Tuesday 30 April 2013

"And the Bead Goes On..." April's daily beaded projects

Here are the final 2 Rainbow Ribbons for April.
Interesting how that amount of beading makes the ribbons less flexible than with the individual 'raindrop' crystal beads on the previous rainbows for the month.

And a couple extra for good measure!
I wanted to see what a clear fringe would look like.

Here are all the beaded Rainbow Ribbons for April.

Click on the label daily if you want to see the individual beads...scroll down through the April posts.
This post is now linked to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday.

Monday 29 April 2013

Postcard 7

Last week I sent a ready made postcard to my family member for no. 6. It was a print of a daisy painting from one of the Mouth and Foot Painters.

Here is no. 7 for this week.

Sunday 28 April 2013

"And the Bead Goes On..." 22-28 April

2013 - Week 17 Daily Beads

using opaque beads for the colour and a little something different for the fringe.

no.112


no.113


no.114


no.115


no.116


no.117


no.118


Two more days for the month - so I am doing full rainbows of the glistening beads, which I will show in the week.

and then back to fabric beads for May. I am looking to get a wide range of colour for the base of the fabric beads over the year, so I will shuffle round the colour wheel. Come back next Sunday to see what I settled on for this month.

Saturday 27 April 2013

Something on Saturday

The ground has dried up enough that the wood carvers were able to get back to the Cedar Tree this week.
Remember they are carving creatures into the large stump of a Cedar of Lebanon which was destroyed in the winter storms of January 2010. Click on the label Cedar Tree at the bottom of this post to see previous photos.

Here is the snake - I can't tell if they enhanced him in anyway. I know they worked a bit more on the owl.

In the first part of the week there was the start of ? a frog?
Oh, a toad!

They have also covered the bottom of the hole with non-slip surface for the kiddies to go in and out.

Oh, they have started something interesting in there as well!

And look, the outlines of something else...a squirrel? a fox?

Friday 26 April 2013

Map 4 - W VA

Here is Map 4 complete.
This map is a section of West Virginia in America. I have ignored North- South direction altogether on this one. If you want to skip the story and go to the making, just scroll down to the ******!

The year I turned 21, I came to England in the summer. On my return, I went to live with my grandparents in Belington, West Virginia. While there helping them out, I also had a job helping in the Primary grades in a private Christian school in Elkins.

The rest of the story of this map is about family history.

In the past few years I have been doing some research of ancestors. I have actually found it easier to discover info on my dad's people because they are from the same area in West Virginia, and West Virginia gives a bit more open access to records online.

Another reason is that one of my 2nd cousins (or something) has researched my grandmother's side - her grandfather was my grandmother's brother, and much of her research is found online. We also had a 'great' uncle who was a local historian and who had a column in several local papers. Some of his stories come up when you do a search, so there is information available beyond when West Virginia became a state. (They split from Virginia over the slavery issue, choosing to be a Free State.)
In fact, I have been able to go right back to when members of both my dad's father's people and my dad's mother's people were part of the same group who came together from the 'crowded' part of Virginia to settle the areas around Elkins. (Or as one record put it, "they needed elbow room after the Revolutionary War was over". And as each of them had around 10 children at least, it didn't take long for them to fill out the steep sides of the mountains there!)

So, the map has notation of Flanagan Hill near to Blackwater Falls; Middle Mountain where others started; Dry Forks/Red Creek where Wyatts, Wolfords, Flanagans, Carrs, Smiths, Raines, and other families all were part of the same community; and Bowden where my dad was born.

I have also noted Droop Mountain, where Thomas R Williams, my dad's Great Grandfather, was wounded in the last major skirmish of the Civil War - and Beverly next to Elkins, where the wounded from that battle were brought. And from where at some point, he met Sarah Curtis, clerk in a shop, and stayed in West Virginia! Thomas Williams had left Alabama to go to Ohio and join up under the newly formed 2nd West Virginia Regiment. I can't be sure, but to me this would imply he, too, was anti-slavery and that his beliefs ultimately brought him to 'join the family'.

******

And so about the making.
I traced the roads onto freezer paper using a large marker. Then ironed onto fused green fabric that looks a bit like what can be seen from Google maps.

I wanted the roads to show through the green bits. So I cut out each section of the green fabric.

Then I trimmed the 'road' from it.

I positioned the pieces next to each other a bit like a jigsaw.

And when complete, it was fused in place to the yellow fabric. I used 'balance marks' to allow me to line up the pieces properly.

Then I stitched the roads. and round the edges of each shape, removing the paper one piece at a time.

After I sorted the border, I wrote the names of the places which are of importance in my family history. And stitched a small button to mark the position of the different places.

Along with the making of the map, I feel I have developed a way to work which I can translate to some of the other things I am working on, like the Cloud Puppy. I have a good idea how to stitch him now.

I am linking to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday.

Thursday 25 April 2013

ALAW - week 17 and sewing show

Here is week 17 of the stitched flag letters for A Letter A Week.

You can read about the theme here.

********
Have you watched the recent sewing series on BBC2? I found it a very good balance of contest to information. Of course with only 4 episodes of 1hour each, there are a lot of things which were left out. But I think it will spark interest in going to find out the things you didn't understand.

And as many have commented, it was a breath of fresh air to have a sewing contest related programme where the contestants were civil to one another. Kudos to the producers for showing the camaraderie of making rather than turning it into something full of jealousy and verbal haranguing. (Like the American Project Runway and the British Project Catwalk.)

photo of the telly

It looks like it will help to create a resurgence of interest in sewing. I understand that following the first episode you couldn't find a bias binding maker anywhere! The shops were all sold out.

If you want to watch the programmes, they can be found on You-Tube.

They are already looking for contestants for next year. I don't qualify, but maybe you do? Have a look here to find out how to apply.

Wednesday 24 April 2013

Project for on the Go

For the last few years I have had a project on the go now and then. It was something that I could take along with me to do whilst on the train to London, sometimes on the road whilst heading to York (depending on my stomach!) and lately to take for something to do whilst visiting my MIL in hospital or in the home.

It started with a cop of soft thick cotton thread from Empress Mills. At this point I don't remember if I picked it up at a show or at their shop the one time I went there. I think it was probably a show.

I hadn't an idea for a finished project, (Well I did, I thought I would sash them with cream coloured leather, but soon thought better of it!) so I just decided to keep crocheting granny squares and worry about what to do with them later. Eventually I just decided to keep going until I finished the cop. When it was nearing the end, I did do a bit more in front of the telly to get it finished off.

And here they are!
The little pile of string was all that was left.

They were varying tensions due to the variety of times and places where I was making them, but most were similar. There were about 3 or 4 that were somewhat too loose in comparison, so even though I finished these a couple weeks ago, I have pulled the very loose ones back and started again. So, the finished amount is 52!

So, now I am thinking of what to do with them. I think I may just stitch them together to make a throw to go over one of the chairs in the lounge. The new furniture is cream coloured, so this would work. Sometimes the other throws which are more on the blanket side are a bit too big if you just want something round your shoulders.

So now as a take it along project, I am doing a 'make it up in your head' free form granny square from some green silk noil type thread I picked up from Texere Yarns.

******
By the way, tonight I am giving a talk at a quilt group in Camberley. I am showing several of my fantastical garments.

Tuesday 23 April 2013

Final Exhibition at Gallery@49 - Tonia Maddison

Today's post shows the work from the third artist, Tonia Maddison, from the ReOrsa group now showing work at Gallery@49.

This final exhibition is called Foundation: ReOrsa Founders Finale. The 3 artists - Janet Curley Cannon, Tonia Maddison, Jenny Parkes - who began the Gallery@49 project are completing their time at this site by putting on the last exhibition. In many ways the exhibition marks the beginning of the changes coming due to the Regeneration Project in Bracknell.

In fact, several of the guests at the Private View were expressing their sadness that this venture wouldn't continue. At one point I remarked that it almost seemed like we were at a 'wake' rather than a private view celebrating their work!

Tonia has a Blurb book online, All That Remains, which shows some of her artwork. You can see there is a similar theme to the pieces in this show...ideas of remembering and forgetting connected with nature.

One of the reason I left Tonia's work for last in this review was that I really felt drawn to the exquisite detail of the mock museum methods of display which Tonia uses. I do love small and detailed - as you probably have guessed.
(So much so that I neglected to get any photos of her large drawings displayed on the walls around the smaller displays.)

But, too, these small pieces have their own moments of calm about them, as if you were standing in a quiet room in a museum looking at rocks and thinking about the patterns in them or where they are from.
I have photographed the label at the side of the displays
and then digitally added it to the image of the work. I am not sure you can read it.

Tonia said to me that part of the thinking was connected to the collecting of rocks. Eventually you can lose the memory of where each rock was when it was found. And further to that, within some of the rocks are fossils - which for such a long time have been forgotten - indeed the moments of their existence are unremembered moments because there is no memory of them to begin with.

Along with rocks are special little books with drawings and words.
And little folders which look as if supplied by museums...
but no, she made them herself...along with realistic slate-look pieces having worn surfaces, but made from MDF!
Very realistic.
Each piece has it's own number related to the place where it may have been found.
I think I would love to see a whole room full of these little collections. Very special.

Monday 22 April 2013

Final Exhibition at Gallery@49 - Janet Curley Cannon

I mentioned last week that I went to the Private view of the final exhibition at Gallery@49. One of the places where TVCT exhibition - Whatever Floats Your Boat was shown.

This final exhibition is called Foundation: ReOrsa Founders Finale. Bracknell is on the verge of a big regeneration project, so businesses and charities have had to move out of their premises...some are finding this difficult because of the cost of rent in the other parts of town.
The 3 artists - Janet Curley Cannon, Tonia Maddison, Jenny Parkes - who began the Gallery@49 project are completing their time at this site by putting on the last exhibition.

One of the biggest things to catch your eye is the work of Janet Curley Cannon.
(Follow the link to see her work. Each of the pieces on exhibit this time are from her Structure and Form series.)
Specifically noticeable is the installation piece in the centre of the floor- 'Notes from Market Street'.
As you can see here, the 'notes' referred to by Janet are the markings one finds on roads. Janet makes intriguing pieces which really look like bits of dug up road.

Janet was telling me one time that she had several large pieces like this on the pavement out in front of her former studio, trying to get some good photos of them. A few lads came by and were 'well impressed' that she had made the pieces. Then she picked them up, one under each arm and carried them back into the studio. Their eyes nearly fell out of their heads and their chins were on the floor! Janet uses a papier-mâché technique to create the work, so they are actually very light.

A few more of her pieces could be quite easily connected to thoughts about the upheaval that is already affecting people who have been in that part of Bracknell for many years.
Particularly 'Not on the High Street Any More'


and 'End Remains'.


The metal building frame pieces with remnants of window-like panes were almost like ghosts of buildings. They worked especially well in the large windows of the gallery.
The Grey Zone

and Fragile Recovery.
Janet made sure to tell me she had used 'fabric' in this piece. Digital print onto Lutrador and cut out with a soldering iron.
from the side

If you can get to Bracknell on the weekends the next 2 weeks, do try to go and see the work.

Sunday 21 April 2013

"And the Bead Goes On..." 15-21 April

2013 - Week 16 Daily Beads

I was showing my friend the daily beads and realised I left off the crystal fringe on no. 104, so here it is revisited.


This week I have been doing Stacked Beads on the rainbows.

no.105


no.106


no.107


no.108


no.109


no.110


no.111


A slight variation with opaque beads for next week.