Small Wonders

I've just completed two miniature works of art.  They will be mounted in a compositors box - a storage device used by printers in the days when individual letters were assembled to create a book or newspaper.  They will be joined by 90 more little pieces which have been created by the members of Skipton Embroiderers' Guild for their XL exhibition later this year.

It seemed fitting to use some of the devore fabric that I printed a couple of weeks ago which was based on the decoration found in the tiled hall at Leeds Art Gallery.  I layered the fabric over printed text which describes the old English origin of the word to read.  I then stitched the words reading room over the 3 individual squares - each one measures 1"x2".

My other miniature masterpiece is a slightly larger version of the snowdrop brooch that I made in March. 

Charlotte Bronte

In tribute to the 200th anniversary of Charlotte Bronte's birth the Contemporary Stitch Group made a Victorian inspired sampler using a quote from Jane Eyre:

I am no bird; and no net ensares me: I am a free human being with an independent will. 

Kitchen chemistry

I've been indulging in a bit of kitchen chemistry over the last week or so.  Devore printing and dyeing to be precise.  

I'm working on a piece for an exhibition by Textilia III - a group of Northern based artists that I joined earlier this year. The theme for the show is TEXTiles and I've taken my inspiration from the Tiled Hall at Leeds Art Gallery which was originally built as the reading room for the city library.  The room is covered from floor to ceiling in the most beautiful tiles, in fact when it was first opened in 1884, the roof was considered so magnificent that it was feared that "people would be continually gazing up at it instead of quietly reading magazines and newspapers".

I have chosen to work in silk-viscose velvet, satin and georgette fabrics which I have printed with Devore paste using a hand cut stencil. I acid dyed the silk and then Procion dyed the viscose using muted colours of rust, grey, green and dark turquoise.

Each square has been hand pieced together. I chose to leave the raw edges facing out to soften the appearance and allow the silk to fray slightly.  

Here is the result!