A-mazing Books

I managed to finish the stitching I was talking about here, before I took my machine for a much-needed service; here it is, complete with ironed-in folds.

It clearly takes creases well; my hope is that it will also be firm enough to stand under its own steam (as it were).  I want to make a book in the same way as I made the last one.  They're called 'maze books'; I found them in Shereen LaPlanz's classic book on book binding, 'Cover To Cover'.  I've made quite a few of them before; there's a variation of a maze book in my studio, made from hand made paper which has been painted with encaustic paints.  And here is the book, cut and folded :

And yes, it stands by itself.  Phew...given that I'd made the cut, and the creases, so it was irredeemably a book, though I could have turned it into a series of very small pieces, like a jigsaw...that would have been interesting too (hold that thought). This one has been made to stand in a different way to the one you saw yesterday, a bit of variety is a good thing, and somehow, this one is more mysterious than the other, and needs this structure to reflect that.  Now, though, I have to decide what else to do with it; it has a distinctly unfinished feel to it.  I think there's a need to add words, I'm just not sure what they are, though I think they will be snipped from book or newspaper text, small in size, one to a page.  Does it need more than that?  I don't think so.  It's interesting to look at it from different angles.  I said in the earlier post that I thought it would be more interesting like this, than as a flat piece of stitch, and I think that's the case.  I think it's a landscape piece... the words will reflect that...perhaps a poem, word by word, that reveals itself as you contemplate the piece.  Now, all I have to do is find the words.

A Leap Of Faith.

Sometimes only stitch will do.  So much of my work is about responding to things, seeing something interesting, if only to me, and working with it, to see what can be made of it.  Way back, in the days when I was still dyeing to sell, I used a dye catcher in what I thought might be a final rinse, but proved to be otherwise.  The resultant dye catcher was interesting, so I kept it.  Then I paired it with some lutradur and forgot about it.  For some reason, it survived The Cull (probably because I still find it interesting).  So I decided to stitch into it, thinking that it might make an interesting book, if I could get it to fold well (the jury's still out on that one). 

The first image shows the cloth as it came out of the washing machine; if you look closely, you can see it has a sort of dappled construction, presumably to strengthen it to keep it intact through a wash cycle.  It also has a strange, almost greasy feel to it, not unlike a dryer sheet, but it is far more robust than that, and is slightly scented.  The second image is the reverse with the lutradur added; it immediately adds colour and visual interest. I decided to stitch in circles, respecting and supporting the blob-like way that the colour had transferred onto the cloth, and attempting to link the dark areas together. 

I then started to meander round the lighter, background areas with a matching thread (both threads used here are variegated, surprise surprise). 

You can just catch glimpses of the pale stitch in the first image; it's clearer in the detail shot that follows.  I still have a fair way to go with the pale, background stitching, but I've not been well enough to do it...perhaps today. 

Were I doing this as a flat piece of embroidery, I don't think it would be interesting enough, even with all the stitch in place.  I suspect it would be a rather ornate background for something else, perhaps an applique.  However, I want to turn this into something three dimensional.  When I do, the surface will change completely (duh...); lots of small units, juxtaposed one on the other.  I have no real way of knowing if that will be successful.  Maybe, maybe not. And I suspect I will add words, somewhere, somehow, probably printed on paper, cut out and stuck, a poem, probably, written for this book. 

Sometimes...actually, more often than not... making work in this way is a leap of faith.  I have to believe in my own ability to take something relatively unprepossessing, and turn it into something special, through the application of ideas and technique.  I have to believe that I will choose the right ideas, the right techniques for this particular piece.  And that I won't stop until the piece is resolved (well, okay, there will be rest breaks...it may take some time).  I may doubt myself (may?  probably will) as to the quality of the finished piece, but I rarely ever doubt myself during the process.  Process is just a series of choices, and I can make those choices, even in this situation, where the piece is a one off by dint of the way it came about, meaning that I can't just make another one.  And even if the book doesn't turn out the way I think it will, that will be okay, because I will have learned something, and can probably turn it into something else, instead, which will be more successful.  And at the end of the day, it's only fabric. An individual piece of fabric is much less important than process, and another interesting bit will be along in a minute.  It won't be the same (thankfully), but it will have potential...and that's really all I need.

The Real Work?

Two different people said two different things, yesterday.  One asked what I made.  The other said that she was concentrating her limited energy on things that were really important.  The combination made me wonder...what is the real work?  Where am I going with all of this?  I've been easing back into textile work, making a quilt here, as a gift, finishing a UFO there....but it doesn't feel like 'real' work.  With that in mind, I sat down and stitched this.  It's called 'Flow'. 

The pink in the image is not real; it's reflecting my cutting mat, through the two layers of lightweight Lutradur which make up two sides of the 'sandwich'; the 'filling' is scrap threads from my friend Clare's loom.  Just before the ME, I was starting to put work together for a possible book, called 'Constructed Cloth'.  I have no desire to weave; too precise and repetitive for me, doesn't suit my personality.  I do, however, being a control freak, wish to have a hand in every stage of the making process, and it turns out that it's not enough to dye the cloth, hence this small piece. 

Here's a detail of the stitch.  I started out experimenting; when I've made this type of constructed cloth before, I focused on circles, just as you can see at the top of the piece.  The middle section of this piece has long curving lines with occasional circles in it.  Overall, it made me think of a river, hence the title, and I added circles top and bottom, to suggest pebble-covered banks.

I then trimmed off the excess, roughly, to see what it looks like.  Not entirely convinced that worked.... I've put it on a dark fabric to let you see it properly.  The colour of the piece comes entirely from the threads sandwiched between the white lutradur layers, very delicate.  I may hit it with a heat gun to expose some of the threads, which would give areas with slightly stronger colour,   It's very small; roughly 11" by 4"; it would actually make a really pretty purse, perhaps that's the answer.

It may not be all that successful, but it does help to defiine what the real work is... intense stitch, transparency, experimentation.  At least it leads to an interesting life.  Incidentally, there's a bit about constructed cloth here; apparently not one of my better days.

Moving Along.

Well, I don't know about you, but when I start fiddling around with bits of fabric, I'm not happy until I have something that works... and I think this might be it. 

The fundamental structure is pretty much as it was, but with additions on one side.  I did cut that piece of evolon smaller, but it still didn't feel right, so it has been replaced with lutradur 120; much heavier than the rest of the lutradur, but with a similar texture.  And it has been tilted to one side, while the orange lutradur at the top has been trimmed down to remove the white edge.  That gave a bit more room on the surface, making it possible to add a few more pieces of that heavier lutradur.  Is it finished?  I don't know; those additions are perhaps a bit much... I like simple.  It has the feel of a sketch, as it is, and not a finished piece.  Were it larger, it would work, and I might well think of doing a larger piece based on this design.  As it is, though, I don't think it's ideal... it needs more space between the elements.  So, I can either trim them down, or remove them.  Come to think of it, I could replace them with beads, perhaps, significantly smaller, and a different texture...but I don't think I will...the whole point of the addition was to repeat the heavier lutradur...so, smaller, or nothing.  We'll see.

And there's movement in the studio, too.  More shelves, to take the boxes with fabric and other bits and pieces.  I didn't appreciate just how many bits and pieces I still have... most of them to do with hats.  Come to think of it, I haven't found all the hat blocks, yet, which means they must be somewhere in the garage, along with who knows what... I'm arguing with myself currently, contemplating giving up painting altogether, mostly because I don't really have the space for it.  I haven't painted for several years, the whole ME thing meant that I couldn't get down to the Little Green Shed with any frequency.  I've certainly given up oils...too long a drying time, despite loving the effects they produce.  I guess I'll put away the fabric 'stuff', and see where we are after that.  I've given up a lot; painting on a large scale would just be yet another on a pretty long list.