Take it Further challenge - January

Along with many others, I signed up for the Take it Further Challenge. This will be my 6th year of making A4 Journal quilts and I thought it would give me a focus to base them on ,however I'm already struggling! Journal quilts for me have been a combination of trying out new ideas and documenting what's going on my life. Last year I found even the use of portrait only format for CQ challenge a bit restricting but I managed to do all on time despite moving house ( do I get a gold star?!)

The January TIFC concept is for a feeling of admiration for someone and the colour palette pictured above. My heart sank, I couldn't relate to the concept and I'd hoped it would be a single colour rather than a range. And what I really want to do is start the year with interpretation of my journey through Iran. I haven't the time to do 2 unrelated Journal Quilts so I fear the TIF challenge will remain a paper exercise.

Still, I thought I'd show willing and have a crack at the colour palette, practising using the adaptive palette and changing colour options on Adobe Photoshop that I learnt on Michael James workshop in Rolduc a few years ago.This involves picking out colours from an image to construct a palette then various colours can be changed. A fairly restricted initial palette helped as did just being able to type in the numbers listed across the TIF Jan Palette rather than guessing what the colour might be. It does raise the issue about how different monitors and printers deal with colour.

This picture I took of old tiling on the old Bazaar front in Yazd. The whole city was preparing for the visit of the 'Supreme Leader' the following week so there were posters of him everywhere and scaffolding and huge placards being erected. There was an photo of this gathering on the front page of the 'Terhran Times' on the 3rd January when we flew back. There must have been thousands in the crowd to hear him talk, no wonder they needed all the crash barriers.

The changes in colour below are quite interesting but as the essential colours of Iran are blue and turquoise, I feel its an artificial interpretation, not one I wish to pursue.


So I decided to move back to my studies of Henry Moore sculptures - being abstract to start with means that to some extent what colour they are is irrelevant. The challenge for me was whether the colour changes added anything or indeed detracted from the original.

Original sketch by Henry Moore

Colours changed to Jan Palette - what was interesting here was the practicalities of sampling colours from a very restricted colour range. Although superficially a lot of the sepia/sanguine colours in the original were very similar, when these colours were changed, they weren't evenly distributed and a lot of the subtlety was lost. I also left some of the original colours which helped maintain some of the structure.

Next, a monochrome Photoshop image I'd already used for October 2007 Journal quilt composed of 2 pictures overlaid each other and desaturated

Parts of this (particularly the sculpture) I rather like in the Jan Palette, having retained some of the patination of the bronze. It was rather difficult sampling colours in black and white - I should have used my initial photos as the basis instead. Not sure about the yellow sky either!

This photoshop image I had already printed out on fabric a while ago - again composed of 2 different viewpoints combined but then hue and saturation drastically altered. Its close enough to the Jan Palette so I'm considering stitching into it then overpainting with acrylics in 'D4D490'

I'll share the results later.

A visit to a Zurkhaneh(House of Strength)

'House of strength'

Bow shaped iron weights ( wall decorations of photos, shorts,

wooden shields and swordfish bones)

Heavily embroidered leather shorts



Calisthenics with Indian clubs (note modern embroidered trousers)

Painted miniatures of battle scenes on swordfish bone

We had a most unusual New Years Eve in Esfahan - we went to see Iranian Wrestling. It wasn't quite what I was expecting, but very interesting. We went to a Zurkhaneh ( literally 'House of Strength') to see a training session of practitioners of Varzesh-e Pahlavani ("Sport of the Heroes") a traditional martial art of Iran, which was originally an academy of physical training for military purposes. It combines elements of the pre-Islamic rituals of Zoroastrianism with the spirituality of Sufism. What we saw was gymnastic stretching exercises and calisthenics , using wooden clubs, and bow shaped iron weights. There was also some Sufi whirling and the strongest man lifted and manipulated two great wooden shields. According to Ian, it was based on training from Parthian times to develop the muscles and dexterity to deal with heavy armour and armoury.

This all took place in an octagonal pit to the sound of drumming and ritualistic chanting, the room decorated with photos of past masters (there were 2 of them present at the session ), decorated swordfish bones (don't quite know the significance-possibly strength ) and pairs of beautifully embroidered leather shorts. A few of the practitioners wore longer newer versions ( most wore the team shirt , joggers and a woven bath sheet similar to seen in Syria )- the idea is that they don't rip during wrestling bouts. We were ushered out before the wrestling proper- probably as there were women in the group. It felt a privilege to see them anyway

Iranian Textiles

Zoroastrian stitched bathmitt bought in Yazd

Detail of finely stitched blackwork piece for strapping Quran to arm

Before I went to Iran, I'd told John Gillow where I was going and he gave directions for various cities on where I might find textile dealers. I followed his instructions in Yazd ( in courtyard behind SilkRoad Hotel) and came up trumps. On the streets around the main mosque there were sellers of supposedly 'local' scarves ( got a bit suspicious when I found a discarded heap of 'Acrylic, Made in China' labels ). This shop was of a different order, an Aladdins cave of metalwork, glass, ceramics ,textiles with some treasures brought out from glass cabinets. The 2 pieces I bought were very reasonable ( Ian succumbed to a carpet and I helped him haggle) - I wish I'd selected more, they had some nice pieces stitched with silk floss in floral designs, also local Zoroastrian designs.

In Esfahan I found the location of another textile stall that John had directed me to by the Ikats and embroidered cloths hanging above it near the roof. Alas it was lunchtime and closed and didn't have the opportunity to go back.

CARPETS

In the bazaar in Zanjan there was a whole section dedicated to carpets: completed, fleeces and carding equipment, dyes, dyed and undyed wools,stalls with patterns on graph paper, looms threaded up with a cotton warp. The dyed wool, particularly the reds, were very varied along the hank, vegetable dyed in the main. Ian and I watched in fascination as 2 men set up the warp on a metal frame - one man sitting throwing the ball of thread upwards, a man standing catching and throwing it back.

In Esfahan we had the tea and talk at the Nomad carpet shop. The owner Hussein was very knowledgable and not pushy and showed a variety of carpets and kelims that we wouldn't necessarily want in the house ( eg the helicopters, Kalashnikovs and tanks of an Afghan refugee pictured above) ) but nevertheless interesting to see. I fell in love with 'tree of life' embroidered kelim ( detail below)that was pinned on a wall - it's now found a home in our entrance hall!!

'Tree of Life' Kelim

CAMEL-HAIR WEAVING

In Nairn we saw an elderly man weaving camel hair in an underground room. The cloth is very fine and water-resistant and worn by mullah's. After weaving , the excess fuzz is rubbed off ( used for stuffing mattresses etc) . He only makes a few lengths a year now but as its expensive cloth and the cost of living is low, it seems he doesn't make a bad living. And our tips would help too. As most young people head for the cities, I guess its a dying art. Also in the area are long weaving sheds where harnesses and straps are woven from camelhair but didn't get to see that.

The weavers bed - stacked with quilts ( and note the cigarette boxes!)

FABRIC PRINTING

Esfahan is the centre of fabric printing , with nearly all the hotels and restaurants we visited in Iran having tablecloths etc printed there. The main motifs are paisley and figures from Persepolis. It was interesting to see a higher quality printer in action, skillfully using old wooden printblocks in up to 4 colours. Registration was by eye as far as I could see. However it soon degenerated into the usual sales pitch and I wasn't really interested in the heavy cotton tasselled tablecloths on offer. Yardage or indeed an old block might have been a different matter!


In Yazd we had lunch one day in the restaurant /teahouse of a hotel based on a traditional house (I've forgotten the name of the place - its recommended in 'Lonely Planet' ) The roof of what would have been the courtyard was covered with a tent-like awning (rather tatty in places). There were screen-printed panels on it that I'd have liked a closer look at, again based on floral and Zoroastrian motifs.

Seed Amulets

In Bazaar in Isfahan
In shrine in village of Abyaneh

At home - purchased in Abyaneh

Throughout Iran I admired the amulets to ward off the evil eye made of thread, shells, scraps of cloth and what looked like chick peas or peas. They were in restaurants, mosques, shrines and in ethnographical museums( these were particularly elaborate macrame items) In the village of Abyaneh they had large ones at a shrine, faded to brown and also smaller ones sold by a man on behalf of his wife while we were picnicing. I couldn't resist buying one. Despite careful wrapping, some of the 'peas' came off during travel and were not peas at all but capsules of small triangular seeds.

Just been having a search to find what they might be. I supect that they are Peganum harmada (Syrian Rue or Harmal) which contains alkaloids of psycho- active nature and are burnt in incense as a 'mind purifier' charm against the evil eye!

Quilts in Iran

Quilt Maker in Shiraz

Back on Thursday from 2 weeks in Iran. Weather was snowy and cold but bright, food was rather better than expected ( although I don't want to see any more rice in a while) and got used to the non alcoholic beer ( been catching up since on the red wine). People were on the whole very friendly and anxious to know what we thought of Iran and the sights were wonderful. Besides the blue tiled mosques of Esfahan, we visited Persopolis (of course) some traditional mud built villages and Zoroastian sites which were fascinating.

I'll be posting lots of pictures (including more crumbly doors to add to my collection) and no doubt my quilting is going to be inspired for a while by what I saw and experienced but thought I'd start with quilts.
I was walking past a shop in Shiraz ( alas no wine!) when I saw a man quilting a mattress with quilts displayed - very much in the tradition of quilts seen in Turkey with thick layers crudely stab stitched. He beckoned me in and asked me to take a photo of him ! ( that happened a few times - the opposite of what we'd been told about asking permission first. We also had our photos taken by locals quite a few times , sometimes sureptiously, sometimes asked to join in their group shots - with so few tourists we were the quaint novelty)

Psi and Theta Votive Figures

When I was sorting through photos taken during the year to include in our annual Xmas letter, I came across these images of figurines taken in the museum at Mycenae. Being surrounded by Henry Moore's monumental work these last few months I looked at these with fresh eyes, appreciating their form, character and individuality ( on a diminutive scale) . The meaning and function of these votive figures (named Psi and Theta forms after the Greek letters they resemble) can only be guessed at.

This will the last post of 2007 - off to Iran later in the day for 2 weeks holiday. No doubt I'll have some interesting photos to share in the New Year.

Excuses

I don't know where the time has gone in the last couple of weeks since I last posted. Evenings and weekends have been devoted to writing the Xmas letter and cards and sorting out the packing for Iran ( according to the BBC weather website, temperatures may vary from -3C in Tehran to 18 C in Shiraz - as I'll be covered in a 'manteau' , it'll be a a bit trickier than normal to adjust the layers).

Its also been exceptionally busy at work with VIP visitors, interviewing for 2008/9 Sandwich Student and meeting to discuss progress on the Hardy Orchid Book. This is the follow-up to 'Growing Orchids From Seed' which has been selling well and is about to be translated into Spanish and Chinese!

The opportunities for finishing my December Journal Quilt are fast diminishing - I may well have to substitute one of the 'Moore' pieces I was less happy with. After doing so well over the year despite moving etc, I'd hate to drop out at the last minute.