So much for that!
As I was finishing the river piece I got the inspiration for 4 new pieces. I actually had pictures in my mind of what they would look like. They are all very different but all represent freedom in some form.
Chaos to Calm
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I have drawn them in a workbook to get them out of my head and only working on one piece at the moment.
I was also inspired by a lamp made by Donna the winner of the Great British Pottery Throwdown, called The Ascent, which represented her journey out of depression.
I have painted procion dye onto calico. It was supposed to be really dark at one end getting lighter using a dark black, a lighter black, a medium charcoal and a lighter charcoal. However it didn't really work out but never mind. There was supposed to bee a lighter grey where the black 'bled' into the cream!
Plus when I washed the dye out 24 hours later, I managed to get some staining on the part that was supposed to be undyed. However it will work out okay as move on with the piece.
I decided to make the piece slightly smaller so ripped off some of the black on the left and a strip from the top.
I had dyed other fabrics to use with this piece plus some pieces dyed with rust coloured procion dye to make chains for two of the other pieces.
I have torn up some of the fabric to make fragments which I have currently just placed onto the background. Each of them will be handstitched before being stitched onto the piece.
I am going to wrap the cords with the different torn black fabrics before couching them onto the piece.
My tasks for this week include wrapping the cords, making some thinner cords on the sewing machine and attaching the background to some wadding and a backing so that they will take the weight of the cords.
Not much then!!
I'll let you know my progress in a later blog post.
Thanks for joining me today
Bernice
Our photography theme for December/January was Glimmer Moments. You can read more about what these are here.
The instructions for the photography group were: A glimmer moment is something that brings joy or a sense of safety. This isn’t about taking the perfect picture. It’s about snapping an image that probably only means something to you. It might be an image that represents a moment rather than the moment itself. After all we should be living in the moment. An example might be the dirty plates after a family meal.
I only took two photos during the 4 weeks - one at each end of the time - both of which were about meals out with the same friends.
Ceiling lamp at the restaurant |
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Painting on the restaurant wall |
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The next theme was to choose between 5 and 10 of our best or favourite photos from 2023.
I hope you have enjoyed my photographs.
Thanks for joining me today
Bernice
Where?
Let’s stay here. Here
where comfort lies.
Here, where my concerns
are contained and specified.
Here, where I feel safe.
Let’s go there. There
where adventure waits.
There, where worries fade
amidst the new found space.
There, where I feel free.
The second poem we were asked to write was about travelling solo.
Frustration
What if I packed a bag
and ran away from home?
What if I leave no note or
explanation; no forwarding address
or plan of destination?
What if I turn off my phone
to enjoy the silence of a solo
retreat? Retreat to times past
when communication was simple.
What if I set out one sunny day
choosing a road to travel to
who knows where; then turning
East or West after half an hour?
What if? What if I don’t?
This third poem is an ode to make something unimportant become significant.
Taking Out The Bins
Monday’s chore. To empty
inside bins into
a plastic sack and place it
in the grey bin. Outside
whatever the weather, ready
for Tuesday’s collection.
A simple task held lightly
by him, but seen as a love
language to her.
Thanks for joining me today
Bernice
In order to finish the textile piece I had started in mid-December I attend two studio days at Littleheath Barn, taking only this piece to work on. The choice was to sit all day doing nothing or actually working on the piece. I did the latter.
Towards the end of February I managed to do some handstitching at home without too much anxiety. But there were days in between when I was paralysed by anxiety and unable to pick up the work.
Last Friday after another anxiety attack midweek, I finished the piece. And miraculously, all anxiety left me completely and I have experienced the best week of 2024 so far.
But let me tell you about the background to the piece before I show it to you. I have had this picture of a river in my head for around 55 years. I know! A long time.
When I was at teacher training college in the late 1960s, one of our assessments was to write a cross-curriculum project introducing a piece of classical music to 7-11 year olds. I have no idea how I came across this piece of music but it has appealed to me ever since.
Vltava is the second of six symphonic poems by Bedrich Smetana. He described it: The composition describes the course of the Vltava, starting from the two small springs, the Studená and Teplá Vltava, to the unification of both streams into a single current, the course of the Vltava through woods and meadows, through landscapes where a farmer's wedding is celebrated, the round dance of the mermaids in the night's moonshine: on the nearby rocks loom proud castles, palaces and ruins aloft. The Vltava swirls into the St John's Rapids; then it widens and flows toward Prague, past the Vyšehrad, and then majestically vanishes into the distance, ending at the Elbe.
Inthe 1990s we were singing 'The River is Here' quite often and I had this picture in my head of making a textile piece about the journey of a river through rocky land, desert and into lush greenery.
I eventually made the piece as part of my City and Guilds course. I dyed various types of fabics and cut them up into rectangles and sewed them onto a backing piece. I really didn't know much about dyeing at that time. Whilst I finished the piece I was never totally satisfied with it. I felt the greens were all wrong but didn't have time to do anything about it.
It hung in my office when I was a church administrator but when we closed down the office I threw it away.
Both that piece and the new piece was inspired by Bible passages: Ezekiel 47:1-12 and Revelation 22:1-2.
So drum roll please! Here's the finished piece:
It is 20 inches wide and 56 inches long. As a river it would perhaps read better in landscape format but that would need a really long batten and would present a difficult storage problem. And although my husband thought it was about a waterfall, it isn't!
Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice
Thankfully in the years since then I have been healed. I do have down days – the winter doesn’t help – but I do not sink into depression. I can’t remember the exact day it lifted but I do know that it was an answer to other people’s prayers and mine.
This year (I know it’s only been a month!) I have had spaghetti for a mind. Everything has been muddled up and needs untangling. Maybe it’s more like one of my threads boxes than spaghetti!
I have been overwhelmed and over thinking. Actually some of it started the Thursday before Christmas when I did some free machine embroidery on the latest textile piece I’m supposedly working on. It just didn’t fit the piece of work or the picture in my head. And really why would something so innocuous send me spiralling into anxiety. The work and the machine sat on the table for what felt like forever but was actually just over 2 weeks. I couldn’t go into the room. I felt I couldn’t do any thing creative. I couldn’t even think about being creative without shaking inside. I have never suffered from anxiety – just a few butterflies before interviews or exams. But day after day there it was. I self-medicated with binge watching Chinese drama videos on YouTube.
Some of them are supposed to be comedies. I think some of them are supposed to be serious. But seriously, there’s slow motion kissing, slow motion gazing (how do you gaze in slow motion?), slow motion walking and slow motion running. And of course, slow motion blinking. There’s also either a scheming man or woman or both, a firm-jawed cold CEO and a waif described as Cinderella in the click bait title.
I haven’t written blog posts here. I did do one for church on Perspective. Actually I wrote about perspective on this blog post From under the sideboard. I haven’t written in my planner/creative journal. I have managed to turn up to a studio day and a workshop but it was a struggle. I also turned up for two poetry zoom classes but ended up somewhat further down the spiral after one of the poems I wrote stirred up a problem I thought I’d dealt with.
Chinese drama aside, I have also talked to people. I’ve ‘chatted’ by text on Messenger, I’ve been on zoom calls and I’ve met with people in person.
Looking back, the issue of whether I should give up textiles and mixed media has come up about every 4 years. Should I throw out everything and find something else to do? Rest assured, it wouldn’t be cooking!
However during this last 6 weeks it’s been obvious that I need to be creative. It’s what I’m meant to do. Creativity is the gift God has given me in order to help, support and encourage others in their creativity whatever that looks like.
I’m so thankful for all the people who have listened to me during the past few weeks. It is so good to have people you can trust who will listen without condemnation.
Each of them said in one way or another some or all of the following:
What do you need to find?
What do you need to talk about?
Do you have a trusted friend who will listen?
If you don’t, email me and I’ll start a conversation with you.
Maybe you could become a listening friend.
Thanks for ‘listening’ today.
Bernice
Over the years since 2011 I've chosen Restore, Focus, Present, Participate, Thirst, Purpose, Connect, Gratitude/Thankfulness, Commit/Commitment, Walk, Intentional and More. This year's has been Connect.
I signed up for Ali Edwards' One Little Word class this year and managed to do quite a few of the prompts. I also didn't worry if I missed out some of them.
Connect has been a good word for me. I'm happy with how intentional it made me. I am happy to let it go, although coincidentally 'Making Connections' is the theme for 2024 for the Midland Textile Forum and our exhibitions.
So, on to 2024 and a new word for a new year.
But what should it be?
For a while I thought it was going to be [curious] or [curiosity] but it didn't totally grab me.
Then I thought about {discover}. There are lots of strong synonyms for this word but I thought these gathered together what I need for 2024: design, devise, explore, identify, invent, learn, notice, observe, reveal.
What can I {discover}:
about myself,
about my textile practice,
about new techniques,
about taking my ideas further.
Who knows, but it has the potential for an interesting year.
There are a couple of days left of 2023 so quite possibly there's time for a different word to crop up!
Do you choose a Word of the Year? Let me know what it is in the comments below.
Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice
PS: The name of the sculpture in the photograph is the 'Monument of Discoveries'.
Marc Ignacio on Unsplash |
with a poem I wrote at the last Theme Poetry of 2023
Tall and Slim
I
would
be
beautiful
if not for
the marks.
I’m tall
and slim.
A tall, slim,
white candle
Standing
straight,
upright
and tall.
But those
marks I feel
disfigure me.
What are
they? Why
are they
there?
Did I
mention
I’m tall
and slim?
What’s this?
A stick
of flame
touches
my head.
It burns.
My head
shines
brightly.
How?
And then
just as
quickly
the light’s
snuffed
out. I
feel strange.
Some part
of me has
dripped
down
my sides.
Brightness and darkness alternate.
But as the darkness falls,
a light
flares up
and touches my head each time.
I am no longer tall, slim and white. I’m almost gone.
Dissolved, disfigured, pooled in the saucer I’ve stood on
these past twenty four days. There's just enough of me
For one last show of light to glow on Christmas Day.
Thanks for visiting my blog this year
Bernice
The thing about looking down is that it can be from a great height or it could just be what's at our feet.
These are views from high place down into valleys in Australia.
But this was at my feet as we walked.
In Western Australia we walked through a Tree Top Walk. Here's the view looking down into the forest floor.
When we were in Albany (WA) we went to the top of a monument and looked down onto the port.
These were the steps we climbed up. The photo was taken as we started the walk back down.
And finally! From the bedroom window when the frost had melted on half the lawn!
Thank you for joining me today.
Bernice
I started work on this new piece by 'painting' the fabric with thickened procion dye.
And later this week I worked on this sample from the Maps & More workshop the previous week. It's not particularly satisfactory so it will no doubt be put into my sketchbook.
Thanks for joining me today
Bernice
The whole side of the building had this piece of art.
The clock tower.
The Cathedral grounds had market stalls set up.
We walked through to New Street where the German Market is held. It was so crowded. It was almost impossible to get to see anything or to get anywhere. However I did mange these photos.
We walked through the Bullring shoppiing area to get to Moor Street Station and the train home.
We have never been into the Christmas market on a Saturday and I think I never will again. We have been during the week before so I'll remember that for next time.
Thanks for joining me today
Bernice
I continued the dotted line across the whole book but once the Posca ink had dried I didn't like it.
So I went back over the dots with a white Posca. I wrote the words of the chorus of 'We Are Australian' in a thick white Posca and added black dots.
I added some more stencilling. I also knocked back the copper texture paint with acrylic to soften it.
I don't know whether this side is finished. I have the other side to do and may or may not come back to this side.
Thanks for joining me today
Bernice
Sorry this is a bit blurry. I've tried several times to photograph the pages and this is the best version. The left hand page is about my dad from birth to the age of 6.
The right hand page is about the family coming back to England.
This is the start of a page on our visit to Stuart Street in Bulimba in 2008. This is the house that was built in 1940 on the site of the house my dad lived in at some point in the late 1920s.
I started trying out some collage and stencilling.
I printed out the 4 songs I mentioned in my last post and stuck them into the book.
I have no idea where this is going. But onward and upward!
Thanks for joining me today
Bernice
I started by tearing up the dressmaking patterns into smaller pieces and using matt medium, glued the pieces randomly onto both sides of an A2 piece of cartridge paper. Surprisingly for me, I didn't take photographs!
I folded it into 4 in landscape format and into 3 in the portrait format. I cut along these 3 folds to make the pages of the zigzag book.
I joined the 3 strips together with the packet the pattern came in.
I made covers from the thick card from the back of tracing paper pad and used the roll off paper from the gel printing I had done for my Australian Connections project. The finished size is 15x14.5 cms.
I used copper coloured texture paste through stencils and sequin waste.
I used watercolour to colour the joins. They look really yellow in the photos but matches the tissue better in reality.
Using ink pads I stencilled the Austalian plants.
I used a Posca pen to put dots to join all the pages.
I am thinking of putting the lyrics of Australian songs or possibly just random words from the songs. I've got the lyrics for Waltzing Matilda, We are Australian, From a Land Down Under and Australia Fair.
I'm actually making it up as I go along so I have no idea what the finished book will be like!
Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice
The Guildhall
22 & 23 Bayley Lane
More of the Cathedral
While I was in the meeting, Roger went to the Transport Museum. Then we met up and went round the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum. It had an excellent gallery on the history of Coventry.
This was the back of the upright panel.
And then we had lunch in the Golden Cross Pub.
Thanks for joining me today
Bernice
Anyway, back to the fabric. In my last post 'In the compost bin' I showed you what I had done with my Venice child's costume.
I painted the stand.
Back to the beginning. The original music 'O Solo Mio' was written about Naples. However since 1981 the song with the advert words has forever been associated with Venice. When I put this piece into an exhibition I shall call it O Sole Mio or Just One Cornetto.
Which name would you choose?
Thanks for joining me today
Bernice
I never liked the skirt and at one time I was going to redo it. However in the end, I cut it up. As you do!
I chopped the pieces up and tried out different ways of putting them back together
A friend suggested I put the pieces in the compost bin so that the worms would digest some of the fabric and give it a decayed look. The two pieces were in the compost for 2 months and nothing happened.
I tried cutting into the pieces to give the worms a better opportunity to nibble.
Nothing happened, except the back had mottled staining. Then my husband wanted to use the compost so the pieces came out. I rinsed them through.
Last week I took them to a studio day at Littleheath Barn in the hopes that Liske would have some ideas. She suggested I lightly painted over the bright blue parts and the metallic bits. I did that and it's knocked it back considerably. I then cut it the pieces into strips. In the second photo I've turned some of the pieces over so you can see the mottling.
Now I just have to decide what to do with the pieces, other than throw them in the bin!
Thanks for joining me today
Bernice
We did the grid exercise where you put masking tape horizontally and vertically onto fabric and then print in various ways over the grids. I had found some narrow tape on Amazon which was a hideous green. However it did the job.
When the green masking tape was taken off it was thrown away.
The finished cloth is rather more orange than the photo shows which doesn't really match my Venice colour palette. So as homework I had another go. This time using only my Venice related stamps, stencils and Thermofax screens. I used some of the narrow green tape because it's really easy to make curves with.
I did two versions
This time I put the masking tape into my sketchbook.
Here's another page from the sketchbook
Our next session is in December so I'm afraid you'll have to wait to see what I do with these.
Thanks for joining me today
Bernice
It turns out that my grandfather joined the King's Rifles Corp in 1907 possibly as a groom. He served in Malta and was invalided out in 1909. I haven't been able to find out why. In the meantime my grandmother is described as a chocolate packer - presumably at Cadbury's. I don't know how they met as I know my grandmother was Catholic and the military papers describe my grandfather as Wesleyan.
I knew that they had been given free passage to Australia but didn't know how. The £10 Poms were after World War 2. It turns out that after the First World War, there was an Act of Parliament which gave free passage to ex-Servicemen.
I found the passenger lists with my grandparents and my aunt's names. They sailed on the SS Sophocles to Brisbane in 1923. It took over 7 weeks. The papers I was sent from the Queensland State Archives said that my grandmother's brother already lived in Bulimba and had agreed to nominate my grandfather and help him find a job. So that's why they went to Bulimba.
My father was born in 1924 and his brother a couple of years later.
I am rather hoping that at some point all this will lead to a textile piece. However I haven't really found my way into that yet. I'm going to finish putting all the information I've found together in the book. Then start on a page about my son.
After that, I shall wait and see. Hopefully inspiration will strike. And if it doesn't I'll have a family scrapbook.
Thanks for joining me today
Bernice
We always start this session with an unrelated piece of writing. This was based on a poem called Vulnerable by Elma Mitchell, which starts 'Everything is ..'
In the Close
Everything is quiet by 10pm.
The Close is almost silent.
Just one or two late arrivals home.
The teenager brought home
by
his girlfriend’s mother.
No more deliveries, no Amazon Prime
or supermarkets trucks.
No phone calls. It’s impolite
to phone after ten o’clock
isn’t it?
Downstairs lights off, upstairs lights
turned off. The only lights
the moon and the street lamps
shining in the darkness.
Suburban Lives
Short, suburban trains, stopping
at suburban stations,
wend their way to the city centre,
racing between the stops.
Hurrying people to their destination.
No eye contact made.
All looking at their phones
or
studiously ignoring fellow travellers.
Rushing through the station, commuters
strangely eager to reach their desks
displaying a keenness to get the day over
when in the late afternoon, they can return
to their slower suburban lives.
Thanks for joining me today
Bernice
There's still time to visit. It ends on Sunday November 26th. The museum is open everyday from 10-3.
I took as many photos as I could. There was some gorgeous work in the glass cabinets but the reflections were too much from the lights to be able to successfully photograph the work.
And lastly my canal-inspired pieces.
I really like the brick wall behind these pieces. It sets them off really well.
Thanks for joining me today
Bernice
(c) Eva Darron (Unsplash) |
Thanks for joining me today
Bernice
Thursday saw us visit the Cascades. I was expecting a waterfall but there you are! We had a lovely loop walk.
The view from the top was amazing.
We continued north to York for our final night in Western Australia.
And onto our final visit of the day. This was Toodyay - pronounced 2jay. Of course! We went round this flour mill which gave a really good insight into the social history of the town.
After lunch we walked round a Christmas shop purely to be able to make a video of it for two of my Christmas-obsessed friends.
Then it was time to drive to the airport. We actually arrived about an hour earlier than planned but it did make for a leisurely check-in with no queues.
17 hours on a plane and 7 time zones saw us reach London Heathrow. It had been 32 degrees C when we left Perth and 4 degrees when we arrived in the UK. Shiver, shiver!
Roger drove us south, mostly along the coast of Western Australia until we reached Mandurah. We had a walkabout the quayside.
The lighthouse was on the headland and we walked a loop around it hoping to see whales out in the bay. We didn't.
Personally I think I'd call them fissures in the rock not canals But there again if the signpost had said Fissure Rocks we might not have bothered to drive to them.
After checking in we went a wander around Fremantle.
On Sunday we took a tour of Fremantle Prison.
I was intrigued by the exhibition called Dancing in Fetters.
We had lunch by the beach and then went round the Maritime Museum. There was a whole exhibition about how Australia won the America's Cup ( a yacht race). I'm not a fan of maritime museums - I feel like I've seen one - I've seen them all, But Roger is a fan and if there's such a museum wherever we are, he has to visit it. I liked this Lego replica of Australia 2 which was the winning yacht.
Next we took a boat trip up the river from Fremantle to Perth. We took a free bus to Kings Park.
The next day we returned to Perth - this time by train. We wanted to see the black swans at Lake Monger. It was rather hot day and after walking from the station to the lake and then around the lake I was beginning to be somewhat irritable as there was no sign of swans, let alone black ones. We had almost finished walking round the lake when we spotted one black swan and a few yards on, another swan with some fluffy cygnets.
We returned to the city centre and visited the Art Gallery of Western Australia. The building was impressive but I didn't much like the art.
We moved on to the Western Australia Museum. I wish we had not bothered with the Art Gallery as we had so little time at the museum due to arriving too close to closing time. One of the galleries was about Connections.
There were gardens dedicated to different story book and nursery rhyme characters. There were rides to go on and face painting opportunities.
I couldn't resist taking photos of the palettes.