Hung at last.

 

I felt it looked a bit lost in all that white space – and I was underwhelmed by it anyway – but its done and dusted and the next piece will be better  [I hope].

So after hammering in a nail to hang it – and then hammering it in again because it was too low – and having photos of some of my drawing studies drawings taken [not the 100 drawings] - and having a gossip with a former colleague who’s doing C&G and who I only see at College exhibitions - I got home in time to eat lunch with Wensleydale.

And then I cheered myself up by sitting in the sun and drawing – never thought I’d say that, especially as they were ‘proper’ drawings [and proper sunshine too, come to that – haven’t had much of that over the last few years].

An attempt to draw the shell properly – minimal detail as I’m not confident with shading etc., but I like the abstract pattern of it -

 

and ‘what I can see in the garden’ – very stylised. I had great fun with this and fancy doing another in black on white –  if I can think of another 6 things to draw…

I’m counting this as one drawing – so that’s up to number 20.

 

I think this sudden enthusiasm for drawing is because :

1. it’s lovely weather, so I work outside – production may drop if we revert to the traditional British summer
2. it takes my mind off the exhibition – production may drop when its all over
3. blogging about it motivates me [it’s all your faults!]

At the suggestion of someone at college, I re-photographed yesterday’s land art – one bit of which had survived better than the other. Interesting to see what’s there tomorrow.

I may use a series of photos rather than the first one for the homework, which raises a problem. I liked the fig leaf piece best, but it looks like there might not be much there tomorrow – which will make it a short series.

A productive weekend

So productive I’m gobsmacked.

Most importantly – this is finished.  Sewn down to the backing, cord made to hang it by, and all the paperwork done. It took me most of yesterday afternoon to write the critical evaluation.

It is all bagged up [I’d like to pretend I made a drawstring bag specially for it but really I liberated one I keep my slate frames in] and ready to go to college on Wednesday – together with all the stuff I need for painting still lives.

 

Flushed with success I went back to this and finished that too. Note I said ‘finished’ – I’d done quite a lot to it while I was procrastinating about the 2D piece. The lumps at the bottom are whipping over pipe cleaners, so it curls round and stands up by itself. There are also beads but they don’t seem to show very well.

 

 

 

And then I finished another piece of procrastination. [And weirdness.]

I didn’t expect it to stand up by itself – but it does.

Anyone else remember a fashion for vessels with holes in the sides, made of terracotta, some time last century? [I love saying that.] Possibly in the 70s? Or am I imagining it?

 

Then I got started on this. 

Two layers of florists’ wrap [possibly Sizoflor], with threads and sequins in between the layers, free machined, [forgot to photograph it at this stage] sewn into a bag and zapped.

 

 

In case it isn’t immediately obvious <g>, it is a lining for this, the mermaid’s purse to be.

I keep telling myself I don’t do whimsy. If its ugly enough, does it not count as whimsy?

 

 

Speaking of odd things - in my self imposed mission to rescue all textile related objects I come across in charity shops, last week I bought four ring frames and a bag of floss [£4.50 – bargain!].

And hidden among the floss, along with the world’s rustiest needle, was this – a combined ruler and knitting needle gauge. Must be quite old as its pre-metric. It is made of heavy card, and can’t have been used much. I love it.

But then I'm weird.

Progress has been made …

on several fronts.

The piece of green felt has acquired some running stitch – and I have some ideas about making it stand up for itself.

 

After an impromptu tutorial on Wednesday I have made a few changes to the 2D piece. Much as I liked the caterpillar emerging from a strawberry, it was just too eye catching, and sadly the lovely blue fabric from Babybel’s dungarees that her mum sent wasn’t eye catching enough. I managed to find an alternative piece of the Hungry Caterpillar fabric so he is now emerging from a plum. The orange is from Babybel’s mum’s first bit of knitting for about 20 years, which I fused to some felt with the embellisher so it won’t run. The pin is temporary, to be replaced by some stitch while listening to ‘Lewis’ tonight.

 

This was inspired by an off the cuff remark by someone on Wednesday.  I have made a couple of knitted bowls before, but I wanted to know if I could knit a bottle.

I could. Whether I should is, of course, an entirely different matter.

The trouble is that now I have all sorts of ideas for knitted bottles whizzing round my head.

 

It’s the result of my admiration for the work of Tamsin Van Essen. [Don’t look at the ‘Contamination’ section unless you have a strong stomach.]

The mermaid’s purse is on the back burner for now – 4 things on the go at once is a bit much, don’t you think? [Of course I’m not counting the everyday sketchbook, the vessels sketchbook, and the 2D sketchbook, all of which need some work …]

Nothing will be done tomorrow as we have an appointment here.

No, we’re not running [although I did suggest Wenselydale tried it now he’s so proficient on his crutches] but Babybel’s mummy is, so we are going up to help Babybel cheer her on. Go L!  Personal best we hope!

Somewhere old, somewhere new.

Wensleydale decided yesterday that it was time for his annual pilgrimage to the Bronte Parsonage Museum. On the way there we made our first  visit to East Riddlesden Hall, as it was roughly in the same direction, and has a tea shop [unlike the Bronte museum – it’s only drawback, I feel].

The Hall is beautiful – like Gawthorpe, it comes as a complete surprise when you turn into the drive and the urban development surrounding it disappears. Somehow the smoke stained stonework adds to the atmosphere, and of course it is part of the history of the house. One wing was partially demolished in the early 20thC  - perhaps it was the Bronte connection that made me immediately think of Thornfield hall.

Like Gawthorpe, Riddlesden has embroideries – probably the best collection of 17th century embroidery I've seen outside the V&A or the Burrell. There are also some !9thC samplers [not really my cup of tea, but these are slightly different to the usual] a bit of 20thC blackwork, and some 19thC embroidery which according the the very chatty room steward, is Persian. It was worked [in wool?] on narrow strips of hand woven cloth and then joined to make bed curtains and covers. Add beautiful gardens and a good tea shop [although they were out of Wensleydale for the Yorkshire ploughman's lunch and we had to have Cheddar instead] – and it was well worth a visit.

The journey on to Haworth was a bit traumatic, as there was a poorly signposted diversion, and the inhabitants of Bingley seem to think that the usual rules about giving way to traffic on roundabouts don’t apply to them. After it happened on the third roundabout in succession I began to get a bit neurotic, and even W. lost his cool …

Fortunately the Parsonage was quite quiet. Having seen Bronte at the Watermill before we came up here, I kept visualising the actors, especially Mr Bronte and Branwell, although neither actor really looked anything like the originals!

After all that excitement we are having a quiet morning, and after I've posted this I will get on with the 2d piece. Since I took these photos the wavy cream lines have been completed and I’m adding some dark blue ones. I'm not sure about the very hungry caterpillar – I think it’s a bit bright, although the symbolism [new life] is right for the youngest member of the family. It is a left-over from the quilt I made for Babybel, and a substitute for the fabric from her mum and dad that never arrived, although I’m hoping that when we get back home  it will have done.

After the cheese, the ale …

As we’d had a cheese experience earlier in the week, we decided we needed some beer to go with it – so we paid a visit to the Black Sheep Brewery at Masham – which I now know isn’t pronounced the way you think …

It was much more enjoyable than the cheese experience, even though a drop didn’t pass my lips till just now [Black Sheep Ale, very drinkable]. A brewery visit costs more than the cheese experience, but you get an hour’s guided tour, and lots of information about brewing, although I think it would be a good idea to go earlier in the week, as Friday seems to be cleaning up day.

The beer chutney is good too – can’t speak for the Christmas pudding, I’ll get back to you on that in about 7 months time.

We followed that with an unplanned visit to Jervaux Abbey, because we’d noticed it on the map. If you like romantic ruins and flowers, it’s perfect, even on a drab, cold day. I took rather a lot of photographs of walls, [and assorted holes in walls], doorways, windows, and skies.

And there’s a teashop too – where they serve the magical combination of fruitcake and Wensleydale cheese. No, I'm not joking – try it and see. Wensleydale goes particularly well with Christmas cake, especially the version with ginger in it.

When not eating cheese or drinking ale, I have been getting on with this – my 2D piece. I’ve just about finished all the circles, bar a couple I am not sure about – tomorrow I hope to begin the lines which will run down the piece – or across it, in this photo.

I’ve been sidetracked …

after coming across this tutorial for little felt purses. I have felt, I have zips, I have nothing better to do.*

* Not strictly true.

So this is my first one – slightly modified from Julie's original, because my felt was quite thin so I lined it – which made it quite stiff and difficult to turn out - so I gave it external seams. Oh, and I worked the appliqué before I made up the purse.

Then my eye fell on Diana Lampe’s ‘More Embroidered Garden Flowers’ which has been sitting on my bookshelf for – er – quite a long time. Which led to this [unfinished] version.

Of course I don’t do representational embroidery, or flowers …

[Looks like Lampe’s book has been reissued, combined with her first book, under another name  although believe me I didn’t pay that much for it … ]

 

This is the third one under way. I have three more zips of a suitable size with felt to match – and then my inherited zip stash will be reduced to long zips for dressmaking  which I don’t do. Which I definitely don’t do, unlike embroidered flowers.

Now purse making may seem like procrastination, given that I have a 2D piece to make – but it isn’t really. Honest.

My rationalisation is that:

1. I am waiting for the bits of textiles from Babybel and her mum and dad and can’t make my final design decisions until I get them – and
2. tomorrow’s session is another ‘independent work and tutorials’ day and the things I can do to the 2Dpiece will fill the time while I wait for my tutorial.

But truthfully – it was lovely to sit in the conservatory, enjoying the sunshine and the view of the garden, and doing something just for fun!

It’s the real thing …

and a bit scary. This is the base fabric for my 2D piece – freezer paper resists, bleach, anti-chlor and a rinse. Now all it needs is a bit of embellishing, some appliqué and a heck of a lot of hand embroidery.

I’ve already embellished two circles at the top to represent my parents – a bit of embroidered hankie for mum – the last person I knew who used real hankies – and a bit of tea towel for dad – who had a bit of an obsession about washing up…

Now I need to go back to sampling – trying out ways of embroidering the embellishing, and different techniques for the lines which will run top to bottom. Just need some good telly to listen to while I do it – unfortunately although ‘Wallender’ is on tonight it won’t do as I have to look at the screen to read the subtitles.

It was contemporary Textiles yesterday but we will pass over that in silence. ‘Textiles’ was stretching it a bit – think brown paper, string and wire – and although I liked what I did yesterday – I don’t today.

It was the first class …

of this term yesterday. I thought that everyone else would be miles ahead of me, as I’d lost so much time over Easter.

Turned out I needn’t have worried – and as someone quite rightly pointed out, I'd started a lot of stitch samples because that was all I felt up to. [Notice I said started, not finished ...]

The session was ‘independent working’ + tutorials, and as I’d bagged first place for a tutorial the last time, I volunteered to go last this time. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do in the interim, but it turned out to be very  useful to have 3 hours or so when I couldn’t do anything else. [Apart from drink coffee, look at other people’s ideas, gossip, and eat lunch – although I did manage to resist the chocolate machine …]

I started by pootling around with some design options. I  decided the best was the one on the left, only with a space at the bottom, lines that didn’t overlap, and more of the empty circles – what I call ‘ghost circles’.

So if you can imagine it with those changes, a blue background and blue and cream circles and lines, you’ll get the picture.

Then I finished some of the stitch samples, including trying out colours other than blue and cream. Not a good idea.

This is my favourite – heavily influenced by 50s embroidery and the Needlework Development Scheme.  [I can justify this – after the tutorial I can justify almost everything about  this design!]

A digression.

Over on Dog Daisy Chains, Jackie has been encouraging bloggers to produce a post in their own handwriting. I have resisted the temptation, because I am big-headed enough to assume that you, gentle reader, actually want to be able to read my words of wit and wisdom – and if I hand wrote them, you wouldn’t be able to. If I hand wrote them , I wouldn't be able to read them.

But there is writing on the sample above. so that is my contribution to hand written blogging.

Back to the plot.

After all my designing and stitching, I had clarified my ideas, so the tutorial was really a matter of confirming [and justifying] them – although I did get a few suggestions about how to add the bits and bobs of textiles from the family. Some nice things were said about the sample above and the work book - one advantage of having done C&G Creative Sketchbooks is that although I can’t draw, I can glue, or splash paint, ink and bleach around a book, and hope something emerges …

So I came away feeling quite motivated.

On the way home I visited Cheese Major and his partner, Ali - who has got herself into the Hampshire team, well done that woman!

‘Hampshire team for what?’ I hear you ask. Well, here's a clue – some of their contributions for the 2D piece. And if you can’t work out what that lot are for, here’s another clue. No, it’s not cricket.

At the moment I'm thinking of using some of the little bit of blue leather, which I think is a finger guard, and the blue bow string end I've bent into a heart shape, if that’s not too naff – but the feathers have a certain appeal, too.

After all yesterday’s excitement, this morning I made a full scale mock up, [C&G indoctrination] with some painted brown paper I prepared earlier.

Mmm – not a total success – but I did learn from the experience:

1. discharging Brusho need much more concentrated bleach than discharging fabric. Dilute bleach just makes it go paler. Neat bleach from a bleach pen will make it go white, however.
2. freezer paper doesn't come off paper anywhere near as easily as it does off fabric.

however, it has given me a better idea of what the piece might look like than the quarter scale sketches. I also tore the fabric 5 cms narrower because that was equivalent to 2 widths of the roller I put the bleach on with, rather than 2.5.

The bleached fabric has been rinsed, neutralised and washed and is currently drying – it’s looking good but I’ll have another look at it tomorrow and decide if it really is what I want. Otherwise I'll do another one – after all I still have 2.5 curtains to go …

When in doubt …

make a book. This time it isn’t procrastination. [No, really it isn’t. Honestly. Would I lie to you?]

For the 2D artefact  for the degree we have to keep a work book. This is my work book. Boring, isn't it?

You may be surprised that I am using an bought sketchbook – but when I started the 2D piece I didn’t know what it was going to be, so I didn’t know what sort of book it needed. [It is going to get a cover soon.]

This boring book is nearly full – you can see a bit of a sample sticking out at the bottom.

So I have spent the last couple of days making Workbook 2 – because now I now what sort of book I need. One like this.

Wensleydale says it looks like an old ledger – which wasn’t exactly what I was aiming at, but I did want something worn and tatty looking.

It is yet another mailer covered with old curtain [you are going to see a lot of those old curtains – I’ve got another 3 to use]. I whipped the edges because I wasn’t convinced that the curtain wouldn’t come unstuck. The apologies for tassels are where I joined on a new bit of string for the whipping– it took miles of the stuff.

I have also been playing around with more bits of old curtain and the remains of a tin of emulsion paint. These were made using a foam paint roller, either as it came, or wrapped in curtain lace, scrim or rubber bands. I also tried using freezer paper stencils as resists. [Yes, that is a hole in the piece top right. That’s how tatty the curtains are. And you can see how faded they are in the workbook cover.  Shame making, because we only took them down a few weeks ago …]

I’ve got a tutorial on Wednesday, so we will see how these go down with the tutor. I've done some more using bleach but they are still drying and not in a fit state to be photographed.