Studio News: Four New Projects Started

After a very busy summer with a family wedding and lots of company, I am back in the studio. With so much time off I need to re-establish a work routine. Having started 4 new projects this week is helping. I move from one project to the next and studio time flies by.

I can show you only a glimpse of what I am working on because

one is a commission and the commissioner would probably like to see the work before anyone else.

One is destined to be put in front of a jury in the hope of being selected for an exhibition. Until then it has to remain anonymous and unseen.

One is for an exhibition proposal and needs to be work as yet unseen by the public.

So sorry, this sneak-a-peek is all I can show for now. Keep checking and I will post images of the works as soon as I am allowed.

In the meantime I am back in my studio most days, which is a good thing.

Busy Weekend

Each day I have continued to repair the bead work on this dress.

The weekend started out warm and breezy - perfect conditions for laundering my collection of domestic linens, acquired over the winter.

Outside in the breeze until damp dry.

Then "polishing" with a steam iron.

This process took 2 days!

Down to the Bog

I am trying some more dyeing in the environment. 

First I pre-mordanted a wool blanket in alum and cream of tarter but I'm not sure I had to do that.

Then I headed outside, negotiated the right distance to walk around this family without being attacked, and went on into the forest...

...down to the bog.

 I dropped the blanket into the water...

...and stomped on it.

The idea is to leave it for up to a year with occasional liftings to oxidise what is going on.

It is an old Scandinavian technique for getting shades of black on wool.

Auction House Lot- Finland Arabia, Russian plate, textiles

There was a collection of other things in the box I won at the auction.

A large printed table cloth and 2 plates....

One is a rather lovely painted, wooden plate from Russia (I'm guessing) and a Finnish Arabia plate, produced between 1971 and 1975.

...and this odd assortment.

These crocheted kitchen items were made using interesting techniques.

There was a collection of airline cutlery, most of the airlines now defunct. The previous owner appears to have had plans to polish all of the 'silver.' Yah for plastic airline cutlery, unless one likes 'polishing the silver.'

And that is it - all for $5!

Auction house Treasures cont.

The 3rd treasure I spied in the box at the auction was this neatly worked Russia icon-like embroidery on a cloth hemmed at one end and torn at the other.

(detail)

The 4th treasure was this Chinese silk jacket which is reversible.

It has lots of lovely details like these hand-made frog closures.

It needed a gentle wash before it could be worn so it was lowered into a warm bath with Orvus paste.

I was a little concerned the colours might run so I added a couple of Colour Catcher sheets to the bath.

Wouldn't you know it - the red was the fugitive, but surprisingly little excess dye came out.

The jacket is now lying on a towel in the boiler room drying. 

It sounds as though this jacket is at a spa.

I'll show you pictures of its new owner wearing it, once I have delivered it

Auction House Treasures

I had a successful bid at Kilshaw's auction house this week.

In a cardboard box I had my eye on 4 textiles in particular - this NW Indian shisha embroidery.

It is not as fine as one I already have in my collection but it is in very good condition and I like that the pieces haven't been cut out for the garment yet.

The 2nd textile is this large linen pillow case. The linen is fine but still surprisingly heavy.

It doesn't look much at the present but once it is laundered and ironed it will look beautiful.

There is pulled thread work around the edge and in each corner with a satin stitch floral motif.

I'll show it again once it is laundered.

The Spring Clean Continues

Sorting threads and yarns into 24 colour hues. Each pile gets put in its own bin.

The stage where things look worse before they start looking better.

I kept pinning pieces to my design wall to give me time to think about them.

A few new projects came out of this airing.

Sorting all of my precious laundered domestic linens.

There was great satisfaction in getting this resource shelf reorganised.

After I had washed the floor, I felt the spring-cleaning urge subside.

Now back to work.

Back to Spring Cleaning

The last bit of machine sewing resulted in a satisfying number of empty spools.

I do enjoy using my stash of resources.

I sent a swatch sample to the SDA Swatch Collection.

It is a piece of bed-sheet that was wrapped around a maple tree for over a year. I stitched it with the colours I observed on the tree during the February new moon.

Then I  went back to getting my studio in order.

 It was only while following this urge to clean up that it hit me  - I have spring-fever.

Amber, our son's girlfriend, gave me this delicious yarn last Christmas. She bought it in a Melbourne market cause it looked like me, she said.

Hand spun, hand dyed, chunky Australian merino wool by Hawthorne Cottage - hawthornecottage.com.au

I wound it into a ball and put it out to wait for it to tell me what it wants to be.

While cleaning up I came across this piece of light-weight silk. 

It said it wanted to be with Amber's yarn.

Now they sit there together - waiting.

Art in Quebec City

Jean Paul Lemieux, Sketch for "The Ursulines"1951
This work caught my eye because we had spent a morning doing research in the Ursuline Museum.
Evidently the artist spent about 2 years working on this idea for a painting.

It's final form was a big change in style from his earlier works.
He entered it in the 1951 Quebec Art Competition and won 1st prize. It was bought by the art organisation.
In 2011 they also bought the sketch and were able to put the 2 together.
"Finally united, the two pieces provide access to Lemieux's thought processes at a turning point in his career".

We saw a retrospective of Leopold L. Foulem's work, mainly ceramics.
This teapot was my favourite.

Vanessa Yanow, 'Collaborer avec son histoire - Incarnation I', 2008.



It looks as though Vanessa used vintage iron-on transfers to place the motifs on the cloth imitating the embroidered table cloth but here the motifs are not placed in the conventional locations. She then embroidered the motifs in the traditional way using silk thread.
Glass embellishments were added.


The centre of the cushion is a mound of clear glass balls...

...filled with samples of the embroidery thread and transfer patterns used, feathers and pieces of transfer printed cloth.
This cushion was included in a very interesting exhibition of many different works made of glass.

Summer Dyeing

Daughter Elizabeth is good at coming up with creative solutions. We were planning to do some dyeing outside and wondering how to set things up. This was her solution using things on hand: an old firewood stacking frame and a door.

The set up. Note the perfect hat I have found for working outside in the sun. 

We worked with Bengala dyes, made in Japan from earth.

These are the 12 colours presently available in North America.