Translating text to textiles

Green Lovers - Marc Chagall 

                    Green and blue 

                    First-named of colours believe these two. 

                    They first of colours by men were seen 

                    This grass colour, tree colour, 

                    Sky colour, sea colour, 

                    Magic-named, mystic-souled, blue and green.

                    Later came 

                    Small subtle colours like tongues of flame, 

                    Small jewel colours for treasure trove, 

                    Not fruit colour, flower colour, 

                    Cloud colour, shower colour, 

                    But purple, amethyst, violet and mauve. 

                    These remain, 

                    Two broad fair colours for our larger gain

                    Stretched underfoot or spreading wide on high, 

                    Green beech colour, vine colour, 

                    Gum colour, pine colour,

                    Blue of the noonday and the moonlit sky. 

I’ve been thinking about how to interpret this poem by Lesbia Harford in a textile format. 

The words have the same effect on my brain that the feel of textiles has in my hands.

Can words be tactile? 

Palpable. A synonym of tactile: a feeling or atmosphere so intense as to seem almost tangible. 

I’ve been exploring artists too. 

Modernist Marc Chagall uses a lot of blue and green and interesting vistas and skies.  (The Tate has a great teachers pack for an introduction and a little self-directed learning.) 

A further poke around the Tate online brought me back to Wassily Kandinsky and his inspiring use of colour and line. 

 Circles in Squares - Wassily Kandinsky

I’ve been pondering on how to express this poem in fabric and stitch for a fair while now. I have silk sari strips and threads. A few days ago I found some interesting wire frames tucked away in the garage. They may be just the thing to help create a work that is either flat of 3D – or both?

A day out and Inspiration

 After a visit to the Woolpack Inn Museum at Holbrook last month I came away inspired to create ... something, anything relecting the lines and angles I had seen.
 

The two story heritage listed building is operated by volunteers and contained items collected locally.  Many of the items stories  were written up and made interesting reading.  I was intrigued by the old slab school house which had been moved and reconstructed with the aid of many locals including primary school children.  The origianl ceiling was made of claico dipped in milk.  When the milk soaked fabric dried it became taunt and helped both dust and weatherproof the interior.  (Kept the spiders  and possums in the roof cavity I guess).

The 20 plus rooms in the old hotel were set out in themes.  It goes without saying that the sewing room had a pretty good look over.  It was good as visiters could actually get up close in that room.   I wasn't at all prepared to make notes or quick sketches but managed to get a couple of photos using my phone. It was a beautiful spring day but a bit dark inside.  The outside images had a lot of contrast and the inside images were lost in shadow or behind glass.

The Museum contained lots of interesting items which caught my eye and led me to think  “I could….”.   

Not sure what this implement was but I loved the cogs, angled and arched lines

more cogs and saw tooth edges

wheels and spokes caught my eye here

Rusted iron and high contrast

Detailed edging on this 20's style dress caught my eye.  It was a feature  repeated all over the dress.  And the self covered buttons were a gorgeous feature

 

Edging on dropped waist line

Side slits and skirt 

This button was about the size of my palm!  It was a feature item on a ladies coat that looked like it was circa late 1920's

This sort of follows on from my last post when I talked about filling stitches which were largely couched lines.    I think I wouldlike to try and explore this a little more using some of the lines in  the photos above.   Next step is to get them down in my sketch book and see where it goes from there.

And another visit is called for.  :-)

Cheers all

Filling Stiches by Edith John

I am a bit of an op shop addict?   I can browse and touch. And if you buy, it’s only a couple of dollars.  Every so often I come across a wonderful find.  In a holiday in Anglesea (Victoria) I discovered some wonderful pink dupion and old linen begging for a new life.   

sample worked from
Edith John's book

More recently I picked up a great book - Filling Stitches by Edith John.  The book was published by Batsford in 1967 in with black and white diagrams.  As a result, it has wonderful contemporary graphic images.   The instructions are clear and easy to follow.  

I have played with some of the patterns with perle, DMC and machine threads and they create striking patterns.    I like to do crazy patchwork and I can see fillings and seam embellishments on every page.

I couched down the threads but why stop there?   All sorts of lines could be made with thick and thin threads and heavy and light stitched lines.  Why not raised chain band and chain.  Or couch with detached chain.  Or…

sample worked from 
Edith John's book 

I think the book should have been called ‘Design by Default’.  When I see the drawings I think I could…

·         make a quilt

·         play with twine and raffia on hessian and make a hanging

·         branch out and couch down chop sticks (wrapped or not), textured wool or something found

·         applique in the traditional sense or

·         make a Mola design applique with embroidery.

Old Chiltern Cemetary, Victoria
Wroung Ironwork - Grave surround

More recently, I stapped at an old cemetrary by the Highway.  It was closed in about 1860. I had a browse around the surviving head stones and thought how I could transpose the ironwork patterns into something textile.

Edith John had a number of curvey line ideas in her book. The wrought iron could be easily transposed as  couched threads or applique.

 But for time being I will continue to make 5 cm squares and mount them on my workroom wall and enjoy the changing patterns.

On running stitch and inspiration

I am continuing to explore running stitch and enjoying the exploration.  But as a form of play and investigation it has become limited when the brief I have set myself was to play with the stitch and I haven’t resolved in mind an ultimate outcome.  

I am exploring the stitch but where do I want to take it?  Or go with it?   Have I got something to say?  Is there something which moves me enough to want to record it in stitch and especially in running stitch?

Some of my play, like this one below, has come to an abrupt halt because I didn’t start with a clear idea of where I was going.  Even though I started out with a rough sketch inspired by another artist work and had selected threads I still got lost!

Conversely, I have just completed a small piece which started out as a doodle and was never intended to be anything more than that – maybe with a view to leaving it in the hoop and hanging it that way.   In the end I added chain and fly stitch to the work and have decided to make it up into a small bag or treasure holder. When I look at it it reminds me of Chinese embroidery.  I will post a photo when I am done.

This process of creation can be very confusing!

Inspiration, support and mentoring is all around us: family and friends, colleagues in our own or other art disciplines and on the Internet.

This morning I listened to a very interesting talk by Jane Dunnewald building creative stamina.  It is recommended listening.  It was shared by textile artist Sharon Boggon on her website Pintangle – I have linked it here.

At the conclusion of her talk Jane read the following poem which touched me on many levels

The Way It Is

There’s a thread you follow. It goes among

things that change. But it doesn’t change.

People wonder about what you are pursuing.

You have to explain about the thread.

But it is hard for others to see.

While you hold it you can’t get lost.

Tragedies happen; people get hurt

or die; and you suffer and get old.

Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.

You don’t ever let go of the thread.

By William Stafford, from The Way It Is, 1998

Jane Dunnewald has a generous website and an interesting recommended reading list which I will visit over the year.

Salamander Bay

I was looking through photos and reminiscing about  a week spent holidaying at Salamander Bay (north of Newcastle).  It was a very quiet but enjoyable time spent taking in the view from our beachfront window.

Each morning was a delightful passing parade of low flying gulls, rosellas, corellas, pelicans and kookaburras, kayaks and  swimmers.  One morning a pod of dolphins swam past and did a return journey.  They were so close to the shore and it was so unexpected.  Locals told me I was very fortunate to see them.

I took a few photos from the front yard which featured a rather sad palm tree.  I didn’t really see its potential as a design element  until later in the week .  There was also some sort of  fruiting palm and a Norfolk pine which had been trimmed at the lower level and new branches had shot - both of which had lovely textural elements to them. 

I also had time to create an armature for a Paverpol statue and started a male figure.  I found a lovely piece of driftwood for it to stand on and it developed a  tilt.   I still haven't got much further with this statute other than to change it a bit with a view of turning it into a faun type character.  I will get to it again but perhaps not till Christmas holidays.

I the meantime I have been working on two statutes for an exhibition sponsored by the Inner West Womens' Shed in Marrackville.   The entries are due 15/10/14 and the exhibition is on 24/10/14.   Once I know whether they have been excepted and/or when the exhibition opens I will put up a couple of photos.

Cheers

Donna

simple stitching

Tempted by a packet of iron on vintage patterns at a trash and treasure sale ...  I practiced my stem stitch and had a couple of pleasant evenings.   All things being equal the mushroom stitchery will end up as a tea cosy. 

The design has a lovely sweep to it.  In the end I wished I hadn't  stitched the beetle but it was part of the iron iron pattern and you could see it marked on the fabric.  

The apple also has a lovely roundness to it and I will make a table runner or wall hanging.   The apple is quite large and sits at one end of the fabric.

My poor photography doesn't do the fabric justice.  It has lovely red rust streaks through it after a day of play at bush dying using red gum bark.

Of course I had to stitch the pears - I will post a photo at some stage.  Not sure what I will do with them - maybe make a pot holder like in the one on the packet?

It was a pleasure to stitch these simple designs and gave me time to contemplate questions of composition and design, what works and what doesn't.   It reminded me that I really enjoyed circles, swirls and spirals and how stitch  them when I doodle with a needle.

looking at lines in nature

Taking a walk is always an adventure.  Sometimes what I see can be overwhelming  in terms of pattern and line.   These photos are from a National Park near Shepparton, Victoria.  The sun was strong and the sky was very blue and clear.  

play and inspriation - lino prints

Had a fun day yesterday and played with simple lino prints for half a day - its very addictive and had to stop or I would have run out of paper.  

I had been itching to play with lino printing for a some time.  A little while ago I bought some heavy rubber (sort of looks and feels like those white erasers by Stabilo) which is so easy to carve from Lyn Britten at Batik Eotoro and the tools to carve  it with.   You can carve on both sides of these blocks so I felt I got really good value  for my dollar.  And then I came home put them in a safe place and couldn't find them for a month!   I used student quality acrylic paint for coloured stamps and something called block printing colour for the black.  The latter was definitely a better quality to use but I like to effects that the acrylic gave.   Some of the paper I used was coloured with watercolour wash.

Quite some time ago Stitchers Plus had a design exercise where we made continuous patterns from a single drawing - the trick being to make sure that all the lines at the edge of the drawing would meet when you flipped the pattern around.   I used this technique and had such fun and came out with a couple of reasonable prints and a bit of inspiration for embroidery too :-

Looking for something else to stamp I then added the stamp to a collage I had been working on - I had painted, pasted and stamped onto a canvas tile which had remained unfinished and was waiting for that something else to bring it to completion.  I think the stamps do that.

Cheers all

elephant in the corner

Watercolour pencil drawing - a fun experiment in mixing shapes and colour.

I have been been wanting to play with crewel work but have been hampered by my desire to do my own design,   I think I overwork things in my mind and get tied up in my own doubts and lack of knowledge.   This is a step in the right direction.

In the interim I have been working on small piece for a challenge by my Guild  home group Stitchers Plus where finally I pulled out some crewel wool and had a go.   I am nearly finished an will put a photo up at the end of the week after the entry date passes.

decorative art - tiles again

a rose by any other name would smell as sweet

 Tiles on a house wall in Croydon NSW.

decorative arts - more tiles

The pomegranate has a wide number of symbolic meanings including prosperity, fertility, abundance and hope.

The pomegranate motifs also has a many meaning in different cultures and appears in many Christian religious paintings.

Masks

I would love to say this fellow was my own design - it is so lively and full of cheek.  I am sure that he is singing as he does not look at all scary.   I love the way the curved  central line alters the face and how I view it.

I have been reading books on Oceanic and African art: this is a wooden mask from the Kwilu region in the Congo.

In particular I have been looking at carved , painted and woven patterns for inspiration and noting them in my journal.  In my minds eye I can see stamped, appliquéd and embellished wall hangings.  It is yet to happen of course but I am enjoying playtime in my head space.

decorative arts

This a close up of some decorative tiles on a house in Croydon NSW.   There are a row of houses - each with a different set of tiles on them.  They are a delight to see and I am so glad that just about all the owners refrained from painting over or removing them.

   

The likes of ceramics, tiles, jewellery and embellished textiles have been consigned to the field of decorative art.   Wikipedia suggests that the terms decorative arts is traditionally a term for the design and manufacture of functional objects. It includes interior design, but not usually architecture. The decorative arts are often categorized in opposition to the "fine arts", namely, painting, drawing,photography, and large-scale sculpture, which generally have no function other than to be seen. Decorative arts, or furnishings, may be fixed (for example, wallpaper), or moveable (for example, carpets). Applied art includes the decorative arts but also graphic design and other categories, such as industrial design, which may overlap with decorative art. In general the term "decorative art" is not much used of contemporary work, which tends to be called design whereas in art history the terms minor arts or lesser arts have been used which explains the contempt often expressed by those focused on 'fine art'.  Here is the link to Wiki to read more.

In my mind an artist created these little gems.  I will post more photos over time.

more collage

more collage

Still reading Gerald Brommer's book and being inspired to play with bits of paper and glue ... it is now officially confirmed that I am a bit of a hoarder ... I used papers that I painted at a workshop a couple of years ago  for the little fish below - the paper has been tucked away since then.  

I also collect postcards/flyers that come out for exhibitions and have added a couple of elements from that source to create 'Tom peeping' below:

I am having fun :-)