Reelin' down the Rhine

I'm just back from a lovely week cruising down the Rhine and we had lovely weather.

There was mile after mile of vineyards and they created some very interesting patterns which reminded me of a very large patchwork quilt.

 



I still found time to do some stitching, which is just as well, as I would like to finish this 'reels in the landscape' piece in time for the exhibition in November. There's still quite a lot of work to be done and (unfortunately) I'm not sure about one or two of the colours and may even unpick some of the stitching which won't help me get it finished but I probably won't be happy with the piece unless I do. 

 

 

Taking this photograph reminded me how much more difficult it is to take a decent photograph when there is less light around and the colours of this piece are deeper than they appear here.

You can see where my idea for this piece came from in my previous post . Hopefully, it won't be too long before I have the finished piece to show you....maybe!

Reelin I and II revisited

In a previous post I showed the two cotton reel pieces that I stitched. A friend of mine suggested, in the nicest possible way, that they needed to some more stitching to indicate shading and as is often the case, it all seemed so obvious when it was pointed out.

After that I was never going to be happy with them until I had added some shading to both pieces but little did I know just how much additional work this would be. It may not look like it but it took hours of additional stitching but I do think they look better for it. I hope you agree.

 

They are only about 4 inches square and they are mounted on a 6 inch square canvas. It was a really dark wet day when I wanted to photograph them and so I decided that I would photograph them in the light tent that I bought earlier in the year.

 

As you can see the light tent is quite large! I think it did help a little and certainly helped cut out some of the distractions that might otherwise have been in the background. Maybe it was lacking some side light? Perhaps I'll try that next time. 

 

I am planning on exhibiting them in our Taking Textiles Further Exhibition, which is going to be held at Art Van go from 2nd-30th November. See the flyer at on the top left of this post for more info.

Reelin' I and II

We're just back from an enjoyable and relaxing holiday in Sardinia. The weather was a bit windy during the first few days and that kept the temperature down but when it stopped blowing it was glorious. I ate too much of the lovely food and despite trying to convince myself that I was using up lots of calories walking round the sites, I can tell from the fit of my trousers that I am now carrying a reminder of my holiday around with me. 



 

In between eating and sight seeing, I stitched some cotton reels. I did two pieces in two different colourways, both 4 inches square.  This piece was stitched on some of my printed fabric using my current favourite thread.

It took a while for the piece to take shape and I was starting to worry that it wasn't going to work. Fortunately, the more I stitched the more I liked it, which is just as well or I would have been left me on holiday without any stitching to do. Not a position I like to be in these days.

The second piece was similar but using plain black fabric and stitched with white and black thread.

I preferred the first piece to this one and I think that's because there were no variations in the black background fabric and the black in the thread just merged into the background fabric.

What next? I would like to mount them on an artists canvas if I can find one the right size. I thought that I might print one of my landscape photographs onto fabric and then stitch the reels on that - that could be interesting. Just something small that I could pickup and stitch when the mood takes me. 

Landscape in the Cotton Reels

It's beautiful weather here today but I have spent quite a lot of  it inside in front of my PC. Next weekend is my 'Taking Textiles Further' course and I wanted to get some design work done so that I could discuss it with our tutor Janet Edmonds. There are only 3 of these weekends a year and the next one will probably not be until November, so you need to make the most of the opportunity.

In a previous post I showed how I was exploring the cotton reels in the landscape. Today I was exploring, landscapes in cotton reels! Firstly, I took a few cotton reels and randomly through them down on the some paper, took a photograph and traced round the outline of the reels.  I placed the tracing over some of my landscape photographs and thought it had potential, so continued to work with the idea digitally. Here's some of my results:
 

Photograph of a local Field

Bluebell wood

The images I was looking forward to using the most were of Dutch bulb fields but they didn't quite live up to my expectations.



Dutch bulb field

 So I made a pattern with it to see if that improved things.... but I don't think they did.

 

Conversely, I was surprised by how this image of a snowy road worked. It needs some tweaking but I feel it has potential.





 

Snowy road



So what next? Now that I'm clearer about what type of images make stronger designs, I will look through my landscape images again, just as soon as my (now) square eyes are back to normal. I would also like to explore different arrangements for my reels but still keep it simple and of course the different arrangements of reels will reveal different parts of the landscape. Eventually, I would like to stitch a piece, where the stitching in the trunk of the cotton reel is inspired by a landscape.

Cotton Reel Patterns

I enjoyed creating my Drawing with Stitch sample and I would like to create another piece in a similar way. Nothing too big but something that I could pick up easily and even take away on holiday with me. With this in mind I have been exploring cotton reel patterns by repeating and mirroring one of my drawings. Here's the three designs that I have created: 

The pattern with the hole in the middle

The arrow head pattern

The flower pot pattern

Clearly these wouldn't be as 'free' as my original sample but I think they have potential. More thought required on how to transfer the pattern to cloth and how to stitch it. Which one do you prefer?

Taking Textiles Further - Feb 2013

At our last Taking Textiles Further (TTF) weekend, I continued to work with my collection of cotton reels. This time we worked with layers.  I took one of my images of cotton reels in the landscape, placed cotton reels on top, then suspended a layer of glass over them and then added more cotton reels on top of the glass.

I then drew from the layered structure, which was made more difficult by everything 'moving around' every time I shifted in my chair. Anyway, this is the pencil drawing I did from my layered cotton reels.

 

I then coloured in a photocopy and started to draw on top of the image but then wished that I hadn't drawn on top. 

 

  

or maybe you prefer it in a landscape format?

 

 

 

We then used canvas and thick threads to continue our design explorations. I have never enjoyed working with canvas and this time was no exception but I did like the affect I achieved by stitching with some of my dyed fabric. I think it's the randomness of the colours and the texture that I like.

What next? Well I won't be progressing the canvas work but it has provided inspiration for my fabric printing and with a bit more tweaking of the image it may inspire a new piece of work. 

Cotton reels in the landscape - TTF

Another challenge from the Taking Textiles Further (TTF) weekend was to think how I could link the cotton reels to my personal theme of landscapes. I admit that I was quite baffled by this thought initially and after a moment of inspiration/desperation (take your pick!) I googled 'cotton reels in the landscape' and all I needed was a reference to hay stacks and cotton reels to get my imagination going.  I then had a lot of fun digitally placing cotton reels in some of my landscape pictures. Here's what I came up with:

I couldn't leave it there, so I then drew, scratched and painted onto the photographs, which I think generated some interesting results.

I'm looking forward to the next TTF challenge in February. I think that my 'homework' has generated some ideas which I could take forward and I'm always pleased by that.

Drawing with Stitch - TTF

Another thing we did on the Taking Textiles Further (TTF) weekend was to stitch onto fabric, in the same way that you might draw onto paper.

The top and bottom rows were stitched directly from looking at a sections of my drawings and the middle row stitching from looking directly at the cotton reels themselves. I'm not sure where it takes me but I enjoyed doing it and I used yet another piece of unloved fabric. At this rate I could be up for a 'Recycler of  the Year' award!

Taking Textiles Further - December 2012

It's been a few weeks since I went to the Taking Textiles Further workshop with Janet Edmonds but I have only just got things in any shape to show you. This year Janet's theme is 'collections'. I chose to use a collection of cotton reels as my theme. A couple of other students in the class had also chosen cotton reels but I guess it shouldn't be too much of a surprise in a group of textile artists. It will be interesting to see how the work of the 'cotton reel girls' develop. Here is one of my starting points:

 

When I started to draw the cotton reels, I realised that it was going to be harder than I had bargained for. All those varying ellipses would require some studying and practising! This would take some time and so a plan B was required....tracing. I quickly traced the outlines of the cotton reels in such a manner that may be fooled (if you weren't familiar with my drawing skills!) into thinking that I had drawn them.  I then tried out a number of compositions. Here's a few from my sketch book.



 

We were asked to place our collections on a patterned background and to draw from the image and I used one of my gridy pieces of cloth as the background. I soon realised that a more simple approach was required and I reduced the number of cotton reels.

 



 

I have quite a large (yes you've guessed it!) gridy piece of cloth which is graduated in colour. It was suggested that I could consider incorporating a cotton reel design on top of the grids. I was very sceptical that this would work but some of the reasons I go to the class is to challenge my thinking, stop me getting in a rut and to try out ideas that I wouldn't otherwise try. So with the help of my computer here are some mock-up on paper.

It's been worthwhile trying out the idea/s as I am now far less sceptical and think it could possibly work. 

If you have any thoughts on the start of my design work for my cotton reel collection then I would love to hear from you. There's a few more ideas that I would like to try out prior to our next class in February and I'll keep you posted.