Fabric of Place - Reeth & Swaledale

On a beautiful day at the weekend, I travelled up to Reeth to investigate what was going on in the Fabric of Place project and to make some string with Joanne B Kaar.  I have seen some of Joanne's work before at the Pittenweem Art Festival in 2015 and you can read about it here. 

Joanne B Kaar

The Fabric of Place project is a community based project looking at Reeth and Swaledale and the relationship the communities have with the place they live.  It's a two year Slow Art project.  Slow Art is a movement to help people look at and love art without being an expert and to unlock their passion & creativity.  This project has three artists in residence.  Joanne, who is leading the project, is a fibre artist and weaver of grass and is inspired by place, the natural environment and history and has a lot of experience working with communties through artist residencies.  The other artists involved are Serena Partridge, a visual artist working largely with textiles and stitch and Graham Taylor, a potter.

New Zealand flax and nail brush to shred the flax, dried fibres, dampened fibres ready for string making

On the day your could make string with Joanne, felt with Serena or add to Graham's Green Man.  I chose to make string with Joanne.  She told us how to collect and dry our stems, the need to dampen them before beginning to make the fibres more pliable, and how to twist the fibres together to make string.  Joanne comes from the north of Scotland and has a large garden and so has a wealth of plant fibres to choose from for her making.  She told us that she would be harvesting daffodil stems next - once the flowers had gone.  I hadn't thought of daffodils as being suitable but was pleased they were.  I live in a city with a garden the size of a postage stamp and about the only thing readily available to me at the moment is daffodils - so I shall look forward to trying them out!

My ball of string

I made about 1.25 metres of string - here's what it looks like wound up into a little ball.  And I'm looking forward to making more with my daffodil stems!

Jig mitt made using Oslo stitch & boots made using Coppergate stitch

Once the string is made, Joanne uses the nalbinding ("needle binding") technique to make items.  This predates knitting and crochet and although more ancient still, was popular with the Vikings.  It involves using short pieces of yarn or fibre as the whole length must be pulled through the loops made.  Joanne has used this technique to make her trig mitt and her boots which were on display.  The boots illustrate Coppergate stitch which first seen in the Viking "Coppergate sock" found in York.

Serena Partridge - Gauntlet Glove & Other Work

Although Serena was making felt at the workshop, she had brought some of her beautiful work to show.  I loved the miniature gloves...
 

Serena Partridge - Gloves

Graham, who does a lot of work with heritage institutions making replica pots, was working with folk to complete a Green Man plaque...

Graham Taylor - Green Man - work in progress

The project, which has been developed by Chrysalis Arts Development, is in its infancy.  Joanne has started looking at lichens, present in both Swaledale and her native Caithness.  Lichens are very slow growing - very suitable for slow art!  Artwork may include the mapping of lichens and making clothing inspired by lichens.  Whatever the artists and the community decide on, the outcome will be an touring exhibition in late 2018 which will consist of community artwork and the artists' artwork displayed together.  I can't wait to see it!

Work on lichens has begun - Joanne B Kaar

It was a really interesting afternoon.  If you live in Swaledale do get involved!

Click here for the Facebook link and here for the Twitter link.

Ailish Henderson & her Creative Sketchbooks

Fear of the Unknown - Ailish Henderson

Recently, Ailish Henderson, freelance artist, designer, lecturer and tutor, came to talk to the City of York Embroiderers' Guild about creative sketchbooks and brought some of her own to share with us.

Carrot Musings - Ailish Henderson

More Carrots - Ailish Henderson

She told us that we shouldn't be afraid of how they turn out and that they didn't have to be neat.  They don't have to be made of paper and you can make them a page at a time and combine them later.  You can use what's to hand and don't have to use anything special.  Recycling envelopes and packets, staining papers with tea and coffee, collaging items, painting and stitching are all techniques to be used.

Sketchbook - Ailish Henderson

Collage - Ailish Henderson

You can use them to explore ideas and thoughts, give an insight into what's going on in your head and make your thoughts real, encourage deeper thinking and self directed learning, provide focus and develop confidence.  The resulting creative sketchbooks become things to keep and treasure.

Watercolours - Ailish Henderson

Sketchbook - Ailish Henderson

The following day Ailish held a workshop for us so we could try out lots of different techniques that we might want to use in our own sketchbooks.  Here's what I made on the day using collage, stamping, discharge printing, stitch, painting, filled bubble wrap, oiled papers, bondaweb sandwiches and more, all presented in a concertina book...

My concertina book of samples - side 1

My concertina book of samples - side 2

My sketchbook cover

Thanks for sharing your ideas and techniques, Ailish!

New in at Kunsthuis Gallery, Crayke

Felt Necklaces

Here's a sneaky peak at the new things now in Kunsthuis Gallery in Crayke, near York...

Liberty Print Fabric Necklaces

Flower Button Necklaces

Knitted Wird Bird Brooches

Fantasy Fish Brooches

Various Flower Button Brooches

Kunsthuis Gallery also has a lovely cafe, wildlife garden & car parking.  For the more adventurous, you could cycle there or call in after a walk.  Until 2 April 2017, the current exhibition is Revealed by the KH Printmakers Collective - definitely worth a visit!  Open Wednesday to Sunday 10-5pm

Prints by Annie Ramsden, ceramics by Katie Braida, Clare Wakefield & Julia Roxburgh

My Pillowcase for Susan Aldworth's The Dark Self Exhibition

My pillowcase

Artist, Susan Aldworth, is putting on an exhibition about sleep at York St Mary's from June to September 2017 called The Dark Self.  One of the artworks will be an installation of embroidered pillowcases hung from the church ceiling.  These pillowcases will be embroidered by local people, community groups and schools in York and across the country to express to the world what sleep or dreams mean to them.  

The materials

A pillowcase and embroidery threads in dark blue, light blue and gold are provided to those who wish to take part. (In York you can get your pillowcase from the Lotte Inch Gallery.) The work has to be portrait in orientation with the pillowcase opening at the bottom and stitching in the colours of blues and gold, only on one side.  Otherwise you have free rein to do whatever design you like.  Every pillowcase has a number so your work can be identified.  Mine was no. 24.

My number

Here's how mine emerged.  First I wrote a haiku that describes how my dreams seem when I wake up:

A vivid dreamscape,

Remembered for a minute,

And then forgotten.

(Haikus are a form of traditional Japanese poetry that typically have 3 lines with the first and third line having 5 syllables and the second, having 7.) 

Original blurry pictures

Next, I wanted to find some imagery which suggested that dream vividness which disappears when you wake, leaving only a blurry memory, soon forgotten.  This I found from an unusual set of circumstances. It goes like this... after my Dad died, my Mum gave my daughter all his camera equipment.  One camera still had a film in and after much struggling we took it out and had it developed.  Whether it was the struggle to get the film out or the length of time the film had been in the camera, I don't know, but all the images were indistinct (see above)

 

Blurry blue image of original above

and you couldn't really tell what they were.  The above picture is of me but I don't know when or where it was taken.  They were slides too so it was even more difficult to see what they were.  They have been lying around in an envelope for years.  Anyway, this Christmas, I was given a slide scanner so for the first time was able to look at them properly and download the images to my computer.  I choose some that related to me, edited them and added some effects to emphasise their blurry nature and made them blue to fit in with the colour scheme.  This gave me the basis for my design:

Design on paper

Rather than hand stitch the text onto the pillowcase I decided I would machine embroider it.  So I matched the embroidery threads I had with machine threads,

Embroidery thread and machine thread

took my pillowcase apart and to one side ironed on some lightweight vilene to stabilise it ready for machine stitching.

Images ironed onto pillowcase

Next, I printed out the images onto Lesley Riley's Transfer Artist Paper which I got from Art Van Go and ironed the images onto my pillowcase.  (Note: this TAP paper has a shelf life, so my advice is only buy it when you need it!  Also you would normally reverse the images but I didn't because it didn't really matter for this purpose.)

Design with text on dissolvable fabric pinned in position.

Next I traced my text onto disolvable fabric and pinned it into position on my pillowcase and began sewing.  I started with a dark blue.  Everytime I came to an image I changed to gold and the second time I stitched the haiku I changed to the lighter blue thread.

Stitching in progress

Once finished, I ripped off as much of the dissolvable fabric as I could and soaked my pillowcase in water to get rid of the rest.  I had used a Sharpie for the text and it was still visible in parts so I put the pillowcase in the washing machine to more thoroughly get rid of the dissolvable fabric.  That did the trick although in future I won't use a Sharpie.  Once dry, I machine stitched the pillowcase back together again.  All complete - now I just have to deliver it!

You have until the end of March to complete a pillowcase, so if you want to join in, there's still time.  You don't have to do anything complicated and it can be hand stitched.  Why not have a go!

New Stock in at The Ropewalk, Barton-upon-Humber

People & Places Brooches & Map Pouches

I have recently made a delivery of new stock to the lovely Ropewalk Craft Gallery in Barton-upon-Humber.  So here's a little taster of what you might find...

Liberty Print Fabric Necklaces

Ceramic Button Brooches

Felt Earrings with Silver Posts

Magical Mermaid Brooches

Wooden Brooches

Domino Brooches

 

All Sorts of Button Brooches

Bike Bags

You'll also find knitted wire bird brooches, coin brooches and more too.  Why not pop along in half term and take a look.  There are more galleries which until 5 March 2017, are showing:

Malcolm Race - Found while in the Act of Finding

 

Malcolm Race - Ascension Day

I loved these pictures and...

Gillian Ross Kelsey - The Celebration of a Life

 

Gillian Ross Kelsey - Into the Light

There's also the Ropewalk Museum which tells you all about rope making on the site, car parking and a cafe and it's close to the Humber Bridge.  If you want to spend some time outdoors the Waters' Edge Visitors Centre and Country Park and the Humber Bridge Country Park are close by too.  Go visit!

 

Bridget Bernadette Karn at the Embroiderers Guild

Glorious in Defeat - Bridget Bernadette Karn

Bridget Bernadette Karn came to the City of York Embroiderers' Guild to talk about her work recently.  Bridget uses wet, dry and needle felting techniques to create pictures in wool.  She builds up her pictures in layers, starting with the background and finishing with the needle felted fine detail.  Working from her own photographs, Bridget's work is amazingly detailed, realistic and fantastic!

Sunflowers - Bridget Bernadette Karn

Although, Bridget has had many different roles she has always considered herself an artist and before taking up felting as a technique, was a potter.

Waterlilies - Bridget Bernadette Karn

Last year Bridget was thrilled that one of her pictures was accepted for the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and this year is submitting her work "Glorious in Defeat", pictured above.

Geese - Bridget Bernadette Karn

Bridget also talked about the need to price her work at a realistic and sustainable level and the importance of social media and a web presence in promoting her work.

Until 15 March 2017 you can see more of Bridget's work at Blossom Street Gallery in York along with Carol Coleman, Fran Brammer and others in the exhibition "A Celebration of Textile Art".  Do go and take a look!