Inspiration for stitch - a holiday at Angelsea, Victoria

A holiday by the seaside with a chance to walk everyday from the beach up Anglesea River gave rise to these photos.

A little further up the coast at Point Roadnigh the clouds were wonderfull.  The direct winds and water has eroded the coast and there were some interesting tree roots dangling down.

And, because I have a thing about markers and lighthouses - I am sneaking in a  photo taken at Barwon Heads.

Because we stayed in a holiday house I was able to spread out and spent some time stitching - playing with running stitch and couching.   The  grasses, lichens and trees above all have play potential using these two stitches.   I also spent a little time drawing gum leaves and thinking about how I can incorporate them into stitchery ... and remembered I had previously done something using back stitch and kantha.  I will have to dig it out and have a look at it again :-).

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.

Playing and learning with running stitch

Tweet Tweet - running stitch & variations  20 cm x 20 cm

The apple theme has slipped just a little but I have continued to play with running stitch.   Who would of thought that you could do so many things with just one stitch and its variations.   I posted a stitched apple a little while ago using running stitch .   As you can see I have also stitched up a bird inspired by a Mexican folk painting.  The backing was small piece of hand dyed cotton which I had held on to and have finally let go of.  I think it was the backing that inspired the colours of the the threads I used. 

Looking at running stitch and its variations (and exploration on the net with my friend Google) has reminded me of the some cultures that use  running stitch stitch in their s embroideries.

So far I have read about and played with Kantha a little.  You can sort of see it in the textured background of the bird above and the apple I put up about two posts ago.  That probably is the only similarity other than the use of running stitch itself.  In Kantha works the running stitches create the colour blocks - in the little bird above I have whipped and wrapped to get a more intense colour.   

Kantha Image credit  - V& A Collection

Kantha is a form of quilting and decorating fabric that is a speciality of women in the Bengal region in the Indian subcontinent.   The running stitches have a little tension to them which gives the fabric textures and shadows.  I found this really interesting link to an article by an organisation called the Institute of International Social Development (an Indian NGO) which talks about the origins of Kantha.

Sunjani embroidery . Image credit -acrosstheborderoverthesea.wordpress.com

I have learnt that there is a form of stitching called Sujani (or Sujini) which is similar to Kantha in the region of Bihar.   Here is a link which tells a little more about the history of stitch in this region.

So far in my research on the web the only really consistent statement as to the difference between the two styles of stitch is region, traditional motifs used that relate to that region and  that the motif in Sunjani is always outlined in chain stitch.  The other difference stated on a couple of sites was the Sunjani stitch is always in a straight line whereas Kantha lines will curve and circle.  Not all the images i saw backed this up.   I need to find some print sources and check it out st some stage.

Nevertheless, I have enjoyed my armchair exploration of two parts of India and stitch and will keep browsing as many of the tales and images I come across are inspirational.

And of course I will keep stitching and making.  

An apple a day # 2

I have picked up a paint brush again – the first time in ages – and painted (apples).   Looking at the apples – I mean really looking at the apples – made me realise how many colours are actually in an apple.

I purchased a recent inspirations magazine which caught my eye – especially an article about Gary Clarke and a project which was embroidery on organza.   I have linked here to Gary’s bio on his web site.  Take a moment to have a look around and you will see some organza embroidery.  Gary is an interesting designer, an innovative embroiderer (definitely outside the box) and an encouraging teacher.   I had the opportunity to do a ‘whitework’ workshop with Gary a number of years ago and was very happy with the result.

Anyway – thinking out loud – I reckon that Gary’s technique in the Inspirations magazine will be an interesting way to embroider some apples.    In the magazine article Gary embroidered a hummingbird using variegated thread, French knots and straight stitches.    The variegated thread may be the way to get the varied colour of the apples I painted.  Pointillism with thread?  Also, Gary raised the embroidery so there is depth.  

More thinking out loud – it occurred to me that I should look at crab apples - there is a large planting of crab apples near where I live and I will keep an eye on them as they grow to see what I can do.   Perhaps I will try and document the trees over a year?

What else have I been up to?   I went to a machine embroidery workshop run by Susan Barker and have been told I need to love my machine.    Susan is right of course.  I will never get anywhere being afraid if it and I need to leave the machine out and play a bit more rather than just use it to run up a straight seam.  Anyway, I have to say I learnt heaps including that I can use thick thread in the nonadjustable drop in bobbin ... came a way very happy knowing that.  And I learnt quite a few other things as well.   I will have to try and work up some apples on solvy now!

Solvey faces being test driven -  ready to be applied to a background

Back to the real world!

Apple in running stitch - whipped, laced and pulled at the bottom to create a kantha effect. 20 cm x 20 cm

Well I have had quite a break since my last post.  The lead up to Christmas was just too busy but now I am back into the swing of things after some time off. 

I have been thinking about and working on projects which I am committed to in the coming year: group exhibitions with Lateral Stitchers in Wollongong in March and Stitchers Plus at Guild HQ in November. Added to this mix is running paverpol and stitch classes early this year and a longer term plan for an exhibition in 2017.  

I bravely stated last year that I would work an a theme of an apple a day.  I think I have spent the couple of weeks trying reconcile this statement with my commitments this year and have determined that I will keep working on the apple theme with a view to incorporating it into the November exhibition.   This exhibtion is more about process and how each of the group goes about working to acheive a desired end so it is a perfect way to practise putting down ideas in my studio journal and building up a small body of work for the exhibition.

Thats all for now.  Wishing you all a creative 2015.

Perspective

Still thinking about apples – obsessing some might say.

But also working on stitches and playing with perspective – sampling with running stitch – here is a small desert scene.

and here is a small sample based on reeds.

In both cases I coloured white quilters muslin with fabric crayons, set the colour with the iron and then started stitching :-)

An Apple a Day

An Apple a Day is a personal challenge to use a theme in mixed media over the next 12 months = featuring the humble apple.

In the first fortnight I have -

•   drawn apples roughly – more a doodle than a quick sketch
•  done a quick sketch on an envelope
• embroidered a tiny apple in chain stitch on a crazy patch piece I am working on
• added apple blossom inspired by blossom photos and motifs sourced from the internet – and then discovered I should have used white tinged with pink rather than pink if I was going for uber realism
•  stamped using ink pads and fun foam – see Stitchers Plus blog for what we all did as a quick exercise.  
•  actually carved a couple of stamps and played with acrylic paint
• stemmed stitched another apple in blue onto that crazy patch piece
•  played with stitch on a stamped fabric apple, and
• spent some time thinking/looking/reading about apples in myth, legend and religion.  

In the course of doing this I have read quite a bit of poetry including Robert Frost's work After Apple picking which I have cut and pasted below so you can read it with ease.

After Apple-Picking

BY ROBERT FROST

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree

Toward heaven still,

And there's a barrel that I didn't fill

Beside it, and there may be two or three

Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.

But I am done with apple-picking now.

Essence of winter sleep is on the night,

The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.

I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight

I got from looking through a pane of glass

I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough

And held against the world of hoary grass.

It melted, and I let it fall and break.

But I was well

Upon my way to sleep before it fell,

And I could tell

What form my dreaming was about to take.

Magnified apples appear and disappear,

Stem end and blossom end,

And every fleck of russet showing clear.

My instep arch not only keeps the ache,

It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.

I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.

And I keep hearing from the cellar bin

The rumbling sound

Of load on load of apples coming in.

For I have had too much

Of apple-picking: I am overtired

Of the great harvest I myself desired.

There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,

Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.

For all

That struck the earth,

No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,

Went surely to the cider-apple heap

As of no worth.