Edgelands from Prism

Yesterday I had the pleasure of going to Prism’s latest exhibition “Edgelands” at the Art Pavilion, Mile End, London. My primary motivation was to see the richly embroidered, landscape inspired textiles by Kim McCormack and I was very fortunate in that she was welcoming folk to the exhibition at the desk when I arrived. She was such an interesting person to talk to and kindly indulgent of my effusive praise. I saved her works until the very end as I wanted time to focus on them. There were plenty of other artworks that caught my attention as well, as did the exhibition space. It is a wonderful, glass fronted, long curving gallery with a lake to one side which throws rippling shafts of light onto the ceiling, providing an extra sense of magic to enhance the works exhibited there.

What did I enjoy?

Sue Reddish’s masterful use of repurposed clothing to create her pieces about the liminal spaces around and beneath the two miles of the elevated Mancunian Way, which has cut across the city since the 1960s. Her tiny seed stitch in a rich orange in this piece creates a haze of colour as though the background, which I read as sky, was flowing forwards across the land.

In Judith Isaac-Lewis’s wonderful collection of "Nature Pages" botanical prints, made with plants collected from the former railway embankments at St Alban's Way, were enhanced with the most evocative embroideries. I loved each one for the way she used a small selection of stitches which spoke to the natural imagery.

Jane Riley’s tapestry, "The Fortress Cliffs" was inspired by the cliffs at Ravenscar North Yorkshire. I thought her use of differing textures of thread and eccentric weave created a real sense of standing at the edge, looking out, and expressed her hope for the continuing recovery of this space from its industrial past.

The delicate glimmering of Jill Walker's honesty seeds, suspended and swaying with every passing movement of air was beautiful to behold, and touched me deeply, reminding me of how I fell in love with these “paper pennies” as a child.

The snapshot views in Amanda’s Hislop’s five wall hangings and concertina book perfectly evoked her experience of snatched views and changing seasons while walking in farmland near her home.

Marian Jazmik’s incredibly delicate monochrome pieces using a wide variety of reclaimed materials astonished me. The amount of work it must have taken to produce them was one source of amazement, quickly followed by admiration for her inventive use of mundane objects such as zips to evoke elements of the natural world and of decay which were inspired by her own photographs.

Niki Chandler’s symphony of shining colour was a wonder to behold. Built from multiple layers of fine netting, used for dance costumes, she created a patchwork of square shapes, blending colours carefully by folding and layering her net to construct a dance of changing colour across the dark background.

Anita Bruce's linked woven hangings were inspired by the patchwork patterns of familiar farmlands as they appear on satellite images. Initially she was considering the luxuriant verges she drove past, and their contrast with the unvaried canvas of the fields. When heavy rain flooded the area those fields disappeared; a visual reversal where patches of farmland become small islands in a vast, sky reflecting, lake.

Helen MacRitchie’s pieces are meditations on the way that nature reclaims urban spaces and margins as they become more neglected. Two wall hung artworks contrasted strong green twining strands with underlying patterns evoking urban space. 

A freestanding work, suspended from the ceiling, took the contrast of these geometric and organic elements and liberated them into space where one could walk round them and consider from all angles the way nature was inserting herself into the built environment. Glimpses of the outside environment, mixed urban and natural, brought those contrasts to life.

And finally, having saved them until last, I gave myself up to enjoying Kim McCormack’s wonderful eco print embroideries, The Wet Desert, A Trail to Glenurquhart and The Rewilding. She combines so many elements and textures: silky surfaces with tactile velvets; fragments of map with the leafy shapes of eco printing; dense areas of bullion and French knots contrasted with delicate lines of stitch which connect everything together. It was such a pleasure to see them up close, to look carefully at the layering and overlaying of different elements: couched down tubes of soft wool; leafy shapes and patterns creating a counterpoint with more geometrical areas; hand stitch and machine stitch. I marveled at the many hours of planning and stitching that must have gone into making each piece. I loved the way some of the botanical prints disappeared behind the next layer, giving a sense that all was grounded in the natural world. All in all a very inspiring day out

If you would like to know more about what was exhibited there you can download the exhibition catalogue from the Prism website here. It's well worth a browse and the site also has links to all of their members

Stitch experiments

I've just taken part in the TextileArtist.org Stitch Camp, led by Gwen Hedley. I have had her book Drawn to Stitch on my shelves for many years, all unexplored potential. When I saw that her workshop was being repeated I thought it might be an enjoyable introduction to her way of working, so signed up. 

We were advised to prepare with fabric, paints, mark making tools, plenty of newspaper for mopping up spills and, of course, threads in our colours of choice. Each of the five sessions comprised Joe and Sam introducing the activity with their usual bright eyed enthusiasm and Gwen demonstrating what she wanted us to do. The videos were pre recorded and no opportunity to interact with Gwen herself, but the support group on Facebook has been really helpful for feedback and inspiration. Gwen's instructions were clear and the examples shown very useful for understanding what was needed. I chose to use an old tea towel for its soft worn linen. With two colours, we were shown how to make marks - one side dense with little background material visible, the other side more loosely marked, open and fragmented. Here is what I had achieved after day one.

Once dry the fabric was chopped up with greater or lesser pre thought depending on the inclinations of participants. It was such fun watching the images appear on Facebook, so many varieties of colour, marks and decisions. I chose the "turn it over and don't think" method, knowing that otherwise I would never pick up the scissors, being dreadful at decision making. Reassembly involved selecting pieces that had some kind of correlation and matching marks across these. I have chosen to stitch all my selections down on Harem cloth (as used by Jude). Many folk chose to stitch their pieces together in sequence to make strips, but I felt this wasn't for me, so have reassembled twelve pieces in a more or less patchwork. I hope the flow of marks is as apparent to you as it is to me, 

I have just begun the stitching, having several other things on the go as well. I will do my best to "finish" this, though many folk have completed theirs already. For me the interest lies in understanding how to use stitch in an abstract way, responding to what lies beneath. I am a bit ambivalent about acrylic and textile, but the paint was very dilute so the hand of the fabric hasn't changed too drastically.

a plastic fork created good parallel lines, the little flicks of colour above the lines were from the same tool, while a holder for Covid testing makes a decorative repeated square.

Random plastic packaging, harvested from the street, creates a sort of snowflake, or perhaps seed head with more fly stitch seeds tumbling down

more "snowflakes, parallel swirls and Covid test holders

I find a lot of the marks too stark, so will look at how to soften these with both stitch and the colours I use. As it moves forward I will post updates, but I suspect this will be around for a while! It has encouraged me to delve more deeply into Gwen's book as well, which I am finding really rewarding

How is your stitching going?

Completed treasure

You'll remember my post about the embroidery which came to me from my dear heart's Bridge partner. Well it is all done and made into a cushion just in time for Christmas. I had to do a bit of adapting as there were centering marks printed top and bottom and at the sides to take into account, hence the side borders here to achieve a square shape.

The fabric was some I just happened to have which does, I think, fit both the colours and the 70's vibe perfectly. 

I am particularly pleased with the piping, for which I had to learn both making a continuous bias strip and how to attach piping to a cushion. It is by no means perfect, I'm avoiding showing you the completed corners, but it was a fun thing to learn about and seems to have worked OK. 

Sadly the hoop ring mark has proved impossible to press out, even with a damp cloth, and is there because the embroidery had been left in its hoop for I don't know how many years - novice embroiderers take note!

It was interesting to complete this; not my usual sort of thing at all, but nonetheless an enjoyable project.

Now I have all the Christmas gifts out of the way, I might just go back to that tambour work which has been waiting for me to finish it since out Caroline Homfray workshop in October. More fun to be had.

completing others' treasures

As Rachel has noted in a previous project, sometimes one finds oneself being offered someone else's unfinished work, along with a comment on the lines of .... "I don't know what to do with this, but I thought perhaps ...."

My dear heart plays Bridge several times a week with several different partners including a lady called Joan who entered her eighth decade recently. She is a very fine soul, with firm opinions (not always in accord with mine it has to be said), and a heart of gold. She has come to the conclusion that her house is now too big for her and that she must move, so is "clearing out". During this sifting of life's accumulations, she came across two bits of embroidery that her mother had started but never finished. Perhaps, she suggested to him, I might know what to do with them or have some use for them. One, a Christmas tablecloth with sprigs of holly and several half-finished robins has been put to one side to be "thought about". It came with no thread or instructions, and I am quite sure I am not likely to finish it, and will have to find it a kind home with someone who will. 

The second was in its own plastic bag, had all the instructions, a clear diagram

an image of the finished item and a goodly tangle of wool thread all tied up together. The only thing missing is the butterfly.

It is definitely not something I would ever take up by choice, but when I saw that it had the approval of one of my go to stitch authors, Jacqueline Enthoven, I looked a bit more kindly at it, and pondered the Man's suggestion that, if finished, it could make a rather nice cushion that could be given to Joan for Christmas

When removed from the bag only the large flowers, the fluffy "thistles" and those few dark stems had been finished. The colouring is more orange than this and, published in the seventies, it has a distinct whiff of avocado bathroom suite about it.

One "thistle" still has to be cut to make it fluffy - the stitch instructions refer to "looped stem stitch" but it felt more like Turkey Rug stitch to me as I completed it. So far the stitching has been going well and quickly, though I suspect all those little details, the stems and French knots will take time. I think I may have the perfect vintage fabric stored away to provide a back to the cushion. I hope I can get it finished in time, and then go back to something a bit more in my line of stitchery! 

Flowers and bluebird

I have finished one of my Uzbek embroideries. It has, as you can see, become a bit bubbly. In fact, when allowed full rein it is as domed as the crown of a hat, but I've been trying to tame it into a slightly flatter profile!

I think it is the result of the stitching round the flowers being too close together resulting in too much thread for the cloth to hold. I haven't blocked or pressed yet, but I don't think this is ever gong to lie flat. So, some thinking to be done about what use to make of it. Perhaps a cushion cover, or a box lid top with some extra padding to make a raised dome. That might at least look vaguely intentional! I am pleased with the colours though, and the stitching was fun. Chain stitch is such an easy one to do, but so effective depending on direction and the colours used. The dark leaves are Bokhara couching which, again, was an interesting one to work and merits future investigation.

Now on to the bluebird, which is on much thicker fabric so hopefully no distortion here. This is the design which was drawn freehand by the young man in my previous post.

I might have to spend a little while extracting my threads though!