France Next Year

I have been thinking about what i am going to do when I go to France next year with my family- I need to really capitalise on whatever I do. Having been to Chateau de Chassy before is good- I know what to expect and I will be working on a dedicated book project with Mme Tison. It also got me thinking about how it all started in 1997 when I entered Chassy D'Or a contemporary quilt exhibition Mme Tison used to organise and which was exhibited in the castle. I won equal first prize with one of my Hellfire quilts ( qudos only) and Mme Tison purchased the quilt- which was really one of my first sales of my more "arty" quilts. The sale gave me much needed confidence and started the correspondence which led to my family and I staying at Chassy for 3 months in 2000.It was an incredible experience to live in a castle when we live in a very humble three bedroom weatherboard in the otway ranges. The french painter Balthus lived there in the 1950's and many famous artists visited the castle. The painting is one of that Balthus did of the forecourt of the castle. The first thing my kids asked when i told them we were going again was if the little hotel down the road was still open- on Monday nights, like all the local people, we would wonder down there for our evening meal and for a very reasonable price would be served hearty home cooked meal and the cook ( the owner and a local woman) would always have a little special treat for the girls, which was really sweet of her.

The castle lies about 1 hour east of Dijon in the Morvan natural parc- it is well serviced with tourist accommodation including caravan parks. I shall be giving a few workshops whilst I am at Chassy and another thought that crossed my mind was to have a week long get together with other artists- to make a collaborative project- so that there is no instructor but we - but that we all share and work together and assume each others expertise- I need to think this through a bit more- but it could be an interesting thing to do and may build relationships for the future. Any thoughts would be appreciated. I may also be organising some exhibitions for a two week period in the castle. Need to work on the logistics of that! But there is sure to be some Australian work on show!

In 2007 I am also giving a workshop at le Palliseau and in le Mans ( and whatever else I manage to organise). I had better practice my French!

Lace variations

I am a total butter head for things computer and photoshop. In fact i found the whole photoshop thing so daunting that I had steered clear of it until the need to negative an image ocurred( a function that Picasa doesn't have). We have photoshop because one of my children is really clever with creating cartoons. Anyway the last few days i have spent a little time playing around with it as I am really fascinated by the tensions created by positive negative balance- and really lace is to me a magical manifestation of that tension- I say magical because the transparency and softness are unique elements as well , making it for me very dimensional and of course tactile- you want to touch it instinctively and feel its delicacy. So I started out with a lace scan which I altered- then drew back into by hand and then played around with some more. This image reminded me very much of a woodcut- and that started me thinking of Raoul Dufy- his woodcuts are amongst my favourites- hence the reason I have posted one here. I love the balance of textures and the balance of the black against the white. What kind of colour balance does Dufy's work have to you? Is it 50/50 or more like 60/40?

And a lovely surprise yesterday. I ordered Palestinian Costume by Jehan Rajab last week along with the Hilary Spurling biography on Matisse. As I found it through Amazon as a secondhand book it was shipped seperately and they said it would take 4-6 weeks as it was being sent surface- it arrived yesterday - and I am still waiting for the Matisse biography which was being shipped airmail. And it looks as if the teaching in Ramallah may not happen- given that foreign passport holders are not being let through any of the checkpoints into the West Bank. I have to book my airfares to Europe soon.

I shall be going to European Patchwork Carrefour held at Val d'Argent- Ste Marie aux Mines- I will be with the Changing exhibition curated by Thelma Smith. I am hoping to sell some of my hand dyes and small works and lino cut prints- we will see what i can manage to make before then. So if you read my blog and are going to Val d'Argent please come by and say hello. Marion Barnett and Sandy Marcoux will be there as well. And has anyone been to the Textile Museum in Lyon?
 

Bah bunkum

Today has been miserable and cold and it is hard to get motivated. In Australia houses are not that well heated as normally our winters are not so cold- well this year it is cold, drizzly and it is lasting much too long for my liking! I have been working on another cross stitched crosses piece- this time in different colours. I have also been playing around with the structure of lace- and am blown away at how balanced all elements of the lace structure actually is- no matter how much you zoom in. The images are based on a small piece of eighteenth century drochel lace- the linen is so fine that i cannot get a thread count with the naked eye- it is gorgeous stuff.

Omega i take you point about Arab nations funding Palestine- they have -but unfortunately the money is all holed up in the World Bank as any funding has to go via that regulatory body. Also legitmately earned customs income to Palestine has been held in the World Bank since March.


My friend in Palestine said the women had become very good at utilising recipes that created long storage for them -like home made cheeses in brine- and pickled olives. If I do go in September she is going to teach me some of those recipes. Oh and speaking of recipes- I have put two links in the side bar to food sites- Lucullian Delights and Travelers Lunch Box- both have more than simply food and are a delight. And I even have a recipe of my own to share. In this house no one eats cauliflower without white sauce with generous lashings of parmesan cheese ( I make special trips to Melbourne to get Parmesan cheese and many other Italian things). Anyway sometimes you simply do not feel like making the white sauce- but I have found a quick easy and yummy method- steam the cauliflower in the microwave, or however else you steam it. Mix in a bowl half a cup of sour cream with half a cup of milk and half a cup grated parmesan cheese. Place the cauliflower in a shallow casserole dish and dribble the sour cream mixture over and sprinkle with more grated parmesan some breadcrumbs and some dollops of butter and loads of freshly cracked black pepper.It got the thumbs up at this house anyway!

Blither Blather

Today was one of those days where frustratingly nothing much got done. Had to go into town early to see my youngest childs teacher for teacher/parent day. We live 22 km from town and it was quite apparent from her report that she is doing very well- but I guess we still have to show her we are interested enough to go and talk to her teacher. Then home again and as she was home we went for a walk up the Old Beechy Line ( an old railroad track- whichhas been made into a walking/bike riding track) that has recently opened. It is quite lovely and we are lucky to have it.

Then back into town to pick up the Bernina that Bernina is lending me as I will be demonstrating on the Aurora at the Melbourne Craft and Quilt Fair on 27-30 July. Unfortunately they had already allocated all their machines for this year, but i am hoping that maybe I will get one next year or be able to roganise one for France.

Then got home to find ourselves locked out and the spare key we hide is no longer hiding where it is supposed to. So we had to break into our own house via a small louvered window in the laundry - that was covered in spider webs) and the littlest kid had to go through it and she is arachnaphobic- hope she does not have nightmares about it!

I have been following the latest happenings in Palestine via Um Kahlil's Blog and the news links she has there- I can only shake my head and wonder why we have become so immune to suffering that the IDF are continuing to do what they are without constraint or criticism of the international community. I know the whole problem is far from simple - however this is surely one instance where the retaliation and its toll are inhuman. And the palestinian toll since 1948 in human lives has always been greater, let alone loss of land, houses and livelihoods. As i said before i was shocked when I went to israel and ramallah and saw the difference in living standards and amenities- even in east Jerusalem- where one side of the road was israeli and the roads were clean and neat and tarmaced and across the road which was Palestinian and where the roads were dirt/potholed and rubbish wasn't collected- despite the fact that the same amount of rates was paid. Not only that, the wall continues the be built despite an international court ruling that it is illegal- if everyone were to flaunt the law in this way then what is to happen? And lastly but not leastly there is no excuse for the death of any children- no earthly reason that can justify a childs death when they are at home sitting down to a meal or going to the beach.

More Little Watercoluors

There was not much time to do anything much today- my middle daughter plays soccer and it starts at 11 am- so right smack bang in the middle of the day. I did sandwich another Palestinian inspired piece-it seems to be working itself into a series- and the more I worry the more I hand stitch)- there are a couple of big pieces in the back of my mind. They are demanding to be done- but first I want to stich many more smaller pieces.

And after I got home decided to do another little watercolour- just to get the feel for the layering you need to do in watercolour- this was from a photo I took in Egypt of some of the ironwork on a mosque door- the whole door was stunning- but the details were lovely- they grey is too grey and not the burnished copper colour -it was much more greenish- almost that soft grey green lichen colour- and it looked so beautiful with the wonderful almost mahogany colour of the door. Obviously I have a long way to go!

And last night was the first episode of the new Doctor Who- this was a series that I watched avidly as a child/teenager/and religiously as a uni student- the doctor has gone through many incarnations including John Pertwee and Tom Baker ( whose scarf I liked a lot) and now the guy from the last Harry Potter film ( name totally escapes me.....yew its age)- and he's got the thumbs up- his had that mischievous edge of the Tom Baker Doctor Who- so I will be watching more of these. I wish we could send the tardus to palestine to sort things out and stop that wall! 

Cold Winters Day

Thank you Felicity, Omega, Claire and Linda for the suggested inspirational blogs. Some of them I know, some I had forgotten about and some were new! I went and looked at each and every one! I have been spennding too much time on the net but did want to share some journal like website pages. One is Teesha Moore's journal pages- they are bright and fun and the other is Carnets de Voyage from a french site- if you click on each page more pages come up. I did try and google many of the artists but unfortunately there were not many other things about any of the artists.

And today i worked in my moleskin journal- even did a water colour ( I have never done water colour before- though I have had one of those little water colour travel kits for ages) - it was the scariness of putting on the colour. I don't know why either Felicity- but in the last week I have been making a concerted effort to use colour and must admit daily it's getting a bit better and even a bit freer- not so daunting. And like you colour is really important in my textile creating and the control of colour ( or lack thereof ggg) is why I dye fabric- so it does seem strange
to be so reticent in using it in a journal. I even go so far as to write suggested colours on a line drawing- but not adding the colour. Don't ask me why I decided to paint dried fish.....

And i did a quick scoot around the winter garden in between the drizzle that fell all day- I thought our tree ferns had died but I found the beautiful little unfurling frond today. I love neatly stacked piles of wood- we don't have an indoor combustion stove so often one summer nights ( when there is no fire danger) we burn a fire outside- hence the wood- and sit out there.

Lines

The first drawing is some of the quilting lines/motifs I teach in machine quilting . The second set of drawings is a page form the book Creative Drawing: Point and Line by Ernst Rottger and Dieter Klante ( 1963) Van Nostrand Reinhold which I picked up in an Oxfam shop in England last year ( I love searching for second hand books in England- you always find a treasure). The book is directed at children/secondary students and has a series of exercises using simply line and points or dots in order to create visual interest and texture- there are some wonderful things for quilters to explore in this little book!

I am always intrigued that quilters want their stitches to be really even and everything as neat as a pin- whereas for me much greater interest comes from seeing the artists individual quirks and meanderings with line- slightly jagged edges- what is the problem ? It really does add visual texture and lends to the individuality of the finished work I mean you don't expect pencil artists to each draw in the same way- if all drawings were alike you would quickly lose interest. I really do use my machine as a pencil, and in all reality think of it as a pencil. That the side effect of stitching is texture is a real bonus!

Ok now a question- what are your 5 most inspirational non-quilting blogs? I have been trawling the net and have stumbled across a few-but what i do see a lot on quilting blog is links to other quilting blogs- is there other artists/ arts that inspire you? 

Musings

When I went ot Egypt at the beginning of the year i succumbed to a Moleskin journal- you know how it is - you pick it up, touch it and feel how smooth the paper is - have visions of Bruce Chatwin filling pages and pages- and voila you are at the till paying for one. I have kept journals since I was sixteen when I started a poetry journal which I kept up until university days and a boyfriend decided to write a rather fienddish limerick in it. That caused a hiatus for about five years when i started again, mainly writing about what I was reading, paragraphs for stories. I wanted to be a writer in those days. I did write quite a number of short stories - have almost finished two novels and have another novel I really do want to finish- I need to edit it. I did very occasionally draw in those journals and cut out interesting photos from newspapers. Then somehow I morphed ( after daughter number 1 was born) into getting A4 drawing journals and started doing much more drawing- always line drawings and patterning- and also words. I hardly ever use colour in my journal- which is strange as colour is so important in my textile work. Anyway last week i started trying to use colour- it is hard.

Today i splurged and bought "Matisse, The Master" by Hilary Spurling after Omega's comments on her blog. I love a good biography and when it is about one of your favourite artists well then you just have to be annnoyed that there is no Amazon Australia and you have to wait two weeks. I will be interested to see if she touches on the influence of tifaifai on Matisse's cut out work of the last years- I have only ever seen mention of it once in all the things i have read of Matisse and then it was a passing comment- but as i am deeply interested in tifaifai and indeed feel my work is much influenced by it ,the connections in Matisse's work is obvious. Also in a catalogue I have ( and am sorry can't name because it is packed away in anticipation of the shed) there is mention of the fact that a friend in Tahiti gave Matisse a tifaifai when he was in Tahiti and that he afterwards wrote to her and asked for another. I think I can see obvious links in the linen printed cloths he did for Ascher & co and in the later work although undoubtedly with his own independent spirit.

And i pray for Palestine every night, the silence really is deafening- I have a friend in Ramallah who has boys almost the same age as my girls- and i fret whether her boys will ever get to do what my girls get to do. 

More crosses

This is what I have been working on- another little panel- they measure 10" x 16 "- this time I lined the crosses with lime green and you can see the bottom quarter hasn't been stitched yet. The stitching completely alters the way it looks.

I have been too excited today to do much work- we may be going to live in France next year for at least 6 months, possibly a year- the place has enough space for me to teach workshops if i want and to hold an exhibition, and I have been there before so know what it holds. There is still a lot of discussing to do- but keep your fingers crossed for me. Australia is a great place- but the arts are really on the bottom rung of anything here - king sport rules all- and textiles ranks even lower. After my very happy experience at Centre European du Patchwork in Narbonne, I feel I need to go and do this to at least try something else because I don't earn enough for us to survive here. Plus, whilst the place we are going to ,is considered isolated- it is nothing compared to the southern end of the world and three hours from Melbourne. We will be three hours from Paris! ,and half an hour from one of the great wine and gourmet regions ( yes I do like food- a lot!) and I like the exclamation mark in the lower case . Plus I already have quite a lot of teaching lined up next March and April so I think we will be able to hold out. We will rent out our house here- so if anyone wants a sojourn in a great nature region close to the ocean in a recycled wooden house ( and it is no palace-and it does come with a lot of fruit trees and rather large vegie garden) let me know. 

One of the Quirks in Creating

OK I am not going to tell you exactly what it is, but Emmy is most right- it is about lace but also drawing.

Well after a month of dirth and feeling totally inadequate at being unable to do any positive thing about the Palestinian situation apart from signing the petition to the UN who seem to be deafeningly silent as are many others out of the sky yesterday fell two things/two concepts with which i think I can work and fill my time for quite sometime to come.One is quite arty farty and will need to be properly "conceptualised", the other is close to my heart and is simply tumbling out. The cross stitched panel is a prototype.The colour is not quite true- believe it or not it is actually richer in the flesh and the uneveness of my stitching has actually created a pleasing texture ( well for me anyway) It is not that the concepts have not been there before, I had just not really had that aha moment with them.After feeling so low for weeks to suddenly just have this arrive all in a rush is one of the strange quirks of creating- and I suppose is a thumbs up for the notion to just keep going through the motions, even if it is uninspired- just keep doing, even if it is only writing in a journal, ideas somehow do take on a life of their own- and when they arrive come pushing and shoving to be expressed.

And of course some of the materials I need, have been packed away in anticipation of the move to the shed/studio- which is suffering yet another delay. I bought some cotton crochet thread in the little markets that most Dutch towns still seem to have once a week- it has gloss and is mercerised so dyes just beautifully- I know I have another 4 skeins of it somewhere- but exactly where???Arggh I need it yesterday!

OK... So What is It?

What is it? You guess

Cross Stitch

I have been working on an A3 piece today to do with cross stitches. I have done the machine stitching but am still deciding as to what colour thread I will do the hand stitching in. I am working it on lutradur which allows me to pull quite big thread through .And as I look at the photo i think I like th eorange thread better.

I also wanted to share some photos of Palestinian women who quilt. Jenny Bowker went to Ramallah a couple of years ago to teach a group of women the basics of patchwork and quilting and you can see photos of this on jenny's website- which i have linked. When I went to Ramallah I had asked to meet with the group of women to see how they had continued on with their patchwork and asked them to bring some work for me to see. As you can see they have put their skills ot good use , making cot quilts, table runners and childrens quilts. They told me they liked making the things to decorate their houses and to make individual quilts for their children.


When I go back to Ramallah I hope to work with these women and some new ones in order to further their skills and hopefully teach them free machining. One of my challenges for the next few months is to find 4 good machines that will free machine which I can leave with the women to use for the future. My aim is to get 4 good machines that will free machine happily and possibly also have some other decorative stitches.So any bright ideas will be appreciated! At the moment these women only have access to 3 machines in the In'ash Al Usra Centre which has to be shared amongst a large group of women. Jenny told me when she taught there a few years ago they had 3 machines plus one she had taken with her- and that the women worked in groups of four- one ironed, one cut, one stacked and the other sewed and they took it in turns in order to learn each skill- now that is teamwork!

I was bemused that one woman had made a Sun Bonnet Sue quilt.Who would have thought that women in the Middle East would find Sun Bonnets appealing?

Some Cloth Finally, But...

I I I have finally done some work with fabric such as it is- I have been rather aghast at the unfolding events in Gaza. I started looking at the number of Palestinian child deaths since 2000 but decided that in order to see the more complete picture i ought to also see how many Israeli child deaths there had been since 2000 as a result of non-peaceful activities as well . There is actually a website called Remembering the Children which records these statistics which I found on an American website which discusses both sides of the issues.

I also looked at the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child part of the preamble which reads:

Convinced that the family, as the fundamental group of society and the natural environment for the growth and well-being of all its members and particularly children, should be afforded the necessary protection and assistance so that it can fully assume its responsibilities within the community,

Recognizing that the child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding,

Considering that the child should be fully prepared to live an individual life in society, and brought up in the spirit of the ideals proclaimed in the Charter of the United Nations, and in particular in the spirit of peace, dignity, tolerance, freedom, equality and solidarity,

From the United Nations Convention ratified in 1989

I, and I imagine any other parent in the world would deplore the death of any child in non-peaceful circumstances , but i find the disparity in the figures alarming. For example since 2000, 121 Israeli children have died and 734 Palestinian children- so 6 times as many palestinian children have died as compared with Israeli children- and then when you look at the method of death - many Palestinian children die as a result of gunshots to the head or chest. In 2006 one Israeli child has died ( as a result of contact with an unexploded mortar shell) and 29 palestinian children have died- 31 if you count the two unborn children who died with their mothers.

So my fabric I made today is about the loss of children's deaths in palestine. I took a traditional cross stitch motif which i found in a book I was given when I was in Ramallah called "Palestinian Embroidery-Traditional Fallahi Cross Stitch" byWidad Kamel Kawar and Tania Tamari Nasir. I liked this motif as there were crosses within the crosses ( many palestinians are Christian so the straight crosses are a reminder of that, even armed as early christian crosses were) and then made a lino cut from a drawing I made of the motif. I then printed it onto muslin which is very lightweight and soft. I am sort of thinking that these might be more in the way of comforter as quilts origianlly were but at the moment and am not quite sure where I will go with it- maybe quilt with cross stitch. I did dye some crochet cotton in order to do this. I am still thinking at the moment as to how i will utitlise this. It felt good to finally do something.

There is a really interesting article about cross stitch being made in refugee camps called Hanging by a Thread at the Women for Palestine website. And an Australian photographer who is a volunteer, called Cassandra Mathie is recording the lives of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, she is also teaching the refugees to photograph their own identity- those who have no identity papers and some of whom are second generation non-persons

Correction

Um Kahlil has pointed out to me that the picture of Fatmeh that I have collaged with the pomegranates is not actually the Fatmeh that was killed last week. The Fatmeh of the picture's story is at another location. The story of the Fatmeh of the picture is just a reminder that so much we take for granted is simply not possible in Palestine even with the best of intentions from doctors in Israel.

Something Happened

This morning I woke up to another day dawn grey- but something has been brewing, slowly, inexorably since I went to Palestine. I know I have talked about this before, and by how troubled I was at the injustice I witnessed- and I am even more troubled by the unequal reporting of events as they unfold. In the last couple of days I have been watching with a lot of angst the situation in Gaza- especially since the beach massacre last week and since the kidnap of an Israeli soldier on Sunday.

Last Saturday i gave a talk at the Deniquilters Symposium- and I donned the Syrian dress I had purchased in Damascus- the cross stitch so beautiful. Somehow my laptop would not talk to the digital projector ( fortunately I had taken lots of work with me) so i told of some of the things I had seen- but something happened whilst I was standing there in that dress telling them about the women in Ramallah and their response to Across Australia- somehow my breath got restricted and I started to cry- in front of all those people- suddenly it was as if I were faced with that wall, that impossible situation, that injustice. I thought at the time when I was in Palestine that here was another thing that had caused a shift in the way i tread through the world- it arrived in full regalia on Saturday night.The next morning two women brought me beautiful glorious pomegranates.

Then this morning I read two blogs I have looked at a lot lately-Sabbah's blog and Um Khalil's blog. On Um Khalil's blog i found the picture of Fatimah which I have collaged with pomegranates. When I was in Israel, Israeli quilters told me that pomegranates for them was also a symbol for hand grenades in response to my Persephone's Rug for the Underworld quilt- well Fatimah's life came to an end whilst she was sitting down to lunch with her husband , his son and her mother. Fatimah was 37 and pregnant-her picture broke my heart this morning. She was killed by an israeli rocket fired into Gaza to allegedly destroy a terrorist, but which somehow hit the house in which she was eating lunch. Read Um Khalil's blog to see more of Fatimah's story. So my point is- I don't think I can create in the same way anymore- my life has changed. When i was in Israel a quilter took me to a quilt show hung outside of tel Aviv- amongst the quilts that hung there - with the theme trees ; there was a quilt by a woman whose quilt was a political statement about silence being as big a crime as doing- her work was about what is happening to Palestine. So i cannot stand by in silence any more- I can't just talk about quilts or how I make them. My make- up is such that emotion is a strong part of the way i create. I think I have found something I can do with all those cross stitches.

Deni Quilters Symposium

These seedpods are of the jackaranda tree ( I hope I have got it right)- they were too beautiful to leave behind! Jacakaranda trees line the street in which the Multi Arts Centre in Deniliquin is located and where I taught on the weekend.I had a most enjoyable time- as Deniliquin is close to where I did a lot of my growing up ( Jerilderie). Country hospitality was at its best- the food was wonderful and the students who had come from all over enthusiastic.
This classroom is much like the one I found myself in when we first moved the Jerilderie from the Netherlands. It is now a "museum" room in The Peppin Centre in Deniliquin which is the old primary school. The only difference was that the lids on my desk which I shared lifted up and we really did use real ink and nib pens.And of course could not resist a photo of the inscribed graffiti on the desks.... I am intrigued why the glasses and the head with crown should be so distinctive in this little tableau.
And last but not least some of the work produced by students- I took a lot of lino-cuts and Indian woodstamps for people to use and we tried some African painting as well later in the day.It made me itch to do some printing again- maybe later today if the weather fines up- although it is looking so grey and murky I don't like my chances.Someone sent me a page from Nouvelle Patchwork- the France Patchwork Association magazine and there is a double page devoted to the exhibition I had with Annette and Robert Claxton earlier this year- one page of my work and one page of theirs- it looks very nice!

I shall be back in France in September for Val d'Argent. I will be sitting at the Changing exhibition curated by Thelma Smith, and one of my lace pieces will be on display. After that i shall probably be going to Palestine to teach in Ramallah depending on the situation.
 

Whirls and swirls

Finally my fabric has arrived for dyeing- but it is too late to start now as it is after four and it gets dark at five thirty on this the winters solstice. I shall have to do it tomorrow.

I have done very little this last week- kids are on school holidays so we went up to my mothers via Melbourne. Dropped into Zartworks and bought some painting things but at the moment am feeling a dirth of inspiration. Everything I look at seems bleah, and my mood matches it- I feel as if I will never think of another idea.

So I completed this little lutradur piece I had painted before I went away- just to go through the motions and to try and get back into the thinking and sewing habit.
 

Crosses

I have been playing around with the idea of crosses- how to incorporate them into some pieces I have in mind to record my reaction to my visit to palestine. Of course the crosses or cross stitches derive from the palestinian embroidered dresses ( which is also practised in other parts of the region- and the dress I have is Syrian) and I am intrigued by the eveness of the stitching. I painted this piece of fabric using the African method but am not that happy with it- I liked what happend but am not enthused by the colour- I think it would have been better with another colour underneath overlaid with darker colours. Stitching will off course pop out elements, but it still needs more playing with and thinking about.


Last week Omega on her blog explored why she worked in textile and made some interesting observations, and for me it has to be stitching. I left a comment to her post and Omega responded with this:"Everything has been worked upon, specially decorated and elaborated over and above the basic cloth itself. Traditional embroidery is the overlaying of cultural significance onto bare everyday necessity. These embroideries tell us so much about the peoples whose traditions and beliefs they illustrate." from an article she had written regarding Sheila Paine's embroidery collection. And i do so agree , but there is another aspect and that is the cross as the mark of the illiterate person- why is it a cross? Why not a triangle or two parallel strokes? I suppose the cross is likely to be slightly different in each hand but on the other hand it is the ultimate sign of free will by recording agreement when the cross mark is placed.

And yesterday my ETN magazine arrived - it was somehow disappointly sparse ( though I will have another look). The 3rd European Quilt Triennial was reviewed by Beatrijs Sterk and she comments that there has been symptons of fatigue in analysing Quilt National in the US and signs of stagnation and decline in participation in European quilt events. I think she misses one issue however- there seems to be a regularity to the works selected ( even when another medium juror is used) a certain uniformity- so that the same names recurr and recurr with a few new names . In all my travels I am seeing lots of different work- some very good and it is not being selected.I am not sure that we are seeing the 'edgy' work for which she yearns or work that is designed in a different manner. Sterk seems to think that the medium would benefit from an injection of teaching from other art mediums, but after my experience with my masters I am not sure, what would come from there?- everything has been pushed to the conceptual to such an extent that there is no room for the contemplation of the idea textile let alone its manifestation.I think to work in textile is to accept that it is textile ( and I use the word advisedly- if I wanted a wider ranging word I would have used fibre) and as such there qualities which can be explored/touch , hapticity, shrouding, folding, stitching. I think one problem with making contemporary quilts is that we are looking for the wall as the medium of its display whereas there are many other ways of interacting with a quilt and a major one is touch- how many people have I not seen try and rub that quilt between forefinger and thumb? I have often felt like curating an exhibiton entitled "off the wall and onto the bed"- if you had to spend a year in a bed what would such a piece consist of for you?

Autumn Forest

It is done- you were right Kristin- it was one of the forest pieces. I however want to oultine the trees a bit more heavily, and the binding has still to go on.As you can no doubt see it is very heavily stitched.

One of the down sides of being a textile itinerant is that no one cleans your oven whilst you are away- I try and keep on top of it by cleaning before i go but I don't know what they have done to it this time- I have scrubbed and scrubbed but I don't think I will ever get totally rid of whatever they did to it.

And today sitting and sewing I was ruminating about the good old Aussie swaggy ( hobo)- they are gone from the local scene, but when we first arrived in Australia they were still around. I remember one old chap in Numurkah who could play a mean tune on a gum leaf and really did have a swag on a stick- now that would be a fun exhibition to mount- the essential swag!
 

Finally Some Stitching

This is to prove I have finally done some stitching. It is an autumn forest quilt I started in the Netherlands. I just have the bottom section to do but am undecided about a small section- so I might sleep on it.School holidays are coming up next week so i want to finish it and be well on the way on working on somethign else. I am waiting for fabric to be delivered so i can dye the fabric.

I will also be teaching in Deniliquin in the Riverina in NSW on the weekend of 24/25 june. There are still a few places available if anyone is interested . The contact is ">Marj Gale. I hope the link works- if not email me and I will put you in touch with her. I am teaching journal quilts ( working small and working with a theme and experimentally) and printing and painting fabric with textile ink. 

Public Holiday Monday

Everyone is home today as it is the Queen's Birthday weekend , and yes that is the English Queen's birthday , though her birthday is actually on another day. I decided to go and be a tourist in my own region, so Ynez my youngest daughter came with me. We live close to the coast ( about 45 minutes) and just a bit further west is spectacular rugged coast line known as the Shipwreck Coast due to th enumber of sailing ships that came to grief there in the nineteenth century- often with a great loss of life.The first collage is of the limestone sentinels standing in the sea known as the Twelve Apostles ( and to keep the theme British it once included London bridge as well but it collapsed in 1990)- only eight of the twelve apostles remain (though i could only count seven today)

The light was great for photographing today- though it was quite cold. I enjoyed the picture of the bird sitting on the wildlife refuge sign. In the second collage there is a black swan- actually it was a pair of swans with three cygnets- but they were just a bit too far out of photo range. I included it because we do not have white swans like in Europe- our swans are black and just as graceful and perhaps a bit smaller. Oh and of course nothing is complete without some graffiti. 

Hand printing fabric

I have been catching up on administrative things- so nothing much textile has been done since my last posting. I have been revamping some of my notes on printing. There are so many books on printing and many websites that give information, that sharing these notes is no great shakes- however please do note that these notes are my copyright instructions. I had wanted to include images, but it is so cold today that I can't go outside . Writing the notes however made me want to start printing again! I also recommend to you Laura Liebenberg's website which has a downloadable pdf document with various techniques with photos.I brought home some more of her textile paints this time as i really like the product and the colour selection is great. I have also appended a list of suppliers I have used in the past.

Hand printed fabric.

© Dijanne Cevaal 2006

I started had printing almost as soon as I started dyeing fabric, as often the commercial fabric of that time, did not have the patterning or imagery that I wanted. My workspace has always been confined so I had to find a way to print, which was easy to set up, pack up and that does not take up a lot of space. I therefore started with stencils, linocuts ad printing with found objects like leaves. Today there are many methods to apply imagery to fabric including your computer, but I have always stayed with simple techniques because they are not difficult to do, they are durable and have the touch of my hand. I use textile printing inks, which are readily available from art shops or specialist suppliers, a list of which is at the end of these notes. Types of textile printing ink include Permaset, although my preferred choice in Australia is Texcraft printing inks and in the Netherlands Trapsuutjies. However if you are stuck and cannot get textile printing ink it is possible to use acrylic paints that come in tubes called Chromacry1. I especially like using the metallic inks on dark fabric .Lino is readily available from art shops in order to make your own stamps as are the tools for cutting/carving the lino. If you cannot find lino you can also carve craft board. You also need to be aware that unless the textile inks are metallic or have an opaque base you cannot print on darker fabrics. You need to print on fabrics that are lighter in colour. The inks discussed are suitable for cottons and linens. If you want to print on polyester fabrics you can buy a polyester setting agent (which I get from KraftKolour)

Stencils are also easily made using the stencils plastic used for quilting stencils or architectural drafting paper, or screen printing plastic film. The stencils can be cut with a craft scalpel. Indian wood blocks are also great to print with and can be purchased from Third World shops.

Safety

Printing inks are made from pigments and chemical binders. Therefore you should be careful in handling printing inks and making sure they are stored safely. Use disposable gloves for you hands and if you are printing large amounts of fabric wear a face mask. The odour of some printing inks can be quite irritating for some people so always work in a well ventilated area. I often print outside on a sunny day.

Method

The method for printing is easy. On my work table a place a large newspaper and over the top of that I lay a piece of fleecy tracksuit material- - something that has a little bit of give. This will be your printing mat. Always iron the fabric to be printed as creases also print. Lay the ironed fabric onto the printing mat. (you can also use the protective sail that you can buy for a dining table)

Anything that has a relief surface can be used for printing- e.g. ivy leaves, wattle tree leaves, geranium leaves, herringbone ferns, bracken leaves, maple leaves, potato mashers, bubble wrap plastic, lino cuts stamps orange bags

You will also need a foam rubber roller- these are readily available from hardware stores. It is important that it is foam. Otherwise if using stamps or lino cuts a printing pad can be made- by placing some foam rubber onto a hard waterproof base. However I tend to use a roller that is about 3-4 inches wide. I wet the roller first and then squeeze it as dry as I can with my hands. I then put a good tablespoon of printing ink onto the plate (or foam meat tray that you get from the supermarket). I roll my foam roller through the ink ensuring that I get even ink coverage over the whole roller. I lay the object with which I intend to print on a sheet of newspaper next to my printing mat and roll the ink as evenly as I can over the surface of the object. You need to ensure that the ink coverage of the object is not too thick or too little (you will get the feel for the right amount after printing a number of times) I usually print my first print onto paper to make sure it prints properly.

You are now ready to print onto fabric. Roll some more ink onto the linocut or object and press it ink side down onto the paper. Press it evenly all over and trying to make sure you don’t move the object (this will blur the print). I use a brayer (a smooth rubber roller used in paper printing) to roll over the back of the object especially with lino cuts. If you are printing with foliage I place a piece of paper over the back of the foliage once it has been placed onto the fabric and press the newspaper covered foliage evenly.

Trouble Shooting;

• If the printed image is too blobby- you have too much printing ink on the surface of the object you are printing with. You may also have too much textile ink on your foam roller.
• If the image is too light or patchy you have not put enough printing ink onto the object you are printing with or you have not put enough textile ink onto your roller.
• If the image is streaky you have rolled the ink in a streaky manner- the streaks actually print. This is why I do not use a brush to apply the textile ink as the brushstrokes also print.
• If the image is blurry you may have printed too many prints with the object- the ink tends to build up on the object and can coagulate, especially if the weather is warm. So it is best to wash it and start afresh. It is also possible that you moved the object ever so slightly in the pressing down process.

Creating an Image onto Lino

Basically any image can be used to create an image on lino- however those with clear lines and delineated areas work best. I often use photos and place them on my scanner and blow up the image to the size I would like. I then reduce the image into gray scale so that I can clearly see areas of shadow and see the lines more clearly ( grey scale actually works better for this than reducing into black and white- you ca also use this process to create stencils). I then tape a piece of carbon paper face down onto the lino and place my grayscale image over the top and trace over the lines I want to show (I know carbon paper is from the antique days so you can also do this with a ballpoint pen and press hard so that the lines dent through onto the lino) Once the image is transferred you can then cut the lines. I am always looking to create texture with my linocuts. Lino cutting is actually working in reverse so that you have to think carefully about positive/negative imagery. What you cut away does not print- what you leave behind does.

Troubleshooting

• If the lino you are cutting is too hard- you can warm it by placing it in a low temperature oven for a few minutes. You may need to do this several times in the cutting process. Do not place the lino in a microwave!
• Always cut away from you. The cutting tools are very sharp and can create nasty gashes in your hands.

When the lino has been cut it can be mounted on a piece of wood like a stamp, however I dind with bigger lino cuts that the lino is easier to use unmounted as then I can roll the brayer all over the back of it for more even pressure.

The beauty of lino cuts is that they can be used again and again. You will need to wash your lino-cut when you have finished printing- this is easiest done with a brush and hot water and preferably in your laundry sink, as printing ink is a chemical and probably best not used to wash down your kitchen sink.

Heat setting and Permanency

When the fabric you have printed is touch dry you will need to iron it in order to heat fix it (If using Trapsuutjies printing ink you heat set in the oven). When ironing I usually place a piece of muslin over the printed fabric and iron for approximately 3 minutes on the appropriate heat setting for the fabric you are using. Your fabric I snow heat set.

After heat setting it is possible to wash your fabric- though for durability and best results hand wash or use the gentle cycle on your washing machine

Suppliers I have used in the past

Europe:

Galerie Smend; http://www.smend.de/shop/index.html

Dreamline: http://www.dreamline.nl/

Zijdelings: http://www.zijdelings.com/

Trapsuutjies;http://www.trapsuutjies.nl/

Australia

KraftKolour: http://www.kraftkolour.com.au/

The Thread studio; http://www.thethreadstudio.com/

Zartworks; http://www.zartart.com.au/html/zartworkscontact.html

New Zealand

Tilia Dyes; http://www.tillia.co.nz/

United Kingdom

Artvango; http://www.artvango.co.uk/

Kemtex ; http://www.kemtex.co.uk/kemtexreact.htm

Paula Burch has a comprehensive list of suppliers for other regions and for the USA on her website

http://www.pburch.net/ and more specifically here http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/dyesources.shtml

The Stitch

I have been putting together a propsal for teaching in Palestine later this year at the request of the Sakakini Arts Centre. I am aware that there are only four sewing machines available to use and I suspect they will have limited capacity to free machine. I wish i could source some machines but then getting them into Ramallah will have its own difficulties if things continue as they are. However one of the things I have been looking at is stitching and cross stitching in particular- as the cross stitch embroidery of the region has cultural significance.

That lead me onto thinking about the stitch. I have long been drawn to textiles by the stitch ( i used to do a lot of knitting making up things as i went ) much more so than the structural possibilities of weaving. I think I am drawn to the stitch for its mark making as well as its texture making possibilities . I particularly like the running stitch though am very drawn by cross stitch possibilities- especially when it has been done free form as it appears to be on the Syrian dress I purchased( which was on the blog awhile ago)- the slight irrgularity lending to its charm. I want to experiment more with ideas about the stitch . I am finding lutradur a good medium with which to experiment- it is strong enough to carry heavy weight thread without stretching the actual fabric. So here is some of the stitching I did today.
 

Home

Home- as a an actuality and concept- we all 'long' for a home- not necessarily the bricks and mortar- we all seek what it means to us- family, surroundings, niches, neighbourhood, but for me apart from family, home for me is the nature that surrounds me. In an age when all art seems to be conceptual and in the realm of the digital and imaginary and in negation of the great natural beauty that abounds in the world- this is what i come home to- it is winter dormancy at the moment. In the Australian bush things do not leave their leaves and show their bones and the colours are amazing- the shapes enticing and well simply stunning.

I am home and have to look all over again- I saw such a lot- I think my life has changed just a little again, and yet this nature brings me home every time. 

And Still it Goes On

Yesterday as i was driving to Zeeuws Vlaanderen I was listening to BBC Radio which had two reports on the crisis in Palestine . Government workers have now not been paid for 3 months- still they go to work. Medicines are running out in hospitals. They are being starved.This impasse has to be resolved in some way other than starving people.It is a siege- a resort to medieval practices.And should Hamas recant as is demanded what then?

You cannot simply ignore 3.5 million people and pretend they are not there. I feel so powerless- any money that could be raised won't get in- effectively blocked by the economic embargo. I could say email your government representatives- but so many of those kind of protests seem to fall on deaf ears.

I see more artists challening widely held views and beliefs , using their art to speak and address issues.Ëarlier this year I sort of formulated a peace project in my head- an idea where all artists who wanted peace - created or used a box of standard postal size and somehow changed the outside in their own expressive way but with the concept peace formost in mind- and all such boxes to be delivered to museums of modern art around the world on the same day- so that the postal service would become the installation carrier and the museum delivery area the ïnstallation - to be photographed simultaneously with the photographs being the record. Could we do such a thing? Perhaps a box would be regarded as suspicious but letters would not have the same impact- anyway i have to go pack for my drive to paris tomorrow and my flight home- and see my family - yay! I have the superlative joy of seeing my family- many do not.