One of the larger piece in the series I called City, but I’m not sure about the framing.
With the current framing £160 but I would be willing to consider alternative framing. I can supply more detailed photographs.
Having decided to try and sell separately the nine Hare Masks I made at the end of last year I found suitable but utilitarian cardboard boxes and have been dithering about how to dress them to make a more attractive appearance for eBay and for the purchaser when opening the box. Tissue paper, crumpled, some shredded?
The masks are meant primarily as decorative objects but can be worn, The straps are non-curl 6cm elastic. The inner surface is cotton and the main surface mixed textiles but mainly natural fabrics, some organic. I often source fabric from charity shops but it is hard to avoid acrylic and poly. Rayon (viscose) – made from wood pulp – is common in women’s clothes often with a useful shiny finish.
A quite simple mask made with embellished fabric, two pieces and a strap of non-curl 2.5cm elastic.
Although each of the nine masks didn’t take a great deal of time to make the finishing has required more effort than I anticipated, I could have reduced that by being a little more careful with the making. Notes have been made ready for the next project! Natural fabrics have been used throughout, some organic but some of the shiny stuff is polyester – it can be hard to avoid. The thread is almost all organic as I like the extra strength and quality, with some rayon and again a little poly.
Nine Hare Masks, each approx 42 x 30 cm, mixed fabrics & wire, 2024 C.Miller
Another in this series of textile pieces, not quite how I intended but almost finished and ready to frame. the contrast around the yellow isn’t as strong as I would like but further stitching over already quite dense and layered fabric and stitch will probably mean more broken sewing machine needles.
Although most of the fabrics are plain colours I also use white and colour it in-situ, sometimes also colour white thread the same way.
Almost all the pieces in the Meltdown series are reworked from earlier fabric work, I don’t throw much away. I try to avoid polyester but for shine it does get into the mix. Rayon (viscose) thread and cloth can be shiny and I use that where I can, although rayon sewing thread is usually thinner and therefore weaker than cotton or polyester, I don’t know why that is. Silk is best but pure colour scraps can be hard to find. Viscose in clothing is often silky and now frequently used for fast-fashion clothing, also used in place of cotton, it was developed in the 19thC as a substitute for silk but has many other uses. Being made from wood pulp it’s potentially an organic fabric but the manufacturing process is intense and involves a number of chemicals. As with bamboo fabric – also viscose – there may be potential for a more environmentally friendly manufacturing process.
There’s a long way to go in creating truly eco-friendly fabrics but hopefully manufactures will be motivated by the prospect of reducing costs as well as saving the planet. Recycling of viscose clothing is low at present, a large amount go to landfill.
I was not planning to name the smaller pieces but this one seemed to name itself. All these works are for sale, at a range of modest prices direct from me or via Artigo, Gloucester Road, Bristol.
Artigo, a lovely art gallery and shop on Gloucester Road, Bristol has a full set of my toy and model kits on sale and has a display of working samples which I’m told by proprietor Diego are popular with children and entertain them while adults are shopping.
Diego has kindly agreed to display for sale some of the textile art pieces I have loosely designated the Meltdown series. These are mostly quite small, colourful and heavily textured, I have named the larger pieces.
I’ve mounted these works in box frame without glass, as with impasto painting the texture is lost under glass. I used different sizes of mat at the front of the box frames (cut by Craftworks, Gloucester Rd, Bristol).
A bit of work-in-progress, embellishing a piece of nuno-felt made long ago onto a slightly quilted white base with strips of variously coloured fabrics sandwiched in between, some stitch next. I suppose I could just as easily call it tornado or cyclone.
I rarely use more than two needles in the embellisher, if all five are used they seem to interact with each other and quickly break, perhaps I am impatient. These needles are currently £2 each or more and they do break easily, practice does help.
This piece is also using a piece of old nuno-felt work, overlayed with scraps and lots of stitch, embellished, cut away – repeatedly.
For the first time in several years I thought I might send some seasonal greetings cards. Lots of scrap material and lots of thread awaiting a little effort, as well as plenty of card and dance paper, so here we go. My favourite animal will be the theme, the much persecuted hare, in winter costume.
Embellishing scraps of fabric is fun, but the embellishing needles have become rather costly at around £3 each – they break easily. So it’s important to take care using the embellishing machine, needles move fast but fabric movement must be slow. I also use embellished fabrics for doll costumes.
Once the fabric is available I cut the hares out and began stitching, might have been easier to stitch first then cut out. Hand stitching is kept to a minimum, whiskers and a little finishing. Anyway the results are just about ok, I think.
I printed some text onto hand-made paper as a backing for the fabric hares, printed a greeting on A4 card with a small name label on the reverse. Once the hares are complete I stitched them onto the backing paper, then glue the whole piece to the card.
I work with both the printers – one laser and one inkjet – the mac computer, a Husqvana/Viking sewing machine, an embellishing machine and many threads, pens, fabric scraps etc. and with music playing, often BBC R3 classical. The pics show the dry work area, I’ll be gluing elsewhere.
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