Surface, Structure, Stitch at City Lit: Week 4

 Week  4  of Surface, Structure, Stitch   was on Kantha and Boro , definately  in my comfort zone !  And with a week away , I'd been making good progress reconnecting with my  #trainstitching  of #wrapmeintheshore   with  the addition of precious fragments  from the City Lit Textile  Studio scrap box 

The notes  that Louise  supplied    recommended reading  of books  by Ahmad, Gillow, Morrell  and Zaman  - I have  them all (!)  plus the catalogue from the Boro exhibition at Somerset house  which  she also showed.  Apart from an example of a kantha stitched sari silk scarf ( of which I too own several), her  own samples  showed how kantha could be used in  reversible 3d forms, either a  spiral stitched bowl or a strip that could be manipulated in different  ways. 

 I had a go first using  circles of felt and  linen furnishing fabrics  -  another time I wouldn't start right in the centre and would add a coin in the bottom between the layers to  produce a base.

The second one   was a small strip of layered creams and blues with crude running stitches, pulled up  into a shell shape. Lots of possibilities.  Louise  suggested I  make  a much larger piece  of layered fabrics and incorporate ' lumps'  of buttons between the layers  to add further distortions and texture 

 I finished the stitching on the way  home on the train  and  spend quite a while manipulating it into different shapes

 Then , deep breath,  I started pulling up some of the stitching, taking photos as I went along 

 I love the potential of inside and outside  being  equally important

  Finally for my' daily drawing' I did a small patched stitched sample  showing the effect of the rippling from pulling up the running stitch. 

CQ Journal Quilts September to December: Foundmarks and breaking rules

  I haven't been doing  much stitching   lately  and my  time on the train has mainly been spent on catching up with notes/ preparation  for EDAM classes.   I have however been continuing to explore the layers in sections of old quilt , carrying on from my 'indigoboro' journal quilts but this time working with the original colours rather than overdyeing. It's  difficult to know how far to go  cutting through the layers and adding stitch,  wanting to  enhance and preserve the ragged beauty of the original . In a very small voice, I must admit that I haven't trimmed them down to the  prescribed  7 x 9 inches  as I love the uneven ragged edges and will probably mount them to  show them off.   Also against all the rules , I took photos for posting  on CQ   group in full sunlight   but look how that raked light shows the peaks and hollows of the quilting.

It's slow  work ,so  running out of time ,  for November's JQ ( above)  I found a section of  old quilt  with a light layer of gesso on and added 'stitch' using   Pitt pen and for Decembers ( below) I found a section of machine  quilting tension sample  and added paint and pen marks. 

  Just shows you can find inspiration anywhere  and  I like the idea of recycling, reusing and  returning to the salvaging of offcuts I started in January.  I do like to get involved with the Journal Quilt projects - this was my 15th year ! Next year it's a return to A4 size thank goodness  but with an interesting challenge involving trying different techniques  I think I'll try and keep to one theme -  the year of  Indigo was  one of my most successful. 

Delicious Indigo Favourites

  Some of my favourites from recent indigo dyeing session.
 Above: sections  of  old quilts  remaining  from  being used in 'Eroding Margins' and 'Birchington Breakwaters' : pole wrapped and scrunched in net bag.

Eroding Margins 

Birchington Breakwaters ( detail) 

 A fairly ' new' acquisition which disintegrated  on washing : before ( above) and after ( below) dyeing. I love those  dark red original colours   revealed once the faded top layer is gone.  

  Below, another section  left longer in the vat - a step too far?

  French linen T towels:  'donut'  above, pole wrapped below ( I've got lots of variations of these!)

 Underwhelming ecodyeing improved with indigo!  ( 'donut' above, scrunched in net below)

Nasty bright yellow fabric tamed  with indigo ( before and after pole wrapping ) 

 The  'boro'  sections of old quilt I've been 'train stitching' on . Some of the layers of wool have not  dyed so well . Scrummy - these are the bits I'm going to work further into

Peter Sacks Migrations at Malborough Fine Art

Outpost 2 ( detail)

 I too had a surge of excitement when I read Olga's blogpost on the work of Peter Sacks. I managed to  fit in a visit to Malborough Fine Art last Wednesday ( press release here) and   was blown away by the work - both the overall scale and composition and the details  which you can only really appreciate seeing in the flesh. I spent a long time making notes and scribbles about techniques and combinations of materials in my sketchbook  some of which I've noted below.  When  I  came to buy the excellent catalogue ( which you can see online here) , I got it for free as they didn't have change and striking up a conversation with  one of the desk staff and enthusing over the use of old textiles, he asked for more details about my work and looked  up my website. He   instantly recognised the breakwaters which inspired my piece as being  between Reculver and Minnis Bay ! And Maggi Hambling was just leaving the gallery.  A fabulous inspiring morning  with a lot of food for thought and experiments with materials to try.   

Report from the besieged city I 

-Typewritten sentences and words on cotton - visual element as well as poetry 

-mainly white/cream with dark shapes ( trees? fire?) , bits of map 

-thin fabrics painted over texture of doilies and crochet 

- ghost textures 

Outpost 4
 

- Pleated fabrics, old hexagon patchwork 

-exposed painted corrugated cardboard

-hessian with numbers on, African strip cloth , contrast with patterned prints

-underlying canvas shows through

-matt medium over everything as glue and sealant?  

- marks in ink/paint covered over, bleeding through white overlayers 

Outpost 3 

- Layers and traces: thin muslins and laces over crochet doilies  and embroideries ( texture showing through) 

- bright cloths beneath, relation of patterns   change with overlays

- wrinkles and folds add further dimension 

Outpost 1

- folds of fabric (using both sides)

- 3d edges made using cuff with embroidery within , like a walled garden

- typed words: 'perfection such indeed laughter' 

- red marks along edge of lace ( fabric pressed onto it then removed to leave stain?) 

Quickening 7 (and detail)

- embroidered lines of wood with layers over 

-jeans pocket

-painting extended beyond lace 

-frottage , then fabric laid over hessian 

- sense of movement through patterns of fabric used 

Quickening 17

-Mainly lace ( machine , hand and crochet) with embroideries, limited palette 

-lace laid over African fabrics , pattern showing through layers. 

-lace laid over partially painted corregated cardboard

Township 13

- Smaller canvas placed over large one gives sense of space 

- layers peeled back to reveal what's underneath 

Township 12

- Very large scale prints  combined with parts of old patchwork log cabin quilt

- dense layering of lace over lace 

- linear elements of Kuba and strip cloths  contrast with bold patterns.

-  coarse weaves v, delicacy of fine laces 

False Bay 4 

- work on paper rather than canvas- different qualities , more delicate yet rawer
- torn strips of fabric, layered papers as well as fabrics
-twisted lace
-typed words on different fabrics ( edges of doilies, placemats)
-lines of words twisted, don't line up straight, placed in varying directions, changes meaning 

Visitation 1 - Noah ( detail ) 

This detail from a piece of work not in the exhibition but on  his website and the series ' Farewell to an idea' sum up some of the techniques  I'm going to try first with painted corrugated cardboard and layers of lace and textiles. I also want to explore the idea of text more, something I started to look at in collage course. Most of all I want to return to excavating the fabrics in my old 'boro' quilts.

The essay in the catalogue by poetry editor Paul Keegan   was thought provoking -  only a bit of 'artspeak' , striking a balance between  describing  the artists background and materials used and the meanings they convey.

"The songlines of fabric follow invisible as well as visible pathways. The sedimentary overlayering implies both losing and finding . What is inaccessible is preserved, the act of layering is a restitution"

"The printed voice is subject to transformation: lines become pattern, are stretched and slurred, they drift or drizzle, pulled downwards by the linen. Words fail us when we start to think of language as vertical , graphic rather than lexical. His use of corrugated cardboard, often overpainted with a thin wash, is a parody of print whose lines of text on closer inspection are blank. "

"Found fabrics, found figuration, found colours, found words, found expression . Here constructed out of elsewheres "