A finished series

Over the past year I have made a series of work about the negative labels we put on ourselves and that society puts on us.  I also looked at the positive labels and how we change our view of ourselves.

I started with a piece called I'm Fine -NOT!  This started with a sketch a friend had made of me during lockdown.  I had it made into a Thermofax screen and printed it onto the fabric.  I painted the grey dye over the fabric leaving the white masks.  I embroidered the words that you might want to say when someone asks you how you are and you answer 'I'm fine' when you really are not fine.

Three months later I did a workshop with Leah Higgins and dyed and printed the fabric with the theme of labels in mind.  The workshop was about building layers of print so these fabrics were busier then the fabrics I had been printing previously.

I didn't necessarily make all the next pieces in the order they make sense but here I'm going to show you them in the order they will be exhibited.

Piece 2 is called Negativity Chained.  There's a possibility this title may change!  

Following on from this is Cancelled.  On this piece I stamped the words and machine stitched a line through them to cross them out.  I embroidered the opposite word over the top to cancel out the negative with the positive.

Piece 4 is a transition piece between the negative and positive thinking and feeling.  It is a fabric hanging attached to a canvas.  It is the smallest of the pieces but shown large here.  The gold scar uses the repair idea of Kintsugi.

The next piece represents how we change our thinking from the negative to the positive. It's currently called Restored.

The final piece takes the original I'm fine - NOT! and becomes Confidence.  I put the original drawing into ChatGPT and asked it to remove the mask and give the drawing a nose, mouth and chin.  Then I asked ChatGPT to give the drawing a smiling mouth and then asked it to remove the shadows.  I had each of the three images made into a screen.  These were printed onto the undyed calico with yellow ochre fabric paint.  The words below the faces are positive words that give you confidence.

These 6 textile hangings will hopefully be hung in order at Forge Mill Needle Museum in 2027 when Becca and I have an exhibition entitled Expressions Too.

Thank you for joining me today
Bernice 

Bricks and Water

Next let's look at the pieces I've made for the Stitch in the Middle exhibition in Ledbury in October.  The title of the exhibition is Bricks and Water, with the emphasis being on industrial.  The exhibition will also be at Forge Mill in 2027.

If you're a regular here you know that I am a big fan of the canals built across the West Midlands and the redbrick industrial buildings.

I went on a workshop at Littleheath Barn called Abstract Landscape.  I took with me left over fabric from my previous canal pieces and some odds and ends from my stash.  I wanted my landscape to reflect the canals.  It's called Along Industrial Canals.

It has wavy horizontal machine stitched lines across it and some hand stitching which yo uhave to get quite close up to see.

I made a hanging book for the second piece based on photos I had taken at Forge Mill when I was on a course there.  I transferred my photos onto the fabric with bondaweb.

And lastly I'm sending the piece 1771 which I blogged about last August. This is another piece you have to get quite close to in order to see the hand stitched outlines of cogs.

Thanks for being here today
Bernice

Fragments

Today I'd like to show you the pieces I have made for the Midlands Textile Forum exhibition in September.  You will have two opportunities to see the exhibition.

It is on at The Artery in Worcester from 8th - 12th September.  It is then moving to Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery from 26th September to 7th November.

The theme for this exhibition is Fragments.

This piece was supposed to be stretched around the canvas but ended up as a hanging attached to the canvas instead.  It's made with fragments of fabric leftover from previous projects. 

 

The next piece you have seen before.  You can read the story here: Echoes of Memory.

And my final fragments piece is called My Imperfect Messy Life and is really difficult to photograph. It is also made with leftover bits of fabric from other projects.  I used Solufleece - a water soluble fabric - to attach all the pieces and then machined over the whole thing to attach the pieces together.

This was it hanging on the line to dry after washing out the Solufleece.

 And this is it finished with something behind it!

 I do hope you get an opportunity to see the exhibition.

Thanks for being here today
Bernice