My research took me to the V and A This was where Beatrix Potter went to draw the waistcoat for the Mayor… It also took me to the Ashmolean
In both I looked at and drew waistcoats embroidered with silk floss satin stitch flowers of breathtaking beauty and skill.
The buttonhole stitch and the satin stitch stay in my mind. They combine in a fragmented and deconstructed sample…
Magenta vintage buttonhole twisted silk… how it radiates colour, light, vitality
The middle piece – the energy of my frustration in unpicking a set of stitches full of mistakes and the subsequent delight in the thread – pulled, unravelled, frayed….
A dilated view – the camera lens reveals so much detail and I like the way the light catches the thread – it is the thread I want to focus on – the beauty of it’s substance as twisted silk as well as it being my intervention into the cloth – my stitches / my thoughts
What I most notice about this is the shadow – being able to see the stitches at the back of the organdie fabric – the running stitches, the buttonhole stitch, the tiny tufts of thread.. Catching the layers – not hiding but revealing all
I have travelled between the tailor’s wool and a translucent fabric or tissue with the buttonhole stitch. It confirms where I feel more naturally at ease. I have deepened a view of thread and stitch being integral to thinking – I think / I stitch – there is no separation – one flows with the other.
This week I will share work on the tailor’s wool suiting – the sketchbook is filled, overflowing – and I am selecting images to share at the exhibition, and which written reflection to record on audio.. hmm – much to be done!
For detail have a look at Select 2013
Have a look at the Brunel Broderers site – I just posted on there! More later from me…
boostitch 