blue in the snow..

blue woad cloth out in the snow

Sunset…

the colours of sunset, rosa mundi petals caught with a knot, a circle in a square

the stitches my thoughts and words

Bees Knees at Walcot Chapel

The 9 prayer flag pieces at Walcot Chapel last week will be on show indoors at Nature in Art in August (11th – 31st)… I experimented with framing them floating from wax backing pieces. I poured the hot beeswax onto scrim for some extra strength. The beeswax is chosen for the relationship in the work to protecting bees

The backing cloth from here I dyed with woad – gently squeezing the cloth so that there is a little faint white in places – like clouds in the sky.

Here is a little clip of film of it drying – woad drying in the breeze

And then – the golden yellow thread turned green from the dye bath, so I am adding more french knots. Last week it floated against the window of the chapel and I stood to stitch it, glancing through the cloth to the birds in the chapel garden

Meanwhile I am nearly up to 100 flags on withies for outside…

More of those later this week!

 

 

 

 

9 …

 

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

Drawn at the RWA

I took a deep breath – sometimes you just have to give something a try… and I am stunned and so unbelievably excited to say that I have work in the current juried Exhibition Drawn at the Royal West of England Academy

The RWA text states: Drawn, continuing to raise the profile of drawing as both an autonomous discipline and an interdisciplinary tool. As a means of communication and navigation, drawing has taken on a universality and accessibility unlike any other medium. It is a building block of creativity, key to the visualisation and translation of ideas and practices, fundamental in making, doing, testing, designing, thinking, playing and living.

The pieces are a triptych of work – combining free machine drawing, pen and hand stitch and are about hand washing in hospital –  Mending My Ways

The Exhibition is on till June 7th and accompanies a truly inspiring collection to view – Drawing On 

I blogged about it here too on the Brunel Broderers site!

a love of small stitches making rippling patterns…

Small stitches holding together and forming a new cloth – thin fine soft layers and scraps become one..

..watching the ripples forming as the patterns of stitch grow…

‘love is in the air’ – french knots lightly giving enough to read the text at a second look

So busy absorbed in making these that I forgot to take pictures! The sun shone so warm and brightly on the rich pinks and reds that interestingly the rippling patterns are clearer than the stitches and threads!

 

 

Stitching prayer flags…

Thinking about my range of chosen stitches and their part in my stitching language – the meanings each have for me.

These will form part of an Exhibition at Nature in Art with the Brunel Broderers in August this year.

Family made embroidery

An embroidered table-cloth hand stitched by my grandmother I think.. Bold energy, creative touches – the poppies sing out and kept carefully wrapped in tissue paper

 

Close ups of stitches…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thinking in Stitches…

Shadow lines, layers and loose threads are characteristic of my work and I talk about them often – click on the tags to have a look at past images and words, or pop the words into the search box…

Stitch vocabulary or iconography such as buttonhole wheels and French knots

They are all personal reflections and my own mark making on cloth – so:

Knots feel like and represent thoughts like prayer beads

Herringbone is a journey with steps along the way

Feather represents my connection to the natural world

Buttonhole – whole thoughts or partial ones

Loose threads reach out and float, even melt into the atmosphere and connect with the viewer

I think I will photograph some close ups for the next post! The above are all from Walcot Chapel where the walls, light and space are exceptionally beautiful…