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.

More Doilies

Table Cloth, stains removed, washed, dyed, blocked - transformed

So many different patterns

Like snow flakes, or flowers

Blocking

While at the retreat I continued blocking. I had a big pile of washed and dyed doilies that needed to be blocked and dried before going moldy.

Every time I was surprised after I pulled out a damp limp cloth from the bag.

Blocking transformed it

Dolies

I have been washing, dyeing and blocking crocheted and tatted doilies.

I have been building up a collection of doilies for quite a while. Friends have kindly been helping, buying doilies when they see them in thrift stores and auction houses.

The range of crochet techniques and patterns is most interesting to study. The majority are made of cotton.

A few of them need mending and some are so rotten they didn't stand up to washing.

Honeymoon Bay Retreat

A group of us stitchers went away on a weekend retreat to Honeymoon Bay on Cowichan Lake.
Fresh snow fell on the mountains so we were well wrapped for our daily walks.

The resort had a newly planted labyrinth.

We had a large room to work in with excellent light and the dining room was only a few steps away.
Much was accomplished.
We will definitely be going back.

Tree Cloths

After I had pre-mordanted 4 bed sheets, I wrapped my 4 trees with cloths for the second time.
The 1st cloths were used for experiments in dyeing and sampling then sent to the UK to be assessed.
These 2nd cloths will be used in my final work for my degree.

Arbutus

Big-leaf Maple

Douglas-fir

Red Cedar

Tree Cloths

I am wrapping my 4 trees again. This time I want to encourage more staining on the cloth so i soaked 4 bed sheets in almond milk and left them outside to dry. Then I took them down to the sea.

Two lots of different pre-mordants should encourage the staining.

While I was laying the sheets in the sea and trying not to get too wet myself, 2 men watched while their dog ran for a ball. As I walked back up the beach to the car and passed them, one said, "We have to ask."
I said,"What do you think I was doing?"
"It is either science or art", was the answer.
I told them it was both.

Look how the waves wrapped the sheet into a cinnamon bun bundle.

More Hemoglobin and Chlorophyll

I've done some more strip piecing

This time with the seams on the right side and joined using a serger, which gives quite a different look.

This is my view out the studio window at the moment.

I think it is influencing my 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.