Inventive Sketchbooks at Cloud 9

Set up ready for the workshop

If you've read this blog before you'll know that I love running workshops, I love that each time I run a workshop it's different and I learn something new, even when I've run the session many times before. Yesterday I ran my 'Inventive Books' workshop at the lovely Cloud 9 Studio Gallery in the centre of Dumfries. I had three great participants and we all had a productive, creative and enjoyable time. The gallery is a lovely place to visit, there are lots of lovely things to look at (and buy!) and Julie, the owner is really friendly.

Making pages for our folded books

Making pages for our folded books

Making pages for our folded books

It's unusual for me to have such a small group, hosting workshops can be expensive so generally places need a higher number of participants to make it work financially. It's a very different dynamic working with a small group and it was a nice change. The participants were all very creative people as well so that also changed the dynamic, throughout the day I had to remind myself that I was working as it was such a relaxed atmosphere it was more like a creative conversation than teaching.

Folding our books

Folding our books

Folding our books

I shared my processes for making my favourite folded sketchbook and envelope sketchbook and everyone had a chance to make one of each using a selection of papers that they felt inspired by or drawn to. One of the reasons I love making my own sketchbooks is that I can select the papers I use and make it personal to me. I like to draw on a range of different papers so making my own books means that I can pick out the papers I like and use them to create a sketchbook I know I'll want to work in.

Making covers

Making covers

Beautifully finished folding book

We also discussed ways of working in sketchbooks. Like many things, I think that for most people getting started is often the hardest part. As a starting exercise I gave everyone a word or phrase to get them going, I kept these deliberately vague so that lots of different ideas could be generated, it doesn't matter if these ideas don't lead to a final piece the important thing is to get going and start the creative process both in terms of thinking and making. Over the years I've backed myself into a corner (creatively speaking) so many times by getting overly focused on finding the 'right' idea to work on. Over time I've learnt that it's better just to do something, anything as the thoughts and ideas will flow much more easily.

Starting to work in our sketchbooks

Starting to work in our sketchbooks

Starting to work in our sketchbooks

Sketchbooks are very personal things and I love that each one made on this workshop is so different and reflects the personality of its maker. I finished the workshop feeling inspired by the conversations we'd had and happy that I was able to share some of my favourite techniques and hopefully inspire my participants to carry on their creative journey.

Finished books

Finished book

Finished book

100 Hearts War Stories: The Embroiderers Guild

Sacrifice
Felt, hand embroidery, beads and feathers. 2018

In a continuation of my series of posts about centenaries, this is a post about another participatory project commemorating the end of the First World War 100 years ago. This project is run by The Embroiderers Guild and will comprise of a series of exhibitions throughout the UK, each of 100 Hearts created by Guild members. As regular readers know I do like a good participatory project so I signed up earlier in the year to take part.

Closing up the heart with beaded blanket stitch

The project has two main aims, firstly to create a body of work for exhibitions commemorating individuals, events and stories from the first world war and secondly to raise the profile of textile art and the Embroiderers Guild. When registering you could chose which size heart to make (15 cm or 30 cm) and what colour (red, dark blue or light blue.) The Guild provided templates and fabric and some guidelines and ideas about how to decorate your heart but the emphasis was on creating something personal and something that showcased the breadth and scope of modern embroidery.

Pigeon feather detail

Hanging loop detail

As I knew I had a busy year coming up (when don't I?) I decided to go for the smaller size heart and although I would normally choose cool blue colours over reds I decided I would go for a red heart. I've been adding touches of red to my work for a while now to represent blood and life so it seemed like a good opportunity to further explore working with this colour. I sent off my registration form and eagerly awaited the arrival of my fabric.

Embroidery detail

Tassel detail

A few other people from Cumberland Embroiderers Guild (my local branch) have also been taking part in this project and at our meetings I was inspired by the work they'd done. Some had chosen to make their hearts for a particular individual from their family and it was lovely to see their stories embroidered onto the felt hearts. I wanted to create something a bit different that would be a more general memorial rather than about one person.

The back of my heart

Back detail

A couple of years ago Prism Arts were commissioned by Cumbria's Museum of Military Life to create a community quilt to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme. For this commission I designed a project that we were able to make in stages, with each participating group creating patches which I then  joined together to create a 46 metre long 'roll call' quilt. To engage participants on this project many of the images we pulled together involved animals and I'd personally become particularly fascinated by the story of pigeons in WWI.

My pigeon patch for the Somme 100 Quilt

At the beginning of the war many homing and carrier pigeons were killed and their owners interrogated, as it was suspected they were being used to send messages abroad. Under the Defence of the Realm Act of 1914 you had to have a permit from the police to keep pigeons and the shooting of pigeons was actively encouraged. Later in the war, however, officials realised that these pigeons could in fact be quite useful and homing and carrier pigeons did go on to become an important part of the war effort. By 1916 the Defence of the Realm Act had been amended to make it illegal to shoot pigeons.

Tassel detail

I've called my heart 'Sacrifice' and incorporated pigeon feathers into my design as a homage to these birds. I wanted to recognise and remember these smaller lives and the human lives they were connected to. I've used feather stitch in different red threads to create texture and added gold thread embroidery, to represent value and the gold of the sun in the sky. It's been an interesting project to work on, particularly in connection to the other remembrance projects I've been involved in and I'm looking forward to seeing the hearts exhibited.

Owl Moon

Owl Moon, 2018
Hand and machine embroidery on metallic fabric and naturally dyed silk and linen

Sometimes I have an idea for a piece of work and I get started and make it right away. More often though it takes a long time (years sometimes) for an idea to become a reality. On our first night in Islay on holiday three years ago we were lucky enough to get very close to a Tawny Owl. It swooped down and landed on a fence post right in front of us as we gingerly drove down a track to what we hoped was our accommodation for the week. It wasn't terribly impressed with us stopping to admire it but the experience stayed with me and since that moment I've been wanting to make a piece about that owl.

Tawny Owl, Islay 2015

Layering up fabrics

Layering up fabrics

As much as I love owls, I've resisted making any pieces with owls for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I only really make work about birds I've seen and been able to observe properly as I want my work to capture a bit of their spirit and to do that I have to get to know them. It's hard to observe owls in the wild as they mostly come out at night and they're very stealthy! Secondly, owls are very popular (I own many owl embellished items myself) and I didn't want to fall into the trap of making a 'cute' owl.

Building up the owl, using my drawing as a template and photograph as reference

Rust dyed silk for owl wings

Starting to add machine embroidery

For our exhibition 'Wingspan' at RSPB Geltsdale Visitor Centre, Mr. Stitches has written a poem about an owl hunting, called Owl Moon. This poem captures the wildness and skill of the owl and inspired me to finally get around to making my owl piece. As I mentioned, the idea for the piece had been in my head for some time so Nick's poem was just what I needed to kick start the process.

Detail: Owl Moon, 2018
Hand and machine embroidery on metallic fabric and naturally dyed silk and linen

Detail: Owl Moon, 2018
Hand and machine embroidery on metallic fabric and naturally dyed silk and linen

Detail: Owl Moon, 2018
Hand and machine embroidery on metallic fabric and naturally dyed silk and linen

I'd found some interesting metallic fabric on a trip to Bombay Stores in Bradford and I knew that's what I wanted to use for the moon. I also knew that I didn't want it to be too shiny so I experimented with layering up pieces of silk organza that I'd dyed with logwood, giving a beautiful deep purple colour. I also used some indigo dyed organza and used some indigo dyed linen as a base as I felt the piece needed a more solid ground than the organza. For the owl I used pieces of organza that I'd dyed with rusty pins as it had just the right texture and patterning for an owls wing.

Detail: Owl Moon, 2018
Hand and machine embroidery on metallic fabric and naturally dyed silk and linen

Like a lot of my work this piece was built up in layers. As always, I started by drawing and sketching my ideas before I started to play around with layering up fabrics. Sometimes the pieces of fabric come together really quickly and other times I spend a long time arranging and re-arranging until I'm happy. I used running stitch and star stitch to secure the background layers and chose to leave a lot of raw edges as I think this emphasises the wildness of the subject.

Detail: Owl Moon, 2018
Hand and machine embroidery on metallic fabric and naturally dyed silk and linen

Detail: Owl Moon, 2018
Hand and machine embroidery on metallic fabric and naturally dyed silk and linen

I then moved on to making the owl. Again working in layers I built up pieces of rust dyed organza, using my drawings as a template to cut out specific areas such as the wing feathers. I then worked several layers of machine embroidery in various shades of thread to build up the pattern and texture of the feathers.

Detail: Owl Moon, 2018
Hand and machine embroidery on metallic fabric and naturally dyed silk and linen

Detail: Owl Moon, 2018
Hand and machine embroidery on metallic fabric and naturally dyed silk and linen

I'm really pleased with how this piece has worked out, I think that it is starting to marry together different parts of my practice;  the work I've been doing on my feather banners, my bird portraits and drawings and my increasing interest in and experiments with natural dyeing. For me this piece feels like the start of something, as well as the resolution of an idea that I've had in my mind for a long time.

Embellishing Printed Fabric: Workshop for Dumfries and District Embroiderers Guild

Fantasy Broccoli: Work in progress
Fabric markers and hand stitch on printed fabric by a member of Dumfries and District Embroiderers Guild

I get lots of workshop bookings and running workshops is one of my favourite parts of my practice. Usually I'm booked up 3-6 months in advance and most bookings come with that kind of notice. Some groups work much further in advance, planning their schedules a year or two ahead so sometimes I take bookings for a couple of years down the line, it always seems so far away when I take the booking but it always comes around sooner than I think! This was the case with a recent workshop for the fabulous Dumfries and District Embroiderers Guild. 

Setting up

Adding colour

Creating individual designs

When I took the booking back in 2016 I was running my 'Embellishing Printed Fabrics' workshop quite often; I find that I tend to run the same workshop several times in a short space of time and then it swaps to a different workshop. It was really good to come back to running this workshop after a bit of a break (I only ran it once last year) as it's a very relaxing workshop and offers a good opportunity to experiment and try out new stitches and colour combinations. 

Artistic license onion!

Choosing threads

Using home made stencils

I developed this workshop as I found that a lot of people wanted to do hand embroidery and stitching but weren't confident drawing or creating designs and this was holding them back. I had some lovely black and white printed fabric from Ikea so I started using fabric markers and pastels to 'colour in' the design and use this as a starting point for stitching. It's a great way to practice stitching and is a lovely mindful activity; it involves colouring in and stitching both of which have proven therapeutic benefits. 

Choosing colours

Work in progress

Work in progress

I always feel a little nervous running workshops for Embroiderers Guild groups; many of the members have far more skill and experience than me and it can be a bit intimidating. What I can offer though is a different way of approaching things and hopefully some new ideas and inspiration, not to mention my impressive printed fabric stash. It was great working with the Dumfries and District Embroiderers Guild, they were so friendly and welcoming and everyone was very positive and enthusiastic. It was lovely working with a group who are so open to new ideas and trying things and who have so much going on. I was asked to join the branch and if it wasn't for the fact that it clashes with my work at The Heathlands Project I'd have definitely taken them up on the offer! 

Work in progress

Work in progress

Work in progress

As always when running my workshops one of the most inspiring things is seeing the different ways people interpret the same idea. Everyone did something a bit different and I was pleased that I could provide that starting point and hopefully a bit of creative advice and inspiration along the way. One of the lovely things about hand embroidery is that because it is quite a slow process it allows time for conversations and thoughts to flow, often along quite unexpected lines!

Work in progress

Work in progress

Work in progress

I finished the day tired but full of positivity and enthusiasm (and delicious carrot and bean soup from Cafe Hubbub at Gracefield Arts Centre.) The group has an exhibition coming up along with The Dumfries and Galloway Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers and the Solway Quilters. The show is called 'Hanging by a Thread' and runs from 14th April-12th May at Gracefield Arts Centre, I'm looking forward to visiting. 

Work in progress

Work in progress

Work in progress