and so the Net

I have mentioned the net a few times this week. The reason I wanted it was to pin my small pieces to, so it would be easier to hang them for my exhibition.
The idea being that it would blend against the wall.

It took some effort on my table to lay them out in a decent order, but I got them done just a short time after the boiler men left this morning from their finishings off.

Mr Thoughtful came with me to do the climbing. When we got to Lady Sew and Sew, the ladies had a different idea. Rather than hanging them in the front entry room, they wanted them hung within the shop floor so more people would look at them and so they could talk with visitors about the work. It took me a while to see how that could work, having prepared for the original plan. But we soon worked out a system.

So, here are the pieces hung on the net.

Dragons

Tudors

A few pieces I didn't want to leave out.

So, it wasn't what I had in mind, but it works ok. Because you can see through the net, you can pretend it isn't there easier. There is a lot going on behind it, but you can stand close to look at detail.

And then we hung some other work as well. These are just quick photos. All these are hung from dowels which are hung from metal beams.
You can see the backs of work, but there is enough space between the beams that it isn't reading as a surround, which can happen if you hang different sized work back to back.

Captured Butterflies  (not as dark in real life!) next to Dragons

Some of my work with unusual materials included.

Cloud Puppy

Rainforest Dragon and D is for Dragon

in the centre area at one end will be the table with Lady Sew-Forth and leaflets about the exhibition.

And at the other end will be the dragon gown. And I have been asked to also bring the Heat and the Flame to display as well.

I will get better photos on Monday. I didn't get the labels done, and as it is Small Stories,  there has to be some reference to the stories! So, that is the job for the weekend.

Reading Museum

After the Reading Arts Week, some of the artists were invited to be a further part of Art in Reading. Reading Museum offered New Directions a chance for some of the artist's work to be displayed in the Reading Museum Community Art cases.

I was excited that all the dragon pieces I had entered were chosen! And then they asked for a larger piece, too. So, they chose Communication: Letter.

I finally was able to get to the Museum to get some photos the other day.

You can just see Rainforest Dragon up in the corner. The corset was made by my collegue, Gill. (Funny story...she went in to the museum to see it, only to find they had put it on upside down! LOL Okay, if it weren't on a dummy, maybe, but really! certain bits are in certain places, okay?)

You can just about see the Letter piece and the dragons on the side wall.

Here is a closer view of Letter. It really works well in the Museum setting. Although it wasn't hung, it actually feels right to be displayed in this way, too. After all, there is only so much space in these cases. It is more like a "historical artefact"!

This is a good year for Communication: Letter! Slough Museum in February, Newspaper photos and part of the publicity for Reading Arts Week, 3rd place at the National Quilt Championships at Sandown, and now Reading Museum!

Here is Dragon Claw and Ancient and Wise Dragon.

And a dark photo of Rainforest Dragon. Hard to get as the flash was bouncing off the glass and without flash was rather dark.

Featured Blog

Last week I posted about a blog addressing some of the various issues of quilt art. Recently, another blogger has begun to cover these type of issues as well. The Art with a Needle blog was only started recently, but already has quite a following. Kathy Loomis writes in a way which is easy to understand, even if you haven't got a background in Art and haven't read much about Art issues previously. I find I often agree with her, even though I may not have thought about the issue before.

Whereas the subject matter of Elizabeth Barton's work is mainly architectural, Kathy's work is very abstract. Her method of construction usually involves using very small pieces of fabric pieced together to make the whole. It gives the work alot more texture than using larger pieces might do.

Her current discussions have been about finding your voice, working in a series, and trying other methods of working as a way of experimenting to see how you might take your work in new directions. Kathy also talks about evaluating the experiment to see whether it can be used.

As for me, I am NOT very fond of piecing at all, but I do like trying to develop my work further. I think I have been stretched alot through the Fast Friday group, trying things I would never have attempted. In some cases, I have gone on to use what I learned and in other cases, I realised I never want to do that again! (like the Fractured Quilt challenge!)

My dragon series was started by responding to a challenge with Fast Friday. The Rain Forest Dragon was the result.

Then during the series I did the thread painted dragon claw which lead to more thread painted dragons and fire creatures. This year I am continuing the series using thread painted dragons for the journal quilts I am doing for Contemporary Quilt. I may not do thread painting for the whole year, but I know I am not done developing dragons and fire creatures. I am also experimenting with colour taking further some of the other things I started to learn with the Fast Friday group.

So, anyway, go check out Kathy Loomis' blog. She also does a post once a week with inspirational photos she has taken.

Rainforest Dragon

"The leaves moved slightly to reveal a splash of red. At first, she thought it was a red poison dart frog...but suddenly she knew she was looking into the eyes of the rarest dragon of all...the Rainforest Dragon."

You have to be careful with rainforest dragons. Instead of breathing fire, they have some sort of poison because they eat the little poison dart frogs. Awww. Well they have to eat something! If you look at the colour of his tongue, you can tell what kind he ate last. If he has too many, he has indigestion and has to eat quite a few bananas to feel better again. I think they must eat malaria mosquitos, too. He doesn't like piranha very much. They are a bit sharp going down. All of that kind of food makes them a bit dangerous if they are caught off guard.

However, this dragon is friendly. The girl who discovers him goes on to become good friends and he helps her to get rid of the bad men who are chopping the forest to make a plantation. He is actually very friendly to the Indians who live in that area of the Amazon.

With people he doesn't like...chopping down swathes of the forest types...he can get very steamy, and that is where the poison thing comes in. Can you imagine being in a sort of steam bath with poison in it? Talk about Asthma or whatever!

Here is a detail of the eye.

If you can't tell where the dragon is...well, he is camoflauged! However, he is laying down with his chin flat on the floor like my dog does sometimes. You can only see the front part of his head. Are the leaves sticking up ears? I don't know, what do you think?

Dragons

This is my latest textile art piece titled "Rainforest Dragon".

I belong to a group called Fast Friday Fabric Challenge. The original idea was inspired by the Project Runway/ Project Catwalk type shows where they only have a short time to create a garment.
The plan in this group is to make a textile art piece in a week. (or as near to a week as you can!) The learning art part of it is that when the challenge is set, there are parameters you have to adhere to. They are usually connected to artistic techniques or concepts, colour schemes, or themes.

This year we are going to explore the idea of doing work in a series as well as look at colour and composition. The first month - we start in September - was about Complementary color scheme with a Vertical, Horizontal or Diagonal layout. We were encouraged to think about following on with ideas from work we had done before, so as to develop a series. You don't have to carry a series on for the whole year if you think you have worked it enough.

So, I have all these dragons in my head that are wanting to get out! When I did the design element for my City and Guilds: Fashion Diploma, I did a book full of design ideas using dragons for inspiration. Here is one of the first ones, to come to life. It is in the inside lining of the coat for my 2007 Bernina Ensemble. The ensemble is called "The Epic Quest of the Last Dragoness".
I often have a story which goes with my work and the dragons are a good example of that. Here is the story of the dragon which inspired the Bernina Ensemble.

The dragoness is actually a Lightning Dragon. Did you know that inter-cloud lightning produces a very special sort of diamond? Well, the lovely dragoness travels stormy skies collecting lightning diamonds for her hoard. She also transforms into the shape of a beautiful lady. In this form, she attends glorious balls and special occasions frequented by the rich and noble in order to take note of any lightning diamonds which have been made into jewels for the ladies there. She collects other gems, too. If you follow the link for the gown just above the photo, you can see that her bodice is encrusted from the time she spends resting on her pile of gems.

What else do you think she does? Can you add to the story?

The Rainforest Dragon has a story, too. I started telling it on the Fast Friday Blog. I have sort of run out of time today, since I had computer problems earlier, but I will tell you the Rainforest Dragon story tomorrow. By the way, he is camouflaged. Can you see him? The red bit is his eye.

Oh, yeah, these challenges always start on 4th Friday of each month and you should post the result the following week on the Saturday. Our next one is this coming week. I am not sure I will have time to do much before going to Houston, so I will probably take an extention and post my work late this time. Wonder what the artistic challenges will be? Wonder which dragon will come out to play?