As the Crow Flies

Exhibition Poster

It's fair to say I've been a bit remiss with my blogging recently. I've had lots to write about but I just haven't felt like it. There have been several quite big projects I've worked on and haven't blogged about and because I haven't written about them it put me off writing about other things until I had, which is a bit silly really but there you go.

Wire sculptures: Flight I and II

Flight II

Sculptures and drawings

Anyway, for the past few months I've been busy working on my first solo exhibition. This has been both really exciting and really stressful! I often find that my personal practice gets shunted to the bottom of the 'to do' list so having this exhibition has been a great opportunity to move it up the list and to spend some time in the studio working. The exhibition is at the visitor centre at RSPB Geltsdale, it's a lovely little gallery space with great light and as it is quite an irregularly shaped room there are lots of small wall sections, allowing me to break the work into 'mini exhibitions.' The reserve itself is also very beautiful and there are lots of good walks.

My Magpie triptych. From left to right: Curiosity, In the Shadows, Hail to the Thief

Detail: Curiosity

In the Shadows

Having this show has given me an opportunity to review my work and processes as well as to try out some new things and consolidate some existing ideas. I decided fairly early on to not attempt too dramatic a departure from what I'd been working on and so have focused on refining some of my ideas and techniques and developing current ways of working. It's also provided the perfect opportunity to build a coherent body of work, something I've been trying to do for a while.

Cyanotype pieces

I chose to focus my show on my crow pieces because this has been the main focus of my work for a long time now and this seemed like a good chance to bring it all together. The show is a mixture of drawings, textiles and sculpture.

Chough (applique and machine embroidery)

Rook (Paint and machine embroidery)

Jackdaw (paint, dye, print and machine embroidery)

I was really nervous about hanging the show, Although I'd planned it all out I couldn't be sure how it would all work together and what it would look like but I'm really happy. It came together better than I expected and I'm pleased with how all the pieces work together. There are of course always things that could be improved but overall I feel good about my show and I'm excited about it. I also feel that it's given me a confidence boost and a good incentive to keep going and move my work forwards.

Jay (fabric pastels and hand embroidery)

Crow (fabric markers, paint and hand embroidery)

Some practical notes: If you'd like to visit the exhibition it is free (although donations to the centre are gratefully received.) There is a free car park and the visitor centre (Stagsike Cottage) is about 1 mile walk along a reasonable track from the car park. You can park up at the centre by special arrangement, please contact them for details.

View from the visitor centre

In the Shadows

In the Shadows, Shadow work, 2016

One of my favourite pieces of my own work is a large magpie piece from 2014, called Hail to the Thief. Inspired by this piece and a shadow work workshop I'd been booked to run  I decided to make another magpie piece, making use of the particular qualities of the silk organza I prefer to work with.

Layers pinned together

Layers tacked together

Working shadow stitch by hand

I wanted to continue to explore our odd relationship with magpies, it is something of a love hate relationship and there aren't many birds as loaded with stories and superstitions as the magpie. We admire their beautiful plumage yet berate them as bullies and thieves, we salute them and see a pair as a symbol of happiness and fidelity yet still call them pests. Personally I love to see them, from their swooping flight to the sun on their purple green feathers to the stark contrast of black and white on a grey day I find them endlessly beautiful and charming.

Shadow work detail

Shadow work detail

Shadow work detail

In many ways this has been an experimental piece for me. I have used a lot of machine embroidery in my work, partly to allow me to work at a reasonable speed and produce larger scale works. However, I also have a great love of hand embroidery and have wanted to bring this into my work more and more but I have still wanted to work on a large scale. I wanted to see how I could combine these two aims and thought that using some shadow work techniques could allow me to do this.

Edge detail

Hem detail

Hanging in the studio

I used a 'sandwich' technique to create this piece, trapping pieces of coloured organza and lace between two pieces of white silk organza. Once I was happy with the composition I tacked all the layers together and  I then used machine embroidery to draw the magpie and hold the layers in place. I then worked into the piece with some hand embroidery, adding more layers of sheer fabric in certain areas as I felt necessary. I finished off the hems and edges with pin stitch and a decorative variation of blanket stitch.

Leg detail

Head detail

Hanging in the window

I am unsure how I feel about this piece. It definitely works best as a shadow piece (i.e. lit from the back) and I think I like it but there's something not quite right. However, I think this about most my work at the moment, there are elements that I like and that are working really well but somehow it's not quite coming together as I think it should. I feel like I need some time to really focus on where I want my work to go but as that's not likely to happen in the near future I shall keep persevering and making and see what happens...

One for Sorrow

One for Sorrow. Felt and embroidery, 2014

Wow, another week flown by. I seem to have been very busy this week and when I was thinking about it I thought I didn't have much to show for it but when I started looking at my photographs from the week I realised I did have a few things. One of which is another finished magpie piece.

Ink and paint on paper

Felt and embroidery

I wrote last week about my ongoing magpie obsession and the drawings I had been working on. I also introduced a textile piece with the promise of more information to follow. Being a person of my word here is that information! Based on one of my inky drawings, this piece is nuno felted with machine and hand embroidery and needle felting.

Laying out the base fibres

Starting the magpie

Nuno felting essentially involves making felt through fabric, most usually fine fabrics are used and the fibres felt through the material. The main qualities of this type of felting are it's strength and lightness; because there is a stable fabric base it is possible to make a fine and lightweight felt (basically using fewer fibres) that is still strong. I used silk chiffon as my base fabric and built up a base of mixed sheep fibres and hand dyed silk fibres. I laid them out very finely in layers of alternating direction so that I would have a stable but still lightweight base for my magpie.

Building up the image

Building up the image

Having laid out my base and using my drawing as a guide I began to build up my magpie. I used a range of fibres, including merino and bamboo and a lot of silk. I wanted the finished piece to have a luxurious but subtle sheen which is why I used a lot of silk (that and the fact that if I keep buying all these beautiful silk fibres and don't use them our house may explode in a glorious colour filled ball of fluff.)

Starting to felt

The finished felt

Once all the fibres are laid out the alchemy begins; using nothing but hot water, a little soap and a fair amount of physical effort the pile of fluff is transformed into a fabric. Basically the hot soapy water opens up the scales on the fibres and then the friction caused by rolling it back and forth against a rough surface (such as a bamboo mat) causes the fibres to tangle together, creating felt. As anyone who has hot washed a woollen jumper will know, hot water and friction cause wool to shrink (that's those fibres tangling together) so whilst the original piece was around A2 when laid out after felting it is closer to A3 size.

My tidy(!) workspace

Magpie detail

When the felt had dried out I was able to start working on developing the magpie. I spent a long time deciding how to work into this piece, playing around with ideas and thinking through the process. I decided to begin by adding some definition with machine embroidery. I used silk thread to match the fibres and to add a subtle sheen to the stitches. The good thing about stitching is that if it all goes horribly wrong or you don't like the effect you can always unpick it.

Tail detail

Wing detail

Having added machine embroidery I still didn't think the piece was finished but I did not want to completely cover the piece with stitch as I wanted to keep the subtle colour variations in the felt. So, I added a little hand stitch, unpicking and re-stitching until I was satisfied. However, there was still something missing so I began playing around with the fibres again. During the felting process a lot of the silk I'd originally laid down had got hidden under the wool fibres as they tangled together so I needle felted more silk on top. I also partially covered some of the hand stitching to help it blend in. I knew it was finished when I didn't know what to add next.

Upper wing detail

Foot detail

The name of the piece is taken from the children's nursery rhyme about magpies; one for sorrow two for joy and so on. I rarely give my pieces titles until they are finished even if I have an idea of what to call them as they change and develop throughout the making process and rarely resemble what I had in my head to start with. I had never intended for him to be sorrowful but it's just the way he's turned out.

Head detail

Hail to the Thief

Hail to the Thief (detail)

I finished this piece of work almost a month ago and so decided it was high time I shared it with you! The piece was made in response to the theme 'silver' and it was an interesting piece to work on as I combined several techniques I have previously used on separate pieces together. The piece is made of painted, appliquéd and embroidered silk organza. I worked in layers to try and build up the form and iridescent wing colours so characteristic of magpies.

Hail to the Thief

As with a lot of pieces I wasn't very happy when I first finished the piece, I find that finishing a piece of work is often quite an anti-climax as it is never quite as good as it was in your head. However, after a bit of time I start to become more satisfied and see the good things about it as well as the negatives. This then feeds in to the next piece of work.

Wing detail

Lace print detail

Despite saying that I wasn't going to go into the concepts behind my work in a previous blog post but that I was going to leave it all to the viewer I did write a little about the background to this piece and have decided to include it for you here. However, you will hopefully have some other ideas and thoughts and be able to enjoy the work with or without my interpretation.

"Throughout history silver has been exchanged for goods, sometimes fairly and sometimes not. I became interested in the darker side of silver and it's history and this led me to think about fair and unfair trade both historically and in contemporary society. Silver and thievery have a long association and this theme kept running through my thoughts.

I have long been fascinated by members of the Corvidae family and I kept returning to the children's rhyme about magpies; one for sorrow, two for joy...five for silver. The magpie, perhaps more than any other bird, is loaded with superstitions and suspicions. We call them thieves yet we also salute them, berate their penchant for shiny trinkets but admire their glossy and iridescent plumage. So, in responding to the theme of silver I found myself drawn more and more towards the Magpie. It also gave me a good reason to do lots of drawings of them!

A recurring theme in my work is a questioning of the lesser value often placed on artworks made using traditional textile skills and techniques. The subtle lace print suggests how painting, or fine art, has been considered superior to craft or applied arts (such as lace making) and the use of embroidery over the top of a painting is an attempt to redress the balance. Textiles offer an intimate and immediate connection to a piece of work through their familiarity and I hope that I can use this to draw people in and perhaps cause them to re-evaluate and look for deeper meanings."

Head detail

A day in the studio

Mixed media drawing

I got a rare opportunity this week, a chance to spend a day in my studio doing my own art work rather than getting organised and doing prep for workshops and projects. I am very lucky to be doing the job I do and I really love it. I get to work with so many great people, get involved in exciting projects, have the chance to make a difference to peoples lives and I get to work in lots of different settings but I do sometimes find that I don't have time for my own art which is important to me too.

Work in progress

Work in progress

Work in progress

As with most things in life it can be hard to get the balance right; I need and want to do the workshops and projects because that's how I pay the bills and I find it very inspiring. However, I sometimes feel I'm so busy I don't get much chance to make my own work and that my personal practice is slipping a little. So, it was great to have some time to just work on some ideas and have a bit of a play. I went to Bombay Stores at the weekend with  three artist friends and I was really inspired by one of them in particular to just get on and make some work. So, I worked really hard to get all my workshops prepared so that I could have a day to devote to my work.

I decided the crow was too small (A2) so I started an A1 size magpie

I did a bit of writing, getting all the bits of ideas that are bouncing round my head onto paper and then I did a couple of collaged drawings. I'm not especially enamoured of the finished drawings but they're a really good starting point for some textile pieces that I want to make. I'm a big believer in Ruskin's 'head, heart, hand' mantra (basically, good art should involve thought, feeling and bear the mark of the artist/maker) and I often find that the hardest bit is getting started; once I'm working different possibilities and ideas present themselves and help me move the work forwards.

I added a background, but didn't like it so I cut the magpie out

I also started on a small piece of work for an open submission; more on that if I get it finished in time! Overall, I had a great day. I feel enthused and excited about my work again and keen to keep going. Hopefully I can continue to make time for my own work and strike towards getting that elusive balance right.

Cut out mixed media magpie

Detail

Detail