An elbow's length of thread: 2016

Friday 30 December 2016

Small beginnings

It makes sense to bring this little exercise into a place of its own - it may flourish here, it may founder after a month or so, but at least it has somewhere to begin.

There are a number of initiatives at establishing a daily practice, be that in art practice, or meditation, or any endeavour really; unless you are doing it, well, you're not really are you?

So, how to establish a daily stitch practice? There are a number of fine souls out there in blogland who do this already, and I take inspiration from them, but have never managed to find a framework that fits. Then two groups that I belong to, both in the real world and the virtual, posted this idea.

I wanted to give it a slightly more personal twist, and focus on the moon and her phases, something I am always aware of.

Another layer of symbol added, by using the yin yang emblem to encompass that balance between light and dark which is at the heart of all our being.

This then gave me a framework to work with; stitch according to the moon's phases. One group member suggested threading up a selection of threads in preparation; so why not select colours accordingly? I'm not going to try to include elements from the moon image above, that would be just too complicateed and I did it as a bit of fun. I'll use a variety of stitches and a single length of floss, blend the shades in the lights and dark sides, and stitch mindfully, aware of where the moon is, when she rises and sets, when she is visible.

The thought pleases me.

Today (29th) is the Dark Moon, the New Moon, the time when her illuminated face is turned away from us and we cannot see her. So start with this, and with two strands of my darkest embroidery floss, cut to the length from my thumb to my elbow, and let's see where it takes me ......

Thursday 1 December 2016

A wedding

Back in the summer, I had the chance to make use of some of that shibori I mentioned in my last post. Remember those bits I bundled up; a silk scarf clamped with tool packaging and another piece of silk scrunched into a mesh laundry bag with a marble or two for extra interest? Well, the scarf came out like this

with lovely flashes of turquoise

little inadvertent birds, where the crescents were clamped at the edge - excuse the lack of ironing!

and the other piece of silk was transformed into a ring pillow - with a pocket on the front made from a piece of my Mum's wedding dress when she married my Dad

and some Celtic spirals in silk velvet for the back - not the easiest of material to sew - I nearly got rather cross after the n'th time of unpicking .......

All the angst was worth it though, as it meant that my daughter and new son-in-law's rings could be transported safely and presented to them at their wedding at the end of August in Bodiam Castle

The day was beautiful in all sorts of ways, the weather was glorious, the location so very right for them, the guests were terrific fun and the rather lovely medieval attire that some of us wore gave the whole ceremony the perfect atmosphere.

Here's Jen with her groom, best man and her Dad looking proud

me doing my mother of the bride bit

the ring bearer, bridesmaids, man of honour and Jonathan's sister looking properly medieval

and Jen and Jonathan exchanging rings and looking very much in love

What a wonderful day it was, and what a pleasure that I could contribute with little bit of hand dyed, hand stitched frivolity to hold the symbols of thier vows. Something new and blue, Jen's dress - something borrowed, the chaplet of flowers kindly donated by our neighbour, and something old, that little bit of wedding fabric, folded and stitched into a pocket so that Jen's much loved Granny Rose could be there in spirit.

Today it is her birthday - 30 years since she wriggled and slid into this world. Ganna and Mum used to recite this slightly twee Victorian poem by George MacDonald to each other, adn me - twee but heart warming - I can still hear their voices, smiles in the reciting - poetry was a great love of thiers

Baby

George Macdonald (1824–1905)

WHERE did you come from, baby dear?

Out of the everywhere into the here.

Where did you get those eyes so blue?

Out of the sky as I came through.

What makes the light in them sparkle and spin?

Some of the starry spikes left in.

Where did you get that little tear?

I found it waiting when I got here.

What makes your forehead so smooth and high?

A soft hand strok’d it as I went by.

What makes your cheek like a warm white rose?

I saw something better than any one knows.

Whence that three-corner’d smile of bliss?

Three angels gave me at once a kiss.

Where did you get this pearly ear?

God spoke, and it came out to hear.

Where did you get those arms and hands?

Love made itself into bonds and bands.

Feet, whence did you come, you darling things?

From the same box as the cherubs’ wings.

How did they all just come to be you?

God thought about me, and so I grew.

But how did you come to us, you dear?

God thought about you, and so I am here.

Friday 28 October 2016

Her Ladyship's trousers - update

What with all the travelling and a very significant wedding, of which more later, I've not been updating as much as I should. So, there will be an update on the tool packaging shibori, but first I have finished "Her Ladyship's Trousers". The shibori dyeing on the hems went really well. As I'd hoped, bundling them together allowed the dye to wick upwards in some wonderful wiggles that echo the shibori patterning. This is achieved by regular lines of running stitch pulled up tight; the way the stitches relate to one another determines the pattern, so all in a line would have given me a grid pattern, but here, where I have staggered the placing, I get a lovely irregular ripple

obligingly, (and of course, due to careful placement of trousers in bucket) these have stayed pretty well level across both legs

so I now have a lovely full pair of comfy casual linen trousers to wear around the house, with a graded dye effect from the hem upwards - oh, and a couple of incidental rainbows from the crystal which hangs in the window

Even more pleasing - I had to shorten the elastic round the waist; I'm slimmer than I thought :-)

Wednesday 26 October 2016

Autumn skies dyeing

Another recent bit of dyeing, kept until now as it was intended as a gift for someone. A silk scarf for my dear heart's neice who did so much to make our recent holiday a fine and full one, with so many excitements!

Tuesday 4 October 2016

Shibori Mandelbrot

Remember them? The wonderful joys of fractal generation on early PCs!

Els, you'll like this one

And a sneak preview of the other - Autumn skies shibori

Sunday 2 October 2016

On Silk

Poodle?

Or seahorse?

Complex bindings

Six in all

Saturday 1 October 2016

Her ladyship's trousers

I have been making myself a pair of linen, wide baggy trousers using salvaged linen from Aunt Cecil's home. Beautiful smooth sheets, taken in for repair, the job never done. They are thin in places, but there's still plenty of fabric, I love the way it feels.

Why her ladyship's? Because they originally belonged to the family that she worked for for many years.

So, these trousers, the linen underdyed a soft bright green, with flashes of magenta to tone it down and restrain too much gaudiness.

Waving

The inital intention was more complex, but I am simply dip dyeing them, with five lines of shibori stitching drawn up nice and tight, just above the hemline.

I flooded a wash of magenta again, then after five minutes a swoosh of deep turquoise, lemon and black. I've been practicing on another piece from here, the pole wrapped piece. I will incoporate my experiments with the other bits from here at some stage.

Here one is pinned against the leg as a sort of example - see how I used the beautifully hemmed top of the sheet as the trouser hem ...

Saturday 17 September 2016

still here

just quiet for a while, but still doing when health permits ....

a total change of direction, though I am still stitching as well, and had my first session at Studio11 this month.

These are from way back in 2011, the year after Mum died.

Looking back now, I realise they were worked during March and April, the year she would have been 85. March was her birth month.

They have been brought back out again, and finshed, in response to some weaving classes we're having with Claire Buckly. The bamboo is fresh from the garden - cut today, the warp knotted round - still some trimming to do.

A little smidge of we embroiderers have got together and are learning about small scale tapestry weaving - on a frame loom, at Steph's house. Claire's teaching is quite different from the course I did in 2011, so I'm glad I have a little bit of the basics to start from, and can learn more.

We assembled last Monday, five of us ready to learn. We warped up our looms, we tore up strips of paper and made a collage,

we were allowed to choose six balls of weaving yarn, to tone with this

We've made butterflies, little bundles of neat yarn to pass in and out of the warp. and learnt about colour blending - using a sewing cotton, for example, to nudge the base colour one way or the other

We are preparing designs to weave. Next time we will design, based on the collage each of us has done.

Now I have the fun of thinking about how to translate this into a woven piece. Quite a different mood

Sorry I've not been here xx

Monday 4 July 2016

Tool packaging shibori

Nearly there

I have been quietly busy. This year's final day with Christine, and I'd missed the previous two because I felt poorly. So, a pleasure, and some inspiration. I found time over the past few days to wrap up some fabric and see where a bit of shibori can get me.

A silk scarf, folded, clamped, rolled, clamped, Apply three blanks from some piece of tool packaging, aligned top, bottom and between, as perfectly as I could manage

clamped with acrylic shapes as well, so apply an even pressure across the ends.

Edges rolled and clamped to make small white marks I hope

And some little crescents, just to see

Different clamps, all submerged in turquoise, acid yellow and some old black, just to see

Then a piece of silk, scrunched, pushed together, wrapped tightly in a laundry bag, with some marbles to add extra texture

I'm hoping for clear edges and spaces of white, all to echo the dark holes in the centre, and perhaps some patterning from the bag itself, and the elastic band

The marbles, in tune with the piece of silk shading I am working on now and again, very slowly, glasses off, eyes close to the frame, because it's the only way I can see clearly enough when using just one strand of embroidery floss! This was our "here's how" piece from the last Branch workshop.

I have no idea what will happen now

Time to unwrap

Monday 2 May 2016

Byzantine Klimt

Remember this? Layers of organza on a base of gold Thai silk, from a sleevless top I picked up in a charity shop years ago - saved until it was the right fabric - its day had come. The layers of organza, pared away with the soldering iron, were my introduction to the technique I used on my Anglo-Saxon cuff.

Well, I wondered about - the startling colour change is all to do with the light, not a profound change in the piece!

A mock up using a sketch app on the iPad. Mixing my media! The image, taken in a rather odd light, has been "drawn on" as well!

The blue framing fabric (another Thai silk blouse) was found in different charity shop to the source of the gold, and found after I'd been to Wendy's workshop. How awesome is that! The vivid blue picks up on the blue in the organza, the patterns are the same as the gold base fabric, but on a slightly different scale and can be arranged to echo the patterns in the centre. The fabric is identical in weave and texture. I can use the blue with a bright or dull side, which allows for more subtlety of tone. They can be arranged to echo the patterns in the centre and it allows me to create the illusion of dangling ornament, which echoes the Klimt inspiration

Lots more stitching and beading needed, but it suggests a way forward; definitely worth exploring

Thursday 28 April 2016

Inspired by the EG

I have been neglecting this little space in the blogosphere because I have been rather busy. We've had several good sessions at the branch of the Embroiderers Guild that I belong to; another of our mini workshops, this time my choice was ribbonwork, but I've not done enough finishing to share with you here yet. We also had a marvellous talk by Anthea Godfrey about the work of her mother, Margaret Nicholson. It was so interesting to hear about someone who forged her own path at a time when women were still expected to stay at home and look after their families. Anthea brought an utterly inspiring set of her mothers embroideries for us to see.

Margaret used a wide variety of embroidery and beadwork techniques, employing all sorts of materials and methods. She particularly enjoyed Or Nue which is a goldwork technique which involves laying metal thread on the surface of the fabric and attaching it with embroidery silks in such a way that the stitching, using different colours, creates a picture which sparkles and glimmers in the light. It is a very old technique; a great speciality in this country during the 14th and 15th Centuries, when it formed part of the repertoire of English embroidery, known as Opus Anglicanum, or English Work. You can see examples in the V&A and we exported embroideries across Europe, often to religious foundations or churches, as the Church was a major patron of the arts then.

Margaret took this technique, combined it with others and, with her wonderful talent for design, created beautiful images full of imagination and colour as you can see here.

Anthea brought so many pieces that we could have spent all day just looking at one or two; the technique is so fine, and so labour intensive, it seemed miraculous that one woman could create so many beautiful embroideries in a single lifetime.

After such an inspiring talk I came home full of fire to get on with another Guild project, our regional challenge which we have every year. The theme this year is "Inspired by Royal Jewels" and the branch are busy creating all sorts of bits of embroidery to display at the annual Regional Day. I had a good look at royal jewellery and found myself rather uninspired, until I thought of the Alfred Jewel which is held in the Ashmolean (always a place to spend many happy hours!). This took me to the Anglo Saxons, and I discovered this rather lovely brooch found at the burial site of an Anglo Saxon princess in Kent.

That seemed pretty royal to me, and much more inspiring than tiaras and diamond necklaces, so off I went. Drawing on the techniques I learnt at our Wendy Dolan workshop last year, I decided to create a cuff or bracelet based on the design of the brooch. Much trialling and stitching later, and I'm really rather pleased with the result - if you'll excuse the "old dear wrinkles"!!

Goldwork, beads and layered organza cut back with a soldering iron to emulate the cloisonne technique of the original.

I just might see if I can do something else now.

An elbow's length of thread

Saturday 31 December 2016

New Years eve