1000th Blog Post : Studios; quilts; doors, ceramics, travel; plants; drawing, Kew; museums, City Lit; stitching

 My 1000th  blogpost had crept up on me unawares! While I haven't been blogging so much of late ,   using Instagram and Facebook more for sharing what I'm up to, I still find it a useful tool as a 'reflective journal' when I've been doing courses to  record my thoughts and investigations.

 I decided to look back  in an organised  random way ( if that makes sense ! )at what I was  doing on 100th, 200th etc   and actually the main themes  of  what interests me  ( plants, art , textiles, travel)  all come through  even in a relatively  small selection.

My first post in August   2007 was on moving from Ealing to Brentford   and showed the studio space I  was leaving behind so it seems appropriate  to show my current studio arrangements  for the 1000th.  I would never have anticipated the traumas of losing my job and moving  to a new town  and life but after nearly 4 years I'm more settled and  revelling in the opportunities it has given me. Enjoy!

 Post 1 :magsramsay.blogspot.com/2007/08/sewing-space-old-place

Post 100: magsramsay.blogspot.com/2008/07/100th-post-labyrinths-and-elements

Post 200 :magsramsay.blogspot.com/2010/01/tunisian-shop-advertising

 Post 300:magsramsay.blogspot.com/2010/11/ancient-shards-new-materials

 Post 400:magsramsay.blogspot.com/2011/10/deductive-monotypes

Post 500:magsramsay.blogspot.com/2013/02/cherubs-at-haberdashers

Post 600 : magsramsay.blogspot.com/2014/05/across-foot-of-mount-oxa

 Post 700: magsramsay.blogspot.com/2015/08/sketching-ceramics-at-V&A

Post 800:magsramsay.blogspot.com/2016/12/drawing-tuesday-keys-and-kew

Post 900:magsramsay.blogspot.com/2018/03/contemporary-collage-week-9-cubomania

 Post 1000:  I still haven't worked out a  decent  design wall space ( I currently use  to top landing - Ian's claim I'm taking over the whole house is not without foundation ... )  but I really like my studio space with its cutting  table raised on sand castle buckets and the combination  of wall and trolley storage.

 Most of all I love my 2 sewezi tables : 1 currently has my Bernina  sewing   machine set up on it and the other with a wooden insert in  by the window I use for hand stitching ( when I'm not sewing on the train ) , looking out over the green, 

Drawing Tuesday at Museum of London ( plus S.E.W. exhibition)

Last Tuesday  I was back drawing in the Museum of London, in my favourite section ' London before London'  among the prehistoric axes and  pots.  My current sketchbook  started there in June last year   and creature of habit that I am , I was drawing the same pots from the other side of the case! It's always  very busy with school group and excited children   but it's  rather gratifying to have their praise for your drawings no matter how poor and to  find out what they like to draw. 

  This time I was using my embossing ' scraffito'  pen with  watercolour pencil and graphite over the top 

 I struggled with the proportions of this collared pot  ( calligraphy pens and graphite) , even after all these years ,  it's so easy to  revert to not looking and drawing what you think you see .

After lunch in the café , Margaret mentioned the '  vegetable dolls'  which were  charming and definately worth a look

Then   Janet, Sue, Judith and I headed  to Clerkenwell   for exhibition by Society for Embroidered Work ( totally lost my sense of direction as   we took shortcuts through  Smithfields)  Interesting selection of work on show ( online catalogue here) 

Emily Tull 

Sue Hodgkiss 

Edith Barton 

 Annie Taylor 

 Djonne Swift 

 Deborah Cooper

Bridget Steel-Jessop

And the gallery space itself was so inspiring, all that peeling paint!

 I then  headed to the  British Museum Members Room for afternoon coffee and cake  before my first  session   of Art in theory; Space and Place  at City Lit ( more about that in another post ). 

 I didn't get home till after 9.30, too exhausted to stitch on the train , but a very satisfying creative day.  Next week , back at the Petrie Museum ( my favourite)   

CQ On the Edge: Eroding Margins

Thrilled to find out this morning that my entry ' Eroding Margins'  for CQ 'On  The Edge'  challenge  has been accepted!!
Having been in the 'Salon de Refuses' the last couple of times I've entered ( 'CQ@ 10'   and  'Dislocation') and  after a year of not making anything much, fearing I'd lost my way, it's given me a real boost. It fits in with both my continuing  series of indigo and seascapes  and those using salvaged antique red quilts, being constructed from sections of old quilts I dyed in the garden. 
A decent bottle of red with our lamb chops at lunchtime is called for I think...   

From my statement:

The edges of the coast are eroding, falling into the sea, being washed up in other places.  Disintegrating sea defence structures are patched up, replaced and reinforced, the coastline continually evolving, a delicate balance between intervening and letting nature take its course.   

Sections of two rescued antique coverlets over-dyed with indigo, tacked together and lines of broken quilting repaired, the edges of holes caught down and darned. Through the process of stitching I attempt to reach an equilibrium of mending with leaving the fragility and beauty of worn textiles to speak for themselves.

Stitched Rust Marks

I've just unwrapped the parcels of stitched fabrics wrapped around rusting items that we prepared on Saturday afternoon as part of CQ Winter school workshop with Alice Fox . After a busy morning wrapping up items , wetting them with tea, it was nice to have  a change of pace, digesting our delicious lunch!  Alice shared some of her samples showing how she'd stitched into the fabrics before dyeing with rust and built up layers and textures. The picture below shows 'before' and the results above 'After' (these are the more interesting ones)

 

An intriguing idea was to incorporate a piece of metal between 2 layers and stitch around it, the idea being that the metal remained in it ( might be a useful way  to  weight a quilt) I prepared 2 samples with washers- one with linen , the other with cotton organza. In both cases I placed the fabric on top of some watercolour paper  and then put a silk chiffon layer over the top - hoping to catch any marks  above and beneath ( the photo below is after a days soaking in  tea.)

 In the case of the cotton organza ( above) with  stitching out from the centre, it was the paper beneath that gave the most interesting marks

For the linen, all 3: paper, linen and silk chiffon over-layer  provided interesting, sand ripple like marks. It's my aim   to  combine all  of them in one piece and also investigate this  particular method further

Red Knots and Loops

 

Debating what to do when I changed my ideas  for a challenge with the theme 'red', inspiration literally fell from above, with a piece of silk that Reiko Damon gave me on my trip to Japan several years ago falling from the top basket of my stash.  I cut off pieces for sampling, first of all  backing it with  other vintage kimono fabrics then settling for an African tie dye  where the marks show through the pale areas.  

 

Besides extending the original stitch marks of the shibori, I've been having great fun experimentsing with loops and knots  following suggestions in Helen Parrott's 'Mark-Making' book. I love the graphic quality, like quirky calligraphy,  and the shadows cast add to the effect. Now to decide how to use these on the 'real deal' which is already looking pretty sinister like some monstrous red cactus. 

Biro Drawings inspired by Boetti

On Saturday after lunch at the Level 7 Restaurant at Tate Modern went to see the Boetti exhibition. Amazing embroideries of maps but the  monumental  biro drawings (below)" bringing the World into the world"  like indigo ikat weavings were what drew me back to make notes. I had my own attempt ( above) on a much smaller scale and  apart from trying to work out the process , it  brought  further questions (again) about personal mark making.

Questions about the process  jotted down in my sketchbook :

Does direction matter (up and down or side to side?)

How far the lines overlap?

Taking the pen off the paper or scribbling?

where do you start and finish?

Brand/ size of pen ? size of pen 'nib'

How you hold the pen?

Pressure of the pen?

Speed of drawing?

How long you spend in one session?

Quality/texture  of the paper?

What's underneath the paper ?

Drawing guidelines - is there a plan?

Retracing steps, going over sections/

Practice?

This last one made me think of the 'unknown draughtspeople' who actually did the work . Theirs were the individual marks that  brought variation to the work but remain unacknowledged. What did these assistants  think of  what they were drawing?

Likewise the skilled women embroiderers whose work was organised  by male Afghan associates of Boetti , first in Afghanistan then Pakistan . Wonderful stitch mark-making particularly in the seas of the maps. 

Who is the artist- the designer or the person who executes it?



Sketchbook Posted

 Just posted my 'Grey Side of Life' sketchbook to Brooklyn Art Library (the deadline was 31 January) after scanning it, taking photos  and saying goodbye ( but at least I might see it again when it tours to London )

 I was even later finishing it than last years  despite my best intentions - I rebound it with handmade and khadi papers months ago!! It contains an eclectic mix of 'proper' drawings  and experiments such as  ink blots and monoprints.

 Mainly though it is about mark making through stitch and copying the stitches in ink. One of the nice things about working on paper is that you get to see the patterns the stitches make on the back too.