Doing Laundry

Over the summer I had several sessions doing laundry while it was hot and dry
- perfect conditions for cotton.

I soaked and washed a pile of domestic linens I had accumulated.
I hung them to dry until they were just damp.

Then steamed them dry and smooth.

They were added to my collection...

...waiting until their time out in the public eye. 

Decisions - decisions

Hemoglobin: Chlorophyll
After sewing the motifs I auditioned many red/green permutations for the sheers going over the top and behind the cut out motifs.
First decision was to settle on the right red and the right green sheers.
Auditioned 2 layers of red with the lung sandwiched between and the leaf between two layers of green.

Red behind with green on top for both motifs?

2 greens for the lung and 2 reds for the leaf? 

Red and green on white?

I settled on green over the lung and red over the leaf with white behind.
I opened up a soft, well-worn pillowcase, added the sheers then suspended the motifs between the 2 layers.
These images don't show the shadows on the white cloth from the cut out motifs.
Adding the snag found in the forest was an easy decision.
Done - all decisions made.

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.

Mark Makers at Victoria College of Art

Victoria College of Art - where the Mark Makers are presently having their first public exhibition. 

In the Drafting Studio, first on the right.
I will be taking my turn sitting the exhibition tomorrow.
Lots of people have been visiting so it will be busy.

This is the first time 'Hemoglobin: Chlorophyll II' has been out of my studio.
The artist statement:

How many breaths has this well-worn, opened-out pillow case absorbed?

Capillaries, veins and arteries make up the lungs of our planet. The sister molecules, hemoglobin and chlorophyll, the red and green, are responsible for the rhythm of our lives.

Familiar, used domestic linens allow me to communicate without the need for translation, to reach across time, and to honour the often anonymous original makers.

Domestic linens were dyed red or green, strip pieced, then the motifs free-motion machine stitched.

'Home' Installed With 'Continuum' in Oakville

With this 2nd installation of my graduation work 'Home' I was unable to suspend the frame from the ceiling. I had to modify the work to fit the challenging space in the Oakville Town Hall.

I used 2 of the 4 sheets to make a bed.

And added a plain pillow with a treat.

This installation was also different in that the stitching on both sheets is complete. One year of each tree's biological processes has been recorded chromatically on cloth.

I put the book documenting the process on a chair beside the bed.

Two different installations of the same work responding to two different spaces.

'Seeing' Things

Maple Cloth 

Cedar Cloth

Arbutus Cloth

Douglas-fir Cloth
An idea i explored with this work is seeing as a gendered issue and a cultural issue.
I placed small elements from each tree under its cloth to lure the male inside the structure, knowing he focuses on details from long distance. The female eye is rewarded with the details of these elements once she is inside the structure.
The western viewer has had it ingrained in them to not touch art and to accept it's right place within a frame, behind glass, behind a barrier, or across a space. This work challenges the viewer to go inside the work for a more sensory experience, enticed into the structure by the familiarity of having been between sheets for hours most days of their lives.

Trialling the Installation

My lumber jack/sailor friend helped me with a trial installation of the 4 tree cloths. 

 

Unfortunately, the wind came up and it started to rain.

But the trial supporting frame was up long enough to confirm dimensions and to work out where the structural forces would be.

We quickly lowered the frame and got the cloths inside before they were damaged.

Maple Tree Cloth Repairs

The Maple tree cloth's Battenberg lace deteriorated and was not able to support it so it came inside for repairs.

Safety pins held the lace together until I could do the repairs.

I stitched a supporting grid but I anticipated the strengthened lace insert would next tear away from equally fragile woven cloth. It just needed to hang on until I stitched in August new moon's band of weft threads. 

The repaired cloth went back outside.

Have Tree Cloth, Will travel

Here am I stitching while traveling on the Coho ferry to Port Angeles, Washington, USA.

One of the passengers, a tourist from China, travelling with her family, was fascinated watching what I was doing. We got talking and I invited her to work on the cloth. Her concentration and dexterity were way beyond what I expected from her age.

From the ferry I was able to point out an Arbutus tree slipping by and made the connection with the Arbutus cloth she was working on.

The hand stitched quilt on our bed in the Bed 'n' Breakfast we stayed in looked at home under my tree cloth. 

The colours and log cabin/ flower patterns on the quilt were sympathetic with my simple running stitch and nature based concept.