For centuries women have used cloth as a tool of comfort and as an expression of beauty within their homes. Creating cloth for warmth, cloth for shelter, our female predecessors embellished these linens with hand stitch using laborious and time consuming techniques thereby enhancing the functional beauty of objects which enveloped and protected their families. Inspired by these women I hope my creations pay tribute to and recognise the devotion expressed in cloth by our female ancestors .







''the use of traditional often time consuming process alludes to the devotion of a mother''. c K. A. Ruane 2007







Wednesday, September 15, 2010

inspired by.......

My text/patchwork/embroidered/white silk piece remains ongoing, more text has been embroidered and damp stretched and is waiting to be cut up and ''auditioned'' as so aptly and amusingly put by Mary Anne. Yes I like that phrase used in this context, thankyou! I wanted to share this with you today though. I am always searching for new ideas, going over old research, old sketchbooks, always feeling that there's more, something else, something different. Paper is not instinctively my ''cloth'' of choice yet I have used it a lot in the past. Mostly as a way of adding ''something else'' to my design work at UNI. For one particular module I used paper exclusively, creating wall art by pricking, embossing and stitching onto heavyweight water colour paper. Many hours and a lot of sore fingers later I achieved one of my highest marks ever. So why don't I use it more often? Because my instinct is always to reach for cloth and a needle and thread. However.....I have had a few enquiries about my little books of embroidery and why there aren't any available. Although I love them they can be a pain, literally. The thought of standing and cutting all those mounts that cover fraying edges fills me with dread, memories of aching to end all aching. No problem cutting pages, none at all, just the tiny window mounts and they take such a long time you wouldn't believe it. So the quest? To find a ground for stitch that doesn't fray negating the need for window mounts, yes, you have it, paper. The blue and white embellished paper you see here is from an ongoing sketchbook, (Rachel, these are some of my torn transfers) this piece was created about a year ago. The embroidered cloth? That's a wonderful starched vintage piece that doesn't fray (yipee) and has such a beautiful surface that it almost feels like paper.The next piece, again from my ongoing sketchbook, has finer paper that has been machine stitched creating a lace like structure. This has then been added to patchwork hexagons, (now there's a suprise!!) So where am I going with all this? I am going on a mission to make books, different books, hopefully books that have been taken in a completely new direction. The plan is that they will be just as lovely as the other ones, equally as intriguing and hopefully just as inspiring.

Don't worry though, I intend to finish my ongoing panel of embroidery on silk before I set off on my new treck but first my brain is in such a jumble that I have lists to make. Lists that I will probably lose but isn't that what they're for!!

10 comments:

Jackie said...

Happy bookmaking. Good idea.

sylviesgarden said...

You never fail to amaze me. Lovely!
x

Ijeoma said...

I can definitely believe how long they take to make. So many beautiful and intricate details, keep up the good work dear :)

Jan said...

Delightful as ever ...love Jan xx

fabriquefantastique said...

nice blog today, I always learn something

Jane said...

I love the texture of the piece to the right of the paper. Very intriguing

Janice / Dancing with Sunflowers said...

OK. I've just caught up with all your posts since my last visit and couldn't BELIEVE your bed lamp accident! Sorry you now only have one lamp, but the important thing is that the cuts weren't too deep and hopefully are mending well. After your other emergency event of the previous days I can well believe you were beginning to doubt your karma rating.
Of course your work is beautiful and the idea for books is great. I have done paper pricking, using stencils from the Netherlands and do agree it's a slow, arduous process, but looks beautiful.
Hope you're having a good day with no drama of any kind whatsoever.
Janice. x

**EYE-SNACKS** said...

This is also very delightful !I think I missed this post, I jumped to the latest post at first.

thanks for showing!

Magpie's Mumblings said...

Paper isn't as 'forgiving' as fabric, but it is every bit as beautiful. Doing your little books in paper makes great sense - certainly wouldn't be as fiddly!

Rachel said...

lovely to see what you are working on here, especially what you use the torn transfers for!

Hope your non-embroidering life is calmer now...