Gridy piece update

This piece of cloth has got through a number of printing processes, some of which you may have seen in earlier posts. What once was the back is now the front!

The picture shows pretty much all of the cloth but I still need to play the proportions of fabric I would like either side of the stripe. Again, I have a choice of orientation.

I have used some of the shapes that 'emerged' from a drawing  to create resists before I discharged a strip of fabric down the middle.

Here is a close up of the fabric, where you can  get some idea of the layering that has occurred.

My plan now is to add some stitching to the discharged strip of fabric. I'll show you when it's done but I really must concentrate and conclude on my Whispers design first. And it's so easy to get distracted by the Olympics too.....

Gold: Power and Allure

This week I visited the Gold: Power and Allure exhibition at the Goldsmiths' Hall. I was completely amazed at this headpiece. Can you believe that this 'fur' hat is made of gold?

The headpiece was made by Giovanni Corvaja, the Italian jeweller who is known for his experimentation with gold. He aimed to make gold wires so fine, that en masse they become as soft as fur. Not surprisingly I wasn't able to feel the piece but it certainly looked like it was as soft as fur.

I was also amazed by the very old pieces in the exhibition. How could they make those pieces, many hundreds of years BC?

Another Place

Last weekend we spent a lovely weekend in Cheshire, seeing friends, visiting the RHS Tatton show, the Tate Liverpool and Antony Gormley's 'Another Place'. I was really looking forward to seeing the statues and we were really lucky that we saw them on a sunny evening.  Perhaps this will be inspiration for a piece of work in the future?

Festival of Quilts

My spare time has been in short supply recently but any time I have had has been taken up with stitching. The reason for the frantic stitching has been the looming deadline for getting my entries into the Festival of Quilts (FOQ), which will be held next month at the NEC, Birmingham. You will see from the close-up that it has involved a lot of stitching.

Here is the finished piece which is 41 by 26 inches. I have entered this in the 'Art Quilt' category.

You may remember that this quilt will also be used as my first Whispers piece. I told the Whispers Group that my piece would have a portrait orientation and this is what the rest of the group have planned around. Which orientation do you prefer?

I have also submitted a piece that I produced during my City & Guilds course but I decided to make a few tweaks, just to keep myself under pressure. This piece was based on my drawing of a local field:

And here is the piece I created from it. I have entered this into the 'Pictoral Quilt' category.

So here they are packed and ready to go.

I must admit I am starting to feel a little apprehensive about my entries, mainly because they are not created in the traditional quilting tradition. Will they be acceptable? I'll be paying more attention to the quilting techniques used this year which is what I should have done last year! Will they get get hung? Only time will tell.

New Designer's Exhibition

A couple of weeks ago I went to the New Designers exhibition in London, which showcases the work of UK graduates. I have been going with my friend Laura, for a number of years now. When you go to an event for a number of years you can't help wonder whether you have seen it all before  but this was most definitely not the case. There was some wonderful work, in particular digitally printed pieces. Laser cutting was less prevalent than it has been in previous years.

I came home wanting to start my next Whispers piece but I need (and must!) complete my black and orange gridy piece first.

Unfortunately, I don't have any photographs to show you but the good news is that you can see some of the work of the graduate's work at the Arts thread website.  It's definitely worth a look. The exhibition has now closed but I would recommend you go next year, if you are able.

I'm spending the next two days at Committed to Cloth which I am really looking forward to. I've got some experiments planned, some work to progress and some cushion fabric to print. I hope to have something to show you soon.

Textiles report from Canada

I didn't come across much in the way of textile art in Canada and I didn't have the opportunity to seek it out, it just wasn't that sort of holiday. I did quite a bit of stitching on my discharged gridy piece whilst I was travelling, including on the plane going out. I have stitched on planes before but I have always felt slightly guilty and half expected the air stewards to confiscate my needle. However, when I checked the BAA web site, prior to going, I noticed that you could take sharp instruments if the blades they were 6 cm or less. So this time I stitched on the plane with a clear conscious.

I did see a really nice yarn shop in Victoria, Vancouver Island...unfortunately only 5 minutes before it closed! It was going to need a lot more time than that and there was opportunity to go back.

I enjoyed our visit to Granville Island, Vancouver. There are a lot of arts and crafts shops to enjoy although the exchange rate made many things seem very expensive to us. Not just there but throughout Canada.

I did buy this silk yarn though. The nearer yarn is more bronzey than it appears in the photograph and no matter what settings I changed on my camera I could not replicate the true colour.

And I hope to knit this scarf. .

But I think it'll have to stay in the bag for a while yet as I need to finish a few other projects first.

I also enjoyed the Maiwa shops at Granville Island and they are organising a textile symposium later this year that looked very interesting. I would like to explore the pod casts on the Maiwa web site but haven't had chance yet. The shop has lots of textile supplies for sale and I was pleased to see that their book shelves included many British textile Artists, including my Tutors Janet Edmonds and Leslie Morgan & Claire Benn (Committed to Cloth).

I can only assume there  must be a thriving textile community over there, which unfortunately there wasn't time to tap into. But then you can't have everything can you?