Winter Solstice 2015

Winter Solstice – precious daylight and an honoured long night… A time to think of peace and connection, the rhythm of our world, and wishes and hopes and the strength of togetherness …

Solace – a project by India Knight

Have a look at this post by India Knight

Is it fluttering there still, my pennant – together entwined with others from around the world and gently moving in the breeze? I look out across the sky tonight …

(..thin cloth from an almost exhausted indigo dye bath embroidered with a single word in french knots – a stitch which for me which is about my language to represent prayers / thoughts)

Sunset…

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

the stitches my thoughts and words

10 still to make..nearly there

The scent from the petals is musky and deep now – the petals a little more brittle to stitch, the colour intense. I wonder how many French knots that will make – each a tiny wish

Will the perfume drift into the air mingled with peace wishes?

prayer flags in a bluebell wood…

The film is made and it is time to share it and talk a little about my approach to my film making..

I want to capture and share what I call ‘ephemeral fragments’ – seeing a flowering bluebell wood is, for me, a truly magical breath-taking experience which is all the more precious because it lasts for so little time. I wanted the prayer flags to become, for a few moments, an integral part of such beauty and to send out their messages of peace drifting through that atmosphere.

My film-making processes are simple. I strongly remember a special family gathering in Canada with my grandparents and all the family when I was 4 (the week of my 5th birthday) and the home-made cine films we watched together – the laughter, the comments, the stories – and the projector, the screen, the spools of film (at one point spilling onto the floor) …

I like the raw presence when I work of evidence of me behind the camera – the slightly shaky quality that I as an amateur bring – it is reminiscent of those cine films.

So – here it is. It will be part of the Brunel Broderers Exhibition Inside Out at Nature in Art from 11 – 31 August (though not available to view from Thursday 20th and starting again on Tuesday 25th)

Prayer Flags in a Bluebell Wood

PS – Click on HD for best quality!

rose petal prayer flag…

Working on a prayer flag at Walcot Chapel. Torn strips of turmeric and tea dyed silk organza hand stitched with french knots

In my stitch language french knots are thoughts – like a prayer bead felt between the fingers.

The flags – and there are now almost 100 including the blue woad ones – are stitched onto withies – so pliable and supple dancing in the breeze

We were brought a beautiful bunch of flowers including roses which filled the air with scent – what a gift to bring! And so – as the petals gently drifted onto the tablecloth I gathered them to stitch.

A handful of petals..

Drifting in the breeze – https://vimeo.com/131747643

rose petal prayer flag from Susi Bancroft on Vimeo.

 

 

This week a little flag in a posy with roses and rosemary – remembrance

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!

 

 

 

 

a backing cloth as light as a cloud…

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

I 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 …

 

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

Heart Space kantha…

A glimpse of kantha stitched pieces in progress for an Exhibition starting at Heart Space Studios today!

 

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.