Pocket

I made this pocket called ‘Lucy Locket’s Pocket’ inspired by reading The Pocket : A Hidden History of Women’s Lives by Barbara Burman  and Ariana Fennetaux. Then synchronicity occurred as Tara Axford and Australian artist posted a picture on Instagram of a pocket she had made, also inspired by this book. She called for textile artists to do the same and post a picture of the finished pocket. There have been many beautiful ones posted with the Instagram tag #pocketsofcreation. 

It is made from a collaged front on canvas using inks, paper, cutouts and stitch. The ties are perfect and they match the theme well with the image of Little Bo Peep searching for her sheep. This piece was all I had in my haberdashery stash so used up something , or rather converted a found piece into textile art. I thought Lucy Locket would have a wee dolly in her pocket made by her grandma. 

More collages

 These two are not complete yet. Need to take more of the whiteness of the transfer off. Also I am not sure of the cut outs and the line in the square one needs softening, maybe more tree and branch lines

Collage

 I have started a new online course with @fibreartstaketwo presented by Cordula Kagemann . It is a collage course and I realise that even though I have done or attempted several textile collages I have never really explored paper collage. So I am enjoying the process, it is fast and I find I can work intuitively whereas with textiles I take so long to decide on placement, fabric, colour let alone the stitching that then needs to occur before it looks like anything acceptable. 

The first photo is a quick intuitive magazine page collage and the other three are several stages in the process being taught, with more to be added.

Promener le chien

 This is the second postcard for a member of textile art group Broadstrokes. Theme of travel as we can’t do as much of it as we would want and to arrive as a lovely gift for the receivers  birthday. I am sending my postcards with a city or country that I can in some way associate the receiver. Kate sent me this postcard in 2012 when she was living in Paris and other parts of France for 6 months. So it’s recycled. I have even managed to alter some of what she wrote on the back to be current for her to receive. On the front I have added the blue,white and red flag, the poodle , women on the balcony,braid and ribbon.  And of course Kate herself. I added the text for consistency with the postcards I will be sending. Now onto the next destination! 

Broadstrokes Accountability

My textile group Broadstrokes has set a challenge for the year. It is very individualised in that we each chose what we want the group to hold us accountable to in order to meet the challenge and actually do the work.

I chose to focus on vessels. Some I had started some in my mind still and some I hope will emerge from reading, writing and questioning as the year goes on. They may vary and merge into art dolls as vessels, they may be journals, ledgers, sketchbooks or they may be in the form of a quilt to wrap oneself in, who knows.

But here are the three I have made this year, roughly one a month.

This first one is made of ecodyed tissue paper. It is very fragile. After I had dyed and dried it I painted it with a solution of watered down PVA glue. It was then draped over a bowl and left to dry fully. I have in it a collection of found stones, gumnuts, banksia pods and leaves. It is ephemeral and will gradually tear and collapse.

The next one is made from a piece of ecodyed woollen blanket gifted to me by my friend @annamariamaysvermeer.

I have stitched in pink threads, silk and cotton to echo the pink of the original blanket stitched edge.

The next one is using a very fine piece of ecodyed silk. It was sent to me by Atasda NSW as part of a members challenge. Had to use the silk somehow. Also we had to include paper, which here is a piece of ecodyed brown wrapping paper between two layers of silk giving body, structure and strength. It had to include metal , so I attached a metal ring I had amongst my hoarded things. It also had to have a particular ‘squiggle’ stitched on. This s is included on the other side in a hand dyed Valdani thread.

Patch Swap

Last year I joined a patchswap organised by @gatherwhatspills as a worldwide swap of patches to be used to mend , embellish or whatever you might be inclined to put a stitched patch on. 

This is the patch I made for my swap mate, Kerri. Mostly hand dyed fabric from pieces I dyed years ago. 

And this is the patch I received from Kerri. She made it from a piece of a vintage tea towel with fairy wrens on it. Kerri showed this on Instagram when she finished it so I got the idea to stitch a fairy wren onto hers. I like to put an embroidered creature onto the small patches I make and was waiting for inspiration. It is easy if you swap with someone from another country as Australian animals are what I use. Kerri is from Melbourne so the inspiration of the fairy wren of her patch was used.

The Colour Purple

 This morning I watched an Instagram discussion between @zakfoster.quilts  and @amandanagidart. Among other things they mentioned colours not worn but used in quilts such as pink and purple. Purple was a nostalgic colour as sometimes a grandma made a granddaughter a purple quilt or knitted a purple beanie. So it was reminiscent of childhood. This got me thinking about purple in my stitching life and I recalled this sweet needle case. It was unfinished from the 80’s , the front pansy had been worn away a bit but moths because it couldn’t be wear as it was just sitting waiting in three parts to be finished. So inspired by this mornings discussion I decided to finish it. First I patched up the front pansy, then blanket stitched around the front piece before finally putting alll three layers together.

Oops not sure how to add the Instagram accounts to be able to link to them 🤭

So is it vintage? Unused vintage?