Embroidery from the Kutch

Metallic tape embroidered over a tie dyed fabric on this head shawl.

Newspaper is used as a pattern

Embroidery from the Kutch, India

More embroidered blouses from Kutch, Gujarat in the Guj style.

Shisha mirrors, buttonhole stitch, satin stitch, knots & pompoms.

Mutwa Embroidery

Mirror glass is cut to shape with scissors for shisha work.

A blouse embroidered in the Guj style where there are woven braids across the front.

A blouse in the Kungeroo style. It is usually made in one piece & is fully embroidered with a larger range of stitches. It is often made for a daughter-in-law.

Mutwa Embroidered Blouse

A Kungeree type of Mutwa blouse with embroidered panels for an unmarried girl.

The panels are embroidered flat then sent to the tailor to make up the garment, unsually with prints in the style of patterned fabrics the British brought to India in the 1930s.

The village is known for its tiny mirror glass (shisha) held in place by fine buttonhole stitches.

Bandhani/ Tie Dye Workshop

Once dyed the folded fabric is pulled open so the resist wrappings pop off (the blue thread).

The resist-dyed pattern is revealed. The textile is left wrinkled...

...or ironed out flat.

Rabari & Bandhani Embroidery, NW India

We visited a Rabari textile collector in his home.

Next we had a workshop with the National Award '85 Winner who does Bandhani embroidery, Aminaben Ismail Khatri . We learnt how to tie minute circles of cloth in patterns. She now employs 500 women to tie lengths of silk & cotton in her designs. The image shows a sack of tied lengths of cloth ready for dyeing.

The tied cloth is dyed.

At this stage it may be re-tied to build up the design before being dyed again. This process can be repeated many times depending on how complex the design is.

A visit to a natural dyer of Australian merino wool.

A 2-year old indigo pot.

Pit loom weaving.

Earthquake in India 2001

We saw much evidence of the earthquake that devastated the region in 2001.

The people were spending a lot of time rebuilding their homes, their villages and the city of Bhuj.

India Days 1 & 2

After flying into Mumbai the day before, we flew on to Bhuj to join our tour party. We visited a Rabari textile collector.

We walked through the market area and had a thali lunch.

Textiles of India

I have just returned from a 3 week textile tour of northern India with Indian Romance, out of the UK. We attended workshops with master craftsmen & artisans, watched demonstrations and visited museums. We spent most of our time in Gujarat and Rajastan where textiles continue to play an important part in people's lives.

Meta Incognita ready to ship to Mary Black Gallery

Last Sunday afternoon some members of the fibre arts group, Articulation, got together to package up part of our Meta Incognita exhibition. After spending the summer in the Banff Centre over the summer festival, the body of work is now ready to ship to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where it will hang in the Mary Black Gallery. If you are in Halifax between February 22 (the opening) & April 8th, 2008 do go into the historic building and enjoy our art work. Some of the artists have made new works just for this exhibition.

What is my Passion?

As I approach the next semester & last module of Level 1 of the BA(Hons) Stitched Textiles programme that I have immersed myself in, I am being asked to think about what I want to be when I grow up, oops, I mean- when I graduate. My level 2 tutor is making me think about the combination of modules I want to take and I am finding this thinking is hard work.
It has made me think about all of those young people I repeatedly ask what they want to do with their lives. I must now publicly apologise to all of them for asking, so casually, such a hard question just to satisfy my curiosity.
I have read that when adults ask younger people 'what do you want to be when you grow up', what they are really looking for is ideas for themselves.
What I really mean when I ask the question is, 'what is your passion?' 'Have you found your passion yet?' and that is what my tutor is now asking me to identify.
'What is my passion?

BA (Hons) Embroidered Textiles

You haven't heard from me for a while because I dropped off the planet to finish this semester's module of work before Christmas. It was all about learning to do research. The final assignment was to write a 3,000 word illustrated essay. I chose to write about the interests of middle class women during the Regency period in England. I focused on the first 30 years of the nineteenth century, the Jane Austen period. I found the whole exercise so interesting.

I have now shipped my work to my tutor in England and I am in catch-up mode with all of the things I have neglected this passed month.

The image above is an illustration I used in my essay. It is an engarving of a portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence of a Regency woman.

Lesley Turner's Art Gallery

I have added a public web album of some of my work you can access by clicking on the address to the right.
You can click on the map to find the geographical location that inspired each work.
I will continue to add details about each work in the captions.

Sea Ice Melt, Arctic Series, Silent Auction Donation

'Sea Ice Melt' is a work from my Arctic series where I looked at the delicate nature of the environment. It is my response to aerial photographs of the edge of the sea ice as the Northern Hemisphere experiences longer hours of sunlight.
I have donated it to an on-line auction Calgary Academy is organising. It is part of a fund raiser organised by the Calgary Academy Parents Association called 'Big kids Helping Little Kids', running from November 1st to November 17th 2007.