Dangerous and Vulnerable

I seem to have a number of  textiley things on the go and not as much time as I'd like to progress them. At the moment I'm trying to concentrate my efforts on this piece, which is based on a photograph I took of a geyser in Chile. 

I've had the image printed on fabric by Fingerprint and it's roughly 140  x 75 cm. Seeing the boiling water bubbling from the geysers made me think of how the earth is both dangerous and vulnerable. I wanted the words 'dangerous and vulnerable' to emerge from the steam and I played around with different lettering.

I wrote with liquid dye on paper and planned to add the lettering digitally to the photograph. I really liked the colour variations in the lettering but I didn't really like the way it looked on the image. In the end I created the letters in Word which I then placed along the horizon line. 

The fabric was larger than the image size and so was pleased that they filled the fabric with images I could use for sampling. 

The lettering came out stronger than I planned but my machine stitching is gradually knocking it back.

I wasn't sure how clearly the image of the geyser would print and had expected to over print on the fabric but it has printed so clearly that I can't see how over printing would enhance it. 

So my original plan's have been turned on their head but then I should be used to this....very rarely does my printing turn out exactly to plan. Do I enjoy printing because it's unpredictable or despite it? I think despite it!

Embroidered Bag ...first of many?

On Saturday, I spent an enjoyable day at the North Herts and Beds Embroiderers' Guild on a bag making workshop, which was tutored by Alex Waylett . A girl can never have too many bags, I say. 

We each chose a piece of patterned fabric for the front of our bag and embellished it with machine embroidery and added a few beads and sequins for good measure. 

It's not often that I get an 'action shot' but this one was taken by my friend Jill came who came with me as a guest.  Jill is very creative but had never done any machine embroidery before but she made this lovely bag and is planning on making more. It's a shame that she doesn't live nearer or I'd be getting her more involved in all things embroidery related, until her conversion was complete : )

I could happily have spent a lot longer embellishing my fabric before I made it up my bag but quite rightly, Alex made sure we all left enough time to learn how to make up the bag before going home...and we all had a lovely finished bag to home with. 

It would be nice to embellish some of my growing pile of hand dyed and printed fabrics and to make them into bag. I bought a spare bag frame so what am I waiting for? If you would like to make a similar bag, Alex has a number of workshops scheduled this year at different venues, including some at Art Van Go

Still writing with dye.....

Fortunately, I'm working on a piece that is made up of five separate pieces, which means that I can avoid working in the cold garage on a large table and can work on each piece individually in the kitchen. In the garage I balance a large piece of board between two trestle legs but in the kitchen I have used a smaller piece of board balanced between one of the trestle legs and the work top. It slopes down a little but I'm quite pleased with how the set up works and I can work for longer because I'm warmer. I'm layering colour by writing text, in layers on the fabric until I get the colours that I want. Partly due to the fact that I am printing on a thick linen and partly because I'm adding colour cautiously, it's taking some time and so being able to keep warm is important.

I've got plans to create a stitched sample for a completely unrelated piece and seeking inspiration I had Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn's 'In stitches' DVD running on my laptop whilst I was printing. How's that for multi-tasking?

This is the fabric after it was washed. I'm trying to create the type of colour variation that you would see in vegetation on the horizon and this is starting to build but is still some way off, albeit that it isn't quite as washed out as it appears in the photograph. Much more layering of text to do....

Taking Textiles Further - Inspired by Graffiti

Last weekend I enjoyed another Taking Textiles Further workshop. We only meet 3 times a year but even so, it seemed a particularly long since we last met. This time we were continuing with the theme of text but used graffiti as our inspiration.

This was my first attempt at graffiti and I'm sure that from now on, I'll be paying more attention to graffiti designs when I see any.  In my graffiti, I incorporated elements from my landscape photographs and used some landscape related words I've been 'playing with' recently. I even filled the letters with the textures I created for my flamingo in my lino printing workshop,  so one thing builds on another.

I cut and folded the page of graffiti into a book form to see if any interesting or abstract designs would emerge. 

I've used this folding and cutting technique before and have previously been pleased with the surprise designs that emerged but not so this time. I think this is probably because I don't really like seeing the obviously incomplete words, especially when it's such a large element of the overall design. 

So I did go back to the more traditional method of using two 'Ls' to isolate a few areas for consideration. To some extent this has the same issue but I do like the depth in the 'TES' piece and that this could be an idea worth progressing. 

We also cut out words relating to our theme and randomly over laid them...or as randomly as my brain would let me.

We then isolated areas of the words to draw, hoping some interesting and original designs would emerge. I think the first drawing has potential and I'll give it some thought about how I could develop it. Can you see which areas of the words I drew? No, I thought not.

Graffiti is far removed from my usual style of working but I really enjoyed it. I would like to create some more graffiti designs, probably using colours more akin to colours in the Chilean landscapes and putting a little more fore thought into it, now that I have a better idea of what I would like to achieve. I might even borrow some books on graffiti from the library. On the other hand I should read some of the books I already have in my pile first. I'm very inspired by my current project and am torn between following all the trails my research is leading me down and actually creating something. I guess it's better than having no ideas or leads to follow..... 

Lino Printing Workshop

For some time now I have wanted to go on one of Anna Pye's lino cutting workshops and last week I was very pleased that I was finally able to  attend one. I arrived with my sketch books and photographs but no fixed idea of what I wanted to print. It was the technique that I was keen to learn.

In the end my choice of inspiration was easy, I couldn't wait to start using some of my Chilean photographs and chose one of a flamingo in the salt flats. I toyed with making the flamingo more dominant but decided to include the landscape elements whilst I could get guidance from Anna, as the landscape was likely to feature in my future work.

I was chipping away at the lino but it' s only when the first print was made that the qualities of the image became clear.  

It was interesting to see how differently the image looked when I used different coloured ink or printed on different coloured paper.

Most of the prints were made using a printing press but Anna showed us how we could print at home without one but this doesn't stop me wanting a press! 

I made many variations of the print and I think this was my favourite of the day. This was printed with a mix of blue and white ink and I confess that this ink mixture was created by one of the other students - thank you Colin! 

I was quite pleased with this as a first attempt but there are things that I would do differently if I were to do it again. I'm not surprised by this though, it's a new technique and is quite different to the other techniques I have used previously. I came home wanting to do some more lino printing and really fancy printing some Christmas cards.....I should have time to do that surely?

As well as running courses from her studio Anna will also be running workshops at Art Van Go

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.

iDye....anything

About 18 months ago, I saw a simple white lace dress, which I thought would look rather nice in another colour, so I bought the dress and decided to dye it.....well I already had the dyes, what could go wrong? I had planned on something pale and summery but the acid dyes I used just didn't work on the dress.  As the dress was no longer white but wasn't really any other colour either, I decided that I would have to go bold and go for a deep colour to cover it all up.

The dress turned a dreary colour and certainly not something I would wear, so when I saw this iDye Poly for sale,  I thought that I'd give dyeing the dress one last go.

In a pan I keep for such occasions, I  bought my dress up to a simmer and added the dye.

And it worked! It came out a really deep colour, even if it did leave the dress with a chemically smell, which has reduced but still lingers after 2 washes.

I can safely say that this dye works....it .even dyes your marigolds, any cloth you use, your sink and even your kettle. The kettle was on the other side of the hob to the side I was working but even so stray dye particles managed to reach the kettle and only some of them have come off. It's only in writing this post, that I noticed that the packaging states you don't need to open the packet of dye you can add the packet to the water. If only I'd seen that earlier, that would have saved my kettle.

You live and learn as they say and the most import thing I have learnt from this is that if you don't like the colour of the garment then don't buy it!