Post Cards From Fundy - Research

Last post I was wondering which braid to put on the post card. Margaret sent me her opinion in that post's comments and I have gone with what her suggestion.
My research told me the heavier braid was right because the period covered by the post card was the industrial revolution when all sorts of textile related machines were invented. Many different braiding machines were built to satisfy the fashion demands of the time. But this vintage, metallic braid is too heavy for the work and the wrong colour. I considered the finer blue knit, tube braid but it doesn't stand out enough. I went with a fine black braid.
Thank you Margaret for your supportive comments.

The main source of inspiration for this post card is an 1816 sailor's uniform, reproduced by Charlene Delouchery-Roberts for a museum located on the shores of the Bay of Fundy.

The long-imported Indian ginghams were now being produced by UK mills.

For this post card I used the sailor's uniform colour scheme and similar textiles: cotton gingham, wool serges and felt.

Post Cards From Fundy #4

The 4th post card is about the Bay of Fundy in the early 19th century.
Everything 'classical' was all the rage.
Here is the 'stamp' in progress.

Many hours have been spent on the design of these post cards. I made mock-ups in paper (the inside of security envelopes) to check the range and distribution of values. I also use my camera to get black and white images so I can check the values are working.

I sampled the type and colour of stitching to use to attach the textiles: How wide to make the zig zag, how close together so the stitching showed but didn't dominate.

Auditioning different braids and cords to use as the lines on the post card.

This...

...or this?

VCA End of Term Show

Kati Abakanan's work

Kati worked with a cool blue palette

Kati dyed a wide range of fabrics

Kati's final project used her own dyed fabrics

VCA Fine Arts Textile Students' Work - Cut-back Applique

 

 

 

 

 

Samples of Cut-back Applique by' Mark Making With Machine' students at Victoria College of Art: Kati Akhavan, Dana Davies, Pat Davis, Laura Manning, Sarah McLean, Wylie Paterson, Esther Pomeroy.
They have used their own dyed fabrics most effectively.

Red & Student Work

An up-dated image of Red. Working on the 3rd layer using finer yarns.

More samples of student work - Self Applique using their own hand painted cloth.
Garland

Sarah

Kati
There is much excitement in the college this week as students have their last lesson for the term. They are finishing assignments, projects and art works in preparation for the Christmas Show when their works will fill every bit of space inside the college.
The Christmas Show will be on Friday December 16th from 7:00pm and Saturday December 17th, 1:00 - 4:30pm. On Saturday I will be demonstrating with my sewing machine and talking about the course I will teach in January - Mark Making With Machine. 

Red & VCA Student Work

Here is a progress shot of Red - it will be needing its pedigree name soon
Working on the 2nd layer - thick yarns

Victoria College of Art Mark Making With Thread
Student samples - Self-Applique
James

Sue Mei

Esther
A technique that always produces surprises

Sass Tetzlaff - JC 2011 Graduate

'Domestic Bliss Series'

These are postcard images of another BA(Hons) Julia Caprara School of Textile Arts 2011 graduate - Sass Tetzlaff.

Sass told me the images are taken directly from 'pin-up girl' posters. She thread painted the images by machine than appliqued them onto pieced backgrounds.

The backgrounds are all used men's shirts and she also incorporated men's suits in the above work.

Sass says in her artist statement: 'My current work focuses on the tensions that exist between what women in Western Society want to do and what cultural stereotypes still seem to suggest they ought  to be doing.'

Self Applique

The students in the 'Mark Making with Stitch' class at Victoria College of Art may have looked and sounded as though they were just playing with a pile of textiles but they were in fact working.

They assembled a collection of different fabrics with potential for the Self Applique technique.
They collected samples of shot weave....

... considered the reverse side....

...and experimented with patterns.
Then they made samples using their own painted cotton.
They all decided it was a technique with great potential.

More Articulation work at CQA

I am posting images of the Articulation exhibition at CQA on 2 different blogs - mine and Articulation's.
Left - Ingrid's "Night" is an abstract response to the city she has lived in for many years. There are lots of layers here: screen printing, applique, mark making by hand.
Middle - Gloria's work started as a black piece of cloth that she discharged, cut up and reassembled. The black boarder is lost on the black curtain.
Right - My work. While I was researching the Tyndall stone quarried just outside Winnipeg, I found a reference to it also being known as 'Tapestry Stone', which just begged me to make a stone block in a tapestry technique.

Here are 2 different responses to being in the rain forest.
On the left is Donna's work and I find her response as a prairie girl most interesting. With a life-long perspective of the flora being below her knees, she has emphasised the continual falling of leaves and debris from above as a unique aspect of the rain forest ecosystem.
The work on the right is Vickie's. Her perspective is as a more distant observer looking at the rain forest as details move in and out of focus. She has a more atmospheric response.

The work on the right is Leann's, another life-long prairie girl, and like Donna, she too responded to the mass of many greens and leaves falling from overhead.
The work on the left is Donna's from the Winnipeg body of work. She explored in a number of works the ethnic diversity of the immigrants to Canada as they came to claim their grid-surveyed plot of land.

While in the rain forest on Vancouver Island, Vickie looked down and in the decay of an old stump saw new life growing. She layered 9 fabrics and, using the reverse applique technique, she revealed the stump's growth rings and rotting core. She used stump work techniques to show the new sapling (nice pun there).

Tony Bounsall Textile Art Photographer

That's what I call him any way. Tony actually has many skills and talents but I call him a textile photographer because he did such an excellent job making digital images of my work. I had to hunt all over Victoria carrying my work with me visiting a number of different photographer's studios before I found someone who understood what I needed.
I am pleased with the soft shadows that highlight the textures and the clarity of the details.
Thanks Tony.

This work is one I will be packaging up tomorrow in preparation for sending to Calgary for the Canadian Quilt Association Biennial Conference in the Telus Convention Centre. It will be in the area where Articulation, as special guests, will have 8 booths full of work.
If you are in Calgary any time between Tuesday 27th April and Saturday 1st May, I do hope you can come downtown and visit us.
There will be 7 Articulation members in town over the week and present in the booth area at all times when the show is open.
Any one of us can give you a guided tour of the work, just ask. If you don't, we will ask you if you would like to know anything about the works.

This work of mine, that Tony did such a good job of photographing, is called 'Provisioning'. If you come down to the Convention Centre I'll tell you all about it. Its got its own story.