).
The third white pattern is a linking of 2 bands woven together although that is not really obvious from the photo.
I cut some bands in coloured paper to make the woven links more obvious. I particularly liked the line of little men that appeared in the negative spaces of the first coloured weaving.

3.3

3.3 shows weavings using strips and 'hollow shapes'.
The top one and the last (bottom right) use shapes loosely found in the strapwork of Holbein's paintings. The second and third patterns use a hollow shape of a gumnut (in 2 sizes) that I worked on in my A5 sketchbook of Module 1. The shapes seem to make an interesting looped motif in the third design that looks similar to looped cording in strapwork.

Braid printing and preparation

2011-12-22T19:16:00.003+11:00

I made samples of the stitches found in Tudor strapwork embroidery on a 'large scale' so that they might be used as printing blocks in their own right for the next chapter.

2.1

2.1 From left to right the samples are: plaited braid stitch and braid stitch using 6mm leather cording on a grid from a plastic fruit box, then plaited braid stitch, braid stitch and ladder stitch using blind cord on 7hpi plastic canvas.
The largest 'block' is about 5cm by 14cm.

I used the blocks above on both paper and fabric using different coloured lumiere paints to create backgrounds for later.

2.2

2.2 from top left clockwise:
large plaited braid on black hessian, small braid stitch on cotton, large plaited braid stitch on cotton, small plaited on cotton.

2.3

2.3 I practised making some braids and knotted cords using felt cords I'd made previously.
The samples in the photo show the following: chain sinnet (or monkey chain), a single braid, a 4-stranded plaited braid, snake cord, square knotted braid, a 4-stranded striped braid, a chinese knot, and a 6-stranded chevron braid.
I owned a few books on celtic and chinese knots already for source material but found a few more on the web eg www.animatedknots.com and www.charles.hamel.free.fr/knots-and-cordages

As a bit of an aside, the snake cord is one that I do quite often in miniature for loops and closures on bags.

I didn't include the Chinese ball knot in these samples as I felt it was too 3-dimensional for strapwork inclusion but it's one knot I use a lot - for tidying up the end of cords on shoulder bags more attractively than an ordinary overhand knot and a bit different from a bead.

It's amazing how many people notice it and ask how it's done.

Carols in the Domain

2011-12-20T11:07:00.000+11:00

Saturday night we risked the chance of rain to go into Sydney for the annual Carols in the Domain, held in the open air out on the Domain parkland in the centre of Sydney.
The rain stayed off and it turned into a lovely evening. There were thousands in the crowd as usual and we'd arrived with only 30mins to go before televising started so it was a bit unlikely we'd find anywhere to sit.
But our luck was in and a family with very tired crying toddlers were vacating their space as we passed so we descended with Esky and rug in lightening speed.

It's a lovely night just for the spectacle of thousands sitting in the dark all with candles, singing carols - it sets you up in the right mood for Christmas.

Good wishes to all my fellow bloggers and distant stitchers whether you are baking in sunshine or freezing in the snow!
Merry Christmas!

Tudor Strapwork

2011-12-16T18:03:00.000+11:00

Finally got round to presenting my research on strapwork designs in Tudor embroidery. I realised that I'd started collecting bits and pieces a year ago, oops, but better late than never. This is one piece of reearch I wish I had been in the UK to study but books and photos from previous trips had to suffice, along with the internet of course.

I've presented the work on 3 A3 boards with a short A4 text.
The "Shakespearean" script on the boards I downloaded from a website so hope it's readable.

The designs have been replicated using felt cords I made and leather cording I had already as I felt they reflected the materials of the time.

The third board has stitch examples sewn in gold thread on 32count linen, and some rubbings taken from the printing blocks prepared for chapter 2.

Fun at the Fair

2011-11-27T18:48:00.000+11:00

Friday evening found me at the Barker College, Hornsby taking part in their Christmas Fair. It was held this year under cover in their brand new multipurpose hall, fortunately as it rained all afternoon and evening. Given the terrible weather, the customer turnout was not bad and there were certainly lots of trading stalls to tempt them.
My daughter Lorna came along to help and proved very good at marketing my wares, far better than self-deprecating me!

I thought we were going to be entertained with cheesy piped christmas music all evening, but the school string and jazz ensembles appeared instead which made a lovely change as they were so good.

A lot of friends came by but I also got a bit of interest from "new people" who appreciated the fact that everything was handmade so all in all it was a good night.

The flying birdhouses....

2011-11-23T16:53:00.001+11:00

Many thanks to all of you who came along to Thornleigh Community Centre at the weekend for the NSCG Boutique Christmas Sale. I recognised so many people and did appreciate your support of us and of Dial-a-Mum charity.

On of the Group's new members since the last exhibition, Ruth Fugar, a ceramacist from Dural, was very popular and rightly so. Her birdhouses practically flew out the door on Friday.

I resisted from my usual amount of purchasing during the weekend, but I did treat myself to this beautiful necklace by Rachelle Juter. It's a good thing my husband never reads my blogs.

I had a few new additions to my bags and scarves such as the silk based clutch below

Next up is the Barker Christmas Fair on Friday 25 November 3-7pm at Barker College, Hornsby, where I'll have a stand full of Christmas goodies. Love to see you there.

North Shore Craft Group

2011-11-17T18:21:00.000+11:00

I do hope that if you are in the Sydney area you will be able to drop in to the NSCG Boutique Christmas Sale 2011 at Thornleigh Community Centre this weekend.
As well as lovely goodies from more than 35 members including me on display for sale, there will be demonstrations each day eg.weaving, and Penel will be making her lampwork beads, not to mention yummy refreshments.

Hope to see you there!

Sculpture by the Sea

2011-11-12T13:05:00.000+11:00

It's that time of year again in Sydney! My daughter and I went along yesterday morning to enjoy the walk from Tamarara Beach to Bondi along the cliff top to see this year's entries in Sculpture by the Sea. We went quite early but by lunchtime it was chocca and pretty hot. Guess who forgot the suntan lotion on her feet!

I didn't think it had the wow factor of some past years but still pretty good - here are a few of my favourites:

mosaic glass and mirrored tiles

detail of above

There was a matching giant plug hole on the beach

This was completely woven in straw and reeds.

Still life with glass

2011-11-09T21:42:00.000+11:00

We had a social day at ATASDA today in Epping with a theme of sketching still life so it seemed a good opportunity to follow a little of Sian's suggestions in her drawing challenge for November.

I took along a collection of glasses purposefully to challenge myself a bit as I usually avoid glass and its reflections.

I coloured the A5 pages with diluted Brusho paints that the group had available, and some of my own inks, so that I could use white Inktense pencils and white gel pen to draw in some of the light reflections on the glass.

From one of the sketches with 3 glasses I had a go at drawing the same arrangement in one continuous line.

I can really see how some stencils or stamps of this shape (or sections of it) could give interesting designs. More to follow hopefully....

Mixed media fun

2011-10-15T09:20:00.001+11:00

Last week saw me at Cloth Arts Textile Forum in Hunters Hill, Sydney during the school holidays at a week long workshop with Sherrill Khan from the USA. We worked on both paper and fabric playing with every form of painting medium I think I owned plus a few I'd never tried, so as you can imagine we never stopped all week.
The stamina Sherrill had amazed me as she did demo after demo for us, so generous with her expertise and knowledge.

I don't regard myself as a 'stamping' person generally, only doing the odd monoprint and rubbing, but I fell in love with her stamp mats and found sufficient US dollars lurking at home to buy some from her - can't wait for them to arrive Sherrill!

A lot of the techniques could be found in her newest book "Creative Media" photographed using a lot of American products but Sherrill demonstrated using largely Australian products for our benefit which made it a whole lot more useful.....and cheaper.

Here she is rubbing over her own stamping mats with inktense pencils.

I loved the 3D effect she got with her selection of lights and dark pencils - it almost looks folded in places.

These are some of the sample pieces she brought along and others she did at the workshop for us:

using masking tape as resist

using a glue stick as a resist

I did quite a bit on fabric during the week but put my paper based pieces into the little exhibition at the end. I worked on heavy bristol board A4 sheets and created a little folding hinged book with my samples, embellished with some felt balls. The paints here are principally Golden flow acrylics layered which are by far my favourite. The pigments are so strong and you get a lovely sheen to the surface without trying.

A couple of closeups of the pages -

I created little tags with some of the sampled techniques for reference. The couple on the right are melted wax crayon designs - definitely use that method again.

Sketchbook - day 30's stitching

2011-08-28T10:17:00.000+10:00

It turned out to be a lovely day yesterday after all the rain we've been having, so I thought I'd take my sketchbook outside and finish the stitching / painting excercise out there. Sat down and realised the table was filthy so decided I'd just clean that before I got started. Then...with the bucket of hot soapy water there just thought I'd wipe over the large pots....and sweep up the decking....oh and the pool needed skimming of leaves....
An hour and a half later I finally got the paints out.......but I like to think it benefitted from the tidy surroundings!

Picked some of the large palms in our garden for the subject of this.

I used crochet perle cotton to sew over the leaves in buttonhole stitch. I didn't appreciate how dark these stitches would become once they'dd sucked up the ink, so not a very accurate painting, but I loved the wet print achieved on the facing page.

And this was the result on the following pages - back of stitches on the left and their print on the right.

Sketchbook - monoprinting in perspective!

2011-08-16T10:01:00.000+10:00

Initial sketches of my sewing chair and reels, ink bottles-

Then went over the lines on the right page above, over a printing ink plate under the page to give the following couple of images:

The second one used the remains of the ink left on the plate after the first was printed, and I think gives a clearer image of the cylinder shapes. I used fabric printing ink as it was at hand and the right consistency.

I printed a couple the same in turquoise and in green with scraps of handmade paper as resists, then swopped over the paper scraps in the prints. The one above shows the turq monoprint (ink a bit thick) with the green printed scrap in place.

Here the bottle was printed in green then the glasses were overprinted in yellow and red. The imprint is shown on the right.

This got quite addictive - must try some on other paper textures after seeing Sian's prints on Tissutex.

Resolved sample

2011-08-14T21:51:00.000+10:00

For chapter 13 and the required resolved sample I chose one of the designs in chapter 12 that I'd created using a section of an original photograph.

13.1

In order to integrate the photo a little more, I drew into the design, particularly the photo strip, with white and blue crayons to attempt to link the strips.

The original photo I printed out onto thin canvas, the kind used to print banners, so that I could embroider into it without hoop support. The 'strips' of colour were made by embellishing wool tops into the canvas from the back. I didn't want to give the appearance of solid felt but I did want to cover all the photo background and create soft edges to the strips. The canvas was also selected because it withstands the needlefelting well without distortion.

13.2

At this point I added in a piece of his ear into the design to give a bit of balance to the sample.

To cut a long process short, here is the finished sample with a couple of closeups.

13.3

The sample is sewn mostly using underside couching / cabling with cotton perle 5 and 8 in the bobbin, but I've also used whipstitching for finer lines and shading areas.

13.4

I used copper metallic thread to give an indication of the original underlying layer of orange paint in the blue background of the paper design, through specks of whipstitch.

13.5

The sample is approximately A5 size taking around 5 hours to compete.

chapter 10 - translation of starch and shisha designs

2011-08-12T15:26:00.000+10:00

Back for the moment to Chapter 10 where I took a few of the designs created from chapts 5 and 6 and translated them into embroideries principally using the stitches featured in this module eg. couching, metallic threads.
I looked at 3 starch paste designs and 2 designs from the shisha chapters. The design is first followed by the stitching.

10.1a

10.1b

The background was made using a mixture of bias cut rouleaux and strips of metallic shears, couched down. Clusters of whipstitch were scattered about using green in the bobbin. Cords made on the machine were couched down last.

10.2a

10.2b

10.2c

A woven pattern was made using dyed silk dupion strips edged with couched cords as the background. Gold and copper threads were stitched on top in loose whip stitch.

10.3a

10.3b

10.3c

Background is dyed homespun with cablestitched circles. Green wool roving needlefelted through from the back to make the circle patterns less distinct. The white 'needlefelt' effect came from the stiff interfacing backing embellished through in the process. Spirals of copper mesh were couched down with free motion whip stitch using metallic thread in the bobbin.

10.4a

10.4b

10.4c

Background was black boiled wool for texture. Twisted dyed perle cords were couched down using black thread, densely in places to break up the 'lines'. Scattered whipstitch in black with yellow in bobbin. Copper mesh couched down, black thread.

10.5a

10.5b

Stitched on a background of black wool again, the coiled shapes were cable stitched from the back using different thicknesses of white, yellow perle and copper metallic threads.

Sketchbook - days 21,22

2011-08-08T22:38:00.000+10:00

I did some testing of my layers for scrafitto work as Sian suggested:

This page below uses Caran d'Ache Neopastels on the bottom layer and oil pastels on top. I used various lino cutting tools to scratch. The lines here weren't too clear as the paper is quite textured and a solid colour from these oil pastels on top is harder to produce.

I was surprised to find that my oil pastels scraped off successfully from Koh-i-noor paints so my next uses bright Koh-i-noor paints on the bottom layer with dark oil pastels on top. Once the page was wet and painted, the oil pastels seemed to cover the surface more easily. I used a mini-screwdriver to remove the pastel as I needed a wider tool.

Let's face it again!

2011-08-05T11:47:00.001+10:00

Sorry, but "more faces" just seemed a bit of a boring title for the remaining part of chapter 12.

12.15

After the silhouettes, I looked at sections of the face, particularly my husband's face and ended up with a kind of animated drawing of his features. A bad version of Homer emerged, thanfully husband never goes near my blogs.

Using a couple different decorated papers I cut out the sections and played around with them in various designs, omitting a few and duplicating a few others.

12.16

12.17

12.18

12.19

I think I prefer the 3D look.

I did some drawing exercises based loosely on his face using wax candle, oil pastels and watercolour inks. Like other students before me this got quite addictive - these are just a sample:

12.20

12.21

12.22

12.23

12.24

These were torn vertically, some horizontally, to divide up their facial features then rearranged to develop a series of designs.

12.25

12.26

12.27

12.28

12.29

I then thought it might be fun to replace some of the features with 'real' photographed features of his.

12.30

12.31

12.32

12.33

I think perhaps further integration of the photo elements needs to happen with additional lines on top and if I take any of these into a resolved sample I would do that.

Sketchbook - day 19 ish!

2011-08-04T22:42:00.000+10:00

The weather has started to warm up this week so I managed to get outside and arrange some frames. The next door dog thought I was definitely a bit strange and kept sniffing them, so I quickly took photos and moved the frame on......for fear of them getting 'christened' if you get my drift!

It got up to 26 degrees today - hottest August day in 5 years or something - not bad for Sydney still in winter.

Anyway the day was somewhat more successful than my pages turned out to be.

My knife was too sharp and I kept slashing the pages so I changed on to a thickish sewing needle to scratch into the page. This didn't prove to burr the paper enough and so had to overlay oil pastels to make the veg leaves apparent.

The next one worked a llittle better but the scratchings are still not apparent in the photo. I found I could only make them dark instead of greener than the background -

- then turned over and found that the imprint (left below) of the next page when wet allowed stronger green lines to show through - a serendipidous result.

The lines on the page on the right are again not very prominent.

I think I'll have more luck with the scrafitto at the weekend when I can show paler lines from the bottom layer coming through.

Happy scratching guys!

Sketchbook - days 13 to 16

2011-08-02T16:59:00.000+10:00

My initial attempts at merging the ink with water to highlight my pear were not that successful - too much water and blotches everywhere really.

Cut back on the 'swimming pool', and tried again with the pear and some grapes.

I 'filled in' one of my background copies this way but realised I should have printed on to watercolour paper and not the printer card. The water simply went straight in and no blending happened.

Next my attempt at mixing layers of oil pastels to get the right colour

And my squiggly pear...

Day 16 called for collage work with our subject so I ripped and stuck a few versions of my pear and crinkling grapes. In the last photo I used a photo of rainforest vegetation for the pear ground and then tried to add scraps to lighten the pear, whereas in the first I added scraps to darken along with some highlights.

Chapter 12 - Head and Face designs

2011-08-01T17:49:00.000+10:00

I decided that while I was in the sketching mood and had my pencils and paints out for the sketchbook days I would jump a little in this module and tackle the chapter 12 option.
The stick figures of chapter 11 seemed very similar to work we did at Urchfont 4 or 5 summer schools ago so thought I'd take the chapt 12 option.

I have no excuses for selecting a few Australians' work in my collection of portrait technniques but I started with Lucian Freud since I loved an exhibition I saw in London last year.

12.1

My sketches began to look a little "Spitting Image" but then I love the sculptural look and depth to his portraits and I tried to convey that with only pencil line.

12.2

Adam Cullen is Australian, a winner of the Archibald portrait prize, whose portraits are almost 'childlike' in their simplicity. Marlene Dumas' faces have a ghostly quality about them, concentrating almost only eyes and lips, but these are completely different from the simple faces created by Kathryn del Barton in which the eyes are enlarged and lips doll-like.

John Brack, an Australian from the beginning of the last century, painted elongated angular faces although in not such a distorted fashion as Picasso.

12.3

This year's Archibald winner, Ben Quilty, uses heavy thick strokes of oil paint in his distinctive portraits but conveys manages to give expression and personality to his faces with clever use of colour and tone.

12.4

I tried to avoid heavy shading in my pencil version but rather to use pencil shapes to represent the position of tonal areas - my own painting by numbers bank canvas!

12.5

I next used a silhouette of my daughter since I thought her ponytail might add some interest. I cut out several copies in decorative papers that I had prepared in the last module, cut them up and played with various designs. In most arrangements I simply used a white background as the shapes became confused on the patterned backgrounds I had to hand.

12.6

12.7

12.8

12.9

And a couple with a little more colour to them:

12.10

12.11

I then looked at using the silhouettes repetitively like pages of a book but wanted to see all the 'pages'. I made several examples varying the transparency of the paper using eg. tracing paper, tissue, cellophane, but settled on using a laminating machine.

12.12

I trapped various eyes and mouths in the laminate and sewed heavy lines of stitching as in Picasso and Ponce works of art, and created a 3D piece using several silhouettes. The photography of this proved difficult of course but you get the idea?

12.13

12.14

The rest of this chapter will follow in another post.

Modifying metal surfaces

2011-07-29T22:00:00.001+10:00

The last part of this chapter looked at real metal surfaces eg. copper, brass, aluminium and how to manipulate them by eg. application of heat, embossing, punching, chemical tansformation.

I looked at a number of foils, cans, tubes etc and purchased a few metal shims and meshes to examine.
Holding the shims in a gas flame or under a heat gun produced lovely colour patterns.

9.11

I embossed a few using a Cuttlebug intended for scrapbooking purposes but works beautifully here with copper mesh and also in 9.12.

9.12

What I was more interested in however was changing the surfaces of these metals chemically so in true experimental fashion (as is my training of course) I set up jars with strips of copper, brass and aluminium/brass shim and added various substances to them to see how the metals reacted over time.

9.13

9.13 shows the 3 strips removed for photographing after 30 mins in a shallow level of vinegar. You can see where the liquid level has been from the patination on the brass strip.

5 different liquids were used:

vinegar
Easy off Bam (corrosive floor cleaner)
Sigolin (a Brasso like metal cleaner)
mixure of ferrous sulphate in vinegar
mixture of alum in vinegar

and the strips were photographed after 30mins, 2 days and 1 week in lidded jars at room temp.

I found that the brass strips were most easily discoloured and chemically attacked, very little happened to the surface of the copper (oddly enough) or aluminium. I know that normally copper would certainly be discoloured so not sure what was happening here. Anyway, as far as the brass was concerned, keeping the strips in the air above the liquid had most effect. Below the liquid level simply eroded the strips away with time if anything was going to happen.
I won't bore you with all the photos but a few are below.

9.14 Easy off Bam after 2 days

9.15 Sigolin after 2 days

9.16 Easy off Bam after 1 week (aluminium disintegrates)

Clearly to use these in textiles you would not take the patination to this extent but you can get interesting shadings - I particularly like the effects on brass I found.

I plan to examine commercial products eg. liver of sulphur, for discolouring copper and brass a little more as I'd like to control the colours achieved and maybe use sections later in my 2nd assessment piece.

Chapter 9 (remember that...?)

2011-07-28T21:07:00.000+10:00

Now where was I in Module 2? Oh, yes I hadn't posted up the rest of Chapter 9 on all things metal:

9.5 gold oil pastel over rubbing sheet on back cotton

After I had played around on the machine with metallic threads caught up everywhere inside the workings (ah, now it's all coming back why I stopped...) I made some fabric samples using metallic paints, inks, transfer adhesive sheets.

I prepared a number of backgrounds but have only photographed a couple here.

9.6

9.6 shows printed moifs on background in gold acrylic paint with separate printed segments of these motifs added on top. These shapes were printed on black kunin felt then soldered out.

9.7

In 9.7 the background shapes were added from tranfoils using adhesive on my foam stamp. Similar felt motifs were added. Expandable puff paint was added to the edges to give further dimension. You can see this in 9.8 below

9.8

In 9.9 I created a large felt piece in a similar fashion, printing and foiling but this has further embroidery in metallic thread before it was heat gunned and applied to a printed background.

9.9

9.10

Sketchbook - day 12 colouring in

2011-07-27T22:58:00.000+10:00

For this, I made a fruity arrangement of a pear, grapes and a couple of lychee.

The background was a piece of dyed homespun cotton.
I used Koh-i-noor paints for the background.

I've now read Sian's next post about highlighting the individual elements and wish I hadn't included these knobbly lychee but never mind.....

Sketchbook - day 11 mixing colours

2011-07-26T21:30:00.003+10:00

I went back to my pears for this task and looked at the greens and browns in the fruit.
I did a quick collage page using torn pieces of fruit and veg from magazines and then made a coloured page using layers of oil pastels.

The layers allowed me to scrape out pear skeletons - the top one had a bottom layer of yellow pastel and the lower shape had a bottom layer of black pastel.
I then did two green coloured pages using layers of Koh-i-noor paint adding oil pastels as a resist to get a mottled effect of brown / green like on the pear skin.
I was given a set of these paints last year during Urchfont so kindly by Betty, to try out and I simply love them. They are so full of pigment. So thank you, Betty.

In the last pages I used other blends of watercolours to get the greens and matched some fibres and fabric with the pages

Sketchbook - day 8 surface pattern

2011-07-25T22:17:00.000+10:00

The challenge here was to take a relatively simple surface pattern and use that to reflect the 3D nature of the object.
Looking at my stripy pyjamas this morning I took a couple of photos of the folds:

The first drawing was done in watercolour pencil -

Didn't work out too well - the valleys and peaks ended up in reverse I thought...

I used a fine marker pen for the second drawing below to see if varying the thickness of the pattern lines a bit more carefully would give me better results. Also some smudging done with water for depth and shadows-

I then decided to look at different fabric, a check instead of only stripes -

Again I used fine pen and a little watercolour pencil smudged with damp paintbrush for shadows.

Sketchbook- day 7 surface lines

2011-07-24T23:05:00.000+10:00

Day 7's challenge concentrated on presenting a 3D drawing using only the surface decoration lines rather than the edge lines. I decided that my pears did not have sufficient surface decoration and so looked at some tangerines. The outside skin was dimpled but not really sufficiently lined for this task so I looked at the segments, particularly the lines of pith surrounding them.

I didn't really manage to get a 3D look with just these veins though, so i kind of cheated with shading by wetting the page and the pen lines with water. The lines didn't really follow the contours of the object so that was probably half of the problem.
I also looked at the inside of the skin and tried to draw that texture with layers of shapes in pen and watercolour pencil.

Sketches day 6 - getting bigger

2011-07-22T21:27:00.000+10:00

Miraculously overnight my pear resurrected....and duplicated....

I thought about carrying on with the half eaten one but hey, it looked so juicy, I couldn't resist. So one visit to the supermarket later I'm back again.

I chose a thick charcoal stick to draw the bottom of the pear with thick marks and the edge for finer lines.
I did find the spiral back a bit annoying and also wished I'd stained more of the pages in the hinge area but good practice.

I repeated the task using an artist's brush marker pen in green to try and get a variation in line thickness. I used cross hatching to get a bit of shading on the pear but couldn't resist also blending the lines a little with water.

Summer Sketchbook project

2011-07-20T23:32:00.000+10:00

SinceI missed out on the Distant Stitch school at Urchfont this July I've decided to take part in Sian's sketchbook project and hopefully get myself stimulated to do more C&G diploma work.

I stained some pages of a llittle A6 sketchbook with black tea and also with green tea which gave a more yellowish tinge to the pages. After Anne commented on using coffee, I sprinkled some coffee grounds onto some of the damp pages which left interested speckles to the background.

I picked a pear as the subject of my sketches.

The next sketches used a pen with watercolour pencils. The sticker is from the original pear.

The photo below is of sketches with shadow work (day 6 from Sian) using charcoal and watercolour pencil.

I left my sketchbook open on the table ready for the next task together with my 'model' but came back down to find this......

.......I'm not put off but I think I'll need another pear.....grrrrr

Nuno felting workshop

2011-07-20T17:30:00.002+10:00

Always eager to learn from tips and techniques from different felters, I attended a weekend workshop recently with SooMee Kim from Melbourne. It was held at Beautiful Silks, Fitzroy, Melbourne which in itself was a treat to see. The selection of hand dyed silks and fibres was amazing. I was the proverbial kid in a sweet shop with as little restraint in my purchases. Only the size of my suitcase restricted me!

Anyway, the workshop - we all made wraps over the 2 days based on hand dyed merino prefelt which were reversible in their design.
These photos show my 'plainer' side that had less nuno felted silk and more loose roving and fibres than the other side.

I found that this prefelt only shrank by about 10% by the end, even though I continued to felt the piece once I got back to Sydney. This prefelt was made by wet felting and hand dyed too so that probably accounted for the low degree of shrinkage and the difficulty I had in firmly felting in thick fibres and silk despite sandwiching wool roving in between prefelt and fabric. I tend to use prefelt that has been only needlefelted with more loft not wet felted and so this makes it a little easier.

More for the exhibition...

2011-06-24T19:31:00.000+10:00

As promised in the last post I finally finished my felted wrap for the NSCG exhibition which have some distinct similarites to my 'fishy' bag..

The silk georgette was hand dyed to match the felt and holes were made in the felted ruffles to tie in with the embroidered bubbles around the lace fish.

The exhibition has still 3 days to run and there are some amazing pieces from textile, glass, wood and ceramic artiists. As they say "come on down!" and see for yourself.

Too many artists spoil the sewing machine!

2011-06-17T21:25:00.000+10:00

Our house has been a flurry of activity recently with my daughter's major Art and Design work for HSC due today and the North Shore Craft Group exhibition and sale coming up this week.

I had hoped to put up some photos of Lorna's work but she's keeping it under wraps until her school's exhibition on Monday. She is majoring in printing - screen and lino - and her presentation is a mixture of wall prints and a wearable sculpture in the form of a hand printed coat made from white denim paper that she made herself. It's inspired by the work of Munch who was often photographed in a gabardine trenchcoat hence the connection. I also like to think that I inspired the lacework and embroidery she prepared throughout the material to link her prints symbolize the connection she feels with Munch, but Lorna is her own artist on that and makes her own choices!

So while the machine was free (albeit covered in black ink and powder and required constant oiling, you sense my slight frustration!) I was allowed to use it and work on my pieces for my exhibition.

Suffice to say I'm still working on my second challenge piece - so photos will be following. Hey, this is turning into a very boring post, so here's some colour - details of the exhibition at least, for those in the area.

The challenge this year has a Zodiac theme. Since I'm a Piscean I selected fish as my embellishing theme and created a bag (of course) with lace embelllishment. The bag fabric (under the lace overlay) is felted with sheers embellished into it and ebroidered. This first piece was finished quite a while ago as I entered it into the Royal Easter Show in Sydney this Easter and was chuffed to win 1st prize.

Feeling slightly guilty that I was re-using the bag in this June exhibition I decided to make a coordinating felted shawl / wrap with the same fish embellishments in lace cutwork. But as I say it still needs finishing this weekend. Despite my planning I always seem to work up to the last minute...but I'm sure I'm not alone there.....

"A Bag for all Seasons"

2011-06-15T10:30:00.000+10:00

Just finished a really fun weekend teaching a 2 day bag making workshop for ATASDA NSW at Epping Creative Centre at Dence Park in Epping. I had 8 ladies, all very enthusiastic to learn how to turn their textile creations into structured bags. The pattern I used is very flexible as you can produce a bag with or without an internal tubular frame and create bags with very different looks and uses.

This photo shows some of the bags 'almost' completed. some of the ladies previously appliqued and decorated their material, or created beautiful woven pieces of cloth that they pieced together.

The bags all had structured bottoms with purse feet which gave them a very stylish professional look and
we looked at many variations of pockets with zips, elastic flaps etc.

More ATASDA workshops and tasters if you're interested can be found here.

Does this work....?

2011-02-05T21:29:00.000+11:00

I find that designing a new pattern for a bag is a bit like a cryptic puzzle - how to get everything neatly sewn in, in the right order and still leave the correct opening available so that you can turn everything out through the lining. I still have so many "oh, that's why you never do that!" moments and examples of sewing myself into a dead end or un-turn-out-able bags, but when it works out you feel you've cracked the Rubik's cube.

I had one of those feelings when I cracked making this little evening bag fully lined in one go.

Various tutorials detailed the making of a boxy bag like this but either they had no lining or the lining had to added in after by hand. Anyway, I was on a high. Then my daughter said "oh, I like the soap bag".

So my question is does this work as an evening bag since it's in silk and metallic threads? Or does it still look like it should be hiding a shower cap inside? I need your help....

With these thoughts, I tried another simpler design without the wraparound zip and boxy shape. Comments gladly accepted.

Both bags are about the same size - 8inches length by about 4-5inches high, 1.5inch wide at the bottom and have a wrist strap or a shoulder strap attachable with swivel hooks.

Christmas cheer

2010-12-25T15:37:00.000+11:00

Course work has been a bit 'thin on the ground' recently as we took a break up to the Gold coast last week before Christmas but I thought I'd share some photos with those of you lacking from heat in the UK at the moment.

And this is high season!

We also did the theme parks and water parks for my son - son and hubbie exhausted themselves up and down horrendous water slides while I got some serious reading done for once, except for the odd rollercoaster - it has to be done!

Hubbie is the one screaming like a girl second from back!

I took some knitting supplies for later felting but it just wasn't the weather for it and the reading won. I can thoroughly recommend Kate Atkinson's "Got up Early, took my dog" if you haven't discovered it already - definitely up to her usual standard.
Before we left I finished a couple of nunfelted bags for Christmas presents for family back in UK but I fear they may still be languishing in the snowbound post offices of Scotland.

So here's a photo, mum, it's on its way, honestly.

I do hope you all have a lovely restful Christmas with plenty of time for textile art, of course. Many thanks for your supportive comments this year, guys.

Sculpture by the sea for 2010

2010-11-18T16:49:00.000+11:00

"Sculpture by the Sea" has just finished for another year in Sydney but we did manage to get down to Bondi on Thursday evening after it had been raining over the last weekend. You have to walk along the headland from Tamarama Beach to Bondi to see all the sculptures which is great, but not so much in driving rain!
The light was fading a bit so the photos are not as good as they could have been but here are some of my favourites.

The shark fin is made out of car doors

Detail showing the eggs inside

"chicken chainmail"

The glass pieces reminded me of Jane's hanging

This would have been lovely to see in different lights.

detail of above

This was the only fibre-based exhibit this year

Printmaking

2010-11-16T09:50:00.000+11:00

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to try my hand at print making with a real print roller. My daughter has been having a course of printmaking lessons at weekends to help her HSC studies from Andy Totman of the National Art School, at the Newington Armoury studios, Sydney Olympic Park. She couldn't attend one of the days so I went in her place.

We were introduced to photo polymer (solar) plates which I'd never used before. The plates have a surface which is activated by sunlight and so by placing an black and white acetate image on top and leaving in the sun, an etching is produced from which prints can be made. It's a bit like cyanotyping where the treated fabric exposed to the sun turns blue but not where the fabric is covered.

I chose a photographic image of a neighbour's tree I frequently use in my sketchbook. Once exposed for 2-3 minutes the plate is immersed in water and gently the excess polymer coating is rubbed away to reveal the image.
The plate was inked up with oil based printing ink and a print produced under the roller press.

I was amazed by the detail produced particularly when so little ink is used. I printed a couple more - one over a newsprint and one with a second inking in red on top.

By overlapping the acetate images on the plate then exposing to the sun, you can get multiple images on the one print. I mixed some Shakespeare with Stonehenge.

We also did some monoprinting, using some torn muslin and threads as resist.

I personally prefer the second print from the plate which is a little more subtle and shows more textural detail.

It's getting warm - Christmas is coming!

2010-10-29T18:07:00.000+11:00

Today was the opening of the Wheel 'n' Weft craft group Christmas sale in Thornleigh, of which I'm a member, and it was extremely busy. The first few hours are usually hectic but today seemed extra busy - must have been the homebaking and the Christmas music!
I took some photos to give you a flavour of the place and the other members' work - glass, textiles, wood etc etc

Rhondda Retallack

Jenny Gordon

Elaine Farrington

Lindie d'Ath-Weston

The sale and exhibition is on until Sunday 31 October 4pm so do stop by.

Nunofelted shibori silk

2010-10-14T18:30:00.000+11:00

Last month I blogged about a shibori workshop that I'd attended and had quite a few pieces of fabric at the end of it. One of those was a black piece of silk georgette that I had put marble resists into then discharged the dye. The resulting discharged silk was lovely in itself but I felt that I probably would never do anything with it as silk.

I decided to nuno felt that piece with black wool batts so that I could make it into a bag .....of course.

I managed to get very little distortion of the silk during the process to allow the pattern still to be evident:

I ended up having enough felt to make two bags:

The one on the left is a casual sling / messenger type bag with an adjustable webbing strap.

The other is larger and a bit smarter with purchased handles and a solid base with little purse feet. The larger one also has a zipped pocket inside and both have magnetic closures.

For those of you in the area, you'll find me next in the Wheel 'n'Weft Christmas sale, Thornleigh community Centre, Thornleigh (29-31 Oct).

Some monoprinting fun

2010-10-10T18:45:00.000+11:00

I brought out my piece from summer school this week (while I was looking for something else of course) and thought that I would make something of or at least with it. Two minutes later I decided it would stay as it was "for later consideration", just couldn't cut it up etc. However I was inspired enough to get the fabric paints out again and print some more.

I found some A4 ish pieces of fabric that I'd dyed a terrible puce yellow for some reason and thought they'd be ideal for a makeover.
I got quite into it and was fairly pleased with the prints so I turned them into smallish bags that I thought would sell at my next sale.

I did some free embroidery on each design to echo the print designs, backed on to interfacing then wadding.
The bags are closed with flexiframes - you used to only get these in 3.5inch widths but I've now discovered 4.5inch ones that you can at least get your hand through, wonderful - the things that excite me!!

The cording means they can be hung, or put a lobster clasp through the loops at the side and you can attach it to your belt, handbag.

Alchemy!

2010-09-27T16:17:00.000+10:00

I think this was a very useful exercise if only to find out which metallic threads my machine liked and which ones it absolutely hated (those I've relegated to the next free for all at ATASDA social day bearing a "health warning"!).
The metallics I used are in the photo below (in the same arrangement as used in the samples):

The middle pale blue in the second row...aargh...Madeira no.15 if any of you fare better with it free machining without producing birds' nests underfoot let me know.

9.1

9.2

9.1 and 9.2 the samples of machining those metallics with red and blue thread, respectively, in the bobbin.

Some of the differences in overall colour are more obvious than others.

The next exercise was to pick one metallic and stitch samples using different colours of bobbin thread. I picked the very gold metallic (middle of bottom row) and used 4 colours from my research eg. shades of coral and green.

9.3

9.3 shows the back of the work and the bobbin colours.

9.4

9.4 shows the front. Each metallic/bobbin thread is sewn in 4 directions to test for any colour changes with light reflection.

Disappearing Shibori

2010-09-22T20:59:00.000+10:00

I spent today at a wonderful workshop run by ATASDA NSW in Sydney with Barbara Schey, renowned shibori textile artist. Barbara is part of a great exhibition "Scarf"on at the moment by the World shibori Network Australia in the Barometer Gallery, Paddington, in Sydney. For those of you in the area I thoroughly recommend visiting before it closes on 3 October.
Barbara was showing us some techniques for creating shibori patterns by discharging dye from black fabric. She has some amazing blocks and clamps largely homemade as is typical of her thrifty self and she was typically generous in letting us loose on them to experiment. There was no end to our samples as she'd kindly brought along further cotton fabric supplies for us to purchase and Sylvia of silksational was also on hand with silk - dangerous temptation!

Barbara has a great laboursaving device for binding fabric on to a pole to create arashi designs.

I wrapped plain black cotton homespun using it and discharged the dye using bleach and vinegar to produce this piece of fabric.

I love the herringbone pattern myself. Barbara's husband had 'run up' that piece of hardware for her, of course. I can't see mine doing that somehow - buys me great textile works of art but not constructively good with a hammer!

Shaped wooden blocks were clamped around the folded cotton voile, wrapped in string and then treated with bleach and vinegar to produce these patterns:

It's always interesting to see the different colours that the different black fabrics can be discharged to.
As well as discharging cotton and other plant based fabrics we looked at silk, using TUD and vinegar to discharge the colour.

I played around with black silk georgette, using marbles and elastic bands as resists to produce this piece of fabric - a bit more organic than I expected but definitely has possibilities.

There was so much more we learned about but ran out of experimenting time, like degumming and melting back lame that I left buzzing with ideas - so many plans, so little time.......

Twisting and turning

2010-09-18T22:21:00.000+10:00

After spending most of a day playing with wire, I felt like this little chap!
I think I need to keep a safe distance between me and a reel of wire for a bit now!
A quick summary of the types of coils or purls I did manage to produce that were presentable.

8.1

8.1 shows at the top of the photo, some purchased tubular cord and some of the metallic wire from gauge 20 up to 28. I made quite a few lengths of purl as in the centre then had fun recoiling these lengths over purl cores. "Beads" like those at the bottom were produced.

8.2

8.2 I looked at covering the wire before coiling. At the top is garden wire bought covered in green plastic coating then coiled. The second one is gold wire covered in red cotton embroidery floss then coiled.
In the middle I pushed the length of wire inside cotton tubular knitting yarn then coiled. A length of this coil was then recoiled to produce the shorter fawn coloured purl under that.
The gold coil is the purchased gold cord at the top wired and coiled like the knitting yarn above it.
The bottom one is coiled wire which has been beaded with white seed beads before coiling.

Shisha vs machine

2010-09-16T22:18:00.002+10:00

Yes, I plucked up the courage, found the safety glasses from my lab days, and had a nervous go at sewing around those mirrors. I think it's a bit like standing on the edge of a cliff - no matter how much you try not to you keep seeing yourself jumping off. I concentrate like mad and still see the needle veering towards the glass.
If truth be told (and you look closely) I actually only machined around mirrors in 2 of the samples - and that was after I had practised with 2 samples using metal foil, just incase..... Still, I persevered....

Incidentally, all these samples and the others 7.1-7.5 in the previous post are about 20cm x 20cm in size.

7.6

7.6 My first practice go - Red bobbin thread and yellow top tighter tension in star formation over shisha of gold foil.

7.7

7.7 (detail)

7.7 The back ground in this one has spiral pattern of a rubbing with gold oil pastel. Free machine swirls made over a metallic organza entrapping glass pebbles then areas of the sheer cut away to reveal the pattern underneath. I made a hole over one of the pebbles to make it more shisha-like but decided that I preferred the covered look on the others.

7.8

7.8 Background rubbing in gold pastel over one of my blocks from before. Then shisha mirrors trapped under machine couched tramlines of red perle cotton. Further free machining done on top in metallic thread echoing the rubbing marks - not as clear as I had hoped unfortunately.

7.9

7.9 detail

7.9 Green and gold pastel rubbing on olive green dyed cotton background. Echoing swirls in metallic free machining. Fragments of broken mirror that I already had from a mosaic class hand sewn with gold seed beads and gold thread. Shisha mirrors machine sewn in star formation in centre and then the rubbing marks emphasised in hand blanket stitch using gold embroidery thread.
I do like the way that the beads (in the detail photo) are reflected in the mirror.

7.10

7.10 In this sample the gold foil shisha are held down with overlapping jump rings cut from a metal purl I made around a pencil. they are hand stitched on then free machining in whip stitch with red bobbin thread on top echoes the ring patterns and the rubbing markings on the fabric. The fabric is the same green as in 7.9 but the photo makes it appear brownish here.

Contemporary Shisha by hand

2010-09-13T23:06:00.000+10:00

I had fun finding contemporary things that could be embroidered onto fabric like shisha mirrors - not always shiny or reflective but at least they were roundish, well at least they were at the start.

7.1

7.1 The top row shows individual aluminium blisters (from a strip pack of medicinal tablets) held by buttonhole stitch in gold perle.
The middle row shows the bottom rounds of egg boxes as shisha, held by crossed stitches of gold purl with interlacing in the centre.
The bottom row uses the little stickers found on kiwi fruit in place of mirrors under gold lurex twisted and stitched across mimicking the stamped pattern on the background.

7.2

7.2 uses the same stamp on the background. On the far right the diagonal row has cast bark circles as shisha. This was my attempt at linking things back to my research theme of vegetation and trees. There is a huge eucalypt in our garden that has little lumps and indentations all over the trunk. When the bark is cast off every year these little circular bark pieces drop off like counters. Here they are attached by interlacing jute string.
The other 2 diagonal rows have shisha 'parcels' of copper shim and copper mesh held down by short sections of gold wire purls couched down at each end.

7.3

7.3 The background pattern here was created by rolling of the roller after it had inked the stamp. The circuit pieces came from an old digital camera and I have held them down with 24 gauge brass wire. Not exactly round or sparkly but definitely contemporary!

7.4

7.4 I thought about the Indian relevance in these contemporary samples and used small images of Indian henna painted hands in place of shisha in the relief rubbing patterns. Each hand is held down by a crosshatch of gold lurex thread to create square outlines copying the checkerboard pattern in the henna design. The squares theme is repeated in the stamping on the background, the square pieces of brass mesh and the square embroidery around the shisha mirrors in the centre of each motif. One mirror has the square edged in buttonhole stitch, and the other has the buttonhole stitch in the opposite configuration.

7.5

7.5 OK, these 'shisha' can't exactly be called round but they are shiny - pieces of CD, the country songs of which I am now saved from - I think they've gone to a better place!
The left motif using the shape of my stamp again, have the pieces outlined by chain stitch then held in place by the pink floss interlaced through those stitches.
On the right, loosely based on another motif from the original embroidery, the pieces were held by green herringbone stitches interlaced. The spaces between these pieces have been laced further with pink floss. I like the fractured look to the piece and where the foil has peeled away from the CD perspex.

Sketchbook finally felted!

2010-09-11T17:26:00.000+10:00

I've finally dressed my nude A3 sketchbook from Module 1 with the piece of nunofelt that I made in Orange in April.

I made a sleeved jacket for the ring binder using interfaced homespun cotton on the inside that had been hand dyed. The raw edges were folded over on all 4 sides of the sleeve panel then stitched in place on 3 sides to give the pocket for the folder cover.

All my A3 sheets seemed better protected in plastic sleeves this way plus I could have an envelope sleeve at the back to hold all the little samples I did while working on my dress.
It also means I can add to the folder if I need to.

Decorative details from indian textiles- chapter 6

2010-09-10T11:03:00.001+10:00

I used the relief blocks made previously to create decorated papers 6.1 to 6.8 based on Indian enbroidery themes.

These rubbing images above use Markal sticks on black and gold tissue paper and on black crepe paper. In some I repeated the same image, others used several block rubbings together.

In 6.9 (above left), the paper was pleated then repeat rubbings made before opening out the paper again. In 6.10 (above right) a strip collage was made using pieces from 6.3 and 6.4.

6.11

6.12

6.11 and 6.12 and 6.13 have stamped prints in gold acrylic (6.12 pleated before stamping) over the layer of rubbings.

6.13

I suspect that smaller areas of these papers will be more interesting for further study later in the module, rather than the whole piece eg as in the section below.

6.14

Shi-sha embroidery

2010-09-07T17:09:00.000+10:00

I had some difficulty in finding an example of Indian embroidery to study "in the flesh" that was authentic, so I resorted to the internet and found some good closeups of embroidered fabric. That along with a few reference books ("Embroidered Textiles" by Sheila Payne and "Indian Embroidery" by Rosemary Crill) from the library gave me a good idea of the stitches involved.

5.1

My study embroidery is in the centre of this photo (5.1) and my drawings in black pen and white ink are scattered around. The colour was added generally by pigment pencils and washed over with water.

5.2

In 5.2 I drew with a kebab stick dipped in bleach on black handmade paper (left). I had this paper left over from the Certificate studies when I had dyed the pulp with black procion dye. The image I was recreating (centre) was drawn in Markal oil sticks as a resist over a texture plate (right) then washed with brusho solution.

5.3

In 5.3 I used the Markal sticks over the same plate on black tissue paper. I felt the rubbing gave patterns very similar to the original white chain stitch on black.

5.4

5.4 shows a few relief patterns that I made using translucent liquid polymer clay (TLPC) on cardboard. This polymer clay is intended to allow patterns / pictures to adhere permanently onto polymer clay for jewellery pieces or other motifs, but I've never used it for that purpose. I produce weblike structures that can stand on their own for 3D work or attach onto hangings etc. If spread thinly enough the sheet is flexible, can be cut easily, stitched through and even better the tranlucent base can be coloured with pigments before curing or painted afterwards. Oh, I could go on for ages - love the stuff. I taught a workshop last month and the TLPC kind of took over for some ladies!
Anyway, here on cardboard it's fixed itself, won't peel off and so produces a useful stamp / relief block.
The rubbings in 5.4 show that a constant line is not produced but I like that incomplete look to the patterns.

5.5

5.5 shows three relief blocks made with blind cord on lino tiles. The tiles are great because the stamp has a bit of flexibility (a bit like monoprinting with Ruth on flexible acetate - what a revelation that was for me!).
The rubbings are made using pastels or wax crayons on tissue paper or thin paper bags.

5.6

5.6 - The block (the green one in the bottom right of photograph) was made from an easy carve block. The other pattern is cut on the other side of the block. The prints are made using (clockwise from bottom right) rubbings on black tissue paper with white and gold Markal and white wax crayon, monoprints with green acrylic on paper, and rubbings on inked paper with Markal.

5.7

5.7 I had a go at replicating some of the designs in my study shi-sha mirrored embroidery. The background fabric was dyed homespun and a little chlorine was used to trace the outline shapes for embroidery.
The sample piece includes normal chain stitch, open chain stitch, back stitch, buttonhole stitch, normal herringbone and Indian (double) herringbone stitch, roman stitch over laidwork and couching in addition to shisha stitch around the mirrors. Not so sure I like the colour scheme but it's true to the original.

Voyages of the imagination

2010-09-01T21:10:00.000+10:00

ATASDA's exhibtion of textile art finished on Tuesday at the Palm House, Botanic Gardens, Sydney and I went back in to collect my piece and help to clear up for another two years.

It had been held in the Palm House, an historic glass house of the Botanic Gardens, with obviously plenty of natural light inside.

Situated in the gardens and also very close to the Art Gallery of NSW, we were visited by many tourists and locals alike which made for interesting conversations about our work and organisation.

Sorry, Maz, I caught you in mid-walk across the doorway. I'd love to put up some photos of the exhibits but don't have permission at present so you'll have to make do with these shots and imagine.....

Relief surfaces - starch paste

2010-08-31T09:57:00.019+10:00

I had a go at making starch paste acording to Sian's recipe on the stove top but I had to add more water after it cooled because it was a bit of a rubbery brick cold, resembling more of a gelatin mould than wallpaper paste. However, paste made I added Procion dyes powders to it divided into about 4 quatities. Like others before me I was surprised at how strong the colours were and then how curled the papers were once they'd dried! The first few I made, produced interesting cracks in the dried paste once I tried to flatten them. I have scanned sections of three of these made using brown, olive, golden yellow and red dyes.

I then added highlights of treasure gold on to some of these papers but found that the relief was not suffucient to see the metallic touches so chose to make monoprints of metallic acrylic paints on top trying to mimic the types of patterns I had made in the paste.

I also made rubbings over texture plates with metallic Markal sticks. There are a couple of examples below.

Opus Anglicanum

2010-08-26T14:26:00.000+10:00

I started looking at this at the beginning of the year but very quickly realised that researching on the internet was not going to be enough as the photographs there didn't give me any idea of the intricacies of the actual articles. So I waited until this July when I was in the UK and could view some of them for myself at the V&A in London. Despite travelling from the other side of the world, the rest of the family only allowed me 25 minutes in the V&A so given that, I'm quite pleased with the details I could glean and photograph!

1.1 I've presented my research on six A4 boards that are connected and hinged into the form of a cross akin to the Marnhull Orphrey on display in the museum.

1.1 Opus Anglicanum folded book

I've photographed each of the 6 boards separately so that you should be able to read the detail if you want to.

1.2 Introduction and pattern drawings

1.3 The Syon Cope

1.4 The Marnhull Orphrey (1)

1.5 The Marnhull Orphrey (2)

1.6 The Clare Chasuble

1.7 The Butler-Bowdon Cope

Once all the boards are folded in on themselves you can see the cover.

The boards are hinged using double cloth tape and with inserted board strips to create spines when the bulk requires. The cover is a dark red velvet with a bronze silk dupioni name (and despite the photograph it really does say opus and not 'pus'!!). The metallic thread embroidery copies one of the patterns found on the Clare Chasuble.

Chapter 3 Underside Couching

2010-08-25T18:10:00.000+10:00

A. Underside couching Hand stitch

I started to follow the technique using quite a coarse tapestry mesh with thick wools but the scale didn't seem to help so I very quickly moved on to using bookbinders' muslin as a base. This muslin has a fine even weave with visible holes but also has a lot of stiffener in it, obviously for bookbinder. This stiffener proved very useful and I found I didn't need a hoop to stabilise the material.

3.1

3.1 I created a chevron pattern with green Perle cotton thread, similar to that seen in some of the borders of the Opus Anglicanum pieces

3.2

3.2 This piece uses a yellow Perle cotton with a metal strand through it to create a kind of basket weave pattern.

3.3

3.3 the backsides of 3.1 and 3.2 above showing the couching thread and the 'dots' of Perle coming through.
These samples were approx 3cm wide.

I actually quite enjoyed this despite it feeling like it was taking forever to do and it appearing to get smaller as you worked on it! So much so that I started work on a small sample worked on velvet (before I realised that you were supposed to work through a linen layer too then pick all the strands of linen away- aargh!) - very unsuccessful, so bad in fact that a photo of the disaster will not be uploaded. My admiration definitely goes to those Medieval craftsmen!

I had more success working on 32count linen and put a few samples in my chapter 1 research book on Opus Anglicanum - not quite completed yet....

B. Underside couching machine stitch

3.4

3.4 I picked a background of homespun cotton, hand dyed brown which was stabilised with a woven interfacing. This first sample was intended to show 4 different squares but I reckoned that the stitch length change was not great enough and there was not enough contrast between the top and bottom threads.

3.5

3.5 This second one was more successful and a diamond was more obviously produced.

3.6

3.6 I found that keeping the lines of stitching evenly spaced was quite difficult, but may have been less apparent on a larger scale.

3.7

3.7 Here the stitch type was changed between plain and zig-zag.

3.8

3.8 Here some gold lurex thread was used in the bobbin. Perhaps greater contrast between the top and bottom threads would have been better.

Chapter 2 - Metallic Threads

2010-08-23T19:26:00.000+10:00

Chapter 2 looks at metallic embroidery relating to Opus Anglicanum and ecclesiastical embroidery.
The photos below appear blurry in some cases but if you click on them to get a close up they are quite clear - don't know why this has happened here.

Couching by Hand
These first few images are of samples couching metallic threads (and some less conventional materials) by hand (size approximately 8cm square)

2.1

2.1 Some 2cm wide metallic ribbon couched down by running stitches in red Perle cotton. Gold lurex thread and red metallic thread were laced through these stitches.

2.2

2.2 Spirals cut from metal foil couched down by red Perle cotton.

2.3

2.3 Metallic plastic mesh woven with yellow metallic ribon couched down with large stitches in yellow Perle cotton thread.

2.4

2.4 Twisted braids of red mettalic floss and gold lurex thread couched down with red Perle cotton in herringbone stitch.

2.5

2.5 Metallic wrapping paper strips wrapped in red metallic thread held down by laid work in large stitches of red Perle with small anchoring stitches in yellow Perle.

2.6

2.6 Stamped images of leaves, from Module 1 sketchbook, in bronze acrylic paint. The outline of one couched in gold lurex with red Perle cotton stitches.

2.7

2.7 Strips of corrugated metallic card couched down with large diagonal stitches of metallic ribbon in a trellis pattern, then laid work anchored with small horizontal stitches in red Perle cotton.

2.8

2.8 A tight purl of 24 gauge gold wire made using a 'coiling gizmo'. Similar purls of silver wire made then coiled on themselves and laid within the "s" bend. All purls were laid down using red Perle cotton.

Couching by Machine

2.9

2.9 Thin wavy strips of metal foil couched down with machine zig-zag in red thread. Bundles of red metallic thread couched on top using automatic wavy machine stitch.

2.10

2.10 Thick metallic ribbon arranged in interlocking folds held down by a line of machining down the centre. Machined cords of yellow / metallic Perle were laced through these created folds and couched at certain points by machined zig-zags in red.

2.11

2.11 Metallic chiffon fabric strip held down by couched cotton embroidery thread in such a manner as to create repeating tucks in the fabric horizontally. Large stitches of metallic thread sew vertically across this fabric by machine then couched down at points along this vertical length.

Cecilia Heffer- Lace Narratives

2010-08-18T21:28:00.002+10:00

I managed to get to Cecilia Heffer's exhibition at Damien Minton's gallery in Redfern on Saturday and was certainly glad I'd made the effort. The gallery is not much to look at from the outside, as fine art galleries often are but inside there was so much light - a really lovely space.

The gallery rarely has textile exhibitions but Cecilia's work suited the area beautifully. Her work is largely monochromatic in creams, and shades of brown, by virtue of her natural dyeing with vegetation and rusting. This colour scheme was echoed by the pale wooden beams of the ceiling, weathered and worn, from which lengths of printed cloths hung.

She explained that this exhibition had developed over many months and consequently was made up of several groupings each with their own identity but linked in a common theme - their own form of lace as it were.

One particular series of around 12 small framed works contained fragments of dyed and treated cloth linked in an open patchwork by lace bars.

These miniature lace works (above and below) are intended to be viewed as a "series of paragraphs, aerial views of landscapes". In referencing Rosemary Shepherd's definition of lace as "an openwork fabric whereby the pattern of spaces is as important as the solid itself".

This work relates to the experience of plane travel. (Cecilia herself has moved country 8 times and changed house 27 times). As she says "we travel from one solid land mass to another we view patterns of landscapes below us in a capsule suspended in space."
In some of these pieces Cecilia had incorporated pieces of her old Chilian passport to give a sense of herself in each work.

Another group was made from heirloom lace fragments, donated to Cecilia, which she linked together in free form contemporary lace using water soluble material. These particularly delicate fabrics were then ombre dyed using natural dyes (eg. eucalyptus, some with mordants and rust). A range of subtle colour changes were produced in these hangings.

A section of the Government House lace was hanging in the exhibition too so that was great to see up close.
The flora detail in the design was lovely - a tribute to the Scott sisters of Darlinghurst, Sydney and their botanical drawings of the 1900s.

After Cecilia spoke, some of her colleagues spoke of her work from their own perspective: one from visual arts dwelt on her simple design ethos and one, a poet, who gave her own rendition of narrative lace. I have to admit my expectations of the poet were not high but I was blown away by the experience, a ver clever musing!

Machiko Agano

2010-08-13T20:55:00.015+10:00

Machiko Agano is another talented textile artist who explores lace in a very sculpural form. She is a professor in the textile department of Kyoto Seika university, Japan but also has exhibited internationally in collaboration and in solo to high aclaim.

I first came across her work in an issue of Fiberarts and just loved the scale and the visual representation of space.

Agano trained initially as a weaver but now knits on large needles using fishing wire, silk, monofilament and steel wire in wonderfully irregular patterns.

Her work, often suspended from the ceiling in her installations, is largely neutral or clear in colour to exploit the colours of the surroundings through the tranlucency of her pieces. Many who see her work comment on its representation of air as the installations merge as one with their surroundings.

Lace Narratives

2010-08-13T18:51:00.016+10:00

With my own interest in lacy textiles I have been looking closely at work by textile artists with a similar interest.

Cecilia Heffer, based here in Sydney, is one such artist who has been working in contemporary lace patterns in various textile forms, examining the structural forms created.

After studying fine art for three years she went to Spain before moving to the UK and completing a masters degree in textiles at Central Saint Martins college in London

She is currently the coordinator of textiles at the University of Technology, Sydney.
She has received many awards and her work has been published in many national and international design journals.

She was first inspired to work with lace after viewing the lace archives at the Powerhouse Museum, Sydney and began to create contemporary lace designs for interior displays.

She creates lace designs using digital technology and industrial processes rather than hand knotting.

This installation above was from her solo exhibition in 2006 entitled Laced. The circles are cut from silk organza and then hand printed with traditional Venetian lace braids.

During the restoration work on Government House, Canberra, Cecilia was asked to redesign the lace curtains in the main drawing room and she was able to create a design incorporating Australian flora eg wattle flowers. It was based on Nottingham lace but had a contemporary feel.

In 2009 I attended an evening talk by Cecilia locally when she related how this design was developed and was eventually made up by a Scottish firm located about 10miles from my native home town as no one was equipped locally!

Cecilia's current exhibition, Lace Narratives" in Redfern Sydney closes tomorrow but I am hoping to visit it and hear her closing "conversation" about this work. More later....

Module 1 3D Assessment piece paperwork

2010-08-12T10:25:00.001+10:00

For completeness of Module 1 I have posted below my details of costings, timings, H & S, and evaluation for my functional 3-dimensional piece.

Back down under

2010-08-10T16:20:00.001+10:00

Finally had some time to blog since I got back and also download my hundreds of photos from the trip - no, don't worry I won't go through them all here. But we did have a wonderfully inspiring trip and saw quite a few exhibitions in UK and Paris to keep me going for a while.

I did enjoy the summer school, seeing everyone again, and learning from Ruth. I'm sure students have said great things about the whole workshop time but I did appreciate especially the discussion on the last day being in amongst like-minded people with some great ideas.

I returned to find that both my textile pieces in the NSCG Fire and Water exhibition had sold, so I was fairly chuffed by that. It's inspired me to do more hand stitching so maybe that will get me back into the C&G hand samples I'm mentally stuck with.

I tutored a workshop on Saturday for ATASDA in Sydney on "Contemporary Lace" which was great fun. All the the students were so enthusiastic and keen to try out different ideas with soldering irons, mixed media, and free machining, not to mention some weaving on created grids.
Some great work was produced all round.

Have also been putting the final touches to my piece for "Voyages of the Imagination", the national ATASDA exhibition held in the Palm House within the Botanic Gardens in Sydney.

A section of it is shown below

It's another hand and machine sewn hanging entitled "Old Man Willow" inspired by the forest in "Fellowship of the Ring" by Tolkien. The exhibition opens on Thursday 12 so if you're in the area do call in.

"Fire and Water"

2010-06-10T18:28:00.009+10:00

This year's exhibition and sale by the North Shore Craft Group, Sydney, of which I am a member, is taking place next week. As well as having a selection of handbags and wearable accessories in the display as usual, I have 2 pieces in the exhibition entitled this year "Fire and Water".

I decided to interpret the title separately and to have one piece inspired by fire and one by water, but both using the same textile techniques and the same size (framed about 30" by 12")

The first is "Bushfire" inspired by the terrible bushfires in Victoria at the beginning of last year.

It's also my little tribute to Jan Beaney's technique as the piece is made from extensive hand stitching over scraps of dyed scrim, silk and wool tops then integrated using machine stitching and the embellisher. A small area is detailed below:

The second is "Ocean Pools", using a similar technique but more translucent, with digitally printed silk organza in the background, less wool tops, and separately prepared lace pieces added on top of the work at the end. I've also used painted fusible web and distressed sheers in there too.

The photo below shows the lace ripples in more detail:

Dress embellishment

2010-06-02T16:54:00.006+10:00

I did a little more work on the embellishment of my 3D item for the diploma, by manipulating and stitching the motifs into flower-like arrangements on the bodice. I made motifs out of the various sheers, pink, red and green and also simply out of thread (although the lace ones are not really apparent from the photos - believe me they are there!). The sheers had varying translucency that helped give depth to the layers.
In the process of making the motifs, after dissolving away the Solvy layer I dried some over bottle caps so that they remained curled and gave more dimension to the flimsy material.

The tendrils are made from overlocked thread lengths and dyed gauze strips cut and edged on the bias to give the curl. Within the motif arrangments, the tendrils could be threaded through the holes in some of the shapes which was an interesting plantlike effect.

The motifs continue on the back at the end of the strap. I didn't feel the need to add more to the strap itself as with more coverage the strap began to take over!

Bag making in Brisbane

2010-05-28T16:12:00.007+10:00

I had a lovely weekend just past in Brisbane tutoring "Framing the Fabric" otherwise known as 'bag making with frames' for the ATASDA Queensland Branch.

I had 12 ladies who were all willing to be flogged mercilously for 2 days and produced the most wonderful bags and purses in that time.

I think they all went home for a rest on Sunday but I hope they all enjoyed it as much as me.

Here's Mel in a 'retro phase' with amazing psychodelic material (before):

(and after): What are those handles like?

Svenja, whose wearable art is stunning, of course matched her purse with .....

And fortunately I didn't get stopped at the airport on the way back this time with my bags of magnets!

Orange felting

2010-05-14T21:53:00.016+10:00

Might seem a strange title but Orange is a town past the Blue Mountains in NSW where an annual Textile Forum is held in the easter school holidays for a week. This year I attended, spending a wonderful week felting with Catherine O'Leary a great felter from Melbourne. She specialises in creating the most beautiful garments from nunofelting tissue silk on to merino tops and batts. She had a few on display which we oggled over.

She prints a lot of her own line drawings on to silk which are nuno felted in.

I've done quite a bit of nunofelting over the last few years in Australia but never creating such smooth and flat fabric. Any time before I've exploited the shrinkage of the wool and the resulting rouching and gathering you get in the silk on top. It was wonderful to work with fabric which was felting so carefully and slowly that there was barely any shrinkage involved and the silk patterns just merged into the wool.

My efforts were not as refined lets say but I attempted a tunic in the week which I tried to design incorporating all the techniques she demonstrated to add pattern and texture.

Here I am laying out the pieces:

This is the wetting down stage under a layer of plastic:

and many hours later the finished tunic (front and back). Spot my recurring motif from my research, and my dress!

The motifs were inlaid, or appeared through cutaways or felted on top, but in the end you couldn't really tell which method had been used as it was pretty smooth.

The weaving of pre felted strips was my favourite:

One lady decided to make a whole bag front with weavings.

The finished display of the class's work was quite amazing for only a week's work. The photo below shows only a small part.

The patterned green rectangle was also mine which will be a cover for my A3 sketchbook/folder in the diploma - finally I'm decorating it! At this stage I hadn't done any embroidery on top - what am I saying I still haven't done any now......but the intention is there you understand!

I loved felting in the "sushi roll slices":

My arms and shoulders were still aching for days afterwards!