Monthly Archives: May 2015

a backing cloth as light as a cloud…

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Susi Bancroft cloud and knot2

Light as a cloud – delving for scrim I found some silk/cotton for a backing cloth for the prayer flags

Washed in lavender-soaped water and wafting on the line it was delicate, translucent and with such sensitivity to the slightest movement in the breeze… moved by a breath..

Torn into 3, seamed with an open back stitch and now french knots… I shall try wax on the scrap I kept back… an open mind

Susi Bancroft cloud and knot1I thought I had lost one of the 9 today – laid out on this cloth – and, turning to look yet again, there it was, floating on another – the consternation caused me to think what is embodied in these little pieces

 

9 …

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The 9th and last prayer flag for my inside piece for the Brunel Broderers Exhibition ‘Inside Out’ at Nature in Art

So now an experiment – I am going to try to caste a beeswax backing piece on which to pin the 9 flags in a 9 patch. Have decided to use scrim as a base to strengthen it and see how it goes. The work uses embroidery stitches as a language for peace (all the prayer flag posts on here talk more about this – will go through the posts and add a tag!)

Why wax? Bees have been a constant source of natural world inspiration threading through the timeline of the work, and my attention has been drawn back time and again to thinking of how to protect them. I am currently enjoying having a go at the Friends of the Earth Bee Count

Meanwhile, for outside, I am working at 200 flags for the grounds…. more of this to come in various posts – about what stitch I settled on and why, what natural dyes I have tried, meditative stitch, and another ‘inside’ piece – the filming of them in a bluebell wood – all will come together for the show and appear as glimpses on here over the coming weeks