Gathered Threads

 There is some terrific work in  Gathered Threads an exhibition I have curated at ArcYinnar. It would be great to see lots of visitors, though I realise Yinnar is a little bit off the beaten track , but not that far  and certainly not as isolated as Gellibrand used to be. These exhibitions can only ever be as good as the number of visitors that visit and in my experience over all of these years it is word of mouth that is one of the best spreaders of information and exhibition news. A flyer, a poster or an instagram post can only do so much- what we need is foot traffic and for people to be amazed by these wonderful  works!

So I share some of the work here: Gathered Threads

Work by Lynette Weeks- the piece on the right inspired by the Grampians- Gariwerd and the ridge lines visible as you spend time in the Grampians. Lynette uses ecodyeing techniques and is inspired by the natural environment and also uses breakdown printing to create water effects inspired by the sea environment near her home. I have known Lynette since my Geelong years and have had our hand at organising a few things here and there.

Work by Beth and Trevor Reid. This couple have worked together ever since I have known them ( which is quite a long time ) and I have shown off their work  in  a few exhibitions over the years, and continue to find new ways to  express the quilt medium even using very traditional piecing methods which shine with originality and  clever use of light/dark. All of the pieces in the exhibition have been made using the nuances of denim to create these contrasts.

Work by Fiona Wright using the khadi fabric which has become synonomous with the Stitching Project a venture by Fiona and her partner Praveen Najak. This project employs dozens of women on a fair trade basis which sees those women being able to send their children to school and purchasing small amenities to improve their lives - even such things as toilet buildings. I met Fiona when I was doing my Masters degree in the very early 2000's and she was the recipient of the Henry Foyle scholarship for recent graduates which saw here venture to India and so onto the creation of the Stitching Project. Her work involves finding inspiration in words of encouragement and words of courage- In the Words of Ghandi " be the change you wish to see in the world" and of course using khadi.

Work by Sue de Vanny, a very painterly effect achieved with fabric and thread and a bit of paint. Sue is also a painter but her textile pieces bring another dimension- the textures are luscious and create images that beg to be touched- though we can't. These portraits of animals have all been inspired by Sue and her husband Carl's travels in Africa and as with all portraits it is the eyes of these great creatures that capture the soul of these wondrous animals and of course  the textures. I marvel at these works.

Works by Carolyn Sullivan whom I have also known for a long time and who continues to surprise me with the  finesse of her work and the wonderful explorations of macro views of natural objects. These two pieces show the gamut of Carolyn's work which includes machine stitching and applique and incredible hand  stitching on naturally dyed silks.

Work by Sarah Louise Ricketts  some with Alice Nothe. I can't remember when I first met Sarah but I do know I have toured some of her pieces over the years and we have hatched some crazy plots the most recent was her support for a project to bring 4 of the women from  Boneca de Atuaro in Australia in  2019. Sarah's pieces are felted, layered and stitched and no photograph will do them justice .

Gosh- how long have i known Robina Summers??  I think it goes back to 1995 when Robina was exploring transferring digital photographs onto fabric, that eventually led onto study at RMIT and really combining her great loves: photography, fabric, digital manipulation ,stitch, dye and exploration of the environment near her home at Kangaroo Ground and  the larger urban area of Melbourne. Over the years we have hatched many plots- Robina and Tony have been my sounding board for the exhibitions which I have  curated and toured since 2000 when Australian Bounty toured in France and Europe ( the only travelling exhibition of Australian art in the  Sydney Olympic year) and was instrumental in opening doors for Australian textiles to be shown in Europe- they have encouraged me in my crazy dreams and together we have created 3 catalogues of work by Australian quilt artists- the only  such works available in actual book format.

Cheryl Cook is a recent encounter for me- but when I first met Cheryl at a printing workshop at Arc Yinnar I was straight away enthused about how she was using felt, dye, ink and the natural environment in her work. She creates many of her own inks and uses texture  in such a free and interesting way that you almost want to dive into the works. I am sure we will hatch plots in the future!

And finally my own work, some of which I have shared here before but one new piece with the badges ( which are for sale - each badge is $60 AUS)- message me if you are interested.

As i write this I realise I have had a rare privilege that I would not have thought possible twelve months ago.  I have had to privilege of inviting old friends and new to show off their work, to show off their skill, to show off their passion  and create a beautiful exhibition altogether.  And my goodness we have had some adventures over the years! In becoming the very part time gallery coordinator at Arc Yinnar I have been able to put together a curated exhibition of art textiles of work by people whose work I admire, who show great diversity in the practice of textiles and embraced the challenge to create small bodies of work within the exhibition. It was a wonderful bonus that quite a few could attend the opening last Saturday.

Next Project

  This last month since delivering the commission has been busy. I am curating an exhibition entitled Gathered Threads which will open at ArcYinnar on June 4 ( everyone is welcome). The exhibition will showcase work by nine artists, some of Australia's top practitioners in textiles. Everything I have seen thus far promises a feast for the eyes. Don't forget if you visit Arc Yinnar, that  LRG (Latrobe Regional Gallery ) also has exhibitions and are at present showcasing regional artists and work about the region so you could make a day of it in the Latrobe Valley. One exhibition is entitled Hazelwood and of course Hazelwood power station has disappeared off the face of the earth though the coal hole is still there.

I  am also exhibiting work in Gathered Threads and must admit I was not quite sure what I was going to exhibit.  I have been busy making work but the work has been for the book ( the quilts are in transit in France- and I am getting a little worried this is more than a years work- delivery was attempted on 11 May and since then I have heard nothing- there is phone numbers plastered all over the parcel - not impressed Australia Post! neither for your communication and taking my money for Express delivery and 5 weeks after posting the parcel has still not arrived- it has cleared customs) And of course there was the recent commission I completed.

I have been making badges. I initially started making badges years ago but about two years ago I started making them more focused as in badges that address my concerns about climate change/environment. I have not quite worked out how I will display these but they will accompany my One World stitched piece that I finished early last year which I have not displayed yet. That piece grew out of the Climate strike back in 2019 ( doesn't that seem like forever ago) and took me two years to finish. The badges were meant to be quick things to do but they are anything but. Each one takes about 3 hours if not more. They are heavily hand stitched and use discarded printed fabrics where the print has not printed clearly or offcuts of fabric. I am still trying to decide whether I am wasting my time or whether I am better off to think of something else altogether. I still have 8 days to rethink????

Then today whilst printing some fabric for a customer order I decided to print my bush sentinelle linocut onto some silk organza I had- and I am rather chuffed with the way that came out. I thought a lot of the printing ink would squeeze through the weave of organza  and that it would lose a lot of definition of the print but if anything the print is crisp and very clear whilst the transparency of the organza creates a certain fragility. I would like to print this onto a much bigger piece of silk organza I have , the only problem being that the bush rats that used to try and nest inside the shed whilst I lived in my shed in Gellibrand have eaten some holes into the piece- probably using shreds to line their nests. I am toying with the idea of somehow mending or embellishing these holes as part of the structure of the piece . The silk organza is way too nice to discard- I haven't decided whether I will dye it yet, given it has to be washed in any case.

The nights have been cooling  down of late, though we have been having beautiful clear days. My daughters came and helped with rebuilding some gardening beds. The grass which spreads like wildfire had gotten out of control last year in the spring when I was not allowed to do heavy work after my heart attack. And whilst I managed to grow some vegetables, the grass had by that stage become rampant and trying to find a gardener has been next to impossible, When I have money there is no one available and off course when I don't have any money it is possible to find someone. Would really like to find someone who could help out ( and be paid) on a regular fortnightly basis or some such. Meanwhile I have started the winter plantings- and yes it is a little late but things seem about a month slower in the Latrobe valley and in discussing it with someone the other day we wondered whether the hydration clouds from Loy Yang and Yallourn North Power stations might be the reason this happens where I live, as I can see either power station from the ends of my street, although it might also be that cool air sweeps down valley and this is a wide valley at the foot of the Great Dividing Range

The fungi has been pretty amazing thus far, particularly  near some of the pine trees along the road to Yinnar. I am toying with the idea of making another linocut of fungi, there is something pleasing about the shape of  some fungi.

The Story of a Commission

 I mentioned in my last post that I was working on a two piece commission. Initially the people commissioning had asked for a large piece- larger than what I normally work or can manage on my littlest Bernina workhorse which has a small throat. So we agreed that I make two pieces which are still on the large side of the size I normally work but still manageable. So the pieces were to measure 150 cm x 100 cm.

The commissioners also had suggested some colours in the dyed background cloth. It took  quite a few attempts to get cloth that I  thought would work which I then sent to the people to choose.

Above are some of the fabrics I dyed- there were more but I had to be mindful that they needed to go together as a set, plus I needed to be able to print on them as the commissioners had indicated they liked the monoprinted  pieces I had done with foliage from my morning walks. This method of dyeing gives great results but it is not easy to control where dark and light appears nor how the colours will bleed into each other. The minute you put blue and yellow together you end up with greens and things can become green too quickly - but it also needed dark colour in there for contrast.

Once the background fabrics had been selected I started the printing with foliage that i collected on morning walks,

The photo above is of the  printing on the dyed pieces of fabric-  once stitching goes in then things can be accentuated a bit more. Once I had the first piece basted the people commissioning had an additional request as they were fungi enthusiasts, they asked if fungi could be included in the printing process. By this stage I had already started stitching in the foliage details so the piece was already batted up and had been partially stitched. This took a bit of procrastinatng  as to how I might do it and also as the fungi blocks I had made last year were very blocky and I was loathe to cut them to shape as they are a set with which I intend to do something booky at some point in time. So the only solution was to make some new linocuts that I could somehow manoeuvre into the unstitched spaces.

Phew! It worked, as I was petrified I would spill some printing ink or get a dodgy print which would ruin the whole piece as by this stage I had already done a fair bit of stitching. You can to some extent fix misprints  with stitching but this was quite daunting as it was quite a large piece which already had quite a lot of stitching in place. The end result enthused me sufficiently to make another toadstool linocut after encountering one on a recent morning walk.

It was too difficult to include this little toadstool in the first piece I had already started stitching but I was able to print it onto the second piece I had to make.  These pieces have been very densely stitched- I call it  free machine drawing because essentially I am creating drawings with my machine- and these pieces are large drawings- really large drawings all done on a little domestic Bernina 325 which is the smallest machine in the Bernina range. I dream of a large machine but I am thinking that is what it will remain a dream. But meanwhile whilst it is not easy manoeuvring such a large piece under a small machine it is possible and I have been doing it for a very long time/. Some of the stitching progress...

In this stitching process threads are like my pencil- I use them for line and to create interest in the background and for detailing. I would have to say that thread is of number one importance in the work I create and I have been fortunate to have Aurifil sponsor some of my thread in the past . I use 28 weight cotton Mako thread which is not easily available in Australia but is wonderful to work with and gives such great line and accent.

The selection of threads I used- there are some non-Aurifil threads there mainly as I did not have those colours in my thread box and  it is difficult to get the cobs of Mako 28 thread in Australia as I know of no store that stocks the 28 weight thread in a large selection. ( I am aware that Amity Threads in Torquay stock a good range of Aurifil thread but not much of the 28 weight thread which they can order- but I didn't have the time for this ) . The next most important thing for my work is the weight of batting. I use Matilda's Own wool/Polyester batting - it will take a lot of stitching and not stretch or buckle- and I stitch very densely. 

So the last few weeks have been a marathon of stitching. Then the squaring up which I did out at Arc Yinnar as they had a table big enough . Normally i do this on the floor but because these two pieces will hang together they need to be as much the exact same size as is possible when dealing with textile. I also decided to do faced bindings as I did not really want anything to distract from the flow of the stitching.

And so finally after about 3 months from first contact these pieces have been finished and sent to their new owners. They liked the photos I sent but it is simply not the same as seeing the pieces in the flesh. And so here are the finished pieces, not photographed terribly well I am afraid- there was too much light coming from the left.

In the end  I was actually quite pleased with how they looked- there is always that anxiety of whether the people who have commissioned the piece will like what you have done, the anxiety of whether it really works. Whilst I have made forest quilts before, these are a little different because there is more blue in them than I would normally do in the background dyeing and also the printing I do has subtly changed since last year when I started incorporating foliage from my morning walks into my work. The addition of the linocuts was an additional challenge and something I had not done before but I liked how they looked in these pieces.

Printing and Lovely April Weather

 The weather has been beautiful this month- mostly warm, gorgeous autumn weather. My garden needs a really good clean up but haven't had much time to do it and really need some help for the heavier work. I don't mean just mowing but helping rebuild some garden beds which are struggling with the ever invasive grass. I had tried no dig and still want to  but the grass is just a nightmare to deal with so I am going to resort to some heavier interventions.

I also fell off the daily walks trolley- but have made a concerted effort this week to get out more often- hopefully it will push me into regular walking again as I do enjoy it when I go out. The  nardoo has spread almost entirely over one part of the Turtle Dam at the bushland where I walk and the  fungi are starting to make an appearance with the cooler sometimes foggy nights. I have been working on a traveller's blanket inspired by nardoo although at the moment it is going slowly as I am working on a large commission which I really want to try and get finished late this week or early next week.

The commission got me back to doing some mono-printing but because of the warm ambient air at the moment it is not totally successful as the ink dries a bit quickly on the plate and I can't get the lovely ghost prints which is really like. Maybe I will have to get up earlier but then my shed is too dark to work in. There had been plans to put lighting out there but it's been put on hold because the money has been used to put food on the table during this time of covid.

The commission piece is in two sections and I have finished the first one and  I included some fungi linocut prints in at the request of the commissioners. I actually really like the fungi in amongst the foliage and thought I would make a little toadstool as well.

I have been having a lot of fun printing it onto monoprints. I am selling the monoprints with linocut prints if you are interested.

The fabric background is about 30 cm x 55 cm and has been hand dyed and have then been  hand printed with actual foliage and then with linocuts. They are $40 each- message me if you are interested.

I have also been working a little in my journal- another thing which I kickstarted again this week to get rid of the brain fuzz and I might start creating another workbook, after being inspired by Bruno Leti's workbook #15- it is good to steadily work somewhere to work out ideas and I need to develop some new work for an exhibition next year at Meeniyan Gallery. Last weekend  I went and looked at the space and also spent some time at Venus Bay and again the weather was gorgeous. The photo was on a walk late in the afternoon when the clouds had drifted in.

April Already

 The last two months have simply flown by busy with open exhibitions at ArcYinnar and  teaching at Grampians Textures in March. What a delight to be amongst like minded textile enthusiasts again and even better to actually be working again and earning some money.  We did a lot of transfer printing and linocut printing at Textures and participants developed a set of stamps to use for coordinating in the future. The beauty of linocut printing is that it is easily done at home and does not need a large space in order to print fabric. I also met some people whom I have known for some time via the internet - it is so lovely to be able to put a face to the communications

I have also been busy processing some of the food I have grown, making lots of pasatta, dilly beans and eggplant pickle, but on the whole it was a less than stellar year in the vegetable garden, and the continuing battle with grass and slugs/snails nearly drove me mad. Much as I hate to admit it the no dig method of gardening has encouraged rampant grass spreading so I am going to have to resort to something stronger than cardboard to deal with the grass so there will be quite some remaking of beds in the very near future.

Then out of the blue I was commissioned to make two pieces for a home in Perth and so it has seen me create a forest scene with some different elements and that also included using linocut to add to the scene.

I am still stitching on the pieces though the end is in sight and I am rather enjoying the way the little fungi are looking once they are stitched.

Traveller's Blanket On-line Class

The piece above is  the first traveller's blanket I ever made dating from 2001/02 and was made for an exhibition in New Zealand. It was inspired by travels in Africa back in 1990 and the yelow/black and red fabric had been purcahsed at a market in Bangui in the Central African Republic. I hand dyed the background fabric ( and if you join the class there is instructions for this type of dyeing in the notes). There is no batting in this piece- it is simply stitched through three layers of hand dyed musling fabric

Above . Pieces I have made over the years. The photo above were all pieces made for an invitational exhibition at the Quilt & Craft Fair in Sydney and Melbourne. I spent 18 months making this pieces- it was a stitching marathon. Some of these pieces ( except the blue on the left) are for sale if you are interested.

All of the pieces in the photo above have been handstitched. When I moved back to Gellibrand in 2015, I lived in a shed on my land I had there and it had no power. I idid eventually get a solar panel for lighting but it was not enough to power a sewing machine so I did a lot of hand stitching until I sold it early in 2019. I also hand stitch when I travel as it is easy to take with me. I use almost solely perle 8 weight threads though in reality you could use any embvroidery threads- whatever you have to hand really. The piece on the left and the one beside  were made into a book PLaids Nomades by Editions de Saxe and I have seen some wonderful interpretations.

             

                      

The pomegranate piece was started whilst I was house sitting for a friend in the shadow of Pic St Loup. Pomegranates have inspired a lot of my work over the years  and it is the tale of Demeter and her search for her daughter that inspires this work. I love the greek classical tales- they are bold, big and soemtimes outrageous and yet they often touch on human emotions and the excesses thereof. I stitched this piece on a piece of hand dyed khadi which was dyed whilst I was visiting a friend in Rajasthan. It was a failed piece of indigo dyed khadi but somehow acquired a life of its own as I stitched this piece.

The piece above was purchased by a friend in Tassie- i think it is amongst my favourites , but to be honest I spend so much time stitching these pieces that they all rank as favourites. This piece was a journey through the surface design  techniques I have used over the years that I have been stitching seriously as a textile artist.

This piece was commenced when I did an artists residency with the women of Boneca de Atauro ( whose works I have for sale on another page of my blog- 100% of proceeds go to these women who do amazing things on a tiny island of the East Timor coast) Every morning I would walk along the beach before it got to hot and the first time I was there I encountered many sea urchins. There is a ridiculous number of french knots on this piece- and I took soem months to finih this piece ( it measurs 45 cm x 90 cm)

The piece above was commenced whilst I was exhibiting at ChARTres some years ago . I was invited to exhibit this year but unfortunately due to travel restrictions I was not able to partiicpate. I love this event and have come to know the organisers and other artists as  friends and have coem to view Chartres as my second city. At the time I only had undyed khadi on hand and soem indigo dyed thread which has soemhow found its way into my suitcase. So I decided I would sytitch this piece monotone . The hand dyed thread was slightly variegated and soem of it was a little darker than the rest- it became an exercise in making each circle different by stitchig alone and using weight of stitching to create contrast.

This piece is called One World and I started it not long after I moved to Morwell and my ex commission house which I bought when I sold my land in the Otways. We have only one world and each of us sees it so differently - yet together we must all take care of it and ensure its continuation. sometimes  the task seems too daunting particularly in the face of  big business ( which are corprorations enriching the pockets of a few by exploiting the resources that should belong to us all) and yet we must continue advocating fighting for what a lot of us know is right in the knowledge that there is only one earth. This piece has been stitched on madder dyed khadi sourced from the Stitching Project and you can even buy packs of patches from the stitching project if you have none of your own.. This piece is doubled khadi without any batting or flannel middle layer.

The piece above and the details were inspired by walks in the shadow of Pic St Loup near Montpellier. I sometimes  house sit for a friend there ( i also visit her of course) but again that has not happened for soem years. I walk her dog through the vineyards and there is always some new weed, flower or herb to encounter.

 If you wish to learn any of this work I will be starting another on-lie course on 14 february- yes I know Valentine's day, but these pieces are not stitched in a day. I set up a private facebook group for discussion and sharing and organise fortnightly zoom sessions for question and answer. There are also a few short videos and extensive notes whish are delivered every two weeks  over an 8 week period. I keep the stitching relatively simple and encourage you to tell your own stories with your stitching. Would love to see you join me. Cost is $75 AUS- just click on the Paypal button.