Textile Wall Hangings Inspired by Nature: RSPB Geltsdale

Getting set up for the workshop

Poster for the Workshop

Last year I ran two textile workshops (Bird Portraits) at RSPB Geltsdale, following on from my 'As the Crow Flies' exhibition. I really enjoyed the sessions, it's a lovely environment and I had a great group of participants on both workshops. I was asked to run another session this year to run alongside my 'Wingspan' exhibition. I didn't want to run the same workshop again so we decided on my Mini Textile Banners workshop, but with a new title as they thought 'banners' might put people off!

Ready for everyone to arrive

Getting stuck in

Playing with layers

This time my exhibition was still up when I ran the workshop (last time the workshops took place after the exhibition) which I really liked as I was able to refer to my work throughout the session and I thought it helped 'set the scene' a bit more. It's really good working in the gallery space as you have the work all around you to refer to and, hopefully, to inspire people.

Finished piece from last years workshop

Experimenting with layout

Experimenting with layout

Once again I had a really good group of participants, including quite a few who'd been on the previous workshops or attended some of my other workshops. It's always a good confidence boost when people come back! One of the participants from the last workshop brought her finished piece, it was a beautiful piece of work and I was so pleased she'd been inspired to carry on and finish it after the workshop. It was a very relaxed session and what I was really pleased with was that people really made it their own, everybody's banner was different and I was impressed and inspired by how willing everyone was to get stuck in, try things and experiment.

Adding stitch

Adding stitch

Adding stitch

When I'm running a workshop I'm not interested in everyone doing exactly the same thing and going home with a carbon copy of something I've done, I want to inspire people to be creative in their own way. I aim to encourage people to try something different and to have confidence in their own ideas. I love being able to show someone how to master a particular skill or technique but what I really love is when they then take that skill and do their own thing with it.

Pieces growing and developing

Pieces growing and developing

Pieces growing and developing

During the workshop I showed people how I create my textile banners, using naturally dyed fabrics, natural objects, stitch and other embellishments. I demonstrated different techniques and stitches but my focus was on encouraging people to create something unique to them, exploring their interests and ideas. It was great seeing everyone get stuck into the materials and start selecting bits and pieces and I loved seeing how the work changed and evolved over the course of the day. My pieces change and evolve as I'm working on them so I was keen for people to enjoy the process rather than worrying about doing things in a particular, set way.

At the end of the session 

At the end of the session 

At the end of the session 

I usually find that when I'm running a workshop I learn new things too and I find that some of my most exciting and enjoyable workshops are the ones where there is plenty of collaboration between myself and my participants. Sometimes it's discovering an artist to research, sometimes it's learning a different way to work a stitch and sometimes it's firing ideas around and finding something that really gets the creative juices flowing. Running workshops also gives me a good chance and a good reason to experiment, it can be easy to get stuck in a rut when working all alone but sharing my practice with other people opens up more opportunities for experimentation and new ideas.

At the end of the session 

At the end of the session 

At the end of the session 

During this workshop I had a chance to try out something I've been meaning to do for ages; incorporating limpet rings (limpet shells that have had their tops worn away, leaving a ring) into my work. Whilst we were away on Westray last year I collected lots of limpet rings and started experimenting but hadn't done anything with it since then. Seeing everyone working away with all the materials I'd brought got me all inspired to have a go and I'm really pleased with the results. I was so pleased that the next day I carried on working with the shells and made a small piece of work about tide and memory, which has been selected for Cumbria's Museum of Military Life Remembrance 100 exhibition, but more about that in another post.

At the end of the session 

At the end of the session 

At the end of the session 

Detail

Feather Banners: Journeys, Connections and Meanings

Flow: Connect 2016
Indigo dyed fabrics and threads, feathers, beads, hand stitch

Last year I made a piece of work called 'Flow:Connect' which I exhibited as part of Prism Arts C-Art exhibition and which was also on show as part of 'Random Acts of Art' at Gallery Artemis earlier this year. It's a small textile banner, hand stitched and embellished with beads and feathers. The piece explores the idea of everything being interconnected and a journey. This was an important piece for me as it gave me a new way of working and over the course of this year I've been exploring and developing these ideas and techniques.

Experimenting with layouts

Experimenting with layouts

Starting to stitch

As I wrote in my last post the natural world and our connection to it has been increasingly important in my work and in my life generally and it's something I've been thinking about a lot and exploring in these pieces. I've been doing a lot of natural dyeing and I've started incorporating these fabrics into my work, adding another layer of connection. The colours achieved by using natural dyes rather than synthetic dyes are much more subtle and variable and I like the slightly unpredictable nature of using natural materials.

Work in progress (on the train!)

Tea and threads

Work in progress

All of the banner pieces incorporate feathers, most of which I have collected (another connection to the journeys I make.) As my work is developing I'm also developing my own set of meanings for the materials I use. Feathers are signifies for birds which in turn represent us or more specifically our spiritual selves and our desire to transcend and move up to the 'next level.' Throughout human history people have tried to find out what (if anything) lies beyond our physical world and still today we are always pushing the boundaries and trying to find out more. Birds have often been used to represent the soul, their ability to fly connecting them to the sky and the heavens (in many religions, cultures and philosophies the 'next level' is above us in the skies.) I'm fascinated by this idea and our desire to move upwards and I'm intrigued by the idea of a spiritual self; this is one of the things I am exploring in these feather banners.

Of the Earth 2017
Naturally dyed fabrics, feathers, hand stitch, twig

I've shied away from writing about this element of my work before as I've worried that by talking about the spiritual I will put people off. However, I have decided to have the courage of my convictions and one of the great things about art is that it doesn't matter if it means different things to different people; it's not important that other people see (or don't see) the meanings as I do.

Fly to the Sky (Dusk) 2017
Naturally dyed fabrics and threads, silk paper, feathers, hand stitch

Fly to the Sky (Dusk)
Detail

Fly to the Sky (Dusk)
Detail

The different elements of the banners are held together with hand stitch, mostly running, feather, fly and cross stitch. The stitched lines represent the lines of our journeys, both physical and spiritual, and join up all the different layers, connecting the whole piece together. Because they are hand stitched it's very time consuming to make these banners but that's also one of the things I like about them. Working on them forces me to slow down and gives me time to contemplate what they mean to me and what they might mean to others.

Work in progress

Work in progress

Work in progress

I will be exhibiting my work at Farfield Mill later this year along with artist Daniel Cooper and I'm hoping that these banners will form a significant element of my part of the exhibition. Details to follow!

Ready to Fly 2017
Indigo dyed fabrics and threads, feathers, beads, hand stitch

Ready to Fly (detail)

Marx, craft on the BBC, mental health and Eco-dyeing

Eco Dyed fabric notebook

Last night I watched a couple of interesting things on iplayer, a documentary about Karl Marx and a show called Make!Craft Britain. Now I appreciate that at first the two may not seem obvious companions but one of Marx's observations and concerns was that the workforce was being exploited and people were unable to have any creative input or expression. Marx believed that all humans are innately creative and to lead happy, productive lives and to create an ideal society we all need to be able to express our creativity and be productive. Interestingly, many of the comments from participants from the craft programme (which followed two groups of people participating in a textile workshop or a paper cutting workshop) focused around how taking time to work on a craft increased their sense of well being and happiness, that taking time to produce something "feeds the soul."

Daily drawing

Daily drawing

Daily drawing

Those of you who read my ramblings on a regular basis or have to endure them in real life will know that I have been banging on along these lines for some time, I believe that we are creative beings and we all need to have a creative outlet. It doesn't have to be a craft as such, just something that allows you to express yourselves and involves some form of physical involvement. I know that personally I need to be doing creative things to be happy, for me those things are mostly based around drawing and pretty much anything textile related. My mental health and my creativity are very closely linked, a lot of my self image and therefore confidence is tied into my work and the things I create.

Fabric notebook with stitching

Fabric notebook with stitching

Fabric notebook with stitching and feather

Despite being aware of my need to be creative and despite a good proportion of my time being spent doing creative things I am prone to periods of artists block and general despondency. During these times I feel uninspired, I lose all confidence in my work and my abilities and am generally pretty grumpy. Over time I have learnt that there are ways to help shift the block and move forward to create better work and to be a happier person. One of the most successful strategies is to just make something, quite possibly completely unrelated to whatever I'm working on at the time. Taking the time and energy just to create is often enough to give me a kick start and get me back on track.

Gathering materials in the garden

Placing plants between the pages

Placing plants between the pages

The more astute amongst you will have gathered from the thrust of this post that I have been going through one of these 'block' periods recently, wanting to work but not being sure what to do and lacking faith in my work and myself. So, I decided to follow my own advice and just do something. There was a project in a magazine (Workbox) that had caught my eye so I got the magazine out, gathered my supplies and followed the instructions (more or less) to create my own eco-dyed fabric notebook. The project was from Alice Fox and as I'm really interested in natural dyeing and eco printing I very much wanted to try it out.

All bundled up

In the steamer

Colours developing

I really enjoyed working on this mini project, it combined many of the things that I love and that excite me about art and making; ideas, experimentation, a bit of science, technical skill, subtle colours and just having a go. Because I was using this as a kick starter I wasn't at all precious about it and didn't over think it. I just made it, following a process that involved doing things I like.

Eco-dyed pages

Eco-dyed pages

Eco-dyed pages

My base fabric was an old linen tablecloth I'd bought along with some more interesting things on ebay a few years ago (tick number one: using stash fabric.) I cut it into 'pages' which I then stitched into in various ways (tick number two and three: not measuring and stitching.) I used all natural fibres so that the natural dyes would be able to colour the fibres. Having made my book I then headed into the garden and collected flowers and leaves that I liked the colours of (tick number four: being in my garden.) My garden is in its infancy and I haven't yet had time to plant many dye plants so it was a good chance to see what colours different non typical dye plants would give (tick number five: experimenting.) I sandwiched the plants between the pages with a few bits of rusty metal (iron can be used as a mordant in natural dyeing as well as being a dyestuff itself, tick number six: chemistry.) I then clamped the whole thing together with bulldog clips.

Eco-dyed pages

Eco-dyed pages

Next step was to head into the kitchen (not my natural habitat) and steam my 'package.' I left it to steam for about an hour and was a bit disappointed that not a lot appeared to have happened. However, I followed the instructions and didn't immediately open up the package, leaving it to dry out a bit overnight. To my delight when I came down the following morning I could see that colours had developed (tick number seven: patience rewarded.)

Eco-dyed pages

Eco-dyed pages

I managed to leave it until later in the afternoon before I could contain my curiosity no longer and I unwrapped the parcel to reveal some beautiful colours (tick number eight: it worked!) The pansy flowers I'd used had left some beautiful, subtle purples and lilacs and throughout my little notebook I found interesting patches of colour. I'm really pleased with my little experiment and it has not only got me doing something but has given me some ideas and inspiration for what to try next (tick number nine: block begins to lift.) Sometimes, of course, it is not as easy to get oneself going and back on the up but sometimes a simple kick start is what's needed to push forward and continue down a creative path.