Wind Me In The Sea : SOLD

Amongst all the gloom, something wonderful.  I've  sold my  textile artwork  ' Wind me in the Sea'   to  a collector  of Japanese textiles. 

I was contacted  out of the blue, they'd seen it  when exhibited  with 7th European Quilt Triennial ,  was it for sale ? After an exchange of  lovely emails (  we found we  had  many  shared interests  )  I was very happy to sell it knowing it  would be going to   a good home where it could be displayed.   

Its a very personal  piece of  indigo scraps  stitched to  lengths of Japanese kasuri  from a kimono purchased  in Tokyo  when I travelled there with Susan Briscoe in 2006:  

" A  year of stitching in the form of a winding cloth: double-sided, semi-translucent in a continuous loop. Mainly sewn on train journeys, my stitching, like my travels, continues and repeats looping back to familiar and treasured places " 

 

  

I was thrilled when it was  juried  into the 7th  European Quilt   Triennial,  it was exhibited  at:  

Textilsammlung Max Berk Heidelberg (D)  19.09.2018 – 06.01.2019

Kreismuseum Zons Dormagen (D)    18.01.2019 – 24.03.2019

Textiles Centrum Haslach (A)            11.05.2019 – 30.10.2019

Textile Museum St. Gallen (CH)           14.02.2020 – 19.04.2020

 It was supposed  to have come to the UK as part of the Festival of Quilts  2020  where I was looking forward to  not only helping to set up the exhibition and steward but also to see all the wonderful other quilts in the exhibition.   Alas  COVID  intervened so it was  returned to me  and was still carefully packed up in its bag .  

 I  unfolded  it for one last look  reminding myself of the  journeys made  stitching it   before carefully packing  it up and posting it .  It has now arrived with its  new owner who has let me  know how much they appreciate it.  I hope one day to visit . 

  Now I'm  inspired to start  again on it's companion  piece  "Wrap  Me In The Shore"  which has been   put aside since NW retreat  in February . Though  I won't be stitching  on the train  anytime  soon I look forward to  playing with  scraps  and remembering past travels. 

 

EDAM tutorial - a lot to think about

On Saturday 9 March, I had my EDAM 2nd Term tutorial with Ute Kreyman. Filling in the questionnaire   and talking through how the drawing course was feeding into my art practice gave me a lot to think about.  I took in the cloth I'd been working on when on  sewing retreat in Glenthorne and  photos of both my drawing and textile work  as a basis for discussion 

I'm really enjoying the challenge of EDAM, learning to love charcoal and working on large scale, moving away from   representational to more abstract, reacting to layers and marks rather than preconceived pictorial idea.

Of particular value/interest   in regards to composition  and large scale mark making was large scale drawing  with Tony Hull,  starting off  with blind drawings of object,  building up layers , drawing wrapped object   then disrupting  what had produced, adding extra paper. 

 I started off by showing past work  in quilts – square/rectangular  format as  I will be working on 2 similar  pieces  for group exhibition at Creek Creative, Faversham in September . 

 With   my most recent piece ‘Wind Me In  The Sea’  ( currently exhibited in  7^th European Quilt Triennial )  I've  been looking  at  working in  a more 3D  format , double sided, continuous loop. 

          I'm interested in recording journeys/mapping ( carrying out research both online and in books - I received several for Xmas! ) and  was am inspired by the Oceania exhibition at RA, the  teachers notes on Marshall Islands map and John Pule. 

 Besides my drawing practice ( sketching every day  as well as the EDAM work) I talked about the 

importance  of ‘ Mapping a Sense of Place’  with Mathew Harris -  going for a walk , collecting

 objects, recording  memory of    walk   in inks on paper/ primed calico strip . Blind drawing of 

objects collected then 6 tasks in   a chosen ‘space’ (looking at line, repetition, shadow etc ) and 6

 processes ( paint, stitch, collage , etc) order  selected using dice. 

I'd tested out and repeated  the procedure   in my  recent   sewing retreat in Lake  District  with addition of making  quick sketches  along  walk as aide memoire  ( as well as taking photos ) .I also made detailed drawings of some of the objects I collected. 

This process has a lot of potential that I wish to explore further in local area ( eg walk to station)

 In moving towards a more sculptural approach Ute suggested I could: 

-  look at   work of David  Smith -  sculpture with sense of drawing  eg Hudson River Landscape 

( which was one of my favourite pieces in the Abstract Expressionism exhibition at the RA )

-          Try using fabric  manipulation , use like clay or wood , keep small

-          Drawing in 3d  with mark- making  ( strips of fabric/ thread)

-          Collaging  2d to 3d (colour compositions)

-           Reference  the intermediate drawings  of wrapped object from large scale drawing

  

 I've always been interested in ceramics, old pots and pot shards , “ the hand of the maker “

 (  and attempted  a 3D piece in fabric before (‘Taplow Vase’)  with mixed success!)   

We then  discussed  what I found most  difficult and ideas for the 3rd term individual project and exhibition . I  always have too many ideas,  and difficulty deciding what to concentrate on  ( Advice that can only understand 1 message in 1 piece, the rest  should be noted in sketchbooks )

The exhibition at RK Burt  will be  ‘Works on Paper’  .

As I  wish to  continue with ideas of mapping , I need to investigate how  paper can substitute   for 

fabric in  ‘cloth’   pieces ( concerns  about difficulties in stitching paper as it tears) 

I feel a shopping expedition coming on  to see what papers are available from Shepherds and test out 

properties!

7th European Quilt Triennial opens in Heidelberg

 Today, I've been wishing I was in Heidelberg for    the opening and award ceremony for the 7th European Quilt Triennial.   But as I'm still recovering from excellent 2 day painting course with Ashley Hanson at Creek Creative ,  and with lots going on in the next few weeks it's probably just as well I decided  not to make the  journey. 

I hope my piece 'Wind Me in the Sea'  looks at home  in  the gallery as it did flapping against my garden fence - I sent very detailed hanging instructions but in the end, it will look different in every location its hung. It was difficult to take decent photos - I look forward to receiving the catalogue.  

 Meanwhile my current 'train stitching' project  is beginning to  take shape. I've been experimenting with  adding more colour and am gaining in confidence trying out new stitches and shapes,  getting excited by how its evolving.  It doesn't yet have a name , perhaps ' wrap me in the shore' ?

Wind Me In The Sea: moving in the breeze

I've been having a photoshoot in the garden of 'Wind Me In the Sea'  before  completing labels etc and posting it off to Heidelberg for the 7th European Quilt Triennial.  It's been a joy to watch it moving in the breeze ( like it did in Weymouth at an earlier stage)  before it's  constrained in the confines of a gallery, saying goodbye to it ( I won't see it again until Festival of Quilts 2019). 

Most of my quilts are about the process: this more than most as it represents a years stitching , mostly on trains using treasured scraps  but I hadn't bargained on it meaning so much to me in its finished state. 

 'A year of stitching in the form of a winding cloth: double-sided, semi-translucent in a continuous loop. Mainly sewn on train journeys with scraps of cloth with meaning to me and patterns inspired by the north Kent coast. My stitching, like my journeys will continue and repeat, even evolve with new routes but ultimately are 'looping' back to well known journeys to familiar and treasured places." 

Train Stitching Part 2 : a beginning

 After several false starts and ideas that didn't come to fruition, I've finally got going  on a new 'train stitching' piece. I began it on my birthday, gathering together some scraps to take with me and pin to the  background fabric 

I didn't want to replicate exactly 'Wind Me In The Sea' ( detail below) which I'm delighted to say has been accepted for 7th European Quilt Triennial  which will open in Heidelberg in September but I like the idea of using indigo again but combined with some other colours . I tried different combinations  of colours and materials for scraps and backgrounds  but nothing was really gelling .   

Then looking again at the work I'd put together for Cwilt Cymru 'Traces' exhibition  with it's use of Musa's kola  fabrics  with indigo shibori   along with  paintings  seen in Margate and the colour palette I'd used for 'Painting the Novel' , I  made the connection that the subtle hues of the shoreline are what  grabs me at the moment. Working with a restrictive palette gives more opportunities to explore the tonal range, shape and composition as well as mark-making. I'll probably use the same range of colours for course with Gizella Warburton in  a couple of weeks.  

So I've  started gathering together scraps into  one of my African baskets and am  experimenting with wrapping some strips around the kasuri background fabric .  Lots of decisions to make - how many strips of kasuri to use, whether to join them together in a loop or as separate strips,  what colour threads to use. But the process is what's fun and at last I'm excited to be stitching again.