Halfway Between - TVCT

Hurrah the internet is fixed!

A few photos from last week. I only managed to get one of the setting up. My main job was cutting battens for hanging the work.
Here is a view of one of the outside walls. Labels were added later.

We had the whole area inside and all the outside walls as well! So, it meant we were able to use all the work submitted.

This is Jane painting some paper tape to cover the cord for Kate Findlay's piece 'Pink Dawn' which uses Fibre Optics.

This was another section requiring paint.

Merete Hawkins piece 'Kraka' showed up so much better with a grey wall behind it. The inspiration for her piece was the tale from Norse Mythology.

The story of Kraka is from Norse Mythology.

The Viking King Regnar set her a riddle.

‘Come back in the morning unclothed, but not naked,

unaccompanied but not alone,

unfed but not fasting.’

When Kraka appeared at sunrise, her long hair was combed out.

She was draped in a fishing net.

Her dog was with her and she had bitten into an onion.

As promised, King Regnar married her

and they lived happily for many years.

I will show some of the other work in the next few days. The exhibition seemed to be well received. It looks like we might be getting a few new members as well!

Contemporary Quilt also had an exhibition of work there. They wanted to get a wide range of work showing what could be done. When I sent 2 photos for Amanda to choose from, she decided that as they were quite different, she would have both.

So, here is 'Menina de Favela e Água'.

The piece hanging next to her was also watery using shibori. They worked well together. But I was talking with someone at the time and didn't remember to read whose work it was, so I haven't included it here.

and also 'Endless Possibilities' which had its own space.

Time and Tide

Feeling a bit like time and tide wait for no woman.

This week I have been right out straight trying to get my FOQ entries finished. very late nights...last night was it 3 am when my husband came and said "you need to get to bed."
What with extra things at college and 50th birthdays, It was very nip and tuck for 2 of the entries. One at least I will "finish" when it comes home!(Sky Princess) Well it is nearly alright, but not as many clouds as I had meant to do.

Furiously trying to finish and hoping the courior would come later rather than sooner, I felt like this boat from Saturday which ended up needing a tow from the lifeboat.

Thanks to the man from TNT, who came 45 min before expected, but said he would come back a few hours later, I got one of them finished. Needed at least 1/2 hour for the hem of the Sky Princess, so was considering alternatives. But then told me where he was parked up on the industrial estate waiting for delivery from a company around 5:00pm. So,I managed to get the hem done and the coat padded up and nicely boxed. I stopped to get him a box of chocolates which I handed over with the box. He was surprised. But I was soooo glad to have a delivery man that was understanding!

Thanks TNT man!!! Didn't know that was the motto, but I guess he believes in it.

So! all 4 of my FOQ entries have gone off to arrive for the deadline tomorrow. (The other 2 were Endless Possibilities and Bits and Pieces)
Phew. I am off to bed, thank you very much!

I promise not to do this to myself again. If there is nothing already in hand to enter, I will not enter it!

So, we will all have to wait for photos til I can take some at the Festival of Quilts.

Endless Possibilities

Thanks to Jane, Here is a wonderful shot of the detail on the Endless Possibilities piece that is in the exhibition at Slough Museum.

It really shows the ethereal quality of the delicate fabrics with the marks of the rust and the texture of the stitch.

If you haven't visited the EquilARTeral blog, you should go read about Jane and Merete's work and see the photos. I will be putting photos of my pieces up there tomorrow if all goes well.

Hanging the Zoom exhibition

Today Jane and I went along to the Slough Museum to hang the work as EquilARTeral's part in Ideas Bank 2010 . Eleanor Pulfer, the Curator, chatted with us about few things like placement, got us a cup of tea, and then let us get to work. We are really grateful for the opportunity she has given us.

The work looks really good together. It is quite something to see your work in a gallery setting. When it is just at home when you are working on it, or even when you pull it out to show friends, you don't seem to be able to see it as a whole. Hanging in the gallery gives it quite a special "authentic" feel!

Here is a glimpse of the Zoom pieces in place.
Jane Glennie's work Significant is on the left, then my work Communication, then Merete Hawkins work Sunflowers.

If you would like to view our work and that of several other local artists, the exhibit opens on 3 Feb. 2010. The Museum is open from 11am - 4pm Wed - Sat. Click here for a map to find out how to get there. You can also find out info about Ideas Bank 2009.

We had taken some other work because we thought we might be given space in the window, but there were already plans for that. However, the Endless Possibilities triptych was just right against a small pillar-like wall in the near the middle of the room. The white wall is great for revealing just enough of the mystery of what might be on the other side. We were able position it to stand slightly away from the wall. As it is very light, this will be a wonderful place for it to waft slightly in the breeze of someone going past. The position is almost made for it!

Jane took more photos, so when she sends them on, I will show Endless Possibilities in place.

EquiARTeral blog

As promised, the EquilARTeral blog is up. Not much yet, but info on the exhibit at Slough Museum. I hope to get some photos when we hang the work. It is part of their annual Ideas Bank project with exhibits by artists in and around Slough.

I don't intend to post everyday over at the new blog and sometimes the others will post. It is mainly what is relevant about what we are doing as a group and a place where people can contact us in some way.

We may have a chance to hang some things in the window as well. We are going to take several things and see what works. I may be hanging Endless Possibilities. We shall see. It is translucent and is meant to be double sided or at least hung so you can see the shadows from the other side. So, it should be great in a window.

front/back

EquilARTeral - Connect-Disconnect

Our new challenge for EquilARTeral is "Connect-Disconnect". Last time we had A5, A3, A1. This time it is A6, A4, A2. I have had some ideas hanging round in my head. But when I actually started to think of doing it, several other ideas came together and I am going with them.

front

In a way it is an extension of some ideas from Endless Possibilities. I am using transparent, translucent materials. This time I have pattern tissue with crayon rubbings over stamps, some of the rust dyed habotai, and some silk organza with more crayon rubbing.

back

The connection of the layers is beads. This is also what makes it disconnected. This is the A6 piece and was rather fiddly to do. I have never got into the fabric postcard craze, and this is around the size of the postcards.

detail from side

Because all the layers are separated like that, it was a bit floppy. So, it decided it wanted to hang from a coffee stirrer stained with walnut ink and with holes made to attach the piece using beads. The tissue was starting to get frazzled at this point, even though I had ironed the wax from the crayons and it had a firm waxy texture. So, I have painted the surface with acrylic wax.

Endless Possibilities - Complete!

Endless Possibilities is finished!

It was actually finished yesterday, but I have been sealing the edges with the soldering iron. Originally I had torn the silk, which gave it an edge that wouldn't fray. But when I was doing all the trimming to get it in the vacinity of 40in when they are all together, I trimmed with the rotary cutter...so had lovely little silk hairs starting to draggle out. Actual fraying would have been alright...draggley hairs...Not.

I haven't sized these photos smaller, so hopefully they will be clickable and you can see the detail. I haven't got a daytime photo to try to show the transparency effect. But you can see the front and back and the subtle things going on at the back which you can imagine will show up as a slight shadow when the light is hitting it.

As I said, I will probably do a 4th panel when this returns for entry into the FOQ. I have another length of the rusted silk habotai with marks that almost mirror the right panel. I can use it to make a new left panel. I may do something interesting to the bottom of the current left panel when I do that.

Front
Back

The pieces will be shown at Quilters Heritage Celebration Show in Lancaster, PA, USA from 2-5 April, 2009.

And a plus about the whole thing is that it is very light, so won't cost me the earth to post off for the show!

Endless Possibilities

The left panel of Endless Possibilities is done. Here is a full view. It has 2 layers of silk organza sandwiching a layer of synthetic organza that has an organic grid pattern with gold foiled dots. The "front" has strips of rust dyed silk organza, stitched horizontally with linen thread following the centre of some of the grid portions.

Detail of the back

This has "mystery" fabric over portions of the grid and stitched vertically with rayon machine embroidery thread. There are also lengths of brown raw silk thread caught down in a random pattern over the back. When you show the piece in front of the window, you can see the shadow of these lengths.

Detail of the front

When I have the third panel done. I will take a photo of all of them in front of the window as well.

State of Mind

I'm sure you don't really want to know, but I am making a PowerPoint presentation on Schemes of Work. I have to present a seminar for the teaching adults class tomorrow.

So, you get a glimpse of my state of mind. (how do you do strike through? anyone know?)

No, I mean a glimpse of my work table. Besides the Endless Possibilities which is at hand stitch stage, I am starting the third piece for the EquilARTeral Zoom piece. And then there are all the books I am trying to make some sense of. The bag on the cupboard handle is the finished altered dress. And just off to the top right of the photo, you get a glimpse of the overflowing ironing basket. and then you don't get to see the side of the studio with the sewing machine. I will leave it to your imagination.

My classes didn't have enough interest to run, or I would be teaching (and probably have even more of an archeological dig on my table.) But the samples for teaching are under the other part of the table. I was rather gutted that they didn't run. I know I will find the prep wasn't wasted, but I could have been doing other things.

So, as it is, I also have a meeting about the regional Contemporary Quilt Group on Thurs and a meeting with EquilARTeral on Fri. and have to finish prep for the course at Pangbourne next Wed. Oh, yeah, I need to get some photo or something to Simon to market the next Crafts@the Library. and I am meant to be writing an article, for which they have moved the deadline up.

I think I need to learn how to say No again.

The thing I am finding is that the past 6 years, the Spring was taken up with big projects...either City and Guilds: Fashion projects or Bernina garments. For relief, I did bits and pieces, like textile art pieces. So, now, it seems life is full of bits and pieces, and I am really on a learning curve about how to keep everything in order. Maybe I need to do a Big project so I can focus on the bits...HA. NOT.

However, I AM slowly ticking bits off the list and trying not to put more bits on. I think after next week I should have got back to a better state of mind. Cross fingers.

Endless Possibilities

And here is the middle panel of the triptych. I will tell you about one of the reasons I went with the transparent/translucent idea. The theme for the Stretching Art challenge (SA11) is Never Ending. So, I decided to do a triptych in such a way that you can choose a variety of positions to hang the panels. That suggested "Endless Possibilities" And then I thought, if it is transparent/translucent, it could be double-sided, creating even more hanging possibilities. So, I call this the middle panel, but it can be changed around if need be.

I also thought it might be interesting to be able to switch the pieces of this section. I was going to put buttonholes or something on the silk strips inbetween so that could be done. But in the end, it made it too difficult to determine that the composition would still be good when swapped around.

I am really enjoying this. I love it when things turn out like the design you create in your head as you contemplate the look. The pieces will be shown at Quilters Heritage Celebration Show in Lancaster, PA, USA from 2-5 April, 2009.

I may very well make another piece to go with them (as I have another idea). Then I can use them for my Festival of Quilts entry this summer. Would that be a quadtych? or as someone suggested somewhere on the net - tetratych?

Contemplate this while I work on another panel.

Endless Possibilities

Some of the stitching on the third piece. I think I am going to do hand stitches on these rust dyed parts and machine stitches on the other parts. Somehow I need to get the synthetic organza with gold dots to show more. Perhaps cutting sections away?

How did I make the design decision? I had already been considering the hand/machine combo. However, I am trying to do a baby quilt on the machine using some of the shrink textured fabric I did. This was going well until time for the Cricket again... and as England has remembered how to play again, it took a bit more concentration. (Big Grin) Since I couldn't hear the online commentary when I was using the machine, I decided I better sit and hand stitch!

I don't suppose that sort of thing goes into the design books.

Endless Possibilities...and in life, too!

Here is a detail shot of some of the stitching that is going on for some of the parts of Endless Possibilities. FME (free motion embroidery) with Varigated rayon from Thread Studio and hand stitched pearl cotton. I am still thinking about the other section.

Other things:
Today we got a visit from the community support police officer! This was in response to my husband's bike being stolen from the garage the other day. However, as community support, she had also been trying to contact him for a while about a youth programme she thought he might help with because of his connections with the community centre and church.

Well, as we talked about the community, the workshops at the library idea came up. I told her my idea about people needing to be encouraged to meet in the community again. (Long story, but we used to have a grocery store in the parade of shops. It moved to a different town and although we were promised something else, it has been well over a year now. It was a place where people met up and had a natter about life. Old people used it for a daily outing. Mums stood round and gossiped before or after collecting their children from school, etc. Now, people might come and pop into the Chemists or the Post Office/Newsagent for a few minutes, but there is nothing that makes you want to linger. There are signs something may come in the Spring, but who knows.)

The police officer was really excited about "Crafts@the Library". She wants to come to the next one and encourage the effort along. If we do up some leaflets, she wants to give them to some people in the community who she feels would benefit from getting out and doing something like that. When I said I was hoping to develop a group and then perhaps have a sewing/craft group at the community centre. She got quite animated about the idea. She is real keen on helping the project go forward.

Plus, she went away saying I was a wonderful lady. Well, I just like to make stuff and somehow like to get other people making stuff, so that's the result!!

So, how cool is that! having the police marketing your workshops!

Endless Possibilities

Here is a detail of what is going on in the transparent triptych piece. I worked on laying out all the strips just the right size, etc. Now I am considering how they will be stitched.

Also, last summer, I altered a wedding dress for the daughter of a lady I used to work with in the Junior school. This week, the girls MIL rang me up because another son is getting married. So, she came round yesterday because she needs work done on a dress for the wedding in Antigua in March. One more thing to do next week! I hope Endless Possibilities comes together as well as I am imagining in my head!

Endless Possibilities

I am trying out an idea that has been percolating in my head for some time. I want to explore the concepts of transparent and translucent. In my head it wants to be neutral colours. So, here are some of the long strips of different fabrics I am considering. I have hung them in the patio window in my studio.
(without flash)
Of course the sun has nearly gone down, so it is a bit hard to tell how it will go.
(with the flash)

At the moment it is silk organza, rust dyed silk habotai, the mystery fabric I spoke of yesterday, and some synthetic organza with some metallic dots. I also intend to stitch in "patches" of more silk organza, other rust dyed silks, etc.

The idea is to do a triptych. I am calling it "Endless Possibilities", because I like the idea of hanging the sections in different positions and even turn them around...which is where the transparent translucent hanging in front of a window idea will come into play.

For now, I will leave it up there to consider while I do assignments tomorrow.