The Book of Crow

The Story of Crow

This piece of work started life sometime last year as a sample piece for some workshops I'd been asked to run in connection with the upcoming Anselm Kiefer exhibition at Tullie House. The idea of the workshops is to look at different ways of preparing and reclaiming paper to make mixed media books. I was inspired by Kiefer's use of diverse and sometimes unconventional materials and by the variety of different books he has created throughout his career.

Page One

Page Two

Page Three

As I began working on the sample it sort of grew and became a bit more than I anticipated until it eventually evolved into a piece of work in it's own right. It's been a slow burner, I think I started it back in November and it's only this week that I've finally finished it. It's one of those pieces that I keep doing a bit on and then abandoning before coming back to, doing a bit more and then abandoning it again.

Page Four

Page Five

Page Six

Collage of the pages

The book tells the story of crow; in certain mythologies crow starts off as a pure, white bird . As with most stories there are many different versions of what happens next and, in true storytelling tradition, I've picked the bits that I like best from a range of stories to make my own version of the story. My version is partly based on a Greek myth, in which crow is the favoured companion of one of the gods. When crow reveals that the god's lover is cheating on him he is so enraged that he turns crow black and banishes him. I was interested in this idea that telling the truth isn't always the best policy and the idea of the insider becoming the outsider.

Front Cover

Back Cover

Collage of Reverse Side

The book is a simple concertina construction, with a hard cover at each end and a ribbon and button fastening. The pages of the book are mostly black and white photocopies that I worked into in different ways. I've used paint, ink, collage, printing, drawing and stitching. Following the story, the book is white to start with and gets darker and darker until the last page, which is black. I like the visual re-enforcement of the story and continued this theme on the other side of the book by using white fabric that I dip-dyed with black dye. This didn't go quite as smoothly as I hoped but I think the patchy, uneven colour actually works well with the rest of the book.

Drawing Detail

Collage Detail

Print Detail

Stitch Detail

To join the paper pages I used insertion stitches, the patching together echoes the way the story is patched together as well as adding a different texture. I wanted the book to look inviting and to provide a tactile as well as visual experience so I made two sheets of felt, one white and one black, for the book covers. It took me a long time to decide on the fastening; I played around with various ideas including felted cords, ties, loops and buttons before settling for a simple ribbon loop and handmade button fastening.

Button Detail

Knit fast, Die Warm

My completed jumper

I began this jumper in January last year (2013) and have finally finished it. I don't have a great track record with finishing jumpers in a timely fashion, I get distracted and do other things and so although this project has taken over a year and a half for the vast majority of that time it's been sat in my knitting bag doing nothing. I realise it is therefore somewhat contradictory to have 'knit fast' knitted on it but it amuses me, and it is very warm. Also, one cardigan took me seven years to complete so actually this was pretty speedy in comparison! Knitting is my therapy, I do it to relax and for enjoyment so I don't really mind how long something takes.

Knitted hot water bottle cover

Getting started

A few years ago I designed and made a hot water bottle cover with a very similar design on the front. I thought at the time it would make a good jumper but knowing the chances of me making it any time soon were slim it stayed as an idea for quite a while. Eventually, many projects later, I decided the time was nigh and I started to look for basic patterns that I could just add my chart to. I was going to design a pattern myself but decided that this would increase the length of time it would take me to complete the jumper by too much, I actually quite wanted to wear it.

Chart knitted, now all the black...

After a bit of interwebbing I found a free pattern on the Lion Brand website that I thought would work. It is knitted all in one piece and is nice and slouchy, which is what I was after. I'd never knitted a jumper that was all one piece before and I don't think I would again. Because the sleeves aren't set in (the jumper is a classic 'T' shape) it is a bit bulky under the arms but this is a minor niggle and I think I will get used to it. I also found that the sleeves were very short (or I maybe just have monkey arms) so I ended up extending the cuffs by about 30 rows. I used Fashion Aran by King Cole, a wool/acrylic mix. It feels very nice, hopefully it will wash well too. I also re-charted my design as the needles were a bit wrong on my first attempt for the hot water bottle cover. I used knitters graph paper and drew out my design in pencil, altering it until I was happy.

The jumper on

Monkey arms

One 'slight' mistake I made was starting the chart too soon, so there is quite a big gap between the neck edge and the design due to a slight mathematical miscalculation and being over cautious ( I didn't want to run out of space for the chart.) However, I have decided to embrace this space as my necklace space, and I shall just wear a pendant necklace kind of thing when I wear this jumper. I should also have worked backwards and done the back first because then I would have got my chart in the right place and had something to look forward to; because I did the chart first I then just had acres of boring black stocking stitch!

Cuff detail

Side detail

Overall I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out, I wanted a cosy casual jumper with a funky design and that's what I've ended up with.

Design detail

Happy Times

Wedding present commission

A while ago I was asked to create a pair of owls as a wedding present. I really enjoyed making them and, I am led to believe, the happy couple were very pleased with their owls, which had their names and special date embroidered on. So, I was very pleased to be asked to make another wedding present. This time I was asked to make a bird cushion in blacks and reds with the names and wedding date embroidered in silver.

Bird cushion with names and date

Head detail

I'm very pleased with how this guy has turned out, I played around with several different fabrics before settling on a heavy black cotton twill and some funky red cotton prints. I also enjoyed making the pattern for this cushion and I think it is one I will use again as I like the chunky shape.

Wing button

Stitch detail

I used buttons for the eyes and to affix the wings and I hand embroidered the name and date in chain stitch. I used a fine silver thread and after about three letters I remembered why I don't often use this kind of thread for embroidery; it snaps and uncoils frequently but I'm really pleased with the finished result and glad I persevered. I hope the happy couple are pleased with their present!

BOB and Birdy Tiles

Birds on Branches Coasters

I had a very exciting email yesterday inviting me to participate in a new Craft Festival in Derbyshire. It is called BOB: the Underground Craft Festival and is taking place in September in Bakewell, Derbyshire. I'm really looking forward to it, best get making! Which leads me onto my next topic...

We've recently redecorated our front room and one of the things we did was put some lovely red tiles on our bare concrete fireplace. They look really good and finish the room off. We had a few left over and not liking to see things go to waste I thought I'd do a little experimenting, as you know I'm mildly obsessed with birds so that seemed the obvious way to go.

I thought about using light colours but then decided silhouettes would be more dramatic so I used black ceramic paint. I worked from drawings and pictures of real birds and painted the silhouettes directly onto the tiles. I then baked them to fix the paint which was very stressful as I was sure they were going to crack (and we couldn't have dinner until they were done!) Luckily, it all worked out fine and I'm really pleased with the results. I finished the tiles off by backing them with felt so that they wouldn't scratch any surfaces. I think they're quite dramatic and a bit different from my usual stuff but that's no bad thing. If you like them they are for sale in my Folksy shop!

More Bird Coasters

Backed with felt

Felt Backing

Playing with Printing

Lino Print Bird

I've been having a bit of a play around with making some prints this week. I was given a small bit of lino to test so, obviously, I did a small bird. The lino was the easy cut stuff which is meant to be easier to cut (clue is in the name) although I'm not convinced it is. The downside to it is that you can't draw on it in pencil, so you need to be fairly confident about what you're doing and unlike 'normal' lino it doesn't have a hessian backing so is quite flexible, which is OK until you start working into it a lot. Because of this I kept it quite simple, not gouging too much out as I didn't want to go right through it.

Having made my lino cut I made a few prints on different types of paper, just using black acrylic paint as I didn't have any printing ink. I was quite pleased with how the prints turned out, I think they're quite charming in a naive sort of way. I wanted to keep the prints together but I didn't really want to do a big design sheet so after experimenting with a few ideas I mounted them all on sheets of dark blue textured paper and sewed them together to make a little book, I think this finishes them off nicely and makes them feel a bit more special than just a group of individual prints.

Book of prints and lino cut

One of the prints on an old envelope

Second print, using up ink from the previous print

I also had a go at making a really simple printing plate by using a ball point pen to draw on a piece of cardboard. This plate obviously breaks down quite quickly but I got a few prints from it and today I stitched into one of them. The stitching just finishes it off and takes it from being a simple print to a piece of work. I've been working as a support worker for Prism Arts recently, supporting a series of printing workshops which is what inspired me to start playing around and I can see it's something I could really improve and develop as part of my work. Also, it's really fun!

Cardboard plate and prints

Print embellished with stitch

Detail of stitching

In preparation for the first of my life drawing sessions on Thursday I've been trying to do a bit of drawing every day. Yesterday I had my Eden Mencap Society art group in Penrith and I wanted to do wax resist with them so I did this blackbird drawing as an example, killing two birds with one stone as it were. We were given a load of black paint over summer so for the past few sessions we've been doing a lot of monochromatic work, they've produced some lovely work which you will soon be able to see over on my website (www.delicatestitches.co.uk)

Wax and paint drawing

Space Pirates!

Space treasure!

I'm fairly certain that almost anything can be made amusing by preceding it with the word space. For example, door frame is not a phrase that tends to elicit a murmur of excitement. Add the phrase 'space door frame ' to a conversation, however, and you're much more likely to get a giggle. Not that this has anything at all to do with this post, so, back to business.

Last week at work (at The Heathlands Project) I was asked if I could help the film group make some hats for space pirates (the theme of their current film.) Naturally I said I could and we created some really cool paper hats. However, they need something a bit more solid so this evening I've been making a pattern and prototype fabric hat. I wanted to create something recognisable as a pirate hat but with a bit of a twist so I extended the brim to quite sharp points. I have to keep the pattern simple as the people making these hats have very limited sewing experience. To my hat I added a space skull (see what I mean about adding 'space' to phrases?) because I wanted to have a variation on the skull and crossbones theme as well.

It doesn't show up in these pictures but the fabric is black and glittery, very cosmic.

Space skull

Super pointy pirate hat