Workshop Wonders

Just in case you were wondering what it was we get up to on a Tuesday night at the Gallery, here are some images of a recent show of student work. So far this year, we've tried a wide variety of things, from paste papers and nature printing through to altered books. We've even moved into basic 3D, as you can see from the Funky Chicken plaque (isn't it fab?). And that's just with the grown ups! The kids made the wonderful altered shoes you can see in one of the images; the adults haven't quite picked up the courage to do that yet, but I suspect it's only a matter of time!

At the moment, we're working with photographs, using a favourite photo as inspiration to produce different kinds of work. I don't know about you, but I take huge amounts of images, but often they are left on the disc to moulder as I collect even more... So we're working this month on just how to use those images. I'll share some images at the end of the exercise...though that might be some time in the future; we're finding more and more inspiration in the smallest of details.

Next week at the Gallery, my friend Jill and I are hanging a textile exhibition, entitled 'Textile Alternatives'. As well as our own work, we'll be showing a wide range of work, some of which stretches the boundaries of our understanding of what 'textile' means. I hope we'll see some of you there... it opens on Saturday 24 October, and runs til the following Saturday. Open 9.30am to5pm Monday to Saturday, closed on Sundays. Check out the Gallery web page for location and more details.

And talking about Alternatives, as we were... I've given up the ownership of the Alternative Quilt List on Yahoogroups, and delivered it into the competent and caring hands of my friend and fellow artist Dijanne Cevaal. I hope it continues to grow and change. I have been very busy of late (you may have noticed a greater paucity of posts than usual around here), and feel that it's time for me to hand over the reins. Good luck, Dij!

ps There are a number of the snow leopard t shirts left over; if you would like to buy one, drop me an email. They are very low cost, and all proceeds go the the Snow Leopard Trust.

Challenged

One of the things I do in what is laughingly called my 'spare' time is run an online list for textile artists, called Alternative Quilt List (find it here). It is very much an on topic list, with very few digressions, and it has been quiet for a while. So, to set us up for the new year, I set a challenge for the list, to make a quilt that looked ahead to the coming year. Imaginatively titled 'The Future Challenge', a number of our members did in fact make pieces for it. Just to make it interesting, I offered some of my hand dyed fabric as prizes, and we voted on our favourites. The outright winner was the beautiful quilt you see above. It was made by Eva Ahlander from Sweden; she says;

"I have thought some time about how I can stop being so hard on myself and accept that I have more than one side, the ones I like and the ones I am not so proud of. (This is not about schizophrenia, as my quilt group quickly named my piece!) It is about embracing all of me, the good and the bad. Life is not perfect and life is fragile and I need to look after all of me. I will try and do this in 2009. How to make this into a quilt?

I accidentally heard that January is named after an ancient god Janus, who is the god with two faces and the challenge began to take shape. What also attracted me to this ancient myth was that he was some sort of door keeper, and I have a fondness for doors…. So I played with old photos in Photoshop and printed them off on fabric. Then I embellished with buttons and ribbons and paint. The old lady with the pink hat is in the background of an old 60´s photo of my husband as a baby. (did that make sense?) I doubled her to make a newer version of Janus and then I doubled up an old photo of an aunt from the 40´s and made her into Janus twins with the masks. Buttons attached to give a bit of 3D. The binding is an old piece of fabric I ripped from the inside of a pair of jeans.

Well, the piece is called January- embracing both of me. I have had some thoughts after it was finished, like why I put masks on the “twins” instead of leaving the faces blank, which I think has to do with that I always have had to show a happy face, but the inside was in turmoil. My family background is also a bit complex when it comes to hiding the weakness of life, my grandmother and my mother were raised in strict Calvinistic “freechurches”. So it all came together quite nicely in the end. It is about embracing the weak and the strong and make them both visible and accepted.

I have also not used the colours I normally use. I am so thrilled with how the colours came out, I thought it would be boring with paler shades, but the quilt came out shimmering…

I was so inspired by this, I will now attempt to make one piece once a month. Same size as this one, with the base of the names of the months and where they came from, February was named after a god who was in charge of death and purging (!) and try to link it to me somehow. We will see how it goes…"


For myself, I think that if it goes as well as the first one, she will have a collection to be proud of at the end of the year! If you would like to see more of Eva's work, check out her blog

nb the first two images are details, the first is of the Janus twins, the second of Old Lady Janus, whilst the third is the complete piece.