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, July 13, 2011

for you....




It's that time again...the time for me to offload shopping list fodder and give it to you! 5 x 5 inches...I know we are supposed to be metric, centimetres and everything, but me.... I'm a feet and inches, pounds and ounces kind of girl....no apologies to Europe, leave me be with the old stuff. Incase you haven't heard of inches though it's roughly 13 x 13 of those centimetre things. As usual...no imagination or innovation going on here...you will wait a long time if that's what you're looking for...a comment...of any kind.
Last weeks person who will be completely underwhelmed and sorted for the retail trip, list in hand is Doreen G.....postal stuff pretty please Doreen.
The pleated silk piece is ongoing...pinning pleated silk to watercolour paper without creasing the paper??? Now there's a challenge, one that had me occupied for most of last night. Completion by tomorrow is perhaps a little ambitious...not impossible...but not guaranteed either......

27 comments:

Carla said...

As always fantastic work.

Well done Karen!!

Anonymous said...

Putting my hand up :)

Doreen G said...

Whoopee --that's me and I feel like I have won the jackpot Karen.
I have sent the details.
Thank you very much.

cateriksson said...

Please, please, pretty please with cherries on top? I love this piece most out of all I have seen so far (other than one particularly pretty set of buttons!)

Tatkis said...

Beautiful and delicate piece of art!

Best wishes,
Tatyana

Jane said...

These are so pretty!
Jane

Jane said...

I'm totally with you, even my son complains about cms

Lois Evensen said...

Just beautiful, Karen! Love it! I'm happy with inches and feet, too. After all, we over here learned it from you over there. :)

Hugs,
Lois

Carol Q said...

a-mazing piece Karen.

Heartwideopen said...

Beautiful as usual! I get a headache when I have to try and convert metric to inches. Hoping your day is wonderful!

xx ;-) Debi

Anonymous said...

I would love to look at these and then send on to a friend, who I keep poking with fiber-related stuff.
k

dandelion said...

lovely white stuff!(I don't know what inches are but there you go). Thankyou for my lovely lovely buttons they are too beautiful to use!!

Kate x

Jeannie said...

Gorgeous, elegant, and amazing. Your artwork just knocks me off my feet. Congrats to Doreen, you lucky gal!

**EYE-SNACKS** said...

Karen, how wonderful these are looking.How was London?

Beacee said...

Beautiful! What more can I say?

Flaming Nora said...

For me? Oh thanks! What do you mean random names in a hat? I'm sure I can see my name pricked out in a subliminal message in there some where.

Magpie's Mumblings said...

I'm right there with you on the inches and centimeter debate. I'm a die hard inchy girl and so I will remain. I'm always asking DH to convert temperature into 'english' so I can understand it.

Suztats said...

oh, lucky you, Doreen.
I see windows decorated by Jack Frost. Wonderful (especially since it's summer!)

Dolores said...

It's always a pleasure to drop in to see what you are up to. Drooling...

Anonymous said...

Delightful, Karen. Interesting to see the variants of texture you can achieve!

Brenda Williams said...

Karen, I followed a link from spirit cloth and found your site. I am totally enthralled with your works on paper. As an art educator and consummate student of traditional textiles in our area (Southern US) I have long considered the reasons women spent such a great portion of very scarce spare time adding embellishment to their handwork. I think the soul hungers for beauty and finds great pleasure in it's physical creation. The use of traditional stitchery on on a nontraditional substrate is something that is very intriguing to me, and I explored it a bit during my graduate studies. When I work on my own pieces I love the visible growth of the design as well as the tactile sensations that come from handling the work. As I looked through your images I found my fingers almost tingle with wanting to touch the pieces. I can well imagine the joy you have in their creation. You are my latest bookmark and will become one of my favorites I know.

jan b. said...

Those frosty windowpanes would be a welcomed treat here in this hot Texas climate.

DIAN said...

I love all of this white - so feminine.

JP said...

it just continues to amaze me

Gill said...

A late hat being thrown into the ring!!

Anonymous said...

*sigh*
As always you underestimate yourself & your work - it's gorgeous.

Jane S. said...

I followed a link from Threads of A Tatting Goddess, and I'm so glad I did! What wonderful things you create, so cool and crisp and relaxing to the eye. And of course I'd love to toss my name in the hat for the lovely piece that is looking for a new home.

I'm with you on the metric stuff...sure am glad there are online conversions available.