Arthouse Co-op's Sketchbook Project 2011: Part 1 - Grids

I finally got to finish my sketchbook about two weeks after the deadline (the organisers said submit it anyway so I have done!)  The theme I chose was Grids and Lines, partly because I had begun to explore these in an art class a while back and the whole theme was far more interesting than meets the eye.  In this section I'll have stuff about basic grids (though the nearest to a regular grid is the cover (above)

The above piece was done by painting some textured paper with Brusho and cutting out pieces to make an irregular arrangement of windows, behind which is a piece of silk with painted bondaweb (Wonderunder) ironed onto it.  The windows idea is explored further in a section of pages, each coloured with a different colour/colours of drawing ink, from which windows of different sizes and colours have been cut out; as you turn each page different patterns and colours emerge - here are two of the double pages:

I am interested in the way in which natural forces can make the patterns in animals and plants diverge from the strictly regular.  The two pieces below are an experiment in ways this can happen: the pencil lines were made by holding a pencil at the top, loosely, then moving it over the paper and allowing the minor irregularities you find in most papers to modify the direction of the line (with a little help from my cat, Django, who wanted to join in by giving my hand the occasional nudge).

The second piece was done using a similar method but with a brush and black ink (and no cat): this had the added element of the strength of colour in the ink varying with the speed and pressure of the stroke, and the amount left on the brush.  Afterwards I added the contrast of the red acrylic, applied straight from the tube so that the colour would be as flat as possible.

I mentioned natural grids, and one of the things I explored in my art class, through a series of observational drawings, was the way in which you have grids occurring in animal and plant patterns and growth:

One of the most striking is the chequerboard pattern on one of my favourite plants, called snakeshead fritillaries here in the UK (I believe the are called checkered lilies in the US): this is a linocut based on a drawing I made: the first version is printed over a monoprinted background using a printing press:

The second is the same block but burnished by hand on the back of the paper, giving a more textured print, which was then hand-coloured (non-naturalistically) using drawing inks.

More soon ...

Wildwood - Part One

It seems very self-indulgent showing both sides of all sixteen book pages' but people have asked to see them so here goes! To begin at the beginning, with the title page. It was originally going to be much grimmer (the working subtitle was A Story of Life and Death) but I chickened out of showing things like crows feeding on animal carcases though I am annoyed with myself about this as it would have been more honest to have done so, and would have developed a more interesting theme, i.e. the way in which death for one kind of life-form becomes life for another.

Next to the titl-page comes the fox, in his uncorrected state (I did later elongate the front leg out of the picture so it got to be back in proportion.

And on the reverse, what else but foxgloves! All the pages are see-through (shapes cut in painted pelmet vilene with a scalpel; then covered in hand-dyed silk organza - for each side; then stitched and sandwiched together with dyed silk net in the middle, and finally quilted, the organza cut back in places so that the light could come through in a similar way to the dappled light in woodland). Designing double-sided pages proved challenging: this is one of the more successful ones.

The next page in the middle bit shows a squirrel: not one of the most successful pictures (though as my art teacher pointed out you can see its a squirrel:

backed by a stag beetle, one of the pages I like best:

On the back section is a grass-snake (not normally associated with woodland but my dog once found one curling itself round his hind leg after running into some undergrowth, and you do still find them in the more open bits of Wytham Woods).

with brambles on the reverse: they do tend to throw out suckers which makes them appear to grow in loops and coils - and I was relieved, after a great deal of trial and error, to find something woodlandy that would go on the back of a snake!

And the last page of this set of four has snails...

and on the reverse badgers. They are fat because they are from the badger colony adopted by my sister-in-law's father who feeds them on suitable left-overs. Once has was asked to stop feeding them while Oxford Wildlife Films (some years ago) could make a documentary about the effects of drought on the Wytham badgers; they then phoned and asked him to come back - the badgers refused to come out and be filmed until Sid reappeared with food and water...

I suppose that's the badger equivalent of Equity rates!

Next instalment coming soon.

Busy

On the last day of May I finally said goodbye to the treadmill: no more working for a living - I have now officially retired, which means I can at last become a full-time quilt artist/art quilter/textile artist/artist/whatever. I think privately I prefer the term "maker" though if I ever get to the stage where I have an exhibition I may have to come up with something more grandiose!

So about retiring. I was well aware of the risk of settling down forever deeper and deeper into an armchair and intended to avoid it at all costs. But I did have an extremely lazy first week pottering about, meeting friends, reading books. In fact this lasted till about half-way through the second week (though I had discovered the therapeutic uses of gardening by then - half an hour a day of taming the jungle gets results, is helping to get me fit and wakes me up).

Then I remembered that rash half-hour when I added to my two entries for The Festival of Quilts a third which was less than half finished. In short I had three quilts to finish in not much more than six weeks. One simply needed finishing off and machine quilting. The second took a lot of designing and drawing up but is now going together quickly and easily. The third is a new venture for me with 3D stuff plus some hand embroidery which I have only recently returned to but is the most risky and the most fun of the lot - so far nothing has gone wrong with it (I really shouldn't have said that...)

I suppose I'd better explain for readers outside the UK that most shows here including the big ones are open entry without the need to pass a jury selection, so this sort of recklessness is possible. I'm also working on a journal quilt to enter for the Houston show where I shall have to have it finished, photographed and a CD sent well before the deadline. I think the jury system at least preserves me from the dangerous effects of recklessness to which I'm prone.

Anyway, the first quilt was probably going to be the most labour-intensive. This is how it began life, as a grid of woven fabric strips (using my hand-dyed fabric) at the end of 2006:

This was made during Myrna Giesbrecht's Self Expressions class at Quilt University, a life-changing class if ever there was one and highly recommended. We were asked to produce a small quilt which expressed where we were at the time. I decided to focus on the whole process of creativity and came up with the idea of a game of snakes and ladders to describe it in a light-hearted way. The grid was the board and I'd originally decided to applique the snakes and the ladders.

However, I spent one happy evening playing with transparent fabrics - hand-dyed chiffons and organzas - and liked the effect, especially of one red and one orange fabric, of transparent overlays:
This prompted me to come up with a design using reverse applique: the following version though not as clear as I would like shows the basic shapes.

Though I really don't like real snakes much at all to the point of being phobic I am also quite fascinated by them, especially the symbolism of snakes, and during the course of this they became a sort of symbol for creativity.

There are a number of silly jokes here as well as some serious symbolism. Starting at the bottom left, the first snake is a familiar symbol of continuity or eternity; on a lighter note it also describes going round in circles, something I do endlessly at the start of a project. Once I start I can keep going for a bit - hence the second snake (middle bottom) just moving along at its own pace.

However, soon afterwards indecision hits with a vengance, shown by the block at bottom right which can't even make up its mind whether it's a four-patch or a nine-patch. This can send you back via the snake to the beginning, or you can take the ladder up the right-hand side or if you're lucky get swallowed up by the exploring snake which takes you further on (NB not all snakes in this game take you backwards). Or you might move right to left across the board and meet the snakes on the right-hand side. One will take you onward, but if you miss that you might eventually get to the other which will bring you back down (these are based on the twin snakes of classical symbolism - the snake that gives life and the snakes that takes life away).

When you get to the top you encounter three more situations: the snake in the spiral is the dreaming snake - if you dream it right the snake will take you nearer where you want to go. However there are still problems even at the very top of the board - a snake tying itself in knots, an episode of doubt (does everyone have this when they're in sight of finishing?) shown by a snake in the form of a quesion mark. The last thing I shall do is to complete the final square at the top left with my initials and the date.

This is where it was just over a week ago. The satin stitch has now been strengthened to make the ladders clearer and it has been extensively machine-quilted. As a result of the stitching it is now slightly lumpy and I intend to block it before adding the binding (I had originally planned to face it but it needs a fine strip of colour round the outside - now for the agonising decision as to what colour to use - any advice greatly appreciated!)

Usually I don't like my quilts immediately after I've finished them - something to do with seeing all those mistakes really close up all the time - but this one I do (the extra satin-stitch and the machine-quilting improve it enormously). I hope I still like it when it's hanging up there for everyone to see!

Will post a picture of the completed quilt during the last week in August.

Coping with ophidophobia

Ophidophobia is the fear of snakes and I caught it from my mother. Until recently I couldn't even look ata picture of a snake without shuddering and I doubt if I'll ever get to the stage where I could actually handle one. However I will acknowledge that there are snakes which - providing I don't have to get to close to them - seem to have a certain charm, and I did actually bring myself to stroke a California King Snake (juvenile) briefly a while back while she was being held by someone alse and it wasn't an unpleasant experience - in fact she felt quite soft and silky. It's surprising then that I'm so fascinated by their patternings and the shapes they make, and that I use them in my work as symbols. Contradictory eh? But as Walt Whitman put it: "Do I contradict myself? Very well I contradict myself. I am vast. I contain multitudes"

So far I've made one small snake quilt, which was used for a piece about dislikes in Myrna Giesbrecht's Self Expressions class (highly recommended) at Quilt University, and have an unfinished one (will be finished this year) using the idea of snakes and ladders symbolising - lightheartedly - some stages in the creative process.

I found myself recently playing with curvy lines as part of a Fast Friday challenge on movement and some of these turned into some lighthearted snakes, using - quite unusually for me - some printed fabrics I'd bought because I liked them (as you do) and couldn't think what to do with them:

This one's multicoloured cotton fused to a hand-dyed fabric background, with the outline couched in multi-coloured hand-spun (by me, with a hand spindle) yarn, then quilted in plain and multi-coloured thread to suggest more movement. The second one uses a hologrpahic curvy-line print with aa African print background, fused and couched with hand-dyed rayon/glitter chainette, and free-motion quilted. One thing I'm really proud of: perfect binding properly filled (I finally learnt to do this after reading advice on the Quiltart list for which many thanks).

For anybody not already participating in Pay It Foward, please read the previous blog and sign up - I only have one taker so far. I promise you a really nice gift! (No snakes unless you really like them!)

snakes

This is a piece I made as part of Myrna Giesbrecht's Self Expressions class at Quilt University. The brief was to take something you disliked and turn it into a piece about A4 size. My dislikes included a hideous printed fabric which I bleached to get rid of the awful combination of colours, used as the snake fabric; a dyeing drop-cloth for the background; and snakes which I really do not like though I can appreciate their beauty ( I did encounter one recently which I almost liked; though I couldn't quite bring myself to handle it I did touch its skin which felt silky).

The snake fabric is covered with silk tulle, hand-dyed, and gold net; couched hand-dyed rayon/metallic thread outlines it and the binding (stops the snake from wriggling out of the piece.)

This is the final piece from Myrna's class. The brief was to produce something that summed up where I was now.

Snakes and Ladders seemed an appropriate theme - I find the whole process of creating something full of stops and starts, highs and lows. In this piece I was more intent on snake symbolism so not all the snakes are negatives. The two large snakes are the snake that dreams and the snake that explores. Smaller snakes include eternity or going round in circles (I always find it difficult starting); tying itself up in knots (I always hit that one sooner or later) and doubting (the question mark). The pair of snakes is based on the caduceus - the snake that gives life and the snake that takes life away; and the snake at the bottom is the one that when you've just started to get somewhere takes you back to where you started. The ladders are just ladders.

I started by weaving a grid of hand-dyed fabrics, then covered up areas with hand-dyed organzas and chiffons, stitching the snake and ladder outlines and cutting back the shapes to the stitching, which I then outlined in satin stitch.

The quilt still has to be finished - suffered RSI after doing some of the satin stitch (trying to keep turning while stitching the curves rather than doing it the proper way (that'll learn me). Needs quilting and binding/finishing...