TIF February - First Thoughts

TIF February Palette

Indigo 2 Forms (detail )

When I first looked at the concept and colour scheme for this months TIF challenge , I initially thought 'Yippee' as they're colours I've worked with a lot recently, printing on indigo dyed fabric . But then I started thinking that it was hardly in the spirit of 'Taking it Further' if I already use those colours anyway! Think harder.

Its been interesting looking at other people thoughts on the question 'what are you old enough to remember' - some have been very literal, others wanting to be more abstract.
I've been thinking a lot about my childhood recently in any case as on Friday we had all our furniture, goods and books (from 2x 2bedroom flats) delivered to our new(ish) house after 3 years in storage. An emotional as well as physically tiring time. Among the furniture are some Victorian pieces that I inherited from my parents including an original 'Windsor' chair with arms. This lived in the porch at home and I have vivid memories of tipping it upside down and using it as a hiding place or den. I am considering taking photos from the 'adult' viewpoint looking at it conventionally and the 'child's' viewpoint from underneath and combining the images in Photoshop using the methods I've developed for my 'Henry Moore' pieces. Perhaps it should be titled ' When I was small enough.....' . Quite how I'm going to take the child's eyeview is a challenge in itself.

Kuba cloth

You would have thought that with my policy of trying to reduce my collections of fabric and stuff and my room being full of boxes again to sort that I would resist buying anything at present. Wrong! I was browsing Ebay( pricing items I want to sell- honest) when across this wonderful framed African Kuba textile. I got it for a bargain price and as it was in West London, collected it so no postage costs. At some point I will take it out the frame to have a good look and take a decent photo but what really grabbed me in this piece was the huge variety of subtly different patterns and how they are balanced. For instance I really like the triangles round the edge only on 3 sides and the graduating symbols on the 4th. Its currently above my sewing table and I intend to make some sketches from it - part of the process of analysis. I can see it influencing ideas for the 12inch square Journal challengeIts not first time I've bought Kuba textiles - I've had a few pieces from John Gillow. I was reminded that I still have to frame this one. Its the application of patches on top of this piece that lists it above the ordinary

I've also got a few strips of indigo dyed woven strips from Cameroon( also from John Gillow) I've merged scans of some of the strips and have dyed some brownish silk myself with indigo to match . I'm thinking of combining them ,making motifs using my own dyed fabric on a larger scale. The colours of these African fabrics look like the colour palette for February's TIF challenge

TIF January Finished

As I couldn't decide which of my Manipulated Moores to use for January TIF challenge, I decided to use 2 and make a double sided piece. I changed the palette of colours using Photoshop 7 indexed colour, printed the 'Madonna' onto a silk/cotton gauze and the 'Hill' onto cotton poplin. I used bondaweb to stick a cutout of the sculpture onto a cotton background. In both cases the colours in the printing were not the same as on the screen ( which were accurate as the Pantone numbers had been used). And the colours look different again when photographed. I made a sandwich of the 2 images on their backgrounds and then stitched with Oliver Twist cottons ( same colour in bobbin and top thread) first outlining the Hill in light green then flipping and stitching round the Madonna in purple. I continued alternating sides for stitching and changing threads until I was reasonably satisfied ( well don't expect experiments to be wholly satisfactory first time)
I'm happier with the 'Hill' side as the stitching shows up better on the simpler shape. I also like the effect of a figure superimposed on an abstract scupltural background although the subtlety of the drawing has been lost . More exploration required

Treasured Threads

Unpacking more sewing items, I unearthed my treasured 2 boxes of Gutterman silk buttonhole threads. Mum bought them at an Embroiderers Guild sales table in the 1970's ( priced at 7p a reel, she bought the lot! ) Love the decal of a lady at her sewing machine in her overall ( as Ian says 'looks like a Thoroughly Modern Miss' ) I've enjoyed using them over the years for hand stitching and more recently in the bobbin , machine stitching from the back . I was contemplating how much having these materials to hand and in these colours, have directed how I've worked and what quilts I've done. I used most of the greens up and a lot of the blues stitching 'blue-green algae' in the 1990's and then used the yellows, reds and browns stitching spirals in 'Maggie Springs' ( which I sold!) and more recently for the sand ripples in 'Erg Chebbi'. I've used them in a lot of other pieces too but I've noticed a reluctance lately to use them, (although I like to admire them in their battered box) not wanting to use up a finite resource. It maybe because I'm breaking out of being constrained by a particular colour palette or method of working. It also would be a shame to smother their wonderful sheen in acrylics which is how I'm abusing threads these days.

'Blue-Green Algae' detail - based on diatoms

'Erg Chebbi' detail - sand ripples on dune in Morocco

Cheshire Cat and Puppy

While sorting out my stash and stuff in preparation for the Final Delivery of goods in storage, I came across this canvas work sampler 'Cheshire Cat' that Mum made for her City and Guilds embroidery course in 1980 (based on the idea of a Staffordshire Pottery figure). I was about to put it back in a drawer but Ian has taken a fancy to it, comparing it to Jeff Koon's 'Puppy' , outside the Guggenheim in Bilbao (we went there for our honeymoon). I see what he means- similar colours and a simple shape. Not quite on the same scale tho' which is probably just as well. The teeth are made of white pvc that glint in the dark - a bit eerie when going to the loo in the middle of the night. Imagine that the size of a building....

Persepolis

Ever since I saw the 'Forgotten Empire' exhibition at the British Museum in 2005, I've wanted to see the remains of Persepolis in situ. It didn't disappoint. On the coach journey from Shiraz to the site we were played a video which although it was slightly 'And lo'...' ,with its reconstructions did give a good overview of the site and how it might have looked. We did get a bit giggly about the Pythonesque description of the Hall of 100 Columns being 'so called as it had 100 columns' but I think that might have had something to do with the lack of sleep due to the delayed flight from Tehran to Shiraz.

Painting Experiments

While waiting for Sofa Workshop to deliver our new sofa, I had an hour away from working on latest book to set up a painting space in the 'conservatory' and apply some acrylics to some stitched samples. I still have ideas in my head for more pieces arising from the Strindberg piece I did last year - problems not resolved, techniques to push further. Most people are surprised how vibrant and patterned the underlying fabrics are. I made up some samples of a variety of different fabrics , not just African wax this time,( used Dream Cotton 'Select' wadding in the sandwich) and then machine and hand stitched in ripple patterns. I applied acrylics (Liquitex firm body) straight from tube with a palette knife but not to the whole piece so that a strip of the original fabric can be seen. It's a bit distracting to look at ( as you can see in the 'studio' shot below) so I've cropped the image in Photoshop and shown the 'before' stage separately.

Fabric 1: A heavy cotton canvas (pattern called 'Tipsy'!) I liked the pattern already printed on it but it was difficult to hand stitch and also to paint and the texture of the canvas showed through when painted.

Fabric 1 Before

Fabric 1 After

Fabric 2 : A vintage black/brown cotton sateen with abstract orange pattern. Easy to stitch and paint and like the result- only concern is the stretch and distortion of sateen when used on a larger scale

Fabric 2 Before

Fabric 2 After

Fabric 3 (top)and 4(bottom): An African damask shibori in orange and blue (still with starch in ) and Kaffe Fassett Roman Glass - an old favourite of mine. Both fabrics easy to stitch. The damask didn't take paint that well (probably because of the starch) and the pattern showing through was too dominant. Its also too gorgeous a fabric to hide under paint! ( which is why I was a bit mean in the size of sample)

The dots and circles of the Roman Glass were not as prominent as I thought they might be - definitely one for consideration

Fabrics 3&4 Before

Fabrics 3&4 After

Fabric 5: African wax fabric mainly of wild large pink and black leaves. These African wax prints really stitch well and are a good surface for painting on. I rather like the vibrant pink and black showing through but perhaps wouldn't want too much of it!

Fabric 5 Before

Fabric 5 After

Next step is to make up a larger trial sample using fabrics 2,4&5 to see how they work together.

What I also might try is using a different palette of acrylic colours (greens)- the shapes of the stitched ripples also suggest land forms .