The Story of the River

What a journey I have been on over the last three months.

Regular readers know that I usually blog twice a week.  This year I have managed one post: Lets Start a Conversation.  In that post I told you how I was stricken with anxiety attacks and unable to do much creatively.

In order to finish the textile piece I had started in mid-December I attended 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

A new challenge coming

Thursday was my first meeting with the ladies of Eclectica as a member.  The group has been invited to exhibit at the Bramble Patch in Weedon Bec.  These are the pieces I have submitted for the exhibition

Walk 1
Hand printed and dyed cotton fabrics. Pattern based on the word: WALK
Design inspired by Paul Klee’s oil painting ‘Highway and Byways’.
Strip pieced, cut up and reassembled.
Some machining with pre-set stitches Size: 19.5” (w) x 35.75” (l) 

Walk 2
Hand printed and dyed cotton fabric. Pattern based on the word: WALK
Strip pieced, cut up and reassembled.
Some machining with pre-set stitches Size: 14.5” (w) x 15.5” (l)

Beyond Square
Purchased text-based hand printed and dyed cotton fabrics.
Strip pieced, cut up and reassembled.
Bought plain fabric for line inserts and binding Max size: 26” (w) x 25” (l)

The exhibition is from Wednesday April 6th to Wednesday April 20th.

In the meantime, next Tuesday I'm going to launch a creative writing challenge.  I do hope some of you will join in.   It's called: 21 words

The idea is to take one word each day and write one sentence to use the word creatively.  More information next Tuesday.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

A new adventure

Last week I was invited to show my work to a lovely group of ladies who make up the textile group Eclectica.  I have seen the group's work at various exhibitions over the last few years.  I thought that maybe now was the right time to apply to join them.

I was encouraged to take lots of work to show them.  I took them at their word and filled a suitcase.

The two display tables soon morphed into four!  I put my work together in groups.  This table had a variety of work that has no overall theme.

Here are my canal inspired textile pieces and sketchbooks.

Off now to another country!  And my work and sketchbooks based on Florida.

And no sharing of my work would be complete without Venice!

As I prepared to take all this work to the presentation, I realised that whatever the outcome it had been a useful exercise.  I have never put everything together like this before.   The sketchbooks usually live on shelves downstairs whilst the textile pieces are either piled on the spare bed or in bags for life in the same bedroom.

I found that after I stopped shaking that I enjoyed talking about my interests and my textile and mixed media work.

The day before I had been talking with a friend about how to be proud of your work without being prideful.  She sent me a link to a blog post by Ken Reid.

I like what Ken says: When you accomplish something and feel really good about it, that isn’t pride. It’s delight. 

Being proud of, or prideful about, your work means that you need everyone to know that you did it. Your delight is not in the work itself but in the recognition from others that you hope your work will bring. 

To have delight in your work is simply to enjoy it and be amazed that it came from your hands, or mind, or words, or what have you.

So whilst I am putting this blog post about my work out there, it's because I have found a delight in what I have done.  And yes I am amazed that I did it, especially the sketchbooks.

I'm also delighted to say that I have been invited to join Eclectica.

I'm excited to be starting a new journey with this group and will let you know how I am faring as the year goes on.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Another online course

I signed up for an online course through Fibre Arts Take Two.  The course is called Process & Possibilities - Connecting with Collage.   The tutor is Cordula Kagemann.

I have watched all of the videos and done some of the activities.  I made some collages and am continuing to make them.

I tried image transfer but this one didn't work very well.  I'll try again sometime.

I also tried making a textile sheet.  My first attempt became dark grey because I didn't allow the layers to dry properly before putting the next layer on.  I knocked it back with white paint and a bit of turquoise, but it's still a bit grey.

With my second attempt I tried different colours of layers than those in Cordula's instructions.  This is much more in my colour palette.  I'm looking forward to cutting it up.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Textile Artists

During this 30 day blogging challenge I have shared with you about mixed media artists who have influenced me and blogs that I follow.  Today I thought I would tell you about some of the Textile Artists I follow online.   Interestingly when I compiled the list I realised that I have met all of them and done real-life workshops with them.

Hilary Beattie
I met Hilary at a two day workshop at The Festival of Quilts where she crammed in all that subsequently became 12 days spread over a year as Make It Personal.  This was the collaged piece that is still not stitched!

Steph Redfern
I started making this textile book at a Steph Redfern workshop at The Bramble Patch.  It took me a while to finish it but I'm pleased to say that I did.

Ineke Berlyn
This is a zigzag book I made as a result of a day's dyeing workshop at Ineke's studio.  I showed how it developed here.

Linda & Laura Kemshall
I have done two online Creative Sketchbook classes with Design Matters and a day's workshop at Laura's studio.   This was the book I made from the class.

Anne Brooke
I haven't done a textile class with Anne but I spent a day at her studio doing a Workbook in a Day class.  I showed my follow up work in this post.

Although most of these textile artists are quilters you can see the mixed media influence.

Next weekend I'm going to a retreat workshop taught by Cas Holmes.  I'm looking forward to seeing what I learn there.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

What inspires you?

If you are an artist of any kind what things do you use for inspiration?

I take lots of photographs of things I see that I believe will inspire my art.  But it rarely impacts my art because the photos sit on my computer or on an external hard drive and I don't look at them again.  Maybe the images sit in the back of my mind and appear in artwork without my realising it.  I remember a tutor once who said something like if we don't fill our eyes with inspiration, nothing will come out of our hands.  She said it better than that so I hope you know what I mean.

Here are some of the photos I took in Australia that I feel should influence me somewhere along the line.

A metal sculpture

Machinery

Cliffs

Rocks on the sea shore

The bark of a tree

Sandstone blocks in the park that from a distance look like blocks of wood

 

 A block of sandstone that looks like rusted metal

The Sydney Harbour bridge

Rocks in the mountain

Underground

A dead tree 

More mountain rocks

I'm sure you've noticed that most of these photos have a real textural quality to them.  I fee that they lend themselves to inspiring textile art.

What would you be inspired to do with these photographs?

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

PS: After I had written this post I came across this blog post by Lain Ehmann which I need to reread and inwardly digest.   I plan to come back and write about it.

Fabric Book

Yesterday I went to a workshop at Ineke Berlyn's studio.  Last month I wrote about printing my fabric using Thermofax screens and dye.  This is one of the cloths I ended up with.

Yesterday I ripped it up into 7 inch squares.

I stamped on some scraps of fabric and added them to the pages.   This is going to be the cover of my book.

I also put some Bible verses on 4 of the pages.

And words and phrases on the rest of the pages.

This will be the back.

Now all I have to do is some machine stitching, some hand stitching and assemble the book!  Easy Peasy!

I can't promise when the book will be finished, but keep popping in and eventually you will see it.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Journal Quilts

With my return to textiles during 2014 I am doing an online Journal Quilts class with Ineke Berlyn.  I hadn't heard of Journal Quilts until I went to an exhibition at Ineke's studio.

Despite not having a clue what I was doing I survived January's quilt.  Ineke sends instructions to follow and I almost managed to stick with the brief.  I am a tutor's nightmare because I always want to do something different.   Here is my sketchbook.

And this is my unbound A4 sized finished piece.  I haven't bound it because I'm waiting to see what the other months look like and whether I bind them all to match.

As you can see from the finished January quilt I didn't use the building shape that I liked.  However the opportunity came with the instructions for the February quilt. I played about with the size of the building in my sketchbook and made a foam stamp.

 I painted my sketchbook page with watercolours and stamped my building shape.  I also 'stamped' the grasses with a piece of card and some acrylic paint.  I printed out my original photo in black and white and painted it with watercolours.

I used some bought fabric for the land and some painted cotton for the sky.  I used Markal paintsticks to make the tree shadow in the background.

I handstitched the shading.

I machined stitched the quilt.  It is still unbound but I cropped the photo.

The grasses are a bit out of proportion with the building! But hey, isn't that what artistic license is about?


Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice