Richmond Exhibition

My new wall hanging - in situ at the Station Gallery, Richmond.  It's a beautiful light and airy space in a converted railway station. If you get a chance to drop in you'll find a fantastic cafe, cinema, artisan bakery and ice cream parlour all under the same roof.

The Textila 3 exhibition runs until 2nd June.

Sashiko Stitching

Trying my hand at the Japanese technique of sashiko stitching has been, in equal parts, thoroughly frustrating and very rewarding!

Sashiko means little stabbings and was originally developed as a means of mending and reinforcing clothes.  Like many similar quilting techniques, it has become an art form in its own right with a range of traditional patterns as well as contemporary adaptations.  It looks very simple but getting perfectly even stitches that obey the rules of sashiko is not easy!  The reward comes in the rhythmic pattern of the work that takes on an almost meditative quality.  It is very satisfying. 

My Thursday morning stitch group at Cobbles and Clay cafe in Haworth, will be using this technique to embellish some fabric and then we will make it into small purses.  If you would like to join the group, we meet from 10-12:30 in the upper room at the cafe.

Tile Fragments

Two more pieces for the Textilia 3 exhibition which opens at the Station Gallery, Richmond on 21st May 2016.

These are individual tile fragments that I've mounted on fine net and suspended over a print on calico.  The print is a dictionary definition of the word READ, which describes its etymology from the old English raeden meaning to counsel or advise. 

They are deceptively simple, but each piece took several hours to assemble - about half the time was spent removing bits from the glass covering the box frame! 

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! 

Indigo Blues

I love dying fabric! Contrary to my scientific training of precision and reproducibility, I love the serendipitous nature of hand-dying: the lucky chances that place colour on cloth.

Last week I learned how to use indigo - a very different beast from the Procion dyes I had worked with on previously.  Indigo doesn't react with fibres, it is insoluble. It has to be altered, chemically, to a soluble (yellow) form which allows it to adsorb onto the surface of the fibres. When it is removed from the dye-bath and exposed to oxygen in the air it converts back to its insoluble blue form. 

It's perfect for shibori techniques - once exposed to air, the intense blue dye will not migrate onto other parts of the cloth.

I spent a lot of time tying and stitching cloth to create these lovely patterns, but I think my favourite piece was one that was simply folded, concertina fashion.