Between Projects

It may just be that it is that time of the year. I am between projects, not feeling very enthused about anything at the moment.
Summer is approaching, although we had a lovely cool night last night. The weather is changing on a daily basis and I think that enervates me. Any excuse.

Anyway ... The tapestry disappeared from the clothes line and is currently residing under some fennel greenery in the compost heap. And the temperature in the compost has risen in the last day. It is now approaching 60 degrees, something that I have been assured it to be desired (for compost).

The tapestry is only just under the surface, so not exposed to the full heat - yet. I will try to contain my interest and tendency to fiddle with it. I will leave it for at least three days (maybe!) and then put it down deeper.

I have also been trying to finish off a machine embroidery piece I started early in November. It was supposed to be going to be for The Alcove's summer sale/exhibition but I didn't get it finished. A familiar story.

Not the finished version, still a work in progress. 

It is based on a photo I took a few years ago and have used previously. This piece is slightly larger than A4.  I am thinking of doing another frame making course before trying to complete the whole piece.
(You can see how I have used the photo for a much smaller embroidery here.)

I have realised that it could fit the Ebb and Flow theme of the Embroiderers Guild, Victoria. This exhibition won't be till October but I probably won't do any great things for it in the near future, so it can be my failsafe piece. And we are allowed to put in up to three pieces, so I can still work on the idea.

A different approach

Having made my crocodile partial face too small, I tried again this morning. I must have been tired.
I had enlarged the image and printed it out on silk again. But then I used Vliesofix and put it on the wrong way round - extremely annoying, except I couldn't be bothered being too annoyed.

So I then decided to take a different approach.
I have been playing around with fabric collage for several items lately, some larger and some quite small: the banner quilt and a much smaller piece for my interest group, machine embroidery, at the Victorian Embroiderers' Guild. We have been asked to use an image and interpret it, then leave another image for the next person. I thought an abstract interpretation would be good. It is only about 15cm x 10cm (that's a guess because I can't be bothered going and measuring it. Getting the message about energy levels?).

I only interpreted the rocks. 

So, for the mystery piece, I laid out some background fabric onto some wool batting (it was left over from a project from years ago and was the right size), attached it to the backing and then laid out some small bits of fabric. As it is a small piece, about 20cm x 18cm, they were quite small bits of fabric. As I have said many times, it pays to keep all the scraps.

Then I sewed them down and realised that I would only need a couple of colours for my thread.

I discovered the self-threading ability of my sewing machine. I have had if for nearly a year and haven't used it yet. This is because I had my free lesson and the person teaching me said she hated using it, so I have done my own threading ever since. But I wanted to use a thicker thread today (I had put in a slightly bigger needle) and decided that I wasn't going to be able to do it without help.

Out came the instruction book - lo and behold! it was easy.

Then I decided it needed something extra and I found some knitting wool in my stash (it serves for my tapestry weaving and my sewing, but not for knitting). I couched that down.

Remembering my last disaster, I had allowed room for it to shrink by making it a bit bigger than the finished size. Knowing that it has to fit in with many other pieces, I started to stress about how to make it the correct size. I measured the distance from the lighter patch to the edge and used that as my starting point.

I hope the distances are correct and that it will all line up in the final piece. I suspect it is a wing. Time will tell.

Art and Design Course exhibition is up

Last Sunday was the day most of us got together to put up our exhibition, the culmination of a year of the certificate course run by the Victorian Embroiderers Guild.

It took much longer than most of us expected. There were some physical issues to be resolved as well as the artistic ones.

I haven 't seen the full display as a couple of people couldn't be there on Sunday, they put it up on Monday. I will have to go over again this month to see it. We take it down on Sunday September 27th.

Random thoughts about doodling … and other things

As I have recently said, I am taking up the daily zen doodle thing again.  I have stuck to the small format so far but am feeling a smidgin of interest in trying to produce a larger image.
I have also been in the company of friends who are artists and have expressed interest in zen doodling, so I pointed them in the direction of a couple of sites and a book I had.

Then I was given a book for Christmas (yes, I have read it already, even though it is not yet Christmas).  This book is about the The Great Tapestry of Scotland.  It is very interesting, especially given my Scottish and Irish heritage.  The tapestry is based on the Bayeux Tapestry and the Prestonpans Tapestry, among other things. None of these works are, strictly speaking, tapestries as they are not woven but they are still called that historically. They are all embroideries.
As I was doing further research about the Great Tapestry of Scotland online, I got sidetracked to my local embroiderers guild and noticed they are having classes for crewel embroidery in the new year.
This got me to thinking about counted thread embroidery I have done in the past and how you make up little patterns to fill in the spaces - just like doodling.

This has to be over 20 years old - who says I keep things a long time??

The thing about the crewel and Jacobean work is that is usually has colour and that can change the process. I don't think it matters though, it is still in the same area of design technique.

THEN I wandered off to some Pinterest sites about Jacobean and crewel embroidery.  The images are very reminiscent of doodling - no need to be making up my own designs, I think they have all been invented.  From there I decided to look for some free designs, just to see how much like doodling they really are.  I came across quite a few interesting sites. Several of the sites I visited pointed me to the Gutenberg project site and the book on Jacobean embroidery.  Such an interesting read - and source of designs.

While I was doing a desultory clean-up for the Christmas period, I also came across some designs I drew up when I was doing the blackwork workshop at the Embroiderers Guild.

As I was doing counted thread work, I used graph paper to help me.  But this is a design that is very much like the doodling patterns, I have just tried to remember what I would need to do to be sewing the designs rather than simply doodling.

I was off and running then, looking around all sorts of links connected to my current train of thought. I often come across this site when I am idling around the web - it is always worth a visit.  There are some great links on this post.
This site isn't for crewel embroidery, it is sashiko patterns but they look just like doodling patterns to me.
Here is another site I found through Pinterest.
No wonder I have liked doing the doodling thing - I have been playing around with similar stuff most of my life - off and on.

AND THEN I remembered Dijanne Cevaal's free motion embroidery patterns that she has published recently. They, too, look a lot like doodling.

So, although I have been busy with visiting and preparing for Christmas, not doing any of my creative stuff, I have been busy in my mind.

And the hollyhocks are blooming profusely at the moment, the freezer is filling up with flowers and the pressure is on to get the them out and start dyeing. Someone very selfishly wants to use the freezer for food - as if it were summer.

Aprons

There is an apron exhibition on at Buda.  You can go and see it and the Contemporary Textiles exhibition at the same time - maybe you should check the opening days, one is in the house and one is not and they may have different opening hours, I'm not sure.
Anyway, we had a wander around the house and reminisced about the aprons, table mats and tablecloths we remembered from our mothers' homes that were in the same styles as the ones on display. They were in several rooms, so we kept coming across new ones, prompting more memories.
We also discussed not wanting to wear such lovely items while cooking or cleaning!

The dark one in the middle is made of ties.

It made me want to get out some of the old embroidery I did so long ago.  I still have an apron that I learnt to do smocking on - in grade 4.  It is the only smocking I have ever done, I think.  And I remember getting a table cloth with a pattern stamped on it, from the Women's Weekly, if I remember correctly.  I just may have to rummage around and see if I can find them.  The embroiderers' guild is having a display in July of similar items, maybe I could put them in, if they are in good condition.

Learning something new

It's almost a week since I last posted.  Where has the time gone??
Doing Blackwork, that's where.  I am finding it much harder than I had anticipated!!!!!
I did a day at the Embroiderers Guild last week and we had homework for this week.  The homework took AGES, mainly because I pulled out about a third of what I had done (I have learnt to expect this from tapestry weaving). And I didn't get it all done - but neither did about half the class, so that took the pressure off.
Our teacher, Debi Marshall, designed a pin cushion as our sampler.  It has a lot of intricate designs that rely on each part being in the correct space.
I didn't do the outlining tacking quite correctly, so that put some of the designs out from the start.  Then I had some parts that were supposed to be square but were rectangular.  Then some of my stars looked more like spiders.
We were supposed to use varying weights of threads but, so far, I have only used the heavier weight with one small part using a lighter weight.
Debi was very patient with me and helped me a lot with my placement.  I don't think she liked that I had left some parts wrong but it would have taken way too long to pull them out so we ploughed on regardless.

I did manage to put my initials and date

 I have worked on it for hours each day this week but still didn't get finished today.  Ah well, I just have to remind myself that this is all learning and it is supposed to be fun.

This took me all day, with a lot of help - and it's still not finished.

I am going to persevere as I really want to try designing my own and then stitching it, so I may try for a simpler sampler to get toning down without having to worry about intricate designs, leave them for later.

One or two of the ladies got their pin cushions finished, or will this weekend. The rest of us struggled along more slowly.
By the way, there is no way any of us would use such a beautiful piece of work as a pin cushion!

More drawing

I have spent several hours on yet another image of the cliff at Rockbeare Park (Darebin Parklands on the other side of the creek).  I decided to try the new drawing technique and see if I could come up with an image I liked.  It is not quite what I wanted but I suppose I should remember that I have only just started with this style and be happy that at least I am drawing.

I did a drawing on Friday while visiting a friend.  She said I now had to TTT.  What???  Pardon???
Take it To Textile - I think that's what she said it meant.
So I have been trying to think of ways to do that.  So far I have had some thoughts about blackwork embroidery but I think the designs might be too intricate for that.  (Actually, if you look at some of these images, you will see that it might suit really well.  It might also be very slow!) I have booked into beginner classes at the Embroiderers Guild for the next two Fridays so can ask about it.

Then I thought about the work I did with Jane Sassaman and how she wanted us to use the elaborate stitches that are available on the sewing machine.  Not that I took the cogs with me to have many available - it is a very old Husqvarna that uses cogs to change the stitch designs.
The different stitches can be used to get various effects with colour and to make the quilting more interesting.  So far I haven't tried the various cogs so there isn't a great variety.

My next thought is to see if I can master the various stitches on the machine and then try using them to do some of the patterns.
Using the machine may mean that I have to abstract the design even further, something that I would love to be able to do - this could be a whole new area for me.
I suppose then I will have to decide on whether to stick with the black and white or to start utilising colour.  And another element could be the thickness of the threads.  So many ideas, so many decisions.
Now all I have to do is actually try some doing of these ideas. And I will also have to decide which technique to do - I have been thinking lately that it would be nice to be doing some handwork that I can carry around with me, so maybe blackwork will get a trial.

TAG meeting,felting and other stuff

I finally attending one of the TAG meetings at the Embroiderers' Guild in Melbourne last Monday.  Unfortunately, the ladies who have been organising these talks are not going to be able to do so in the future.  This might mean that the talks will cease for the time being although some volunteers may take up the challenge.

The artist presenting was Jan Irvine-Nealie and she was very interesting. Her work is beautiful and she  explained the underlying meaning of most of the pieces.  She said she needs to have the thought process going as the running stitch takes a long time and she needs to be thinking while doing it, otherwise it would all be a bit boring. The small examples she brought were wonderful - I feel quite inspired to attempt some of her technique.  She airbrushes her designs onto the fabric and then enhances it with running stitch.  I will not do the airbrushing but I would like to try the running stitch as such an important part of the design.

I am getting a bit anxious about the final work we have to do for our graduation show.  It is due to be handed in in the first week of November and I haven't got a design or technique nailed down yet! Maybe I should stick to a technique I am familiar with and leave the experimenting till after the show.  But the subject IS called Experimental Textiles, I just think that maybe I should not be still experimenting at this stage.

Permission to Play

We have been looking at disperse dyes and thermoplasticity in our Experimental Textiles course and I have found is fascinating.  I attended a Play Day at the Victorian Embroiderer's Guild a couple of years ago where we played with disperse dyes but, for some reason, I did not follow up on it.  But combining the dyeing with the thermoplasticity has somehow appealed to me.  Recently I visited a friend and we had a very pleasant day just mucking around, no absolute goal, no specific design, in mind.  It was very relaxing.
Here are some of the results.

I am not sure what I could use them for but they were fun to do.  Maybe something will occur to me, perhaps for some of my other subjects.
The one above was inspired by the passionfruit we have growing out the back, the spiraling effect was very similar to the actual plant.

Petite Miniature Textiles Exhibition

Last Friday my friend and I travelled to the Wangaratta Exhibitions Gallery to see the Petite, Miniature Textiles Exhibition in which I had a piece showing.  It was my first acceptance into an exhibition, so I was very excited.

I have tried to take pictures of the work before but they always seem to show the hand stitching too strongly.  It was good to see the work from a distance so that I could get a view of the complete work without being drawn into the detail.  

The piece, Fern Walk, was done on commercial felt.  I used foil in the background and then used a needle felting machine to put on wool and silk roving and then I hand stitched it.

I had not realised how far away Wangaratta is!  It rained all the way there and all the way back. I am usually happy to see the rain but not all the time I am driving. The journey was not too bad as it is straight up the Hume Freeway and very straightforward.  Overall, we travelled about 550km for the complete trip.  I was very pleased that my 15 year old car did it all on one tank of petrol.

The work in the show was well worth the trip.  There was a large variety of techniques - art quilts, art books, embroideries, jewellery, weaving, tapestry (quite a few by people I know through my course), machine embroidery, sculpture and 3D textiles, miniature knitting, crochet, wire knitting, prints and manipulated fabrics to name a few.  It was inspiring to see such a range of work.

The exhibition pieces all had to be within the 30cm x 30cm x 30cm restriction.  There was some very fine work, especially in the tapestry category.

We also were able to see Flourish, an exhibition celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Embroiderers' Guild of Victoria.  The work done especially for the golden anniversary was beautiful, all set out on emerald green backings to go with the theme of different branches doing different colours for the Celebrating Colour theme.

There was also a small exhibition of work selected from the Textile Collection that was next to the Petite exhibition, so we got to see that also.  There was some beautiful work there too!

All in all, a good day was had by all (two of us).

Felting excitement.

Yesterday I attended a talk by Raewyn Penrose at the Brunswick campus of RMIT.  She was talking about her felted clothing and had some samples for us to handle.  I couldn't get over the softness of the felt and its drape.  One of the interesting things about Raewyn's work is that she comes from a tailoring background and likes to make clothes that fit well.  So she is not afraid to cut the felt.  The pieces were lovely.

Raewyn has been invited over from New Zealand to show her work in the Fabricate Invites 2010 exhibition being put on by the Victorian Embroiderers' Guild.  It is opening tdoay at the Malvern Artists' Society, 1297 High St, Malvern, Victoria, and runs till May 2nd.

Raewyn is running a workshop in June, at Crockett Cottage 43 Studio in Mansfield and I have booked to attend.  I am feeling even more excited about it now that I have seen and handled her work in person!

Textile Fibre Forum magazine had an article about Raewyn's work in Issue 4, no 96, 2009.