Clean-up Time in the Studio

After completing the Pattern Design course, my studio was a chaotic mess. I knew I couldn't begin on my next project until I had put everything away so I had some clear horizontal surfaces to work on.
The 1st thing I did was to pick up everything off the floor and put it on my central work tables. Then I added everything else that was out of place.
What a pile of stuff!

I worked away through the layers putting things back in their place so I could find them again when I next needed them.

Everything that needed more of my attention got piled into the 'Action' basket, which has morphed into a slippery, tottering double pile.
I'll attack it bit by bit whenever I have a few spare moments.
Or perhaps I need to deal with 5 items each day - that sounds like too many. How long would it take to eliminate the pile if I dealt with 2 items each day? That would be better than leaving it to compost and grow down onto the floor.

This is another pile waiting for my attention - fabrics and threads needing to be put away in the right containers.
As long as the pile stays like this I feel as though I don't have complete access to all of my textile resources. I might as well not have them. What if the perfect thread  I need for my next project is hidden deep within the pile? But it would take most of a day to put it all away. That day needs to go towards meeting one of my looming deadlines.
Now I have 2 and a half clear surfaces to work at.
Onward....

Students at Victoria College of Art

Here are the images i have been trying to post on my blog, finally. i think Ms Picasa has fixed the broken link.

These are works in progress by students in the Victoria College of Art in the Mark Making with Machine course i taught over the winter term.

Their final project was to abstract the shapes in an image they liked and produce it using their machines and one or 2 techniques they had learnt in the course.

Everyone did an excellent job demonstrating how they had mastered a technique and made it their own.

Donations To Victoria College of Art

Students in the Mark Making with Thread course have been most generous in donating different things to the class sessions and the Textile Arts section of the college library.
Barbara donated this delightful collection of threads in an old Velveeta box. They look as though they have been treasured for many decades and now the students will put the threads to good use.

Barbara also donated this classic counted thread book, which still has much to offer the present day student.

Jo Ann donated another valuable classic - a Canadian edition of the Anchor Thread publication. Its clear drawings and well thought out collection of stitches make it a useful portable reference to carry in a stitching bag.

Jo Ann also donated 2 laminated, quick reference stitch charts that will handle being referred to by many students over the coming years.
Thank you both for your thoughtfulness and generosity.
I'll post about more donations later.

VCA Mark Making With Thread

The students in the Victoria College of Art Mark Making With Thread, Textile Arts course are producing some exciting samples.
A selection of their colour studies in various stages of progress.

Exploring ways to open up the ground cloth to create negative spaces.

Colour Studies

In the Mark Making With Thread course at Victoria College of Art last week we spent time doing colour studies.

Clean Up and Dialogue

Now that i have sent this semester's module of work to the UK for assessment it is time to clean up my studio. All of the left over yarn that i had hauled out, i sorted by hue. I have all of my yarns and threads sorted into 24 different hues, each with their own box. I call these boxes my palette. i find sorting yarns like this helps keep my eye for colour in practice.

The dialogue where I staked doilies out under the trees is coming along.

After 10 days it looked like this.

While the agricultural cloth looked like this.

Tyndall Stone Wall

I am making a Tyndall Stone wall.

I have prepared my palette, just as Julia Caprara says to do. Torn strips of fabric...

..lengths of thick yarns, tapes, ribbons & threads are ready for building up in layers on the burlap base. I have 3 stone blocks under way. I'm not sure how many I will need to make a wall.
I'm now thinking the title should be something like 'Walls Talk'.

Julia Caprara's Stitching Techniques

Back in 2005 Quilting Arts Magazine featured a series of articles written by Julia Caprara. In the Winter issue, Julia wrote about the importance of all textile students building their own personal "touch palette". Since reading the article, I have followed Julia's advice and used the technique she described as "painting with fabric, thread, and stitches".

This work, called The Day the Queen Came to Tea, has the 2 outer panels worked in Julia's technique to give the feel of what Baffin Island valleys, in Northern Canada, look like in the fall. One early explorer recorded the valleys had the richness of a Persian carpet.

Torn strips of fabric were woven into an open-weave burlap to make the first layer of the textile.

Next, thicker yarns, cords and ribbons are threaded through the woven fabric to make the next 1 or 2 layers.

Then finer threads are worked in buttonhole stitch to make another layer. As the final layer I attached shisha mirrors to this work. [Mirrors to represent the tarns (glacial lakes) and the mirrors the Elizabethans traded with the Inuit that remained after the visitors left.]
In her article, Julia explains how a stitcher can change all of the variables to get many different effects. It is an exciting technique to play around with.

Sorting Threads

I sorted threads by colour before putting them away in their right shoe boxes.