Unpicking Stitch...

...isn't something I do routinely.  Partly, that's because of the way I use stitch... I tend to use layers of stitch, so one wee blip doesn't cause me to unpick a line of stitching. Partly, I'm fairly flexible; I don't usually have something specific in mind, so the word 'wrong' doesn't really figure in my artistic vocabulary.  So it takes something seriously 'wrong' to make me unpick.  This, though, ticked all the boxes.

It started with one of Cara's paintings, this one, to be precise.

I like this one. I think it's to do with the amount of space there is between the elements.  Space intrigues me... so I did a couple of versions of my own, to see if I could work out what it was I liked about it.

My version is pared back even further.  It has the feeling of a landscape....a Norfolk landscape, all sky and flatness.   And at that point, I thought, textile.  And transparent cloth.  And that's when it started going to hell in a handcart.  Because my selection of transparent cloth is fairly limited...so I went with what I had.  The top section of this is great...the bottom...bleh...

Meet Blue Moon.  The top is a small piece of hand dyed silk organza, and that works pretty well. The bottom is also hand dyed silk, and looked okay before I applied it, when there was light coming through it....but it's just Too Dark.  The piece of ribbon and the stitch I added doesn't help, nor did the light coloured ribbon, or the silver paint I daubed it with, in the hope of making it just a bit lighter...sigh.

So that's what I'm unpicking.  I have absolutely no idea what I'll add in its place, but I do know it mustn't be dark.  I think I might hand paint some silk organza to use; I may not have that much of a selection of finished cloth, but I do have some silk for dyeing.  And we'll see how that goes.  Sadly, I can't remove the silver paint from the white cloth, so that, too needs to be thought through.  I also suspect that the square format  it's in isn't doing it any favours; it messes up the balance of the two elements... plenty of space, but in the wrong places (yes, it's a napkin...I use them for sketches).  It's a sketch; that's what it's for, of course, but I don't usually misjudge quite so badly.  Hey ho...onwards and upwards...

An Unexpected Find.

While unpacking boxes in late January or early February, I found a roll of hand made paper, which I put aside to bring downstairs to my workroom, with some other art stuff, but somehow never got round to it.  Yesterday, before returning to bed, I went to get the paper to have a look...and found that two of the three pages already had sketches on them.

These are pastel drawings, made around 2007, I think, when the ME wasn't quite so acute.  Doesn't time fly, etc...  I got interested in semi-abstract landscapes, and these are examples.  I was using a lot of pastels at the time, and going to a drawing class, mainly drawing faces, but playing around with the pastels in general, seeing what might be done with them.  I really enjoy working with pastels; there's something very direct about them, applying pigment directly onto paper, using fingers when necessary to blend them.  They're a bit messy, as they generate a lot of dust, but the mess is worthwhile (well, ok, I would say that, being the queen of mess). 

And as soon as I looked at them, I thought...book... a different version of a folded book.  First, though, I'll need to make drawings on the reverse of the paper.  I did, though, make a mock up of the folds required for the book, using the third piece of paper, which doesn't have drawings on it.  This, too, will be drawn on eventually, a different approach to the same thing (see below).

The folds indicate the size of the pages...I won't try to explain further for now.   I do think that it'll be interesting to take a pair of large scale drawings, like the ones I've just found, and divide them up, through folding and cutting, so that they present in a different way, each page standalone, the two drawings interrelated...and yet be able to unfold the book to see the whole thing united again in the original way.  The third book, though, will, I think, have individual drawings like these large scale sketches, option upon option, sixteen in all, relating back to the original drawings, but quite different in approach.

And that's it for today: energy finished.  It really doesn't take much...sigh.

Sketchy Patterns

So...I said yesterday that this was calling my name... 

By lunchtime, it was a dull roar...so I thought I'd do some sketching.  What's interesting me are the curves in the central part of the image, so I thought I'd play about with those today.  What they suggested to me was a repeating pattern...it could be for fabric, or even for a patchwork block, were I to be so inclined (let's face it, I've not been so inclined for about thirty years, but hey, you never know...).  These days, repeating patterns are doubtless created using computers, but when I learned, it was still a pencil and paper job, so until I teach myself how to do this on the computer, I'll be playing with my sketchbook.  Besides, how often do you get to look at bad drawing... 

The really interesting thing about a repeating pattern is not so much the centre of the pattern, but rather the edges; how does the pattern integrate when you repeat it?  A repeating pattern succeeds or fails on that basis....so... here's the first draft.

You should be able to see quite clearly how the shapes on the initial photograph have translated into the sketch.  From the centre, where I've changed the anther into a heart shape, looking upwards, you can see the main shapes from the photograph, and those are mirrored on the way down.  I've then repeated the curving shape from top and bottom, on the sides, and filled in the space in the sides by repeating that same curving shape, and added some leaf shapes.  And...it doesn't work.  Too long and thin, making the whole thing feel unbalanced.  So, next came this... 

This time, I've actually measured the page size, and used a ruler (yes, shock horror...but you know I can't draw a straight line, even with a ruler, sigh...), so that I can have some sort of idea as to the balance.  I've taken the areas I'm sure about, but this time, I've echoed the entire structure of the top and bottom, to the sides.  This confirms my earlier suspicion, that I really want this pattern to be a square, not a rectangle, but I've got enough imagination to allow myself to continue as it is, for now.  The four dots in the centre, however, probably want to turn into smaller, floating leaves, but that's a minor detail.  I've also varied the size of the dots on the areas that, come to think of it, look like vases, just to give a bit more visual interest.  I'm a lot happier with that, and now start wondering what to do with the remaining corner areas...those circles I've lightly drawn in aren't doing anything for it, so I need to come up with something else.  

This is better.  Not hugely, admittedly, but it has potential.  The leaf shapes have turned into semi abstract flower shapes, reminiscent of magnolias, or tulips at a pinch.  They need to have more detail, certainly, but this is much closer to what I had in mind.  Now, I need to rake out a few larger pieces of paper, and I also need to reflect on the centre, now, which is diminished by the rest of it.  That may take a while, given the state of my workroom...but at least the idea has some flesh to it now.  

Meditation : The Next Steps.

After the red herring, I was a bit cautious about where I went next; this piece is tiny, 4" square.

meditation in blue and purple 

Making this one was particularly interesting...I discovered some of my own assumptions were absolute nonsense!  I've worked at small scales before, notably in the ACEO format of 2.5 by 3.5.  I assumed that small stitches would be 'right'; they weren't.  And that a lighter colour of stitch would be A Good Thing; it wasn't (see below).

This is the piece in the early stages of stitching, with a gold coloured thread.  It doesn't look too bad in the photograph; it looked dreadful in real life.  I discovered that part of the point of these quilts, is that the stitch is purple. Being tempted away into gold disrupted the flow of the quilts.  I wanted the stitching to be an inherent part of the piece as a whole, rather than an entity that attracts attention to itself at the cost of the rest of the piece (if that makes sense?).   Reader, I unpicked it.

However, I did replace the purple metallic thread I had been using with a variegated purple Decora thread, and made the stitches uneven, but large.  I think that the small stitches allowed the strong gold stripes running down the centre of the piece to dominate too much.  And finally, adding two small pieces of the purple and gold fabric running horizontally across the piece, restored the balance completely.

I'm beginning to realise that I could work in this format almost indefinitely.  And I am reminded of a poem, entitled Piecing, by Robin Morgan, the first section of which seems to sum it up nicely...

"Frugality is not the point.  Nor waste.
It’s just that very little is discarded
in any honest spending of the self,
and what remains is used and used
again, worn thin by use, softened
to the pliancy and the translucence
of old linen, patched, mended, reinforced,
and saved.  So I discover how
I am rejoicing slowly into a woman
who grows older daring to write
the same poem over and over, not merely
rearranged, revised, reworded, but one poem
hundreds of times anew."

This is my work.  Similarly, this is who I am.  On a good day, I can't tell the difference between them.  Both series and life continue..  It is amazing, what art does. 

Meditation : The Red Herring.

And on we go... another Meditation In Purple and Gold quilt.  I knew I had run out of one of the three fabrics I was using, but when I went up to make some more 'sketches', I realised that I had effectively run out of two of the three.  So this quilt is completely different in colour, tone and feel.  The blues are greener than this image suggests...the whole thing has a definite beach/sea feel to it in the original. 

So where's the red herring?  It's the second new fabric, a fish batik print.  Cut in narrow strips, as in this quiltlet, it is abstract, and therefore fits the bill for this quilt.  Making a second quilt, however, showed that it was too small a print to be used in larger strips.  The fish 'read' as fish in larger strips, which was not the effect I wanted... so this will be the only variant using these fabrics. 

I hope you are enjoying the development of this series of sketches as much as I am.  I've felt a need to hand stitch recently, and it's certainly fulfilling that particular need... I'll show you tomorrow what the substitute fabric is, and the results.

More Meditation... When Is A Series Not A Series?

I showed you the first of these pieces yesterday, 'Meditation In Purple And Gold', here.  It's interesting, working in this way, creating 'rules' for myself to follow...though they are not rules as such, more like limitations.  In this particular series, the basis of the limitations are simple.  Use three fabrics.  Use three pieces of the most important fabric (the purple and gold).  The rules, of course, are made to be broken... the first piece in the series has four fabrics, and I think might be the better for it.  So...guidelines, not rules.

The three pieces are very small; I've been working with these colours, and this was my way of using up the scrap.   The first piece is 14" by 7.5" , the second, , 9" square, the third, 5.25" square (all approx).

Two of the three fabrics were inherited  from my friend, the late Lynn Bunis (still miss you, Lynn x ), the third a large scale turquoise poppy print which I bought on a whim.  The darker turquoise with all the different colours in it, was a fabric I couldn't really see how to use, a semi abstract, large scale beach theme, with shells and fish .  Cut up, though, and used more or less at random, the inherent meaning of the shapes on the cloth is lost, and it becomes a mixture of colours and shapes that are interesting, pleasing to the eye, but much more difficult to decipher.  THe purple fabric is a stylised spiral pattern with occasional dots.

Now, though, I have to make more decisions.  I've run out of the darker turquoise fabric.  I considered cannibalising it from one of the unfinished tops I made to start with...but that doesn't feel like a good option, even although one of them isn't yet spoken for.  So I can't continue this series with these fabrics.  In addition, I've got small amounts of the purple and turquoise poppy fabric, though parts of the latter have strong yellow elements, which I've been cutting around, so not as much fabric available as you might think.  I think in this case, I'll continue with this theme, and substitute a third fabric, continuing under the same guidelines as before.  

Is it a series?  Mmmm... if a series is a cohesive body of work, then yes, arguably, it's a series.  But I'm not convinced.  I actually think that this little body of work is a series of sketches, a way for me to explore what working in a series might mean for me, and how to approach it.  This is, in many ways, most unlike me; I tend to turn up and work with what comes to hand.  I'm not good at the structured, make a sketchbook, research etc approach as seen in an art school near you... but these little pieces have given me a direction to move in.  I'll continue to make them until the fabric runs out... and then I'll make the series that is waiting to be made.  

When is a series not a series?  When it's a preparation for Something Bigger.

Moving Things Around...

is a good way of seeing them with fresh eyes.  This textile piece has been sitting in the conservatory, but at such a height, and with so many other things, that it was difficult to actually look at.  Now, here it is on a clear wall, and it can be seen for itself.  To good effect, I hope!  I forget what I called this piece, which is alarming.  Usually titles stick with me, but clearly I must have got the title for this one wrong.   I'm tempted to call it 'Palely Loitering', not entirely sure why; probably something to do with the abstract figure to the right of centre.  We'll  see if that one sticks.

I like this piece, partly because it has a lot of movement in it. As part of the tidying up process, I looked through a couple of large sketchbooks and found these images in one of them, along with several black and white versions.  I realised that the feeling of movement in the textile piece is mirrored by these earlier sketches.  Interestingly, though, I find myself wanting to use them in a very different way, now, as works in their own right, and I'll doubtless ruminate about that until it's clear in my head, just as I must have done, unconsciously, with the sketches.

I've been ruminating on the other blog about not getting things done; this has been moved because I'm making a space for Big Bertha, my large scale printer, in the conservatory.  Mainly, I'm doing that because I'm about to go on a dyeing and felting frenzy, and steam and damp are not good for the printer.  But it does also mean that I might actually be able to sit in the conservatory, once I've finally finished tidying it up.  It is probably my favourite room in the house, simply because of the amount of light in it.  Of course, all that glass means that it's very warm in summer and cooler than I like in winter.  At the moment, though, I'm ironing hand dyes, and the coolness is very welcome.  More of the handdyes later...