Rust and Red: Adventures in Colour and Remembering

Memory Cloth (For Cathy)
Rust dyed fabrics, hand embroidery, feathers and found objects
2018

Over the course of this year I've been involved in a number of projects connected with the centenary of the end of the First World War and Remembrance. When I first began getting involved with these projects I wasn't really sure how my work would connect; military history isn't really my thing. However, the more I thought about it the more I realised that actually there are a lot of connections, particularly with the remembrance element of the centenary.

Memory Cloth (For Cathy)
Detail

Memory Cloth (For Cathy)
Detail

Memory Cloth (For Cathy)
Detail

Memory is one of the themes that I'm interested in exploring in my work, in particular the way that it changes over time and the way that objects, especially textiles, hold memories. One of the reasons I like to work with natural dyes is that they are a way of preserving a memory of that resource in cloth and I also like the way that the colours can change and shift over time, they remain beautiful but they change subtly and slowly just like our memories.

Memory Cloth (For Cathy)
Detail

Memory Cloth (For Cathy)
Detail

Early on in the year I began work on a piece in memory of a particular person; Cathy. A member of Cumberland Embroiderers Guild and a very talented stitcher Cathy was always so enthusiastic and encouraging and always wanted to hear about my projects. When she died her son asked me to help sort through her extensive stash, dividing it up amongst the charities I work for. I kept a few of her unfinished samples and the needles and pins that were too rusty to use. I wanted to create a piece of work that would celebrate her life and provide a way of remembering her.

Work in progress on Memory Cloth

I used the rusty pins and needles and a small pair of her rusty scissors to dye and print some fabric. I then assembled this dyed fabric along with some of her unfinished samples, feathers and various other bits and pieces. I joined these pieces with lines of stitch, representing her journeys through life and connecting all the different elements together.

Silk dyed with cochineal

Wool, cotton and linen dyed with cochineal

Linen, cotton, wool and silk dyed with cochineal

The finished piece was exhibited at Farfield Mill as part of the Nostalgia exhibition earlier this year and then again as part of the Cumberland Branch of the Embroiderers Guild exhibition at Tullie House in September. I like that the piece could be both personal (as it was when shown in September) or more general (as it was in May) but either way I found people could connect with it and find their own stories, memories and interpretations within it.

Flow: Red
Naturally dyed fabrics, feathers, sequins and hand embroidery
2018

Every two years Cumberland Branch of the Embroiderers Guild holds an exhibition (as mentioned above.) This year our theme was Red and the Chairman's challenge was Poppies, to tie in with the centenary and remembrance events. Although I use touches of red in my work it's not a colour I'm very confident with, I lean more towards cooler colours like blues and greens. However, I wanted to create a piece for the exhibition and, handily, earlier in the year I'd been doing some dyeing with cochineal so had quite a few bits of naturally dyed fabric ready to use.

Flow: Red (detail)

Flow: Red (detail)

Flow: Red (detail)

Inspired by the pieces I'd made for Remembrance100 at Cumbria's Museum of Military Life and the piece I made in memory of Cathy I decided to make one of my mini banners, as I call them. I wanted red to be the main theme but I also added touches of gold to hint at the preciousness of life but also as a nod to military regalia and medals. I also wanted the piece to reference poppies and remembrance so I incorporated black and red sequins. As always I included feathers as in my work I use them to represent us and because I wanted this piece to be part of my 'Flow' series, which explores the flow and change of life and memory.

Flow: Red (detail)

Flow: Red (detail)

Although quite different to my other pieces I like this piece, it is much bolder and less subtle and it was interesting working with such a strong colour. I found it very challenging as often it felt too much but I'm happy with how the different elements have eventually come together.

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.

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

Shadow Work Workshop

Samples and materials ready for the workshop

In February I delivered a Shadow Work workshop for the Cumberland Branch of the Embroiderers Guild. I was really nervous about this workshop as some of the embroiderers have been stitching longer than I've been alive! I wanted to create a workshop that focused not so much on traditional ways of doing things (as I knew many of the participants would be far better at it than me anyway) but on ways of taking the traditional techniques and using them in a more personal way.

Selecting and transferring designs

Selecting and transferring designs

Selecting and transferring designs

This workshop also inspired a piece of work, called In the Shadows, which I really enjoyed making. It was also good to have a big piece of work to show the participants as traditionally shadow work is worked on quite a small scale. I had also combined several techniques to show that we don't need to be limited to working with just one method at a time.

Tacking fabrics ready to stitch

Tacking fabrics ready to stitch

Stitching

One of the things that I often find when running workshops is that people are very nervous about implementing their own ideas and have little confidence in their own creativity. They are often worried about getting it 'wrong' and making sure they do things the 'right' way. Personally I find this an odd approach as for me it is a natural thing to want to experiment and try new things but I do understand why people feel that way. I hope in my workshops that I can give people the confidence and freedom to try something different and not worry too much about getting it 'right.'

Experimenting with fabrics

Pin Stitch

Stitch and tea...

To help limit people's worry about design and creating something I did provide several designs for people and encouraged participants to use these as a starting point to try out their own ideas. Because they were my designs they did of course largely feature birds so a lot of bird samples were produced during the workshop!

Pieces from the workshop

Pieces from the workshop

Pieces from the workshop

I really enjoyed the workshop, it was great seeing people playing around with fabrics and trying things out especially things that they might not normally have tried. For most the session everyone was very quiet, deep in concentration working on their stitching. This kind of silence in a workshop is very satisfying, knowing that you've shown people something they want to spend time learning. I always find I learn something new too when I run a workshop, whether it's a new artist to look at, a technique to try out or using something in a different way.

Pieces from the workshop

Pieces from the workshop

Pieces from the workshop