'Earth Repair' - 3 Years Later

2014

3 years 3 months after the emergency while living outside wrapped around the Indian plum I brought the 3 afternoon tea cloths inside. 

They were carefully washed, dried and ironed. I was hoping the laundering had stopped the decay processes.

There is much staining and decay and large holes had appeared.

How to preserve this cloth? The usual way to repair a cloth is to darn it but the whole cloth is in such a fragile state didn't think it would support darning. Another way to repair cloth is to add a patch. When I thought about it, adding patches is the way the soil is repaired each year. Leaves fall from plants and trees and cover the soil. Organic processes work on breaking down the leaves to return them to the soil.

I was thinking about this soil repair idea when while out on a walk I noticed the Tulip tree had a skirt of leaves reflecting the shape if its branches. It was using its leaves to replenish the soil it grows in.

I looked more closely at those fallen leaves and saw the majority had decayed in such a way that only the veins were left. They were leaf skeletons.

I collected them up and soaked them in water to remove the soil and pine needles.

I left them to dry.

They are quite lovely in their fragile state. I had this idea to repair the tea cloth with these fragile leaves. I hand stitched leaves directly onto the cloth over the holes. At the top of the cloth I stitched a row of eyelets, wove a jute string through them and inserted a stick I found near the Tulip Tree. 

The cloth hung on my design wall for the year, still too delicate to do anything with.

2015

When the Tulip tree was dropping its leaves again the next year made me look again at the still fragile afternoon tea cloth.

I wanted to add more leaves but I wanted to make the skeletons stronger while still appearing fragile. It was time to sample. I coated leaves with various mediums but they tended to fill the holes and look a bit shiny. I ironed on a fine fusible web. I liked the look.  

I added the bonded leaves but I couldn't iron them in place. I decided to machine sew them in place using the finest thread I had with the finest needle.  I liked what was happening and decided to add another layer of leaf skeletons next fall.

 

2016

I added another layer of bonded leaves using a combination of hand and machine stitching.

The cloth with its leaves was stronger looking but getting very dried out and brittle. I added a thin layer of liquid Min Wax. I thought this last effort had ruined the whole thing. It was shiny and stinky and ugly. I just left it hanging thinking I would throw it away when I got around to it.

But one day it caught my eye because it had taken on a transparent glow and the layers of leaves were more visible giving an interesting depth. And it wasn't stinky anymore. 

I was going to add yet another layer of leaves until it got accepted into the World of Threads Festival. Once our work is accepted we have to promise the work shipped will be exactly the same as the images we sent in with the application. 

I can add the next layer of leaves after it returns home.

PS This is what the Indian plum tree looks like fall 2016

Still alive...

...but the bark doesn't look very healthy where the deer ate it.

The fungus growth on the middle trunk indicates the tree is dying.

Maybe the deer knew the tree was old and on its way out.

'Earth Repair' Makes it into the World of Threads Festival 2016

Lesley Turner, 'Earth Repair' 36" x 35"/92 x 89 cm, 2011 - ongoing, embroidered (anonymous) vintage cotton afternoon tea cloth, leaf skeletons, cotton & polyester thread, jute string, wooden branch, MinWax; tree staining, washing, ironing, hand & machine applique, waxing.

This work has been accepted into the World of Threads Festival 2016 in the 'Late in the Season' exhibit in the display area of the Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre in Oakville, Ontario, from Saturday, October 29 to Sunday, November 27th, 2016.

Whippee!

I spent most of the day following the instructions in several emails explaining exactly how to get the work ready for hanging and how to box it up.

I made a box so the work will fit snugly and not move around much while in transit. I made the box with a reuseable cap so it can be reused to return the work. 

The work can not be folded or even rolled because of the many layers of delicate, dried, leaf skeletons stitched to the cloth. 

Inside the box, I made a suspension system to hang the work from the top. 

I sewed together pieces of bubble wrap to make a snug bag to pad the work while it is in the box.

Then there was all of the documentation required. Make a label with details of name and title and secure it to the back of the work. Type up hanging instructions with images. Put my name and email on every piece of packaging and both parts of the box. Include a spare set of hanging devices - just in case. Phew!

Now to wait until the right day to mail the box so it arrives between the 2 dates set for the arrival of work in Oakville. 

Dawne Rudman and Gareth Bate are the organisers, curators, festival originators and all of the other jobs it takes to mount such a large exhibition of work from around the world - 134 artists from 24 different countries. You can see why I am very pleased to have work selected again for this festival.

Dawn and Gareth curate the exhibitions with a system I think is unique to their festival. They put out an international call for artists' most recent work and wait to see what comes in. They look at images of the work while identifying some common themes. Work is selected that fits the chosen themes. That's how I think they work.

Next post I'll tell you why this unassuming work has taken 5 years to make - so far.

Sprinkle Dyeing and Sun Printing at VISA, Victoria

During a Mark Makers' summer residency at the Vancouver Island School of Art (VISA) website we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and have a dyeing day outside.

We set up tables and brought out buckets of water to the backyard of the school.

I set up my sophisticated system for working with dye powder safely and gave a quick demo on how to fill salt shaker-type containers with dye powder.

While the air was still we explored different sprinkle dye techniques using Procion MX. 

Wet soda-soaked natural fabrics were folded, rolled and scrunched before sprinkling dye powder over them.

Eileen sprinkles dye on flat fabric.

Brenda sprinkles dye on a linen fabric already cut to shape for a garment.

This is a great way to use up old batches of dye powder. It works best with dyes made up from a mix of colours. The different colours separate out and migrate through the damp fabric at different rates.

After lunch, Dale gave us a demo of sun printing using transparent fabric paints on damp cloth. She showed us how many different resists will work to leave an impression.

With the sun overhead, we all got clear impressions of the resists. Brenda is using plastic shapes she has cut out and leaves as a resist on linen fabric she has painted with fabric paint. Others used flowers, grasses, bubble wrap, paper and cotton doilies as resisits. 

The dyed cloth was covered with plastic and taken home to batch before being rinsed and ironed.

Backyard Project: Garden Rooms

Gravel Bed Garden Room

This garden room came about because of the site conditions. Grass would not grow in this area of the back lawn. We found the reason why after the thin layer of topsoil was scraped away before the studio construction began. Bedrock was exposed. Thin soil exposed to 12 hours of sunshine and reflected heat from the house suited a hot dry garden bed.

Tom dug down around the bedrock to make a sunken 'U' shaped garden room. The 2 entrances to this room are accessed by flat rock steps.  

It has rock walls and grey/white washed gravel flooring. I laid out a length of yellow yarn to mark the path through the room.

I have started planting. I have gone around to other beds to find plants that would be happier in a place with full sun and free draining to dry soils - rosemary, thyme, sage, lavender.

Marking out the beginnings of another garden room.

The walls will be a hedge of pineapple guava (feijoa), fig trees and Callistemon (bottlebrush).

Another room is called Walter's Gorge. It is now bisected by the deer fence but still reads as a room because of the plantings - Japanese water irises, horsetail and a number of different ferns, as a start. The blackberry we cleared from this area a couple of years ago still tries to inhabit the gorge but doesn't take long to cut back now.

I am starting to develop the garden room next to the studio porch. The pink tulips, hyacinths, and alliums will be transferred to the Water Drop bed once they finish blooming and die back. To the left will be a hydrangea hedge. Cuttings have been planted and the whole bed mulched with straw. 

The floor of this room will be a meadow of native ground covers that can be walked on but doesn't need mowing. The soil is being built up before their planting.

Valerie Easton's book 'A Pattern Garden The Essential Elements of Garden Making' has been most helpful while designing these garden rooms. Her design philosophy is based on the Japanese concept wabi-sabi and the Pattern Language work of Christopher Alexander. She designs garden rooms using 14 of Christopher Alexander's patterns.

Real-time Update, March 16th

With the first day of spring only days away some of the plants are ready to burst.

The first lot of bulbs in the studio beds are flowering.

Much excitement - the deer fence construction has begun.

Once it is finished we will be able to begin planting.

The irrigation lines are being put in around the new garden beds.

While in the studio, I am working with leaf skeletons.

'Edge of the Forest' Opens

Edge of the Forest Exhibition Opens

The first exhibition of the Canadian Surface Design Association's 'Edge of the Forest' opens in the 

 Richmond Hill Centre for the Performing Arts. Richmond Hill

 It is up for all of March. There is an opening reception on March 11th.

Here is the rest of the schedule, to date: 

April 20-May 4th, 2015 –  Art Square Gallery Toronto

June 4-July 9, 2015 – Exhibition at Parrot Gallery Belleville, ON

August 15  – October 18, 2015 prior to & during Fibre Arts 2015 Conference, Woody Point, NL

The aim of this juried fibre exhibition is to present a survey of work currently being done by Canadian members of the Surface Design Association

Here is my entry.

'Forest Reliquary' 2014 

Materials: Vintage cotton table cloth, earth pigments, cotton thread, leaf skeletons, deer bones, maple tree samaras, fern spores

Techniques: Earth dyeing, spore printing, hand stitching (furrowing, whipped double running stitch, attachment).

Currently, I am using domestic linens and earth pigments as I explore the biological processes in the Pacific North West rainforest. 

Read more here.

I will be teaching a 2-day, weekend workshop on using earth pigments at the Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts 2015 MISSA June 27 - 28 this summer. Do come and join us if you are interested in learning about working with eco-friendly earth pigments and need a little MISSA Magic in your life MISSA

Sun Printing With Setacolor

The conditions were right: no wind, sunny, fresh leaves falling fast.

It was the right time to sun-print.

I lay an old door on the grass and covered it with plastic.

I had a collection of leaves I had picked up on my morning walk.

Three Setacolor transparent greens were mixed and thinned with water.

I laid a wet bed sheet down on the plastic and painted it.

Next the leaves were placed on the wet paint....

...and left for the sun to do its work.

Name on the bed sheet.

I like to think Maude is happy with what has been done to her bed sheet.

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.