While the garden grows I am at work in my studio...

While the garden grows I am at work in my studio.

A new work. 

The challenge - how to express what is the province of Alberta on one double-sided panel?

I decided to depict the diversity of landforms in the province - landforms shaped by glacial and tectonic processes.

The schematic with a beginning sample. 

Cutting out the shapes.

I decided to focus on the interlocking shapes of the different regions and I felt colour would be a distraction. I auditioned a variety of different unbleached cottons from my stash. I selected mainly handwoven cottons from India. I washed these fabrics and lightly tumbled them dry to allow their different weaves to naturally collapse into wrinkles unique to each cloth.

Problem - how to make a neat double-sided join?

Solution - couching hand-made jute braid from India that I just happen to have in my stash, patiently waiting until needed.

The different landform shapes have been joined.

Yes, the landform edges do need more definition.

Hmmm, not sure about the outline. Is it too dark? Too wide? Does the whole panel need a wider border?

I added a border of a wider jute braid.

Nope - I don't like the way the outline of each shape takes away from the feeling of the different landform regions being related to each other. So I unpicked all of the braid on both sides.

I sewed on a much thinner jute braid.

Much better. 

Now to block the whole panel just enough to make it hang straight while not flattening out the natural landform wrinkles.

I think this must be the first work I have made without the use of my trusty irons.

Indian Textiles

oopps! the images didn't appear with my last post - so here they are

Indian Textiles

i love Indian textiles - just want to show you some close ups of some displayed at the Beyond peacocks & paisleys, Handcrafted Textiles of India and its Neighbors exhibition, in the Goldstein Museum of Design, University of Minnesota College of Design.

i had to walk passed the gallery everyday to get to and from the workshop i attended after the Surface Design Association conference.

i found myself in there a number of times over the week... just looking

thanks Hazel Lutz and Anna Carlson (the curators) for the experience and for the exhibition catalogue with so many close-up images and satisfying essays ...yes, i bought the book

Wrapped Trees

As part of a project for my studies, I wrapped 4 different types of trees, each in a length of unbleached cotton tied with jute string.

For weeks now I have been looking for some interaction with the cloth.

but there has been nothing, except that the cloth is beginning to fall off the tree, which is just gravity at work.

Some animal has been running up and down the left hand trunk of this cedar and left dirt marks but the tree has not left its mark.

We are nearing the end of the rainy season here so I'm not expecting anything more to happen to these cloths but I will leave them up until I need them for some other 'brilliant' idea.

When I walk past these wrapped trees, I am reminded every time of the many trees in Northern India with 5 foot wide painted bands around the lower part of the trunk. For the 3 weeks we were travelling in India, I couldn't work out why the people did this.

Maggie's Interview with Julia Caprara

I have just reread the interview Maggi Grey did with Julia Caprara in her Workshop on the Web e-zine, May 2007. It is such a good interview. You can hear Julia's enthusiasm and zest for life as she talks.

It hints at all of the things Julia was involved in. The background of her and her husband, Alex's setting up of the Opus School of Textile Arts is most interesting. With Julia's typically gentle spirit what doesn't come across is the influence she and Alex have had on the lives of literally hundreds and hundreds of textile students over the years.

A valuable section of the interview is where Maggie asks Julia to explain how she goes about curating and hanging the huge annual Prism exhibition in the Mall Galleries in London. Maggie is right, Julia's answer was inspirational to anyone involved in displaying art work.
Thanks Maggie for this lovely memory of Julia.

These images for Julia are from a trip I made to India, earlier this year. If you would like to see more, click on Lesley's Galleries at the top right to get into my public web albums.

More Colour for Julia Caprara

...from India

Last week I ordered Julia's new 'Exploring Colour' book from D4daisy,http://www.d4daisy.com/. I have read so many positive reviews of it. Each time the doorbell goes I think it must be the postman with my book . I must be patient.
But, when it arrives I am going to stop everything, make a cup of tea and sit down for a long read.

Julia Caprara

I am filling my blog space with colour today to remember Julia Caprara who passed away on Friday. Julia was one of the doyennes of the art world. People all around the planet will be feeling a sense of loss. Many will be wondering how they will cope without her. But no one more than Alex, her husband who has been beside her through her long illness.

Hand Printing Blocks, India

This highly skilled craftsman carves intricate blocks for printing fabric.

He carves ancient designs and he takes on commissions for new designs. See the Canadian designs on the left. He is making blocks for a Canadian textile artist.

More Stages in Hand Block Resist Dying

Stage 5 -Washing removes the printing gums.

Stage 6 - The textile is immersed in a hot alizarin bath for 1 hour to devlop the 2 shades of red.

Stage 7 - Mud-resist paste (clay-earth & gum) is applied with blocks to mask out areas of the design to remain red or white. Sprinkled with sawdust to aid drying.

Stage 8 - Immersed into indigo vat, then spread out in sun to allow blue colour to develop on all unprotected areas.

Anokhi Museum, Amber, Jaipur

The Anokhi company, among other activities, helped revive the local hand block printing industry by supporting artisans & their families. It produces block printed garments & products that they sell in their Indian & international retail outlets.

They renovated & restored this old mansion and established a museum to showcase the history of hand block printing and to regularly exhibit work by contemporary clothing designers.