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







Sunday, January 29, 2012

sparkle....




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a short video today....only four minutes. This cloth is named ''Sparkle Cloth'' as I made it for a show called Sparkle. Least said about that the better...it was a disaster for me...consigned to the nether reaches of my brain.
There's quite a lot of colour in this one so please don't faint with shock, none the less I like it. It has a certain something that attracts me....
The good news today...the strangers in the bathroom have left for good and I don't think I have ever been to the bathroom as many times in my life to gaze at the newness and brightness of it all...From here on in every visitor to this house will be positively encouraged to go to the bathroom whether they need to or not so if you are planning on coming round for a brew (cup of tea or coffee to those of you who aren't English) be warned!!

13 comments:

Emmy said...

the cloth is beautiful a great vimeo
have a nice day

deanna7trees said...

it's lovely. i had started embroidering prairie points in the wrapping class but never got very far. it is, as you say, very time consuming, but worth the effort. thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous - and I love the little spots of colour!

Tina said...

Karen I love the embroidered Prairie Points and plan to use them in my wrapping cloth-along the edges, time consuming, but lovely as Deanna says! I loved the video-it is so nice to hear your voice-reminds me of the class and how much fun I had! I also really enjoy seeing your work upclose.

Anonymous said...

All your work is lovely, this cloth included.

I had my bathroom redone a year ago and hated the mess that was made by the workmen, but love the new room still.

Jeannie said...

Karen, the sparkle cloth is beautiful. Thank you for the video. (I love your accent. It takes me back to my childhood.) As I said before, the stitching is so tiny and beautiful. Truly a work of art. Wishing you a beautiful week.

Gina said...

LOL! My sister had a major rennovation in their master bath last summer and every person who visited got the grand tour! It's a nice feeling to have a new bath though and I wish I were close enough to drop by.

Stitching Lady said...

Your sparkle cloth is wonderful - how do you dampstretch a cloth large like that - do you at all dampstretch it?

stitchinglife said...

Lovely cloth. A new bathroom is a splenderous thing. When we had ours done, I vowed I would polish it every day to keep it all so shiny and new-looking. I'm afraid I didn't :-/

sharon young said...

A beautiful cloth, I love these points, i saw it on a cloth somewhere before and thought what a labour of love it was then, come to think it i think it was in a shop in France, they love their intricate embroidery and whitewwork. The colour accent is wonderful against the white BG.
Glad your bathroom worked out so well.

Janice / Dancing with Sunflowers said...

It is beautiful, Karen. Is this 'wrapping cloth' in the Japanese tradition or is it along the same lines as your human wrapping cloths, only much scaled down - perhaps for a baby?

If I'm in the area I will definitely pop in to use your facilities. :)

Elizabeth said...

Just love to see your videos, they give so much more than pictures.

Tatkis said...

Just beautiful!

Hugs,
Tatyana