Up-cycling (hopefully) some fine cotton fabric – light green – that the label says is very soft, hand wash with care, I think it came from a charity shop and was originally a dress. The design will be traced onto water-soluble film , tacked down to the fabric with spray then stitched a little, a quilt layer added then a second layer of fabric then stitched more.
Several of this series have gone to new homes. I am working on several more, some larger.
This is an old theme but stands some repetition at the current time. Just a pic for social media.
Almost finished, this piece has been hanging around for months waiting for some inspiration as to how to finish it. I tried adding a mouse but that didn’t work well. When in doubt, stitch, but now I’m afraid of wrecking what there is. The surface is rather fragile as it is mainly nunofelt with scraps of fabric below, all stitched and embellished.
One day later… I added a little more stitch, tried to reemphasise the cat but subtly then, deciding it was finished I added a backing. Next a gently wash then seal with very dilute pva. Then press and a frame of some sort.
Trying to get into the groove again after doing very little for two months and not much for some time before that! This is on cheap A3 drawing pad paper but the next ones will be on oil pastel paper which has a textured surface. It’s a fast way to create an image but can be hard to cover any mistakes or unwanted marks.
One of the larger piece in the series I called City, but I’m not sure about the framing.
When I was making or remaking embellished work of this type a year or more ago I categorised them all as part of sets called either Meltdown or City, (1,2,3 etc) but later some of them seemed to find other names. This one is now In the Sun. Most of the pics I put on this blog or elsewhere are quite low resolution by current online standards but this one has a few more pixels.
It can be satisfying to take colour to an extreme.
Most years I manage an outing to the Fashion + Textile Museum in Bermondsey where the shows are always top notch. Nearby is the rather more famous White Cube Gallery, currently featuring American artist Lynne Drexler (1928–99) and others, which makes for an enjoyable trip especially if followed by lunch at Borough Market.
At the moment the FA is showing’ Outlaws: Fashion Renegades of 80s London, “Centres around the legendary nightclub Taboo, opened by designer and performance artist Leigh Bowery in 1985”.
They host workshops and one coming up which caught my eye is by the wonderful textile artist Holly Searle aka The Subversive Stitcher.
“Working on vintage tea towels, Holly will take you through the processes of selection and customisation to help you effectively communicate your ideas. Using simple hand stitching and applique techniques, participants will add text to their designs as Holly speaks about her own design practice and her ongoing project, The Subverted Vintage Tea Towel Series.”
The western bosses have unleashed the mob so we might get to see if they can control it.
FlagFly 