A couple of finished pieces

While I’ve not been blogging I have been working on various different ideas.

I will be part of the Midlands Textile Forum’s ‘On the Threshold’ exhibition in September and I have finished this piece:

It’s called 1771. I chose the date as being somewhere around where historians think the Industrial Revolution may have started.  The piece is a whole cloth I printed using breakdown printing at Leah Higgin’s studio in 2019.  It’s taken until now to work out what to do with it.

I used running stitch around some of the shapes in the background.  I’ve also used running stitch to outline 10 cogs of differing sizes.  They are not too obvious until you get up close.

And just you know there are stitches, here is the rather ruckled back which now has another backing on it. 

In addition, I've been continuing with my Captivity, Freedom & Identity theme.  I looked to see what image is used to represent depression and found that one of the images is a teardrop.

 

I made three wire teardrops which I wound wadding around and a layer of fabric.  The first is called Tears of Oppression.  It doesn't photograph well because there's black on black. It is tightly bound and has chains and closed padlocks.

 

The second is Tears of Transition which is grey.  It has bits of knotted fabric and chains falling off and open padlocks.   And lastly there's Tears of Joy which is shades of gold with beads.

I've got lots of ideas that I'm mulling over.

 

Watch this space for new work.

 

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice 

I'm back

I'm back! I think! I hope so!

My last post was in the middle of May and I've not done much on Instagram either.  However, from last Thursday to Sunday I was talking about my fabric books in the Creative Textiles Studio at the Festival of Quilts.

 

 

In total I talked about fabric books for around 15 hours over the 4 days.   That's about a month's worth of talking in my normal life!  I had a good time though and really positive responses to all my work.

 

In addition, for the first time ever I entered the Quilt Competition in the Quilt Creations category.  This is for 3D and items of clothing.  There were some superb pieces of work in this category including a beautiful small book using rusting techniques by Gilly Meeks.

 

Guess what I might make for next year's competition!

 

My entry was the kimono that I had shown you before on the blog.  Here it is at the show.

 

front

back

It looks enormous but it is an adult size full length kimono.

 

I had some encouraging feedback form the two judges although I feel one of them missed the message of the piece.

I have been exploring the themes of Captivity, Freedom and Identity and integrating my own creative writing into the textile pieces I have made. Whilst working through these themes I became interested in the Japanese repair technique: Kintsugi. I believe that everyone, however damaged by life they may be, has gold within them which can be called out. I made this asymmetric kimono from linen blend fabrics. The stitching represents kintsugi style repairs to symbolise the beauty of broken people as they are made whole through counselling, prayer or other means. The gold lining represents the beauty that lies within us all.

Sadly on the entry form the information supplied could only be 300 characters so this is what it said, which was printed in the catalogue:

Working on the theme of Identity and inspired by the Japanese repair technique of Kintsugi, the stitching on this kimono symbolises the beauty of broken people as they are made whole through counselling, prayer or other means. The gold lining represents the beauty that lies within us all.

Talking about my books at the show has excited me about books once more and I've already had ideas for a set of 3 books.  I'm also inspired to return to the blog as I do love sharing my work, techniques and processes with people.

See you soon
Bernice 

Change

I've been missing for a while!

Lots of stuff going on but sadly no inclination to blog or journal or keep up to date with things.

However I'm here today with some fun stuff.  The challenge in the ladies photography group for this month was to change a photo.  These were the instructions:

For the Change activity take one photograph.  It can be a still life, a landscape etc – whatever you choose.  Then edit it so that the image is very different.  It has to be major change or even distortion – not just cropping or turning it to black & white.

This is the photo I started with:

I played with it in Snapseed.  I can't remember all the things I did (sorry).  I definitely used the double exposure tool twice but had done some things before that.

 

Then I used Lunapic online.  It has an immense variety of tools and effects.

 

 

Explode - in the effects menu

 

 

3D Cube in the effects menu

 

 

Implode in the Effects menu

Fairy in the Art menu

I really love the finished image.  It reminds me of the pouring paint effects you can get - without getting paint all over yourself!

Thanks for being here today
Bernice

How it's going

You may remember my Changing my Mind blog post.  If you don't or if this is your first visit to my blog, click on the link to read what I'm talking about.

On to the update.  I changed my mind about using the torn squares and wondered about stitching gold lines to represent the Kintsugi style repairs.  I took a photo of the kimono, printed it out and drew on it.

 

Then I tried assembling the lining, the felt wadding layer and the outside layer.

Nightmare!  The three layers together were quite unwieldly and I couldn't get the seams to match up particularly under the arms.  Plus, I was pretty sure I would not be able to manhandle it through the machine.

(Are we allowed to still say 'manhandle'?  Person-handle doesn't sound right.  Apparently jostle, hustle and shove are all synonyms I could have used.)

Back to the point of this blog post!

First I drew lines with a Frixion pen to represent the broken shards on the outer layer.  I machined with a straight stitch so I would know where to stitch later.

I sewed the lining to the front and turned it inside out (outside in!) so the seams were in between the layers.  You know what I mean!

Then I satin stitched along all the lines sewing the two layers together

The Back

The Front

It hasn't been all plain sailing.  Several times I've had to remove a line of stitching and re-do it.  However I have finished one pass of the whole thing.  It just needs going over again.  And sadly there's something wrong with the left sleeve by the underarm.

Then just the cuffs and the collar.  'Just' she says.  It takes hours to wrangle the kimono through the machine. And I need to have a rest after 40 minutes of machining.

Still there's less left to do than when I started.

Thanks for being here today
Bernice

5 years on

How things have changed!  Roger and I went for a walk on Thursday and as people avoided eye contact and didn't return my hello or smile I thought back to 5 years ago when walking every day was all we were allowed to do, and despite social distancing everyone was friendly.

We walked from Harborne, a suburb of Birmingham, towards the city centre to Edgbaston Reservoir, round the reservoir and back to the start.

Most of the walk was along the Harborne Walkway which apparently was originally a branch railway line built for commuters from Harborne.

There were various bridges and tunnels along the way.

Eventually we came to the reservoir 

We stopped off at the little cafe for hot chocolate and then continued around the reservoir and back the way we came.

On the way back we noticed that one of the tunnels had an unusual construction.  The bricks were laid diagonally.  Not that you can tell from this photo!

Finally we made it back to Harborne where we had lunch at Damascena.  Very nice.

If you're in the Redditch area today, Becca and I will be at Forge Mill Museum for another Meet the Artists event for our exhibition.

Thanks for being here today
Bernice

Changing my mind

In a departure from my neutral palette I have been working on a teal and gold kimono.  It's intended to be part of my Identity series.

My original idea was to have squares of fabric on the teal as broken pieces leading down to the solid gold at the bottom.

It was my plan to put gold stitch to represent the Kintsugi type repairs.

I quickly changed my mind about the pointy sleeves as I couldn't work out how to make them.

The same gold coloured fabric at the bottom of the kimono is also being used for the lining.

I played about with gold relief paste on embossing folders as a possible texture to add.

I started adding the torn squares of fabric.

It was really difficult to work on it while it was hanging up so I tried having it on the table.

 

It was at this point that I realised that no amount of ironing or stitching was going to make this idea work and I needed to have a radical rethink.

 

Which I did.

 

But you'll have to come back next time to find out how I changed my approach to this piece of work.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Meet the Artists

Last Saturday Becca and I spent most of the day at Forge Mill Needle Museum attending our Meet the Artist event.

We had a great time with some wonderful conversations with our visitors.

Whilst I was there I took some photos and some video footage which I have put togther as best I can.  My video editing software is not as intuitive as I would like.  Plus some of the footage is a bit wobbly.  However I hope you enjoy it.

        

Our next Meet the Artist is on Saturday 5th April from 10.30 onwards.  It would be lovely to see you there.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Expressions

On Tuesday this week Becca and I set up our first exhibition together.  It's called Expressions and it's on at Forge Mill Needle Museum in Redditch.

I put this video together of setting up.

 Here are some of the pieces I have in the exhibition.

Dancing to Freedom

Chaos to Calm

'O Sole Mio'

Venice Disappearing

I will be at the museum today for a Meet the Artist session and plan to video the exhbition.  I'll share the video next week.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Days 14-20

Currently I'm doing better than I thought I might with the 100 day project.  Although some days I only think about what I'll do and then do 2 days worth the next day.  Is that cheating?

Day 14: watercolour paints and cling film

Day 15: Letters stencilled and coloured in with glaze pens

 Day 16: spray inks through alphabet stencils

Mop-up page to remove excess ink from the papers above.

Plus several hours at a Studio Day at Littleheath Barn working on machining the lining of a kimono and handstitching a wall hanging.

Day 17: sprayed White Linen ink over day 16's papers to quieten the rather strong colours
day 18: zines folded and letters added

 Day 19: ink from stamp pads applied with brushes through stencils.

 Day 20: zines folded and letters added with glaze pens

So there's me up-to-date.  I also put together a couple of PowerPoint presentations using the photographs I mentioned last week and made title slides.

And with the help and support of a friend, continued to declutter and tidy my craft space (dining room!)

Next week Becca and I will be putting up our exhibition which opens on Wednesday.

 An exciting week in store.

 
Thanks for being here today
Bernice