Next Articulation Series of work

Two summers ago, while travelling, I knit lots of rectangles in a log cabin quilt technique.

Last summer, while working in a temporary studio in the Tulista Art Gallery, I washed and blocked them all. 

Next step I joined the rectangles, cut them into strips then rejoined the strips.

Then re-cut and rejoined the pieces again.
I am making views of the Canadian prairies from the air - a patchwork of different field crops.

Synesthesia #24 - Golden Yellow

Continuing the Synesthesia series.
Collecting up #24 Golden Yellow fabrics and sorting by value.

...and threads. An opportunity to use some of my many gold threads.

But sparkly wasn't right for how I feel about this colour.
So my collection of sparkly gold threads will have to wait their time for another idea.

Hemoglobin: Chlorophyll - the process

The ground is a collection of domestic linens (pillow cases, bedsheets, table cloths, bed spread) I dyed in reds and greens then strip-pieced. The resulting fabric hung on my design wall for a long time while I tried to work out what to do next.
The image of the finished work appeared one day.
The next step was to get out my collection of machine threads and sort them by value and intensity...

...then make a selection.

After several drawings on paper I was familiar with the vein pattern.
I drew the leaf outline on the back of the stabilised work then free-motion worked the vein pattern from the back.

 I repeated the process for the lung.
Using the smiley-face foam was a big mistake. It became more problematic the further I went. And a fellow stitcher pointed out the archival life of the foam was not likely to be very long. I ended up cutting most of it out. Working around the stitching was a time consuming job.

Articulated Materials: Bridging Waters Exhibition by Articulation and Material Girls

The 1st showing in Canada of the Articulated Materials: Bridging Waters exhibition opens in a month, at the Cre8ery Gallery in Winnipeg.

The name of the exhibition explains how the it came about and also it's content.

Articulated Materials - Articulation, a Canadian group of fibre artists teamed up with a similar group called Material Girls, based in London, UK, to produce separate bodies of work to be shown together.

Bridging Waters: Each group chose an iconic waterway in their respective country to research. Articulation chose the Bay of Fundy and Material Girls chose the River Thames.

The resulting bodies of work are both contemporary, personal responses to the water ways and they tell stories of the long history of human interaction with the physical environment.

The 'bridging' part happens when Articulation's work was sent to London and toured galleries over 2012, then was sent back to Canada with the Material Girls' work for a 3-gallery tour across Canada over 2014.

The 'bridging' also happens when the viewer makes connections between the two bodies of work.

Donna Clement designed the poster using an image of Ingrid Lincoln's work.

Both are Articulation members.

Articulation Attends World of Threads Festival

The 1st festival exhibition Articulation attended was an independent solo show in Ristorante Julia.

Toronto artist, Mafalda Silva, showed Tangled Memories, a body of work about having life changing experiences while staying essentially the same person.

She shows this change by observing the natural world.

Mafalda stitched small amounts of colour into black and white photographs.

Challenges While Stitching Outside

I quickly became aware of the challenges of stitching outside while the bed sheets were wrapped around the trees.
I live in a "rain" forest area so the sheets were often wet. Thread doesn't slide very well through wet cloth.
So no stitching when the cloth is wet.

The daily temperatures dropped. I wore more layers to keep my core warm but found my cold fingers couldn't move the needle well enough below 8 degrees after half an hour of stitching. 

While working on the sheet I disturbed the wildlife. I liked it when spiders ran over my fingers - I felt connected. But I was not keen on connecting with wasps hibernating in this new condo they had found. They hung on by their mouths and made low slow buzzing noises when I moved the sheet. I was pleased when they decided to relocate. 

Another challenge was, apart from stitching along the bottom hem, how was I going to stitch on the sheet while it was wrapped around the tree?
Having found out I could stitch only when the cloth was dry and it was above 8 degrees, I realised I wouldn't be able to stitch outside many days between October and spring. I needed to put more thought into realising my concept.

Victoria Collge of Art Student Esther Paterson

Esther gets her body of work ready for the Student Show

Her 3D project is a butterfly...

...made using a needle weaving technique

Victoria College of Art Student Kati Akhavan

Kati setting her work up Friday morning

Kati's project showing atmospheric perspective

Kati's 3D project using needleweaving

Kati's workbook where she developed her distinctive colour palette

Prairie Landscapes

I am beginning a new body of work. It will be exhibited with Articulation.
After sorting yarns, I needed to wind all of the skeins into balls.

Then I sampled....

... to see how the colours worked together.

I am working with my photographs, drawings and colour studies collected during Articulation's study week based in Regina, Saskatchewan, when we studied life on the prairies.

Studio Clean Up

After packing up a module of work and sending it to my tutor in the UK, I cleaned up my studio.

This table has been covered for months and I have had to shuffle piles to find spaces to work in.

Part of cleaning up my studio involved getting a new iron - just because I finally had time to go out, check the different brands and make a decision.
Isn't this a great name for an iron. It is heavy, holds lots of water and is programmable.

It took me many hours to sort and put everything away.

But only a short time to cover the table again.

I am sorting yarns from my stash for a new body of work.

Chlorophyll and Hemoglobin

In my degree studies I am exploring the connection between red cells in human blood and chlorophyll in plants.
I dyed many different household linens in greens and reds: pillow cases with embroidery, tea towels, bed sheets, napkins, table cloths.
I used a Val Campbell-Harding method to randomly strip-piece the different cloths.

After one cut and sewing the strips back together again.

After 2 cuts and sewing the strips back together again.

Now i am hand stitching the flow of blood and chlorophyll in running stitch (had to be that stitch)
You can barely see the stitching in this image because i have just started. I am playing a version of the PAC Man game - whenever I bump into the other colour i have to change direction and 'run' only on the same colour as the thread in the needle.
This image has funny looking labels in it because this was the work i took to the Martha Cole workshop in Gloria's studio. Martha gave us lots of different question sheets to answer while looking at our own work pinned up on the wall.
I had had a week with Martha while doing the artist residency with Articulation in Banff. We did similar exercises in a lot more depth and a lot more of them. That is when I learnt to recognise my 'style'.
It was most interesting to repeat some of the exercises several years later to see how my work has developed and changed. i noticed i feel differently about my work now too.
It was well worth taking the time out to just look at what i make.