From Chile to Chilly....

I have recently returned from a fabulous trip to Chile and Easter Island. We saw some amazing scenery and often it was right outside our hotel window. We went from desert to lakes to glaciers and from worrying about sunburn to wearing a coat and gloves and wishing I'd brought a hat.

From hot and dry to cold and steamy at the geysers...

And all of the early starts were so worth it...

I took over 1000 photographs and these here are just a few (!) of those I expect to inspire future textile pieces.

And on the textile front, I saw lots of knitting and weaving. They have a strong tradition of weaving and the textile gallery at the Pre-Colombian Museum in Santiago was excellent with lots of well preserved pieces. I was disappointed that no photography was allowed but I was very pleased to find that their textile gallery guide is available online and in English.

I saw lots of contemporary weaving too, especially on hotel walls

And sometimes more unconventional items were used to weave with, this one is woven using tape measures:

But when it comes to knitting, I think the Peruvians are ahead. It didn't matter how hot it was, people were knitting and trying to sell the garments. I even saw a lady knitting a toy llama on four needles made from cactus spines....now you wouldn't want to drop that knitting in  your lap! And I did see was lots of people knitting figures, who were well.... knitting.

Putting knitting aside, if you ever have the opportunity to go to Chile, do. The landscapes are fantastic, there's lots to do, the people are very friendly and the food's good - especially if you like avocados, which fortunately I do.

Missing the boat?

It's funny how things turn out sometimes. I was looking at my stash of dyed fabric and in particular a grey piece which, like my green piece, was inspired by a barge on the Rhine. I really didn't like the boat and no amount of markal stik or overprinting was going to make me like it. But I did like the texture I had created on the 'water' and I was disappointed that this texture was going to go to waste. So I decided to cut out the section of fabric with the boat on. What had I got to lose? I looked back at the my misty photographs, found another I liked (no boat in sight!) and doodled with my markal stiks. 

I liked the way the piece was developing so I stitched the two pieces of fabric back together and developed the drawing further. I've fiddled refined my drawing until I was in danger of ruining it, so I've decide to stop here. I do want to add some stitch but not sure how or where yet.

I have backed it with this fabric, which I dyed some time ago. Although I like this textural marks on this cloth I couldn't really see me using it on the front of a piece, much better to use I thought.

I need to give this stitching some thought but will concentrate on the 'green piece' first .Both pieces I hope to include in the Hue exhibition. More of the exhibition later but in the meantime, do have a look at the exhibition flyer on the left hand side of the blog.  

Lago Maggiore

Back in February I posted about Dry Brushing - inspired by Italian Lakes. Since then I've dry brushed and dry brushed and then dry brushed some more and although I could continue to fiddle with the colours, I'm going to stop. Stop printing and dyeing the fabric that is. The stitching phase needs to begin as I have already entered it into the Festival of Quilts ! 

Back in February I wasn't at all happy with how my piece was going, so I stuck it in a bucket of discharge solution and started on a much smaller sample piece. This is how the sample piece turned out:

As the sample piece progressed, I gained confidence and started a new bigger piece and this is how that piece turned out:

As I had all the dyes mixed and with nothing to lose, I started to over print on the original discharged piece and this is how that piece turned out:

Ironically, it's the over printed original piece that I am planning to submit to the festival of quilts. I have lost count of how many layers of colour I have added (and taken out!).

I still plan to add the pole in the water and have a couple of ideas of how to achieve it. Both ideas are pretty irretrievable if they go wrong so I'm going to do a couple of samples first - it would be awful if it went wrong after all this effort. I'll keep you posted.

PS I have taken pictures of the fabrics in many different lights, trying to capture their true colours but never quite manage it. To see the real colours, you'll justs have to visit the Festival of quilts!

Indian Textiles

I've been very spoilt! My friend Laura has recently been to India on holiday and has brought me back some lovely things. It was my birthday in February and Laura suggested that I wait for my birthday present so that she could get me something in India. I was all for that but I think she has actually brought me back several years worth of birthday presents. Here are some of the lovely textiles that I received.

This bag is hand printed with natural dyes and I'm going to love using this.

There was also this lovely make-up bag made with printed fabric and it has a lovely beaded cords on the zip closure.

And a print block so I can so my own printing but it looks almost too good to use. I'll enjoy just looking at this for a while until I do actually print with it.

Then there was this bag which is covered with beautiful and delicate hand embroidery both back and front.

This detail photograph gives you an idea of the amount of stitching in the piece even if the colours have become a little bleached out.

There was also two hand stitched cushion covers but being white makes them difficult to photograph but hopefully you can see some of the detail. I thought I might make the cushion covers into a bag but I need to give that some more thought but I do anything drastic (and no, I haven't got enough bags!). 

I also had a beautiful woven silk scarf but I have found it impossible to be able to get a decent photograph of that, so I'm afraid that's missing. Who's been a lucky girl then? Thank you Laura.

Inspirational weekend in Italy

We're just back from spending a lovely long weekend in Italy with Peter, a friend of ours. We were very well looked after and spoilt with nice food, beautiful scenery and a packed and interesting itinerary. I really enjoyed seeing the autumnal colours even if it was sometimes through the rain!  Here are just a few of the many photographs that I took.

I love the colours of autumn and was really pleased to see these beautiful landscapes and seeing the autumnal colours of the land reflected in the lakes was a bonus. I wouldn't be surprised if these didn't inspire some work in the very near future. Watch this space but don't hold your breath!

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?