Getting Ready For My Exhibition

In contrast to the intensive stitching and layering on much of my work,I am enjoying telling some simpler stories...this is a 17th century oak panel with an antique handmade glove.It was inspired by the glove which used to hang on the back of my studio door....and has now found a new home.I love old wood, and this new part of my journey seeks to combine it with the textiles.

Yay.....Well At Last !!

Just to let you all know that I am well at last....Flu & Bronchitis laid me low for nearly 6 weeks...but here I am at last....and working frantically to get ready for my exhibition at the Minories in Colchester.
Just 5 weeks to get several pieces made...plus all the other things to be done....and older work going into another show at Slack Space in Colchester, so it's late nights and waking up early with a "busy head"....images of some of the new work soon....xxxx

Absent for a while

For the first time in years I have been...am still very ill...a chest infection on top of Flu has laid me out for two weeks and it doesn't want to go away!
Hoping to be back here soon...am missing my studio, but have to patient and just rest....too many headaches to stay on the pc.

Fresh Inspiration

My lovely old body form has stood naked since her collar was sold in October....
I have experimented with many pieces on her since, but nothing sat worthily....untill now.
I have had this beautiful shattered Victorian fragment from the neck of a blouse or dress for a long time; it has inspired several progects, but it may now be time for it to become one in itself.....I have a vision of a wonderful neckpiece which will incorporate...sensitively, this fragment, but....how could it then be separated from the body it had grown on? Could I bear to part with both...as one artwork...this is a day for visions, thoughts and dreams.

The lovely detail at the foot of the frame.
Wonderful Lion masks....I am wondering if the textile work could somehow be put onto the mirror...it seems a shame to take the bevelled glass away completely...something to ponder.

A Wonderful Find

This had been thrown away by another artist, it is in need of repair but will be such a beautiful frame for a piece of very simple....but deep textile artwork.
I usually prefer plain rustic wood for frames, but this is crying out to be used and needs a work that is both the opposite of what the frame stands for and yet blends beautifully in context...
Once again I see my favourite words of "the unlike being joined"...I believe this contrast will always be important to me.

Perfect Simplicity: The unlike are joined, resulting in the most perfect harmony.

The lovely 18th century sleeve fragment and the Dove deserve a picture all to themselves.
Today has a been a good studio day, with the five 2D works all finished and mounted....I had forgotten to take my camera, so that will have to wait untill next week....now I can concentrate on the dresses.

Waiting.....beautiful things waiting

Just a few pieces of beautiful antique lace, an old brass and paste 1920s bag embelishment, and a vintage mother of pearl Dove on the Wing....which would have been hand carved in Bethlehem...all waiting their turn to be used....I could play at arranging all day...but only had a minute today after a busy but good day in the studio.
However, as soon as the light gets better I shall be doing a lot more arranging and photographing for my proposed book....a book of the "Exquisite Poverty:Fragments"
story....it is something I have wanted to do for a long time.

Song of the Shirt: Chemise Vests

Here is a beautiful fragment of a late 19th century camisole or corset cover...the broderie anglaise around the neckline has all be worked by hand, as has the tiny insert at the centre...it was just a fragment, with mends and tatters I wanted to show the beauty of it...display it as a precious fragment of someone else's life, long before mine began;it would probably have been worn by a lady of means.
My intention.....on adding my own embroidery, lace and mother of pearl ornamentation,is to draw attention to the piece, hoping that all the work will blend together as one. Also, the amount of time that I have spent on the stitching I feel honours the amount of time already spent on it so long ago.
It seemed right to mount it on a wonderfully soft piece of the vintage shirting from the quilt, a shirt and then quilt which undoubtedly came from a poorer home...the contrasting lives of several people joined together and celebrated in a new object of beauty, but also one that I hope will "speak" and provoke thought.

Song of the Shirt: Woman's Song

Here is another work,the same size as the birds....vintage blanket and unworked printed embroidery linen from 1925 join with Victorian silk, my own embroidery and mother of pearl artifacts to make my own "Woman's Song":
O man with sisters dear,
O men with mothers and wives,
It is not linens you're wearing out
But human creatures lives.
Stitch, stitch, stitch...
in poverty hunger and dirt,
Sewing at once with a double thread
A shroud as well as a shirt. ( from "Song of the Shirt",Thomas Hood)

Song of the Shirt: Bird Song

Using fragments of 19th century fine cotton lawn and pieces from the shirt quilt, this 41x41cm hand stitched work shows mother and her two baby birds lifting their voices in song....The Song of the Shirt (by Thomas Hood):
With fingers weary and worn,
With eyelids heavy and red,
A woman sat in unwomanly rags
Plying her needle and thread

Exciting News! I'm now a member of E.A.S.T

I'm really pleased to say that I have been offered membership of this brilliant group of artists who work mainly within the medium of textiles....do visit the group at:www.easttextile.co.uk
It will be great to be part of a group of like-minded artists who work towards joint exhibitions.
Prior ro my interview I was working on some new 2D work which is now finished...and I can at last add some images to the blog.

Good News!

Song of the Sea

This was my first 2d experiment using a little of the vintage shirting from the tattered quilt...I just wanted to have fun with it, and also use up some of the crochet domes I had a passion for making several years ago....they always reminded me of Sea Urchins; so I let the imagination run free, adding hand felted balls, faux pearls, embroidery and the remains of an antique shell and bead belt to birth an underwater sanctuary.
The oak box frame was beautifully made for me, but was damaged in the post so the work will have to be reframed...I just wanted to see how it would look once mounted.
I've called it "Song of the Sea", because the new progect is comming from my research of the 19th century seamstresses, working on shirts in appaling conditions; at the time it sparked huge media interest: the poem by Thomas Hood: "Song of the Shirt" was written, and many artists produced images of the subject.....I will write a lot more about it as the work progresses....this though is a lighter hearted piece of work, but the four I have made since, have a real, more serious narrative.

Up to date at last

So I think I am up to date now, and have just been enjoying Christmas with my family. I've had two days off from the studio but have been completing some new 2D textile pieces at home, ready to take to an interview/presentation with the EAST textile group on the 8th January.
I bought a very tattered vintage quilt made from pieces of mens blue striped shirting, and it is this that I am using at the moment to continue the theme of my work....the weather has been too dull for me to take any photographs yet, so I will just leave the 3D work in progress ones with you untill I have the others....these are just pieces of fabric pinned onto the stands at the moment, and will probably develop in a slightly different way, but they are starting already to tell a story and I am thinking of names.

The "Family Dress" went to a new home too

The organiser, and curator of the Sotheby's show is herself an art collector, so I was very happy for her to purchase the "Family Dress" from the collection.
This was the one with my name on the brooch, and my own story in the accompanying booklet.

The Quilt "Fragment" had also been bought....as a Christening present, which is a lovely thought....although I shall really miss having this piece myself...I had hung it on a 19th century wooden Yoke, brought back from South Africa, and had expected to take them both home with me...but it will be cherished, I know, and I'm touched that someone else loved it as much as I did....I am planning another one at the moment, different of course as I would never repeat something...each thing I make has its own little story.

Sold at Sotheby's

I hadn't expected to sell any work at the Sotheby's show, so it was a wonderful surprise to find that Tricia Guild of Designers Guild had bought two pieces: The Collar:
and also one of the paper mounted works "Collar Fragment"

The Exciting Exhibition at Sotheby's

During our graduate exhibition at the New Designers Show in Islington( see older blogs), in July, I was approached by an art curator and journalist who holds regular exhibitions at Sotherby's in London and invited to be part of her next show in October.This was such a surprise to me, as I hadn't expected anything on this scale, and the thought of it was also a little scary...from college to the "deep end", so to speak.
The show, "Small Show Huge Talent" was held in October, in New Bond Street and was managed so well....technicians in white gloves to do all the hanging, and everything displayed perfectly. I was given a whole wall, so everything could be shown well.It was quite a difficult area to take a photograph in, so the one image I have here is not very clear and a bit dark...the actual lighting was perfect in the area though, and the work from the other artits, including another textile artist Lindsey Taylor, was very diverse....it included a large model of the Tate Modern, made from sugar cubes! There was an article on Artsthread about the show in November, I'm not sure if it is still there. as I havn't looked for a while.

First Open Studios Event, and thoughts:

The Open Studios event came hot on the heels of my seting up the studio, and I was slightly nervous, not knowing how my work would be received amongst the painters and sculpters and recognised artists.
It was, however, such a wonderful experience, and a great encouragement as I had people in the studio non stop all day...so much so that I couldn't leave it to visit the other artists! People were lovely, and I couldn't have wished for a better start to this step of the journey, and...best of all, new friends have been made.
I am in the Barn, so my room is lovely and old with thick white walls ( one very damp!!) and an old heavy black beam.....a perfect contrast to the Victorian lace and white fabrics which I love so much.With the fabrics I use, it is also all about the contrast...the rich and the poor...I am still following on with the "Exquisite Poverty" theme of my degree collection, as I want to go deeper into a subject which is still very relevant in todays world of mass textile and clothing production to the detriment of many of the makers.
The inside of my door is very old, and by itself, with just one glove, is to me an artwork in itself; Here it is: