Four steps forward, one step backward

Turns out that after my marathon effort on Monday night that I neglected to remove the paper pattern prior to stitching on one of the feet.  The stitching is of course repeated circular stites and HELL!! to remove!  So guess what I spent last night doing... Well I started... I removed the some of the stitching and then gave up and moved onto the next one (this time removing the pattern. 

The one I started last night will be a reverse applique one, and the one that I stuffed up previously may also turn out to be cut back as well - we'll see how it goes. 

Moving at a running pace!!

As I promised I went home and worked like mad on my project.  I did have to stop off at Spotlight on the way to restock on threads - one handfull cost me $50!!!! The price on the head of this baby just went up...again!!!

Anyway, laid out the strip and planned out the remaining 11 foot prints, skipped over the remaining hand stitched print and got cracking on the machining.  I managed to get 4 more stitched last night... Yayyyy!! 5 to go!!

Tonight the aim is to work on the cut-back applique'd prints and start on the last hand embroidered print.  That should get me far enough ahead to almost finish it on Thursday.  My (personal) deadline has now been moved forward, since I've just been reminded that I have a felting workshop to attend on Friday, which should be great fun!

Once again it's 5pm and time for me to skidaddle so I can get into some more inspiring stitching work.  Seeya!

Step by step...

The latest project (I'll have to come up with a name - even a temporary one) is coming along nicely.  I've had a break from it for the past 4 days as B and I have had a break away at the snow, what's left of it, and was given strict instructions that I wasn't to take my "homework" with me, which is fair-enough.  Wouldn't have had any time to do it anyway - had a fantastic time by-the-way!!!

I have now completed the 2nd foot - hand embroidered using blackwork stitches.  I counted them this morning and there are still 11 to go.  But it should be OK as I'll only be hand embroidering one more, the others will be mostly machine stitched.

I'm thinking that I'll give the hand embroidery a break for a bit and machine stitch a couple tonight, so that I can make some faster progress, but first I need to plan them out so I don't stuff them up (they won't be as easy to pull out as the hand embroidery!).  I'm still happy with the progress so far, and am still excited by the whole concept, so I need to get moving before the enthusiasm wanes.  My goal is to get it mostly (if not completely - but I don't want to rush it) finished by Friday!!  Even though I don't have school on Friday, if I make that deadline, I'll be able to show the finished piece and have made a start on the third. 

There is now less than 8 weeks till the exhibition and no time to waste....  AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!  It's also 5pm and time to go home - so I can get cracking!!  More tomorrow

Norma Minkowitz

WOW!!! this work is amazing!! have a look! Norma Minkowitz

Art is about confidence

We were discussing this at TAFE last week. The consensis was that it's easier to comment on, provide criticism of, give advice etc when the work is not yours. Why is that???

We figured that for us there were a couple of reasons:

1. you come at others work with a fresh mind. You haven't been/nor become bogged down in all the problems and hassles that tend to cloud our judgement about our work.

2. You haven't become attached to the work and can therefore be critical and make suggestions (ie cut it up and rearrange it, remove/add something - if we've worked on it, we become attached because of the hard work and time we've put in and don't allow ourselves to change things, even though it would be better in the end)

3. It's not yours. You make as many suggestions as you like, be as critical as you like, but the bottom line is, it's not your work and therefore you don't have to make the decision or do the work (and the extra sampling that may be required)

Just something that's been running around in my head. I start out working on something and loving it, end up hating it and then show somebody else and they love it - A good reason for groups like this as I see it. There's a myriad of critics out there to help us out, and prop us up when we dislike what we're doing or are in a slump.

OK, lecture over, I'm going back to mulling over my latest peice of work, until it's time to go home (from work) and get my hands back into my textile work.

Envelope Journal

This sounds like an interesting idea.

where we
each "make" a journal out of seven 6x9" envelopes - and through
art/scribbles and the pocket of the envelope itself, we are creating
a record of one full week in each of our lives. Collecting the
receipts, the mundane, the junkmail, the flashes of inspiration (like
the one I had during a two-hour traffic jam) - the whole nine yards

Using envelopes means that I could just put in snippets of my week, without having to 'compose' it as I would a whole page.

Perhaps I could start with my holiday this week. Envelopes would also mean that I wouldn't need to lug glue stick and paints etc, and I could decorate/embellish the envelopes when I get back!

Lets see how I go....

Uncertainty

I'm dumbstruck at the moment.  I was sitting at my desk, waiting for the phone to ring and the others to come in and start work, when Andrew came in and informed me that they'd all been layed off on Friday!!  So where does that leave me??  As far as I know (and I was kinda let in on things a while back that they were selling off the electronics side), the training side of the business is to remain, but at this stage I've neither seen nor heard from the boss and thus sit here dreading that the phone will ring, not knowing what to tell people when they call asking for service, quotes, payment etc....  And I had planned (and asked) to have Wednesday off so that B and I can have our 4 day holiday in the snow (what's left of it).  Will they refuse?...  will they expect me to work the rest of the week as well?...  I'm going anyway as we've booked and paid and it can't be cancelled.  Oh well... no point speculating until I know more.  I'll just have to take messages until I know different and cross my fingers that my holiday plans are still possible!!

One down 19 (or so) to go!!

I managed to finish the embellishment of the first foot on my wall-hanging, and have started the second. It looks good once the aida fabric is removed.

I'm at school today so I should be able to get the second well underway if not finished. This one is balckwork (in blue cotton.. of course!) and is much faster going.

Off to the beach

That's my week over, so we're off to the beach for a couple of days so B can go surfing and we can check out a few more houses for holiday rentals over Xmas.  It also means that I should get a real move along with my feet so I'll have something to show on Friday at School. 

I remember why I don't cross stitch anymore!!

The first of my feet (on the latest project) is well underway. This one is cross stitch - simple, routine, crafty yet not overly creative, neat, tidy and accurate. I've overlayed some aida (or something to that effect) and will pull it out once finished. It is so tedious though. One foot (size 8) in one colour, plain cross stitch, is slow and boring work. I've nearly reached the end of it and can move onto number 2 - blackwork and some cross stitch (although much larger crosses).

As I move upwards, they should become quicker as I'll be machine stitching a lot of those, just a few more hand stitched ones to do down the bottom first. Can't wait to see that it's worked (that I actually can remove the aida without having to cut any of the stitches. I'll also consider overstitching in some areas to give a bit of depth, but I want to see how it looks first.

Decision about the fiery figures

I've decided that the intertwining of my figures works and that this is how I will present them.  As I discussed with my tutor, it ties in well with the initial concept (that the elements of fire are equally important and are part of a whole), as well as being pleasing on the eye (with interesting negative spaces), and lastly they will be much easier to attach to the base like this as they sit like that without any support, so it's just a matter of attaching them.

Now to find a base.  I figure a piece of timber, either painted or wrapped in black fabric.  I'm not sure whether to use a flat piece of timber or a block so that they are raised - what do you think??  The block is good as it will raise it when displayed at home (or wherever the purchaser chooses - cause someone's gonna buy it), but this may look a bit odd when on a podium in the gallery.

The other thing - when I photographed it I put up a black background which really made them stand out, so do I make a stand that goes up behind them to provide a black background???  I dunno - gotta make a decision soon - I want it finished by Friday so I can take it to School to show Tony.

I'm buzzing with excitement

I've been working really hard on my next project and feel like I'm really getting somewhere!!!  I've died and bleached fabrics, I cut them up and stitched them back together, I planned and sampled and even begun embroidering and still I feel that it's going really well.

The inspiration links directly back to the theme of the exhibtion - Phoenix: to rise in brilliance...  The rise in brilliance is what I'm working on,  or more accurately my journey towards brilliance from structure times of schooling and university, through some uncertain, insecure and sometime distressing and stressfull times, towards present times of a more secure grounding and positive outlook.  It gets pretty deep but I'm hoping that the overall result is one that makes people think, that they can appreciate the work and diversity of it and most importantly... Like it!!

I've use the concept of footprints to portray my journey, in a strip-like wall-hanging that is about 30cm wide and nearly 7feet tall.  The footprints go upwards, signifying the rise.  The background is constructed of strips of varying widths and shapes which progress from a fairly light bluish colour in regular structured strips, to smaller and narrower and more angled strips of darker blues and nearly black fabrics, and then back to the light colours, with wider strips but still big angles. 

The whole point is that the bottom is fairly structured and regular as I follow a path that doesn't involve too many decisions, and that is itself quite structured - school, and university.  At this point there aren't too many worries and therefore the colours are quite light.   Then as I move into my working life there are more decisions to make, more changes in direction, more uncertainty and a lot more stresses to deal with.  This section is where the colours get darker and the strips become narrower and more angled and the background fabric starts to meander to the left and the right.  The edges also get a bit more jagged here.  Then as I start to work out what I want to do with myself and my life the fabrics get lighter and the strips get wider.  They still stay quite angled as I have moved into the creative part of my life, but they also signify that there are still twists and turns in my life but I am better equipped to cope with them.

The footprints also tell a similar story.  In the beginning they are structured and neat and even and quite simple (cross stitch, blackwork),and quite pale and tend to blend into the background. Then they start to get free-er and darker and broken as I start to discover life and suffer from the stress, they also start to move around in circles as I lack direction.  Then at the turning point they become layered (cut back applique) as I look within myself for answers, and then become more solid and grounded and free and creative as I really discover myself and my creative side. Th final step shows that this is not the end and steps off the work into the unknown and is bold and solid (3D).

I know, very deep, but it has been quite exciting working like this as the work has a purpose, and there is meaning to everything that I have put into it.  The choice of colours, the choice of stitches, the placement of features (feet-ures), all have a reason, which in the end will probably only be known to myself and the few people that I choose to tell, but which have been significant in the development of the work.

Now I just have to keep the motivation going to get it done!! Oh, and come up with something equally as exciting and brilliant for my next and subsequent pieces.

Discharge Dyeing and Potato Dextrin

I've been trying to work out how to create a background for my newest piece which features my foot.  The intention is to have a long wall hanging with footstep going up the wall that are stitched in various ways to reflect my different stages of life and my thoughts/knowledge/feelings at those stages.  What I wanted to do for the background was create something that was dyed that looked like it had several layers on it and that gave an effect of shadowy footprints.  I was thinking along the lines of the sun-printing, where you paint the fabric, and whilst it's wet, put down some cut-out shapes and place it in the sun to dry - it gives you different shades under the shapes to the stuff that wasn't covered.  This would mean that I'd have to cut out some shapes to put down, and the shape that I've been using doesn't really work with this (the toes are separate an would take an age to get right, and knowing me I'd end up with really wonky toes with half missing and the other half looking as though they were broken)

So I've discovered discharge dyeing - where you bleach out the colours and stop when you get a colour that you like.  This would work as I plan on starting with dark colours (blacks, blues etc) which should discharge well.  I'll have to sample it.

The potato dextrin is another form of resist printing - but I don't know too much about it, so I'll look into that if the discharge doesn't work.

There's also batik, but I want a subtle look that doesn't give a harsh background.

Will do some sampling tonight.  If it works then I will dye my fabric pieces tonight as well.

I am trialing this at the moment. B saw it and loved it! I like the concept of the fingers entwined, as the elements of fire (that they represent) are also entwined, but I don't want it to look like an orgy?... 

One piece finished - or nearly...