Exhibition 29th June, 2016

WINDSOR SCHOOL OF TEXTILE ARTS Summer Exhibition at The Bracknell Gallery, South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell.

The exhibition included works by students on workshops and those following the C&G Diploma course.  It wasn't a large exhibition, but the pieces were nicely displayed with plenty of space for each.  For a charge of £3 I was able to take photos.

This student got the colours and textures just right.

Love the colour of this piece.

Clever use of different threads to create depth.  I love the background fabric too - a busy, out-of-focus backdrop.

Lovely use of textured yarns.

I like the way the lines continue but without the busy-ness.  The two sections are linked and the piece more interesting for the change of detail

 

The one below was extremely powerful, particularly as it's only days since the 'Leave' vote won the referendum.  The prose is written by someone born who is maybe a second generation immigrant.  I hope this work is entered into many more exhibitions, it deserves a wide audience.  I took a close up of just 3 of the text sections, but I could have selected any of them to focus on.

 

 

Not to my taste, but I appreciate that it's a well-balanced triptych and I do like the colours.

This looks as if a photo of the bark has been printed onto fabric, then detail stitched.  Effective.

Module 1: Chapter 13, Study of Contemporary Textile Artists

I've chosen three textile artists who work with landscapes featuring trees. 

I have to admit that the techniques used are not innovative.  When I did my Embroidery 'A' level back in the early '70s, we used the same techniques.  There was no free-motion foot for the machines, just the exposed needle, which on one occasion did go through the fleshy part of my index finger!   There were no air-erasable pens, so to transfer the design onto the fabric, we stitched through tracing paper.  Removing those little pieces of paper from under the stitches was the most time-consuming part of the entire work!  I don't think I ever successfully removed them all. 

Although not innovative, I think these three artists all have an eye for design, and work skilfully with the materials.  Some contemporary artists working in other mediums produce textile works which don't exhibit this skill.  For many people this is unimportant as long as the finished work speaks to them.  Personally, I do look for and admire an element of skill, so I'm indulging myself with this first selection of contemporary textile artists.

1.   Dottie Moore

A link to my work on Dottie stored in DropBox was sent previously by email.

 

 

 

 

 

2.  Alison Holt

 

 

Alison produces beautiful, realistic landscapes and seascapes using free motion machine embroidery.  Her work is done on silk fabric, which is painted, then embroidered using just straight and zigzag stitches.

 

The following photos show an area of 'Lake District' before and after stitching.  It illustrates perfectly the texture, depth and richness of colour that the stitching brings to the piece.

 

Not all of the fabric is covered with stitching, so the quality of the silk painting has to be extremely good, both to act as a guide to thread colour and direction of stitches, and to stand alone as an unembellished picture.

Alison has published 5 books and an instructional DVD.  She teaches in the UK and Australia and exhibits in England and abroad.  There are exhibitions of her work during July 2016 in Oswestry and Wrexham and she will be at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace in October 2016.  My ticket is already booked.

 

 

This technique of painting on fabric and embellishing with machine stitching is the same as Dottie Moore's, although their styles are very different.  It's obviously a technique that I find appealing.

 

The third artist I've chosen is

Martha Fieber

 

Martha is another American fibre artist - I seem to be drawn to American artists more than British I'm afraid.  I will ensure that future choices are all British!

 

Martha's works are similar to Dottie and Alison's but hand embroidery is used.  The four stitches she uses are straight stitch, French knots, couching and chain stitch applied to a hand painted linen ground.  Using a variety of threads she achieves a delicate and realistic effect.

 

I don't think Martha has an international reputation or is as influential as the other artists, but I've included her here because her work fits with the other 2 artists I've chosen and I like it.  I prefer hand sewing to using a machine, so Martha's work is particularly appealing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have just discovered the work of Carol Shinn which looks wonderful.  I'm afraid she's another American artist, and I'm unable to see the detail in her works.

Module 1 Chapter 12: Towards an Embroidered item.

A piece of fabric based on wadding and brown cotton fabric, with scraps of various organzas held in place with brown and green tulle.  Machine stitching in brown and green secures the layers.  The fabric looks dull in the photo, but is more vibrant in the flesh.

 

 

 I wanted to have a play with more sun-dyeing to make the second fabric piece.  Some YouTube videos show Dye-na-flow being used successfully, but apparently most translucent paints will work.  I had 3 trays ready for a day when sun appeared, and yesterday was bright when I woke up, so I threw on my clothes and prepared the fabric - by which time of course, it was dull and grey!  However, the rain stayed away until early afternoon, so I got results, although with strong sunshine and a speedier drying time, I think the results would have been more successful.

 

1st sample - Dye-na-flow: I wet the fabric, a medium weight 100% cotton from myfabrics.co.uk, painted two colours on, scrunched it up, and left it in sun/dull conditions for about 6 hours.  The scrunching effect doesn't show. I need to repeat when there is constant hot sun for a couple of hours to see if I can get a better effect.

 

 

2nd sample, Pebeo Setacolour transparent:  The same result.  The dark paint was on top and exposed to the sun, but the scrunching effect still isn't visible.  Disappointing, but worth trying again when there is some sun.

 

 

3rd sample, Jacquard Textile Colour:  I don't know that the sun had much effect on this, but I love the result!  I've scanned the 'wrong' side of the fabric as it's a more subtle effect and quite usable. 

 

 

4th sample, Dye-na-flow:  Sun dyeing using leaves is difficult as there's almost always a breeze to disturb the leaves, so I wanted to see if I could get a result on an inside window sill where the leaves wouldn't be moved.  Again, there wasn't a lot of sun, and the results are supposed to better when the sun is strong and the drying time is fast.  It has worked though, which is useful to know.  The images were much sharper and clearer with the Lumi Sunfold product though - is the due to the product or weather conditions?

 

The colours are a great match with the sycamore seeds I collected.

 

 

The second piece of fabric made for the design exercise is one of the above, quilted.

 

 

From the brown fabric, I cut simplified tree shapes .....

and from the green fabric, leaf shapes based on the paintings of dried leaves in my sketchbook ....

 

A few arrangements using the above

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pages in my A2 display book containing the above:

 

 

For my 3D assessment piece, I'd like to make a jacket.  The pattern I've chosen is a Vogue pattern with a couple of narrow panels in the front.  These would work very well in a contrast fabric that I could create and embroider.  Cuffs in the same contrast fabric could like good, so I may try to add those to the garment.  The photo on the left is from the pattern envelope, the photo on the right is one that I've created in a graphics programme to give an idea of how the garment I have in mind may look.

 

 

I found a skirt/trouser fabric that is a medium weight cotton, on www.myfabrics.com.  The fabric was on sale at just £4 per metre.  I've never dyed fabric this heavy so wasn't sure about the amount of Procion MX dye to use.  I tried approximately 1 teaspoon of dye to 100g of fabric, and this produced the colour and effect I wanted.  I used 2 parts Rust Brown to 1 part Black.

 

I bought a polyester lining in a neutral colour that I'd like to dye in a mottled brown/green colour.  Disperse dyes are not so easily controlled as Procion MX dyes, so I'll give it a go and see how it turns out.  I will probably do 2 dye runs; the first in a brown dye, the second in a green, and hope for the best!  As the dyes need to be boiled I won't be able to control how the colours work, but I won't stir the fabric and will hope to get a variation of shade, similar to tray dyeing.

 

I liked the brown fabric that I created for the preceding exercise.  I also like the border design produced from my rough acrylic sketch of a branch.  I would like to use these 2 ideas as a starting point for creating the contrast fabric.  The crystal organza and the angel hair, produced too much shimmer and shine for a daytime jacket, so more samples need to be done.  As I want the lining to coordinate with the created fabric, I will use scraps of the lining fabric in the contrast fabric that I'm making.  Although I like the design on the right, I think it's too regular for the border, so I'd like to play with elements of it, and use it to suggest ideas for the finished piece.

 

 I used Kemtex Dysperse dye in Dark Brown to dye the lining.  The change in colour shown below.

 

I've dyed the polyester lining fabric in DARK BROWN disperse dye from Kemtex.  The colour is nice, although not as dark as I had hoped.  The result is also remarkably even - and I was hoping for mottled!

 

I was planning to dye again in green, aiming for they blotchy effect that would be achieved by using Procion MX dyes in a bucket.  I now don't think that it would work.  I'll leave the lining as it is and work on making the contrast fabric a good match. 

 

 

 

Continued.........

 

I've tried a number of designs trying to blend the three panels.   As the jacket is for an assessment piece, it needs to demonstrate more skills, and more contrast in colours and light and dark is needed.  I've used designs from my sketchbooks, mostly based on tree barks, and some of the printing blocks I made.  I've tray dyed some fabric using Procion MX dyes in two shades of green and 2 shades of brown, and have auditioned this for the central panels, and for applique on the side panels. 

 

The brown panels either side of the decorative panel, could be dyed with 2 shades of brown - one a red brown, the other a yellow brown.

 

 

 

One design I quite like for the side panels uses printing with soft cut lino blocks, applique offset from the print to give a shadow and a dimensional appearance, machined lines and hand embroidery based on tree bark.  The two panels in the middle of the jacket will be simpler, with just the dark brown horizontal lines based on tree bark, so they coordinate with the side panels, but are not as busy.  The fabric used for the applique will be the same as used for the decorative panel.

 

 

There are a couple of options for using this design.  I think I'm leaning towards the one on the right, but with the leaves a bit smaller so the bark design is seen more.  In this design, every leaf will be different, so I wouldn't use a lino cut, but just paint the shadow on the fabric.

 

 

Not completely happy with the above, so have had yet another play, and I think I'm happy with the following.

 

The procion dyed fabric, has been painted with Dye-na-flow, small leaves put on it and the fabric laid in the sun. 

 

I like the effect, it's subtle, but noticeable.  I tried another piece with two different Dye-na-flow colours, but they look much the same.  I used ivy leaves for the sun dyeing on this piece and they don't look good, smaller leaves or may ferns will be more effective. 

I tried printing with a small leaf and twig stamp cut from a 'Foamies' sheet.  The brown fabric paint I used didn't add anything, so I tried mixing it with a buttermilk colour and that worked well.  I then tried stitching using designs from my sketchbooks.  The thread I used for the 'spiky' weed on the right is too bright, the other threads are muted colours and work well.

 

This piece works well with the made-fabric I was originally planning to use, so back to plan A!

 

 

At last, I'm happy with the design!  If you're happy with this Sian, I'll get started.