Phat Quarter Swap

It has become a little bit of a tradition of mine that I start each year with a swap. This is just to get the old creative juices flowing - I work well to a brief; and taking part in the swap is very much about the process for me, rather than what I get in return (though getting anything at all is rather nice!)

So this is my finished piece (the photo is AWFUL - I just have to get that sorted for 2012). It is entirely hand embroidered, approx. A4 in size from an original drawing of mine. I am thinking of making it into a pattern to buy, would anyone be interested? (just comment below).

And a couple of up close and personal photographs so you can see the stitching. I actually ran out of the thread for the roses half way through and couldn't find the same one in time (mega DOH! moment there), but thankfully I managed to find the same colour scheme but darker, so I don't think you can tell.

I hope to get to making some more work soon. I am currently working on a piece with Jafabrit for the Flickr Response Project so watch this space!

Abstract Collage at Square Chapel

I am working really hard on getting a balance on my blog between my own work, and my workshops/ teaching. This week I am looking back on some work created in my Square Chapel workshops. We started by looking at the idea of abstract art and collage, concentrating on two artists in particular: Picasso (but of course) and Brach. I then set up a still life from musical instruments (luckily Square Chapel has some awesome old brass instruments, which are great to draw), and we all divided our paper into 5 pieces using a ruler. From this point, we started to draw, stopping at each line and moving a little to the left or right - looking at each piece of paper as a different 'plane'.

Once this was done, we filled in each bit using a combination of felt tips, sharpies, water colour, collage (using music notations) and pencil.

Some of the class chose to work in tonal colours, whilst others mixed it up a bit like the piece above. I had two new students during this session, and they really got stuck in, which was great. They are both talented ladies too.

And here are some of the final pieces. The bottom one is by the year 11 girl that I have in this class. She is such a good role model for the rest of them - she just gets stuck in and is really experimental.

Memento Mori

I am slowly but surely working on a new body of work. I have got big plans for it, and I am very excited about it actually (what a nerd). I first started working on this collection with this drawing that I blogged about here. These drawings always start with some really rough doodles (usually done on paper with biro, as I am a terrible artist and always forget to take a sketchbook with me. Also, for some reason, sketchbooks kind of scare me nowadays, and I often get better ideas when I don't feel the pressure of working in a book. Weird. Actually, you can see a great article on this blog about my sketchbook habits!) I digress.

 

My vision for these is that they will eventually be turned into large scale embroideries, with lots of colour! I am going to try and get back into painting as well, so that I can more accurately translate the ideas into colour. My biggest issue is how to re-create the 3d toning and shade using threads. I may well do some sort of interim embroideries where I reduce it all down to line first and see how that looks - though this would really be a stepping stone. I always feel quite restricted by my working space, so I really need to work hard to break out hence forcing myself to work large scale. I also really want these to have a lot of impact!

Recycling workshop

Last week I was lucky enough to pick up a day's work teaching a recycling workshop at the Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School in Derbyshire (thanks to @RareNotions on Twitter, who hooked me up: YAY for social networking!)

The brief was to work with mostly GCSE students who are about to start their exam study (with the theme of recycling, naturally), and with a handful of A-Level students as well. Apart from that, I was given free rein to decide on what to cover. I thought that my 'fabric collage' idea would be a great starting point, and would allow me to show them quite a lot of basic skills which they could then utilise later on.

I gathered a load of clothes/ sheets/ etc from charity shops, and the girls bought their own bags too. We started the day by talking about how to deconstruct clothes, and things to look out for (like great buttons, plackets, details like ruffles, embroidery, etc.) and they then deconstructed things and made their own piles to work with. During the morning I taught them:

• hand embroidery for line and texture
• cut work
• suffolk puffs
• reverse applique
• facings

And in the afternoon, they set to making their own samples. I was really impressed with the standard of work and effort in this group. They were so quiet (I think it was probably the quitest group I have ever taught!), and very studious. I've included some images of their work below.

I LOVE the dog on this! It came from a big piece of crewel embroidery that I got at the bottom of a bag from a charity shop. Somebody's granny obviously spent hours on it, then she probably died and it got thrown out. I'm not sure she would have liked it being cut up but at least it is being used!

Really nice examples of suffolk puffs here. I also really like the way this student has used the circular motif and repeated it in different ways in her work.

Not my style, but technically very good, and really great experimentation. She was so keen, she had loads of her own equipment, and was stitching away even before I showed them techniques. I was told that she wants to study textiles at university.

This girl's work was excellent. She had a really senstive handling of materials, and I think it shows here. I'll finish with an awesome quote from the teacher involved, Ms Natalie Jennings (thanks!)

" Thank you for your amazing workshop on Friday, myself and the students really appreciated it.  Our students clearly enjoyed themselves and felt the day worthwhile. "

Cushion Commission (try saying that after a few shandies!)

Around July last year I was invited to a friend of mine's wedding in Whitby. As a result, I got to spend time with some of my old school friends, imbibing a lot of free white wine and dancing to Guns and Roses. Much merriment was had, and at some point during the drunken ramblings, my friend's partner asked me to create some cushions for their new flat.

Well, several months and very many emails later - the commission has been completed! Jenny and Jonny were the perfect clients, they provided some great source material for me to design from:

Aren't they great? Right up my street I'll tell ya! They wanted really bright colours on a cream background, and luckily I had some lovely heavy 100% wool in cream that was perfect. I simplified the patterns down a lot and sent some alternative for them to choose from. In the end, they were happy to give me a free rein, and these are the end results (apologies for awful, crappy, winter photograph):

Oh and the awful grey chair/ radiator and plug socket combination! Think I need some product photography lessons. Anyway, I hope you can see what they're like. I love them (very nearly kept them!) They are all done using felt and matching cotton to zig zag applique it in place. Let me know what you think!

Creative Drawing at Square Chapel

Last week I did some creative drawing excercises with my Square Chapel students. I planned this lesson specifically to tackle some of the problems young people seem to have with drawing. In my experience, a lot of young people have this idea in their head that if their drawings don't look 'real' or don't look like a photograph, then  they are bad at drawing, etc. We all know this is crap right?! There are so many amazing ways to draw, and I wanted to try a few excercises with them to help them loosen up and 'let go' a bit. I thought this would also help one student in particular, who is very controlled. I warned her that she might find the excercises hard or uncomfortable to do, but that she should have a go anyway and see what happened.

I started the session with a collaborative drawing excercise, which we all took part in (I want them to realise that these things are always useful, no matter what stage or ability). We all placed 3 items from our pockets or bags on the table, and had 5 minutes to draw what we could. Then everyone moved to the left, and we continued this way until we had all drawn on each other's pieces. I was SERIOUSLY impressed with the skill level of these kids.

 

I had a new student this week who is in year 6 (last year or primary school), and she really held her own, but as you can see they are all amazing!

As a main focus for the class, I set up a still life in the centre of the room. I then proceeded to instruct them in a number of different excercises including:

• continuous line drawing
• non-dominant hand drawing
• blind drawing

There was the usual descent from the ranks (even I find some of these very hard to do and I have done them a lot!), but they were all game in the end, and as a result they produced some fantastic work. I was particularly proud of the student who I mentioned earlier, who started with tiny, light, tight little drawings in the middle of the A3 paper, and who finished with this:

I'm really proud! The other student also produced some fantastic work. I was also really impressed with my year 6 student, it seemed to come very naturally to draw in this way, and she kept her eyes on what was in front of her, rather than her paper - which is great skill. I think sometimes it is so easy to get bogged down in the marks you make. Much better to let your hand move independently and see what amazing things it has done when you are finished!

 CHECK out out that technique!

We finished the session by introducing some colour. It was quite hard excercise to do given that the light in the room we work in is not ideal, but they did a great job. I asked them to pick 3 pastels (in light, medium and dark colours), they then had to work without outlining the image, but just picking out the light, medium and dark areas of the still life.

At the end everyone commented how much fun they had, and I encouraged them all to look at each others' work. I think it is really important to introduce this habit - that way they can acknowledge their different styles, and in turn have confidence in their own.

Commission Time!

Last year I was asked by my boyfriend's parents to do a commission for them. One of Megan's friends was a very keen embroiderer - she was passionate about stitching, and passionate about the new ways people are interpreting a traditional technique. Sadly, Megan's friend died last year, but at the funeral her children requested that guests help themselves to a piece from her embroidery collection to remember her by (what a lovely idea). Megan decided that it would be a great idea to get me to 'respond' to the piece, as she feels it is what her friend would have wanted.

This is an image of the original embroidery -which I think is pretty cool! There are two, mirror images on the end of a long table runner made of lovely greyish linen. There are some marks on it too, which of course just add to its awesomeness. That is the beauty of found/ reclaimed and upcycled fabrics: that they show off their history.

This is a better view of the original embroidery, and kind of gives you an idea of how long the piece is. My embroidery sits right in the middle of it.

And this is my work. I wanted to do something that was in juxtaposition to the floral design on the ends, but that would tie in with them at the same time. The design on the top of the skull is based on the idea of the sugar skull, and also detailed, rich and colourful Indian embroidery. I tried to choose the colours to either match or compliment the designs on each end.

As always, the embroideries are my own designs, taken directly from my drawings. I used my trusty backstitch a lot (I feel it gives me the line I am looking for), but I really enjoyed doing the eyes using big long stitches and layering them in the same way as I cross hatched in my drawing to create depth.

  

A close up of the embroidery on the top of the skull. I have used a number of different stitches such as satin, chain and bullion knot. I also got a chance to use some of my extensive sequin collection, so this piece really sparkles and shines.

Overall, I am pretty happy with this piece. It is small scale, but it is an example of the direction I want to push my work in for the time being. I really want to PUSH this embroidery thing - I want to make really big, really detailed pieces based on sources like my paisley skull drawing (see previous posts). Megan and Chris haven't seen this yet (I am going to post this blog on their facebook), so fingers crossed they like it. I hope you like it guys!!