Tuesday 8 April 2008

Moore Dismembered ( and More!)

The Henry Moore exhibition at Kew has finished and is being dismantled - I shall really miss having them around and wish I'd taken more opportunities to draw them. The Double Oval was one of the first pieces to go and as I didn't have a camera with me, missed the chance to take pictures of the combination of sculpture and crane ( both having been subjects of recent quilts!) . I've had my camera with me since as the sculptures are gradually dug up and moved to the end of the Broadwalk for crating up. They have fences and security staff ( not just for health and safety) so can't get too close but I rather like the strange juxtapositions and the 'bodies' taped up like bandages. It's like a cross between a zoo and a casualty department.








This weekend I had a frantic stitching and painting session and finished off my 'Thin Blue Line' challenge piece - I'm calling it 'Gythion Glow'. I'm not sure about the etiquette of sharing completed quilts before submitting them to exhibition so I shall just show a glimpse of the sky. I'm generally pleased with it - there were some problems with scale-up even tho' I'd done a 1/4 size sample. I need more practice mixing blues , the sea part didn't work so well but you'll have to wait to assess for yourselves.

My other recent project ( which I can now reveal as she's received it!) was a 60th birthday present for Sue. I knew she wouldn't want yet another cushion and wanted to make something that was useful and reflected our shared interests ( and her love of purple)

In the end I made a sketchbook cover with 60 samples of purple fabric from my stash, including bits of seams and buttonholes from shared charity shop buys , fabric she's given me and some African fabrics. I'm slightly ashamed to say that even with my recent stash edit, finding sufficient fabrics was no problem. I could also easily do the same for other colours.

I glued down the inch squares and zig-zagged them to a batik background (ebay purchase!) and used vilene as batting and made a matching card from a photo applied to monoprint tissue.



I've been interested to see the results on various blogs of a journal-making course run by Sue Bleiweiss. It's something I'd like to have a go at as a completed art project but for actual sketching in my view there's nothing to beat Daler Rowney hardback sketchbooks spiral bound as scrapbook/'lab-book' or casebound for drawing/painting out and about ( just have to watch that they don't have perforated sheets-I hate those). Having worked out how to do it, I now want to make covers for my own sketchbooks- perhaps with board inserts so that I can use the very cheap student sketchbooks available in floppy excercise book format.
If I could work out a way of having 2 extra hands that would be useful what with juggling my water pot ( lantern with handle) , watercolour box ('bijou' with thumb ring ) , sketchbook with bulldog clips (to keep page from flapping) PITT pens and No 10 travel brush ( not forgetting tissue to mop up the drips). I've tried substituting a water filled brush pen for the brush and water pot - ok for smudging watercolour pencils but not very satisfying brush marks.

Off to Cambridge on Friday with Sue for Quilters Guild AGM.- we're doing a workshop with Charlotte Yde and going on the coach outing to Ely. Should be fun!

4 comments:

Stephanie Pettengell said...

That is a really exciting peak of your thin blue line quilt. I made the decision today that mine will not be entered, not enough time to finish. I will see you on Friday though, it should be a good day.

Julie said...

Thank you for showing the Henry Moore photos - wish I could have seen the exhibits.
I like the glimpse you've given of 'Gythion Glow', the marks and colours look very interesting. I'll look forward to seeing the finished quilt idc.
What a great idea to glue down the squares and then stitch - I feel as though you've given "permission" to do that, I would have stressed about stitching such small pieces and been worried about glueing. It's lovely, Sue should be delighted.

margaret said...

The bandages and sutures on the wrapped statues bring up some interesting thoughts. Definitely one for the mental list of future projects. I too wish I'd spent more time drawing the statues - it will be interesting to reconstruct them from memory (and photographs).

Anne Wigfull said...

Sorry to do this here, Mags, but I have no other way to contact you to tell you I have nominated you for the Arte y Pico award.