books, age and directions

I currently have three inspirational books and one useful book on loan from NUA library.
The practical one is Designing and Printing Textiles by June Fish.  Practical instruction which is enabling and encouraging.

The other three books are
Push Stitchery curated by Jamie Chalmers.  It shows the work of 30 textile artists which 'explore the boundaries of stitched art'. 
Mark Making by Tilleke Schwarz.  Showing her freestyle embroideries.
Radical Thread by Lesley Millar.  It celebrates the 50th anniversary of the 62 Group 'at the forefront of innovation and creativity'.  I love the features on the individual artists - many of whom are not young and indeed some are older than me!  Inspirational on many fronts.  Many of the artists describe the simple pleasure of stitching - which is what I love too - and these three books invite me to be braver with my designs.

Why do people keep asking me 'What are you going to do when you finish?'  What they are really saying is 'It is pointless you are too old'.   Anyway, I have decided to answer 'I am enjoying myself now and that is all that counts'.

Enough of the ranting.  Inspired by by 'no holds barred' books I have made a collage of all my 1960s samples - comprising stitch, screenprint and transfer - the include newspaper headlines, a poem. song lyrics and a speech.  They represent the music, politics, flower power and poetry of the era.

I want to hand stitch it together to unite it all but it would take a long time.  I prefer handstitch, it has faults and differences and textures.  Machine stitch can be harsh and sterile.

I spent a lot of time deciding on the position and aspect of the images - I decided to have the face them all the same way because it is a collage first and, maybe, a tablecloth second.

I also tried a product called 'Image Maker' by Dylon.  It transfers images from photocopies to fabric.  I'll try again but my first attempt made the cotton textile stiff and the image was unclear.

stencils don't work

 

I experimented with screenprinting over laser cut paper.  It didn't work as well as I had hoped, the printing ink pooled against the cut edges of the paper - not totally unsuccessful, both the print and the stencil had a charm of their own.

I used a textile pen to put some text onto a screenprint.  I also used Magic Touch  transfers for more 1960s text - poetry, speech and newspaper headlines.  I find myself with some interesting samples which I would like to combine so I have been researching - Internet and book - for inspiration. 

stencils

Using the laser cutter to make a stencil for screenprinting text

 

 

and a soldering iron to make a screenprint stencil which will give a textural look

 

a more painterly approach to screen printing

 

This week I have spent a lot of time screen printing - using three different types of fabric and three different images.  Earlier I screenprinted onto polyester cotton (see above) - the colour dye adheres better to cellulose than the polyester, giving a less intense colour.

Screenprinted reactive dyes onto pure cotton gives brighter results.

I have been trying to develop a more painterly approach.  With the screen in situ on the fabric I have been pulling the squeegee in different directions with different colours, leaving gaps and creating interesting patterns where the inks meet and overlap.

  

I have negative and positive screens for this 1960s wedding and have printed them onto linen -overprinting and offsetting layers.  The linen offers an interesting coarse textural fabric to print onto. 

Finally, I printed a simple drawing, again using reactive dyes, onto pure cotton.  The colours were much brighter. 

 Now I want to energise and unify this collection by adding gold coloured embellishments - stitch, foil, print and text



Lovely morning in the textile print workshop printing AO size portrait.  I had been concerned that the image would look plain but I needn't have worried.

I worked collaboratively with Tracey Tutt, MA Moving Image and Sound, offering encouragement and colour advice. 

I printed three images on an upcycled sheet using the 'remaindered' Procion inks from the shelf.  Good effects were achieved from from layering, overprinting and varying ink volumes and use of squeegee to achieve irregular shapes.

I visited Stew Gallery to look at the Textiles Yr 3 exhibition.  It offered a real variety of work,  materials, processes and presentation.  A good rehearsal for the graduate show - some tweaks needed but I was impressed.

Then a visit to the Gallery and the King of Hearts to view exquisite pieces from the Washi: The Art of Japanese Paper series.

colour study

This line half tone image is going to be printed AO size.  I have dyed a single sheet Flamingo Pink using Dylon -  a commercial dye -  in a washing machine.  Excellent even coverage.  As part of my determination to be experimental and to work outside my comfort zone, I am using Photoshop to experiment with different colourways.  I am still being influenced by sixties pop art and have chosen colours of equally high saturation and from various points on the colour wheel....

Embroiderer

I am becoming increasingly interested in contemporary embroidery - so different to he exacting style of bygone years.  I find this piece refreshing and accessible.  I particularly like the contrast between the beautiful drawings and the naivity of the patched background, fraying edges and the unabashed stiching.

Kristine's website says

Kristine Fornes is a classic treasure collector; she finds old textiles and reuses them as artistic material. She uses old and torn rags and darned textiles, inherited and found at flea markets. These old tex- tiles are tied to the craft’s carefulness, emotion, and lost slowness.

An old silk fabric becomes a canvas for printed pictures, drawings, and hand embroidery, and its maturity gives her work a patina of drawings. By Line Ulekleiv.www.kristinefornes.no

 

Anne Wood, an agent for a global trend forecasting company, gave a presentation about her work for Lidewij Edelkoort.  The trendforecasters have a range of publications including Trend, Trend Union, Scout, Bloom.  They use stunning imagery alongside colour and fabric samples to  inform the fashion,textile, interiors, welbbeing, cosmetic and lifestyle industry. 

 

The presentation was both inspirational and disconcerting - I find the idea of a few people telling the world what colour combinations we should use in any season/year quite deadening.  Very interesting. 

 

One absolute positive is their free (their publications cost up top £2000) website trendtablet.com.

 

I showed the sheet of samples (aka tablecloth) to my friend who inspired the imagery for her 65th birthday.  She loved it!  And wanted to take it home immediately.

 

 

 



sample sheet

Yesterday I finished my large scale printing.  I had dyed a single sheet a light turquoise using reactive dye (Procion) .  I then screenprinted with saturated colours (reactive dyes - red, orange, purple, green and blue) and discharge paste.  I mixed the images and mixed the dyes.  It was experimental, the colours were outside my comfort zone and the result is a mixture of achievement and monstrosity. The images were half tone photographs,drawings and pattern.  

 



I like these sections which appear as abstract images.  But overall, the entire cloth is too busy and the colours appear dreary - it took me a couple of weeks to complete and I think the print pastes were past their best and it was too long a gap between screenprinting and steaming.  I have sharpened the colours of some of these images using Photoshop.  I want to use them further and I will try sublimation printing and digital printing.

 

 

I've been reading Joanna Kinnersly-Taylor's book 'Dyeing and Screen-Printing on Textiles (A & C Black, London 2003).  It is a very useful, informative reference book of dye recipes, techniques and ideas. 

 

I am interested in the relationship between feminism and craft.  Woman's Hour celebrated the 50th anniversary of Betty Friedan's book 'The Feminine Mystique' by contrasting the attitudes to craft in the 1950s and the present day.  The perfection and conformity of laborious home crafts were part of the woman's lot in the 1950s.  Today's craftworkers are more expressive and creative, they work quickly and enjoy the experience.