London Exhibition

I was made aware this morning of an exhibition in London that devotees of African imagery and pattern might be interested in.

The exhibition is of early pen and ink works, delicate watercolours, acrylics, jewellery and Adire textiles by the Nigerian artist Chief Nike Davies-Okundaye.

Davies-Okundaye trained in Adire, a traditional indigo-dyed cloth worn by women in south-western Nigeria, and featuring hand-painted patterns of birds, shells, and geckos. She is credited with the contemporary revival of this once fading textile and batik industry.

Nike Davies-Okundaye - The Power of One Woman - Featuring photographs by Joanna Lipper is on show at the Gallery of African Art GAFRA in London, until 6 February 2016.

These images of the paintings are what fired my imagination.

A new spin on Travelling Books

As we are starting our third year of Travelling books we have tinkered with the format a bit. Everyone will be using an eight inch Pink Pig sketchbook to work in. All participants have been asked to choose a theme for their book and to set the book up with source material for others to use to inspire them to produce a piece of stitchery. There was a little apprehension at the beginning as members were anxious about how they would cope. A workshop at the November meeting gave people ideas and strategies so I think everyone went away happy that they could set up their book.

Everyone will therefore make a piece of embroidery on every theme over fifteen months. We are publishing the list of themes at the start of the process so that who need to make more than one in a month because they'd be away can do so. The themes are varied and challenging but it will be fascinating to see the full collection on a theme by the end of the process.

The older I get the more interested I become in simple stitchery , texture and colour. I have chosen "Marks and Lines" as my theme and set my book us with a collection of textiles illustrating the possibilities.

My own first piece is very simple. I wanted to use only materials that I already had and wanted to use "my" colours. My go to palette is "Autumn ". Interestingly I wear them too!

A New Year....... Looking back at Travelling Books

During 2015 I again took part in our Guild's Travelling Book challenge. I have posted some of my pieces that went into other people's books so thought I would share some of the lovely pieces that I am now the proud owner of now that my book has been returned!

Lorraine's first attempts at this interesting Indian stitch was really interesting, so nice to get the instruction on how to do it too.

I was so thrilled to receive Wendy' stunning stitchery and imagination. Her work is quite beautiful and she often exhibits in the part of the world.

Alyssa is the owner of an amazing photographic book which illustrates the huge variety of different tree barks from around the world. Her piece is just lovely!

I really enjoyed making a very abstract piece based on a painting of seaweeds.

I also enjoyed learning to create masses of bullion knots.

I've again learned a great deal from doing this challenge and look forward to what we will do in 2016.

Cut and Stretch - a design exercise

Our local CQ group, Weedon Bec Creative Textiles, ran a design exercise on an occasion when I couldn't make it, but I had the very minimal written instructions. So, going it alone, not looking at the instructions in advance and without looking at other members' finished pieces I decided to try the challenge.

The initial instruction is to bring 4 pieces of fabric, 3 toning and a contrast and threads in the same colour ways.

Instruction 1

Decide whether to work landscape or portrait. I decided portrait.

Label the toning fabrics a,b and c and the contrast d.

Cut a to A4 size.

Cut a 5" strip from (b) place it over (a) and stitch 5 straitish lines.

Cut the excess fabric away between the lines and retain.

Instruction 2

Sew three of the strips cut away in (1) onto the background . 2 at the top and one towards the bottom.

Instruction 3

Take fabric (c) and place it over the background fabric in the gap towards the top. Sew 5 diamonds through all the layers. Cut round each diamond and cut out the centres. ( in future, consider other shapes instead)

Now I knew that my choice of (c) was too close to (a)!

Instruction 4

Cut across fabric (a) following the diamonds.

Instruction 5

Sew one half of of the split panel on top of a panel of fabric (d)

Sew the other half of the split panel over (d) considering the width of the gap, whether to offset or flip the fabric over.

Instruction 6

Apply a strip of fabric (b) over this new gap and stitch a zigzag or triangles. Cut round the shapes and remove excess fabric.

Instruction 7

Cut across the background fabric (a) elsewhere using a zigzag shape and inset a panel of fabric (c)

Instruction 8

Using fabric d, sew three large diamonds across the gap using double lines of stitching , cut out as in (3) above and retain the centres for possible addition later.

Instruction 9

Repeat any of the above again as you see fit.

Instruction 10

Quilt and embellish.

Hand stitch and using some pre set stitch patterns.

Machine quoting over remaining areas.

Trimmed and squared, it's just the right size for. Book cover!

It's amazing how hard it is to make good design choices when you don't know how the next stages will pan out!

Now I'm going to start again and with what I now know will try to make some better choices and treat my edges with more respect! I have actually enjoyed the exercise so thanks to Yvonne for organising it for us!

Absence again.....

A long silence deserves an explanation!  In part this is due to another bout of anxiety attacks which seem to drain me of any creativity or desire to "make" anything. I hate it, loath the absence of ME and resent how pathetic it makes me feel. Over it now, but do wonder whether my railing against it is helpful, it's been suggested to me that I have to accept that my mind needs the breather and just acquiesce to the rhythm of it.

In part the absence has been dues to a fabulous trip up the coast of Norway from Bergen to Kirkenes and back. The scenery was stunning, weather was on our side, and I have come back with some ideas for some work for our exhibition in April.

I did use some time in September on a hand stitch project which was kickstarted by seeing a photo of a garment from an art school graduate show.

I bought an unpromising brown tweed jacket in a sale and set about adding my own take on jazzing it up.

I started by applying s distressed piece of dyed scrim to the cuff of one sleeve, using fine thread and herringbone stitch to secure it to the jacket. Then started off with cotton Perle threads and simple embroidery stitches adding linea elements.

I also applied more yellow scrim and some turquoise scrim to one shoulder and made chunky stitch lines out across the back of the jacket.

It was quite addictive and I had to be careful not to get too carried away!

The lapels got the treatment too, no scrim but stitch and beads.

Pocket flaps were treated like the lapels and bound pockets were given the French knot treatment.

Running stitch was taken from the head of the sleeve in to the arm and from the cuff up.

The yellows, corals and turquoise threads brighter it up and tone with my clothes. Eventually, I had to stop adding more and more.

The finished result pleases me and makes the jacket far more wearable than it would have been left as I bought it. I'm delighted I had the idea and plan to look for a linen jacket in the spring that I could treat in a similar way for the summer.

Elements - Fire and Ice

I really enjoyed all the design and development that went into the creation of my Elements entry. I have been working a lot this year on the addition of hand stitch to my work. I really love the textures that I can add and the act of holding the work in my hands as I stitch brings its own pleasures.

Photographs of the surface and edges of ice fields have always fascinated me. The colours, the layers and the textures so enticing!

In Iceland the juxtaposition of volcanic activity and ice means that flame and sparks sit alongside the layers, representing hundreds of years of laid down snow. I wanted to create a quilt to represent the ice and overlay the fire. 

I spent a lot of time sampling the ice field. Trying a range of different fabrics that I could manipulate and stitch effectively.

Silk, linen and cotton. Strips flipped and stitched and in some cases soft pleated as I stitched began to create a background to work on.

A second version, thinner layers more manipulation and different colours

Using large stitches in irregular form created a more interesting set of textures, incorporating scrim added more interest, scrim can also be distressed by pulling it into holes which was effective.

Now I I was ready to produce the ice background. I cut the quilt backing and the wadding and then stitched each section by stitch and flip, creating the folds, tucks and creases before stitching each layer as too stitching. The hand stitching wasn't added until all the layers had been machine stitched.

My biggest issues were in how to represent the "fire". I tried all sorts, initially I didn't rate any of them!

At first I tried rectangular blocks in the appropriate colours which I planned to mount on top of the "ice" but it's far too heavy and it obscures the stitching I have spent so long creating!

Then I tried a flame shaped addition, this doesn't work either!

Cutting flame shaped pieced that I could apply. I liked the shapes but again this obscured the stitched background so I needed to go back to the drawing board again.

By using sheer fabrics for the flames I could show more of the stitching beneath.

This is what I ended up with. I am very pleased with the ice background and I like the fact that I can still see this through the sheer flames.