A Drawing is Finished

Pen drawing with stitching

Detail

I did the actual crow drawing a couple of months ago on tracing paper. I liked the drawing but I wasn't sure how to finish it. Today, as I was looking for something else, I decided the way to finish it was to feather stitch it to a dyed and printed paper. So I did.

Complete (I think)

Not Lost But Still Searching

A few months ago I wrote about a piece I was working on for The Festival of Quilts this August. The idea was that I would post about it as I went along so people could see how it progressed. This didn't really happen as although I remembered to take pictures I didn't get round to writing posts about them.

Anyway, I finished it last night so I thought I'd post a couple of pictures. The quilt has four layers and has been dyed, painted, machine stitched and hand stitched. The crows were painted then machine embroidered then applied to the quilt by hand. All the actual quilting was done by hand. Today I have very sore fingers.

The top layer is silk organza; the middle crow is sewn on top of this layer and the other two are underneath it. The organza layer is attached to the other layers with insertion stitches.

Detail of the bottom crow and insertion stich seam

Detail of the top crow

Detail of main crow before attachment to quilt

Quilting progress

So, I got my fabric dyed up ready for my quilt. I was really pleased with the colour of the organza but the mid layer was too pale and subtle to be seen underneath it. So I added a bit of detail with watered down fabric paint.

Mid layer of fabric

I also painted some crows onto organza and have begun stitching into them with my sewing machine. I've been using some extremely slippery viscose threads which have a lovely sheen and look great but are a pain to work with as they keep snapping! However, I'm really pleased with how they're working out and I think they will look very good when they're completed and attached to the background. Lots more stitching to go...

Detail of partially stitched organza crow

As the organza is very fine, when I painted it, a lot of paint went through the fabric and I ended up with a cool image on the paper underneath. I think this will be good to work into as the colours show up better on the paper than they did on the fabric, it will be a good base for a drawing!

'Accidental' drawing

Woohoo!

I submitted a piece of work for selection for a textile exhibition way back in January and I've just found out that it's been selected, which is rather exciting for me. The exhibition is called Textile News and is organised by Dr. Gudrun Heinz, the theme this time was Freedom. I chose to look at the idea of breaking free and my piece took the form of a bird rising up and flying free. It is made from layered and pieced organza which I dyed in shades of greys, greens and blues. I then used hand embroidery stitches including feather stitch, blanket stitch, fly stitch and stem stitch to add detail and texture to the piece. It's an important piece for me as it got me back into creating work, giving me a goal to work towards and a bit of an incentive to get going. I enjoyed doing it and I'm now working on a much larger piece along a similar theme and using similar techniques.

The exhibition is touring and the first venue is The Festival of Quilts in Birmingham 11th-14th August this year, it then carries on to Moscow, Prague and Einbeck.

You can find out more about the exhibition here http://www.quiltsundmehr.de/TEXTILENEWS2ENG.htm

This is one of my preliminary drawings for the piece:

Ink drawing exploring the theme of freedom

One more thing...

This week I finally completed a small 3D piece that I started in about May last year. I'd do a bit then he'd be forgotten or put to the side for a bit and so on until finally, he is complete. He's built from a paper and wire frame, papier maiche, paint and lace. He's sat on my bookshelf and I think he's lovely!

And there's more...

And here are some drawings from this week. These drawings are an exploration of the theme 'freedom' and in particular of breaking free. I was inspired by the idea of rising up from whatever is tying you down, spreading your wings and flying free. The birds seemed an apt, if obvious, way of visualising this and I also really like drawing them!

I'm really pleased with this last one and am currently developing it as a fabric piece in layers of silk organza with lots of stitch. I like the dark area at the bottom and the way the crow rises above it all, like leaving all your troubles behind and moving on.

Resolutions?

So, its a new year and inevitably that starts with all the things that I'm going to improve on this year; being more organised, creating more artwork, actually taking pictures of my work, posting them online etc. It never pans out quite as I plan, however, every year I do get a little bit better so who knows, maybe this year I will actually start making use of this space!

To start things off here are some drawings from September last year, an expansion on the crow theme.

Some recent drawings

I'm developing a slight obsession with crows, I see a lot of them on my travels to and from work and I think they are very interesting birds. They are really quite beautiful and yet there is something a bit sinister about them as we tend to associate them with death and darkness. I find this interesting as in my own work I like to create things that are beautiful yet have a sinister undercurrent.