Nostalgia: An Exhibition at Farfield Mill

Earlier in the year I was delighted to be invited to exhibit with artists collective Decorum. I was invited to join them as they had an exhibition coming up at Farfiled Mill in Sedbergh but unfortunately one of the artists was unable to take part for personal reasons. I was invited by Priscilla Edwards (exquisite mixed media assemblages, sculptures and drawings), who I'd met when I booked her for a workshop at Cumberland Embroiderers Guild in January last year. At the workshop (which was excellent) we got chatting and discovered we were both graduates of the Manchester Metropolitan University Embroidery Degree. So, when Decorum found themselves with a gap Priscilla kindly thought of me!

Exhibition panorama

Exhibition view: Val Jackson's dresses (right hand side)

Exhibition view: Priscilla Edwards mixed media pieces and drawings

 

Exhibition view: Christine Stanford's paper and wax dresses

The other artists taking part, Christine Stanford (beautiful paper and wax dresses) and Val Jackson (amazing embroidered dress and hat pieces), are also MMU Embroidery graduates and when looking at the exhibition it's interesting that although we all produce very different work there are a number of connections between us all. One of the Trustees at Farfield Mill said that one of the things they liked about all of our work was the quality of the finishing and I think this is probably one of the things we all got from our degree and the tutors there.

Exhibition view: My work

The theme for the exhibition was 'Nostalgia' which worked well for me as at the moment a lot of my work is about exploring memory. I was excited by the chance to make some new work and as I was only a small part of the exhibition there was less pressure to 'fill space' so I felt I could experiment a bit more. I used the opportunity to start exploring some ideas I've had flying around in my brain for some time.

Traces I, II and III

Traces III
Handmade felt, naturally dyed silk chiffon, feathers, beads and hand embroidery. 2018

Traces II
Naturally dyed silk organza and cotton, feathers, gold thread and hand embroidery. 2018

My sketchbooks are full of various drawings and sketches of ideas for 'vessels' and this exhibition provided me with an opportunity to finally make some of these pieces. I've always been intrigued by the idea of vessels as they can be both containers and carriers, used to store or to transport; concepts which relate well to memory. I've also been doing a lot of work around natural dyeing recently and I wanted to use this in these pieces too.

Exhibition view: Val Jackson (left) and Christine Stanford (right)

Exhibition view

I created three large hanging vessels in the end, all naturally dyed, all with embroidery and all with feathers. I was really worried about showing them as I wasn't at all sure how they'd look or whether they'd work but in the end I think I'm quite happy with them. There's a lot more experimenting to be done and if I'd had more time I probably would have done more to them but I like them well enough and am excited about developing the ideas further.

Memory Cloth: For Cathy
Rust dyed fabrics, samples, feathers and hand embroidery. 2018

I also created a hanging wall piece called 'Memory Cloth: For Cathy' for the exhibition. This is another piece I've had in mind for a while and this exhibition gave me a chance to just get on with it. I inherited a large collection of materials, supplies and samples from a member of Cumberland Embroiderers Guild when very sadly she died. She was always very supportive of my endeavours and so enthusiastic about things and I really wanted to make something to commemorate her. The piece uses many of her supplies and is dyed with her rusty pins and scissors and incorporates some of her samples. It also includes lots of hand stitch and gold foil and is meant as a celebration of her life and all the people she affected.

Memory Cloth: For Cathy (detail)

Memory Cloth: For Cathy (detail)

'Memory Cloth' developed from the small fabric banners I've been making and I exhibited some of these as well. I love these pieces, for me they are full of meaning but I hope that they are also beautiful objects that people can enjoy whether or not they understand/want to understand the concepts behind them.

Flow: Tide
Naturally dyed fabric,  shells, feathers and hand embroidery. 2018

Tied to the Earth
Naturally dyed fabrics, feathers, beads and hand embroidery. 2018

Skywards
Naturally dyed fabrics, feathers, hand embroidery. 2018

I was really pleased to be invited to join this group for this exhibition, they were all very friendly and supportive and it's been a pleasure to work with them. I was very nervous at first as they are all much more established artists than myself and it's always hard to join a group who are already familiar with each other. However, it's been a positive experience and exhibiting with them has given me some different ideas and inspiration. I hope we'll be able to work together again in the future.

Nostalgia is on at Farfield Mill from 23rd May-30th June 2018

More Sketchbook Making shenanigans...

Stacked Folded Sketchbooks

Earlier in the year I had a lovely evening running my 'Embellishing Printed Fabric' workshop for Brampton Arts and Crafts Club. It was such a relaxed and pleasant evening with a really lovely group of people. They obviously enjoyed it too as they invited me back so in September I ran my 'Simple Sketchbooks' workshop for the group.

Folding, cutting and sticking

Folding, cutting and sticking

Folding, cutting and sticking

I had a bigger group to work with this time as none of the gentlemen of the group came to the previous workshops but they clearly felt happier with sketchbooks rather than stitch so had come along this time. Once again it was a lovely evening, very relaxed and lots of chatting! I demonstrated my techniques for making envelope sketchbooks and my favourite folded sketchbooks. I then let the group loose on my stash of papers. One of my favourite parts of this workshop is choosing the papers and I love seeing people having a good ratch through and selecting the bits they want to use.

Folding, cutting and sticking

Folding, cutting and sticking

Folding, cutting and sticking

It was really interesting seeing how differently people approached the workshop and the amazing range of sketchbooks created, each a reflection of the individual. I'm always intrigued by how even in a large group and working with the same materials everyone will produce something different. I'm sometimes asked why I'm so willing to share my techniques and 'secrets' and this is why; no one will do it quite how I do as each person has their own unique quirks and characteristics and this will come through in any creative work.

Folding, cutting and sticking

Folding, cutting and sticking

Playing with folding sketchbooks

In a similar vein I don't worry about sharing my techniques and tips as I believe that to create 'good' art you need to believe in what you're doing, it has to be authentic. The word authentic is bandied around a lot at the moment but I really believe that a piece of work that is truly authentic has a bit of the makers head, heart and hand in it and will always stand out over a copy or something. One of my tutors once asked me "if you don't believe in your work how can you expect other people to?" This really struck a chord with me and since then I've tried to always make work I believe in, that I am proud to claim as my own. So, the moral of this post is go and be creative and do it your own way proudly!

Finished sketchbooks

Finished sketchbooks

Finished sketchbooks

Finished sketchbooks

Finished sketchbooks

Finished sketchbooks

Making Sketchbooks: AENW Workshop

Making folded square sketchbooks from recycled papers

Recently I was asked to run a short workshop at Tullie House for Art Educators North West, a group of teachers and others involved in art education who meet regularly to share ideas, experiences and skills. The workshop was to tie in with the Anselm Kiefer exhibition currently on show at Tullie and the programme of workshops being offered to schools.

Some of my sample sketchbooks

Folded Square Sketchbooks

Folded Square Sketchbooks-Opened out

The workshop I've designed for the schools in connection with the exhibition is a mixed media book making workshop so for this session I adapted that idea. I wanted to run a workshop that would be both enjoyable and useful so I was aiming for something that the educators would be able to take back and use with their students but that would also be fun to do.

Me showing one of my books

Folded square sketchbooks made from prints taken from painted fabric

One of my envelope sketchbooks

I always feel very nervous before I run a session for teachers, it's very scary teaching a teacher! However, everyone was really friendly and the atmosphere was relaxed and positive. I also got lots of positive comments so that's always a good confidence boost. I really hope the session was useful.

Envelope sketchbook seen from above

Envelope sketchbook

Envelope sketchbook

The workshop focused on three different ways of making sketchbooks; a folded square book, an envelope book and a variation on book maker Hedi Kyle's blizzard book. The other focus of the session was what paper to use, I wanted to look at using a range of recycled and discarded papers (rejected prints, junk mail, old maps, unneeded photocopies and so on.)

Preparing squares

Putting the squares together

Preparing squares

I had a range of books that I'd made to show the group and once we'd looked at those we got stuck in to the making. What I like about all three of these books is that they're basically very simple but there is a lot of potential to do quite exciting things with them. My favourite is probably the folded square book, it is just made of squares of paper but the way it is folded means that as well as being a flat sketchbook it can also be manipulated into more of a 3D form. It is a very tactile form and interesting to play about with.

Selecting and preparing papers

Preparing pages

A finished sketchbook

I also really like the envelope sketchbook, using an existing envelope as a template a range of envelopes are made from different papers and then joined together to form a book. The envelopes can be used to store things as well as being drawn on or written on as sketchbook pages. Like the folded square books they can also be made into more 3D forms. I think it would be great to work with a group making these and then use everyone's finished books to make an installation.

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