I'm still working on ideas inspired by Tamsin van Essen's pots

Another pot in the exhibition had what looked like gauze bandage wrapped round it, under the glaze. [I think – I know nothing about ceramics.] So I have been playing around with texture, including bandages.

These are gauze bandage and gesso on paper and calico

and these are the ubiquitous creative embroiderer’s standby– tissue paper and PVA.

Silk paper, some with bobbles in it, because another of the pots had acne – not literally, but there is a medical theme to Van Essen’s work in this exhibition.

And of course the texture pieces ended up being made into a book – which demonstrates that even the ugliest beads have their place. The cover is the watercolour paper/bandage/gesso combination which is rigid but can be sewn - might make interesting vessels..

I love the contrast here between the silk paper and the tissue.

Van Essen's pots have inspired so many ideas that I am thinking of starting a themed sketchbook to explore them, inspired by a denim covered book in Kay Greenlees' ‘Creating Sketchbooks for Embroiderers and Textile Artists’.

On re-reading Greenlees, she implies that painting your pages and decorating the cover may be procrastination – ‘The contents are more important than the cover’. Guilty as charged – but I do find some work looks better on a coloured background – for example this Gormley inspired spread, which I am rather pleased with. If I were to translate this into stitch – and the silhouette is fabric, albeit covered in texture gel and paint – I would want to incorporate the serendipitous effect of the colour I sloshed on fairly randomly. Of course a real artist would have planned it!

And there is a reason why the cover looks like this! [Not, I'm not planning on doing one a month.] I hoped that if the cover looked a mess I’d be less hung up about what went inside. Only partly successful, I’m afraid. I think this a result of doing C&G, particularly ‘Creative Sketchbooks’. In those courses design work is a product more than a process, which will be evaluated by the assessor. In ‘real art’ the sketchbook is part of the process of producing the design and you don’t have to show it to anyone. But I am coming round to the idea that making books is what I do so I should stop farting around and start thinking of ways to combine books and stitch. If Frances Pickering can do it ...

http://www.stitchhost.co.uk/frannyp/

In her class on Studio Journals – which I have failed completely to do justice to - Sharon Boggon talks about the studio journal [so much more encouraging than ‘sketchbook’] as a compost heap – you throw everything in it and hope something fertile emerges. Trouble is, I’m having so much fun with my compost heap that not much stitch related is emerging!

One piece that did is this much more traditional WIP. This is the flap of the Suzani inspired bag, which is working up quicker than anticipated. I think this is because it has a lot of small motifs which work up quickly and make me feel I am making progress – and the random background grows quickly, too, because it is more interesting than if it was all in the same shade.

I will go quiet over the weekend as Babybel and her parents are coming to celebrate her dad’s birthday. Just hope he doesn’t expect to be the centre of attention … I have made him a chocolate Guiness cake, but that will have to do!

This is probably the oddest book I have ever made...

I mentioned in a previous post that at the exhibition in the ‘Discovery Centre’ I was struck by the ceramics of Tamsin van Essen. I think I have also mentioned that, as part of the preparation for the Creative Textiles course I am starting next month we have to keep a sketchbook – and part of that sketchbook has to be a study of two artists whose work we have seen. [My problem has been sticking to two...]

One of the pots which struck me at the exhibition was this one:

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile/Tamsin+Van%20Essen/30521.html

and scroll down to the white pot. I am often drawn to achromatic pieces, although I usually use colour in my own work. [Preferably lots of colour.]


When I do use an achromatic scheme it tends to be black and silver or gold. [If that counts as achromatic.] The only time I tried a cream piece I got so bored I had to add some blue.

But - I have been exploring different ways of attaching one piece of white paper to another – and the book is the result. [The pliers in the photos are there to hold the pages open.]

This is the front cover - staples. The whole thing is held together with string, and sewing that through 8 layers of watercolour paper wasn't easy, even with prepunched holes. Hence the pliers ...














More staples.

Buttons.

Duck tape. I really like this one.

Decorative brads. I knew I'd find a use for them eventually.

Eyelets. The string is for decoration only.

Cross stitch. Regular readers will know that I loathe and abhor cross stitch, but I can manage four.

French knots. Purists will notice that these are not well made French knots - if I made them properly the paper tore. Hence the little tadpole tails.





I am going to make something similar using fabric. I am not sure if this will lead into anything in embroidery – perhaps something 3D? - but I am having fun.


Although I find it hard to believe, this is my hundredth post – and coincidentally Mary has kindly given me an ‘I love your blog’ award.

The rules of the award are:


Put the logo on your blog.

Link the person you received your award from.

Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

Put links of those blogs on yours.Leave a message on the blogs of those you’ve nominated

Well – Mary’s excellent blog is

http://maryandrews.blogspot.com/

so I’ve managed two of the five. I am still pondering on who else to lumber – er -nominate – so watch this space!

I still don't like the name

but I am feeling a lot more enthusiastic about the Winchester Discovery Centre – which used to be known as the Library. If there any librarians out there [or do they have a new name too?] I understand the argument that ‘Library’ implies ‘books’ and the institutions formerly known as libraries do a lot more than just lend books these days. But does the name ‘Discovery Centre’ provide a better guide to what goes on inside? To me it sounds like a hands-on science/technology centre. [We have one of those too – it is called ‘Intec’.]

I think most library users are well aware you can get a lot more than books at your local library. Of course non-library users may not know – but I don’t think you’ll get them through the doors of a discovery centre either …

However – I digress. What prompted this rant is that Wensleydale and I went to yet another exhibition in the DC – the third we have visited. All excellent and all, bar the first one, free. And more to come – Hockney etchings and a selling craft show.

Today it was this:

http://www3.hants.gov.uk/wdc/wdc-gallery.htm

More here:

http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/whats-on/view/object-as-muse-asentamiento-dress

It wasn’t a very big exhibition, but the quality made up for it. Even the way the pencils for comments were arranged was beautiful! [Half a dozen yellow pencils upright in holes in a white table, lit so they threw shadows on a white wall.]

Someone had written ‘Meditation!’ on a comment slip and it was a very accurate response. I particularly liked Tamsin Van Essen’s ceramics and Arabel Lebrusan’s silver mantilla. When I say silver, by the way, I mean silver – tiny pieces of metal worked into beautiful shapes and joined by jump rings so it actually drapes and, as you can see from the photo on the Crafts Council website, is wearable.

The trouble with writing a sentence like ‘I particularly liked …’ is that I immediately think – ‘But I liked this too, and that, and …’ So I will just say that there was one piece which I was less keen on because I didn’t feel it achieved what the artist’s statement said they had been trying to achieve, Although the concept behind it was very relevant, I felt the item, though not the intention, fell short of the rest of the work. [Each item had an artist’s statement explaining how the dress had inspired them.]

Changing the topic - my muse seems to be stirring again. She may even have woken up and be thinking about breakfast. [The trouble with people saying nice things about my blog is that it encourages me to write even sillier things – you only have yourselves to blame for long rambling posts like this one!]

I have been inspired by the suzani we saw in Glasgow.

If you want to know more about them – there is information, and 4 pages of pictures of Central Asian textiles, including modern suzanis, here:

http://www.marlamallett.com/suzanis.htm

This is the one which inspired me.

http://www.marlamallett.com/e-1008.htm

I played around with a design - the kaleidoscope maker has been getting a workout again ...







The little photo is of a French shutter - it seemed similar to my design, so I added it to the page.




Then I made a little sample, and I think I feel a needlepoint bag coming on … The sample is warped because I didn't bother using a frame, and i think the stem needs to be a darker colour, but I like it. Except it is in tent stitch, and I loathe tent stitch half as much as I loathe cross stitch. [Embroiderers may be able to work out the reason for the mathematical precision of that statement.]

But although I can think of other ways I could use this design, I want to replace an old and much loved needlepoint bag, and I want to use an excess of rust/cream/turquoise tapestry wool I inherited from my mother and aunt – so tent stitch it seems to be.

And if anyone is still reading this diatribe – well done!

Tuesday Trip

We don't usually go far for our trips out as neither of us likes driving - we did too much of it in our past lives. However we made an exception, having read about this:

http://www.comptonverney.org.uk/?page=exhibitions/thefabricofmyth.html

We felt we had to visit an art exhibition that showed signs of taking textiles seriously, although it took us a couple of hours to get there.

I think that if you visited expecting it to be an embroidery exhibition, you would be disappointed. It is an art exhibition about the association of textiles and myth, particularly Greek Myth, so there are textiles but also textile related images. Having said that - there is quite a lot of embroidery.

I felt that some of the associations were a bit tenuous, particularly in the later rooms,but I loved some of the juxtapositions of objects that resulted. For example the first room contained a 5th century AD Coptic tapestry of Ariadne, and a huge Louise Bourgeois sculpture of a curved needle. In the second room the exhibits ranged from a 4th century BC drinking vessel showing Circe and her loom, via a 16th century embroidery by Bess of Hardwick to a 21st century Alice Kettle piece.

It was interesting to see some of the work of Mary Queen of Scots, having written about her embroidery in my magnum opus. These were some of the slips from the Oxburgh hangings, which were much bigger than I expected.

The building is interesting, and the grounds beautiful [what we could see through the rain]. And the cafe does a great cream tea!

Odds and Ends

For some reason. it often seems to happen that I finish two or more things at the same time. For example, last night I finished my Owen Davies knock-off embroidery - although now I have to decide what I am going to do with it.

Today I decided that the second triptych was finished - because I am fed up with it and can't be bothered doing any more to it. And no, you won't be seeing any photos.

I also finished Babybel's feely book, the pages of which have been sitting on my ironing board for several days. [Amazing what I will do when I need to iron something. Procrastinate - me?]

So here are the FOs*.

I think the knot garden hedge could do with a bit more of a prune, but I am pleased with it. The thing in the middle is, of course, a water feature, made with glass buttons from my mother's stash. If you look carefully you can see the goldfish in the pool.

And here are some pages from the book - although it is a bit difficult to appreciate a feely book to the full on a computer. The feely bits on these pages are a red metallic fabric and some lovely purple tweed.

This is red leather and purple felt,

and this is painted needlepoint canvas and fur fabric. I had fun with this. Hope she likes it!




*Finished objects. As opposed to UFOs.

If you have nothing better to do

- if, for example, you are waiting for paint to dry - you could try this - which I found here:

http://embers.typepad.com/e/2008/07/mosaic-me-and-mosaic-him.html

First answer these questions:

1. What is your first name?

2. What is your favourite food?

3. Which high school did you attend?

4. What is your favorite colour?

5. Who is your celebrity crush?

6. Favourite drink?

7. Dream vacation?

8. Favourite dessert?

9. What do you want to be when you grow up?

10.What do you love most in life?

11. One word to describe you.

12. Your Flickr name.

Put the answer to each question in turn into Flickr's search engine and choose your favourite of the pictures that come up. [Only look at the first page, to preserve your sanity.]

Then post the URL for each page into Mosaic Maker:

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php

[Set it for 3 columns and 4 rows.]

This is mine - although due to user error the pictures are not in the same order as the questions ...

You can also make mosaics in Picassa: to prove it, here is one. In theory I have been taking on-line classes with Sharon Boggon and Sue Bleiweiss since before we went away, but like other things they were victims of the departure of my muse. I have begun to play round with some of the ideas: one of the things Sharon suggested was taking photos of geometric shapes in the environment.

I usually take any photos I need for courses in the garden but it is a bit lacking in mathematical regularity. However I did find a selection in the house.

I like the pattern this lot make [I like pattern anyway!]- but the exercise also made me look more closely at some very mundane things- the staining in the two plant pots on the left of the middle row, for example. Not sure how I would convert it into embroidery, apart from the obvious applique, but an enjoyable exercise all the same.

Now it's officially official!

My C&G diploma arrived today. Well, actually - two of them did, each in a separate envelope with a unit certificate, one for Design and one for Embroidery. [This is the complicated way that C&G works.] I don't think I should have been sent two - but I'm not complaining!

That inspired me to get moving on my homework. We were asked to start a sketch book for the Creative Textiles course I am taking next term. We have to record words and images, including a study of two artists featured in exhibitions we have visited during the summer. We were told we could make our own sketchbook but I resisted the temptation as I have several impulse purchases to use up.

You may have noticed that I have been to several exhibitions this summer. By my reckoning we have been to 7 art exhibitions, as well as museums and other visits. I am finding it hard to limit myself to two artists. So far I have played around with images by Sisley, Hodgkin, Gormley and Lambie. [I have been very restrained about Klimt as I used him so much last year.]

Today I decided to stick all the postcards etc. from our visits into the sketch book. Of course I couldn't just stick them on plain white pages - I had to paint the pages first. Preferably with more than one colour. And paint the covers. All of which took time to dry.

When I began wielding the glue stick I realised that I will need a second book - although I haven't really started with playing around with the images yet.

I have had a play with this though:

http://www.krazydad.com/kaleido/

It is ever so slightly addictive ...

This is the original picture.

Finding words to go in the sketchbook has been more difficult. I can usually produce some sort of image [provided no-one expects me to actually draw anything!] but I have a harder time with words - odd when I enjoy writing so much. However a fellow student pointed me in the direction of this, on writing haiku:

http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/blog/archives/854

You may ask what writing haiku has to do with embroidery but I found it works almost like a mini-mind map, encouraging you to focus on the features of whatever you're writing about that are most important to you. And those are the features you need to think about in designing your image.

I wrote one this morning about an apple tree in the garden - which I may pluck up courage to post, when the weather improves enough for me to take a photo of the tree in question. [The brief spell of sunny weather which served to remind us what UK summers used to be like has ended, probably never to return.]