Inspiration

Last week I went to see Cloth and Memory 2 at Salt's Mill with my namesake and kindred spirit, Claire.  The exhibition is on a truly monumental scale and is staged in the old spinning shed at the mill.  The work was all meritorious but the pieces that were most eloquent were the ones that had been created in direct response to the Mill itself.

It got me thinking about how I could develop one of my recent themes, the work of women social reformers from the Victorian era.  I've already made two pieces inspired by lace from the Gawthorpe Hall collection and I've got an idea for at least one item if not more.  I want to continue to work with fine and translucent fabrics and inspiration came in the early hours of the morning - somewhere between waking and sleeping.  later that morning I started sampling with some cotton organdie sandwiched between two layers of fine net.  I stitched the fabrics together using silk yarn and a mixture of random patterns, text and drawing with thread.  Then I applied devore paste (rather too clumsily, I confess) and burnt out the cotton.  The resultant fabric was crude but had potential.  Using screens to print the devore paste will ensure a lighter touch and clear images.  The stitching needs to be denser to capture the fragments of cotton organdie.

Here are the seeds for a new projects.

Grey days

So much for the season of mist and mellow fruitfulness! The last few days have been characterised by thick fog which hardly any daylight can penetrate.

My morning walks often take me through beech woods.  The trees have not yet shed their leaves and the canopy is dense, few plants grow in their shadow. The thick fog had reduced the light and entering the darkness of the woods seemed foolhardy.  But my courage was rewarded, because as I started to emerge into open fields the silhouette of trees and walls was breathtaking.

Working with pigment ink pens in a Pointellist style seems to capture the ethereal nature of the day and the subject.  Although the Autumnal colours were present in the woods, the stark contrast of fog with the dark trees made me choose to work in a palette of greys. 

Working on the fly

 

It's been a crazy few weeks with little time for art and experimentation.  I took photos of some fly agaric mushrooms (Amanita muscaria) that I recently found in local woods and I've been mulling over what to do with them. I'm drawn to these brightly coloured fungi; there's something so exotic about their luscious, bright red-and-white spotted caps.  But they come with an air of danger too - they're hallucinogenic, and this made me think of some kind of manipulation technique.

The textile designer, Lucienne Day liked to cut up coloured pieces of paper to create abstract images so this seemed like a good place to start.  I have long admired her work, especially her ability to reduce a botanical drawing to its simplest form. 

I trimmed my photo to isolate the red cap of the fungus and then continued to cut it into 1cm strips.  I used the remaining trimmings to make similar strips that I wove in a warp direction.

Although simple, the weave pattern acts as a view-finder for different parts of the image. I noticed that the spots are not at all symmetrical; they have ragged edges and appear to be bursting through the bright red cap.  The whole effect is distorted and perhaps this would be a view of the world if you were to try eating one of these fairy toadstools.  I think I'll keep them safely on paper! 

New Media

 

This week has been all about exploring different media.  My first diversion was ceramics. I popped into a lovely local cafe Cobbles and Clay to paint a plate that will be given to the winner of a Bake Off style competition that I'm organising on Saturday 12th October.  The paints that I used behaved very differently to acrylics or watercolours - they are viscous, slightly dry and are absorbed very quickly by the plate.  On the up-side, if you make a mistake, it's easily removed with a damp cloth.  I have to own up to several revisions because I wasn't happy with the lettering.  

My other foray into the unknown was an upholstery taster course run by Pauline Keenoy at Damside Mill which was part of the South Pennines Making and Doing Festival.  I took along an old chair and discovered that it was rather beautiful underneath its layers of varnish and 1950s moquette.  I have got great plans for it!  I am starting a course in November to learn the skills necessary to complete its transformation. 

Family matters

I had an unexpected visit from the Partridge Family this week.  Those of us of a certain age will remember a popular children's TV programme but it was actually a visit from a dozen or more little birds.  They pecked and poked their way around my patio looking for seeds and other tasty morsels and then, just as soon as they arrived, they had gone. If I hadn't been walking past the window at that precise time I would never have known they had called. 

They are chubby little birds and quite inquisitive. Their plumage is beautifully marked in shades of blue/grey and brown.  I snapped a few photos before they left and now I have been trying to draw them. I started with water-colour pencils but I found them too abrasive for the soft linen paper of my sketch book so I reverted to my usual choice of ink pen and paint. 

I'm thinking of reworking the drawing in the style of Nicola Javis as seen in the July/August issue of Embroidery magazine but that will be next weeks project. 

Love letters

 

Yesterday was my wedding anniversary. Finding the right present is always a tricky business so I went for a quirky personalised approach. I'd found an old mill bobbin wound with coloured string in the fabulous Imaginarium Gallery in Haworth but wasn't quite sure what I would do with it.

I've been using different typefaces in another project so decided to draw letters on small pieces of cartridge paper spelling out the word Anniversary. On the reverse side of each card I have written a short love letter.  I threaded the cards onto the bobbin string and hey presto! instant gift. Just a little imagination and a lot of love.

Fruits of my labours

More dabbling with devore this week. I led a mini-workshop as a taster session for my friends and to help me plan for a full-blown affair next month.

This technique requires a special kind of mixed fibre cloth. Silk-viscose velvet is the most common but I also use satin and georgette versions to great effect.  Chemicals are used to burn away cellulosic fibres (viscose in this case but it attacks cotton and linen too) leaving the silk mesh behind. You can play around with the chemical reactions and create a resist by applying alkaline dyes first so that when you print or paint over with (acidic) devore paste, one will neutralise the other.  Sounds like a chemistry lesson doesn't it?  

I like the fact that you have to think and plan carefully to achieve the effect you want.  It requires some mental gymnastics because the places where the devore paste is applied will be eaten away so often the design needs to be reversed.

My photos show this week's sample which was inspired by the rich crop of blackberries that adorn the walls and hedgerows of my walks.  I printed blackberry shapes first and then painted a tangle of briars in a vibrant rust colour.  Next I applied the devore paste with a brush, working freehand in loose leafy shapes.  Once I had activated the paste and removed the cellulose fibres I painted the background with a mixture of Autumn colours. The viscose fibres absorb less of the dye leaving a silvery shimmer to the pile.  Mist and mellow fruitfulness!