Latest work

Been currently working on my latest piece of work for the Textile 21 exhibition in October.

 At the moment it is totally white silk. Both the fabric and thread used.

 It is called Effervescence II and is a development of my silk organza toile that formed part of the "Fashioned in Silk" exhibition of last year.

 

 The circles are the basis of this design and as they overlap they allowed me to develop layers that each display different techniques

I will cut away the outside of the design and then dye with procion dyes so that it will fulfil the brief of the exhibition and be Created in Colour.

Here I am free machine embroidering one of the circles.

Tech Styles Exhibition now on

At last the Textile 21 exhibition is hung and ready for the first visitors tomorrow.
Below are some closeup a of  three of the exhibits.
The exhibition was first shown in 2013 but there are some new exhibits and extension pieces that are in the shop for sale.

Macclesfield Silk Museum Exhibition

Here I am pointing to the free machine embroidery along the hem of my silk toile.

This is the view during the evening of the preview. The lighting helped make the ethereal effect that we wanted to show off the toiles to their best advantage.

There are more images on Textile 21's blog

Textile 21 Exhibition

As a member of Textile 21 I have been busy finishing my exhibit which is part of a 16 piece  installation. Fashioned in Silk is a departure for us away from the tradition textile art pictures on a wall exhibition. 16 silk organza toiles display embellishments that reflect members style and expertise. The image above is the one that is to appear in the local press and below a close up of the hem detail of my dress 'Effervescence'.

The circular design flows around the hem and employs free machine embroidery, applique and cable stitch. I used a wide range of silk fabrics.

The exhibition Fashioned in Silk starts 15th February to the 19th April at the Silk Museum, Park lane, Macclesfield, SK11 6TJ. Monday to Saturday 10am-3pm. Free Admission.

In addition we are having a Meet the Artists day on the 29th March as part of the Macclesfield Makers Day event. Roe Street, SK11 6UT. 10am-3pm.
visit our website textile21.co.uk or blog textile21.blogspot.com for further pictures and details.

Busy Summer

It's been a busy summer but the most enjoyable day was on August 24th when my extended family celebrated what would have been my Dad's 100th birthday. We all got together, siblings, children, grandchildren, nieces, cousins and all their partners to remember Bert and all the happy times we had with him and my Mum Emily.

Here we all are after a good spread and lots of talking. The weather could have been better but it stayed dry and warmish.

Now that the winter is closing in, cold winds expected later this week I am thinking about inside activities. Textile 21 took the "TechStyles" exhibition down at Quarry Bank Mill last week and we are all busy preparing our next exhibition for Macclesfield Silk Museum in February -"Fashioned in Silk". See textile21.co.uk for details 

TEXTILE 21 EXHIBITION

Here is my latest piece of work for the up and coming Textile 21 exhibition at the New Vic in Newcastle under Lyne from the 23rd March until the 25 April 2009.

The exhibition title 'Recollections' brought to mind colours that my mum used to favour when I was child in her work. She was a seamtress and of course like so many children of the 50s I never had anything on my back that wasn't homemade be it fabric or wool. I still have a piece of cotton guaze like fabric that she was saving for something 'special'. The day never came and my children ended up using it to dress up in when they stayed with her. I still treasure that fabric and it gave me the inspiration for this latest piece - hence its title, 'Memory Shades'.

I embellished two layers of synthetic organza with trapped fibres between, leaving large areas unembellished to creat the raised effects. Then set to work on the hand embroidery, again a hommage to Mum as she enjoyed her embroidery so.

Below is a closeup of the section of french knots that works so well.

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Norton Priory Exhibition

I got a shock when I looked at the date of my last post. It has been such a busy month plus this time of the year is gardening time. The warmth and rain are ideal conditions for growth of everything. My first poppy of the year last week and foxgloves everywhere. Welsh poppies are so bright and cheery but so invasive that I have just spent an hour fulling them up before they seed everywhere, I do leave a few for next year's show!


The pics below are of the preview of the Outside In exhibition at Norton Priory by Textile 21. I've not given too close up a view as I'd rather you go and see it yourself!!

Three ladies admiring my 3 seed head pieces and the man in the back ground with the stripy shirt is my hero David, he also is my hubby.

This is Rita my dear friend from Silk-n-Threads. My informal mentor I usually run most of my pieces by her before signing them off. Such a stylish lady. She is inspecting my work!

Sue and Maria in the foreground having a chat. Both are members of Textile 21 with exhibits well worth seeing.David again but this time chatting about the RAF with Cliff, Pauline's husband. The large batik on the back wall depicts the sculpture in the garden of the Kneeling Monk.

Finally Claires's felt hats being admired by an invited guest with Elsa's three panels on the far wall.

Detail of one of Claire's felt hats

The preview was well received and the exhibition runs until the 14th July. The walled garden at the priory, open each afternoon after 1.30 is well worth the visit.

Norman Window

Been remiss at not posting recently but life has a way of catching up with one doesn't it?! I am very focussed this week on getting my pieces for the Textile 21 Norton Priory exhibition finished

This is almost at the finished stage. I have been to organise a frame which should be ready on Saturday.

I have posted two pictures the first without flash and the second one with flash. I would say that the colour is some way between the two. The first one shows the navy background and how the reclaimed lace (with soldering iron) shows up. I lightened the window recess area and thankfully it worked!

See pictures on previous post for detail of the distressed edges. There is a Norman window at the Priory and the theme was 'Outside In' so it was crying out to be represented in some way. I have been very pleased with the way the Lutradur behaved it has been coated with many different layers of paint, acrylic and interferance and inks etc. It was a dream to solder and to sew.

Norton Priory Exhibition

The latest exhibition of Textile 21 entitled 'Outside In' is to be held at Norton Priory between 22 May - 14th July 2008. All 15 members have designed and executed new pieces based on the gardens at the Priory to reflect the theme throughout Cheshire this year 'The Year of Garden'.

I have started three pieces that have allowed me to create new surfaces/backgrounds. I can't see much else getting done over the next few weeks as I plough on with these pieces.

The first is an embellished piece on ivory cotton velvet. I have used lace, wool roving and silk tops, as you can see from this pic I played around with the arrangement.



This pic shows the finished surface before I started to create the silhouette design on top. It has been well batted down and the gummed silk has remained in relief giving a very pleasing surface pattern. The finished size will be 9x15inches and mounted around a frame that Hubbie doesn't yet know he will be making!

These are a variety of experiments to reproduce stems for my silhouette of Dill plants. Very long painted tyvek beads and painted machine wrapped cords. I will couch on both types to achieve the different thicknesses of stems.

This is the image that is my inspiration for my first piece.

The second piece is embellishing again but this time on layers of organza with trapped fibres. This pic shows the random placing of cut fabric and fibres before I embellished on my janome Xpression.

This pic is after I have embellished . I love the resulting crinkle effect . I intend to FME a closeup of the Flower head on this background. Following pic gave me this idea.

This is the start of my third piece. Lace and muslin on Lutradur after I have machined in place and painted the reverse in browns and oranges. (thanks to Carol McFee for technique)

Then I painted the right side in acrylics and interference paints.Love the shimmer effect of interference paintsFinished piece ready for the window design to be applied, haven't quite worked that out yet but think the Roman window shape at Norton will be cut out before I FME on the Lutradur.

This is the pic that gave me the inspiration for the window shape.

So back to it.............. having said that I am at a workshop with Jackie Cardy and the Macclesfield Embroiderers Guild tomorrow so it will have to all wait until Friday, then again it's my birthday so i hoping some of my 'friends' will be popping round or phoning up to take me out for lunch!!

I've heard back from most of my nominees for the award of 'inspirational blogs' and it is plain to see the positive effect it has on people as they realise how they an affect other bloggers work and life. A great idea to spread good will and creativity.