Hidegarde's Feather

Hildegarde of Bingen was a nun, dedicated to God from the age of eight, a tithe child, being the tenth in the family. From a very early age she had visions, I often wonder how we would treat a child now, who "had visions", haloperidol perhaps. But Hildegarde, who lived in an age of belief rather than reason, was allowed to be who she was, in the service of her God. She was taught by an anchoress or holy hermit called Jutta. In her later life Hildegarde became head of her convent, was consulted by the church and state luminaries of her time, composed music which we can still hear today, and had a number books published, with illuminations depicting her visions: all of this 800 years ago. There is a really good biography of her here (on one of the best history sites I know of)

A group of images from her works, arranged four square, appear full of mystery and meaning, like tarot cards

I looked to her illuminations for several things:

Pattern- as with many works of this period, pattern is used to fill in backgrounds, decoration rather than realism. I've used little groups of pattern, based on the illuminations, to fill some areas of the ground cloth

Colour, she uses a lot of red in her images, which chimes with the vibrant feather. I've also used the colour of the thread to either match the background, or to modify it, allowing the "visions" in the cloth to shine.

Otherness, the illuminations, depict concepts like devils, heaven, that which is not of this visible world. Curious creatures blow celestial breezes that infuse the world with mystery.

a translucent creature swims amongst the stars of heaven, ringed around with silver; a little fish dives in the deep, some mysterious flowers flow by.

So, the incidental patterns from the dye on this piece of cloth - one of Connie and Harry's sheets, don't forget - suggests the feather image, and my mind says "on the breath of God" because it likes to put words together, and knows of Hildegarde, and elements of a 12th Century clever, fey, mystic woman find expression in the stitch.

I shall take this to my next Studio 11 session for show and tell, and to get some ideas about backing, then you can see it all ...

The back

Which you don't often get to see, but I have show in previous posts because I like backs too. Using a loose muslin on the back allows you to weave your thread in and out at the start and end of stitching. It keeps the stitches secure and the back neat.

and contains the ghost of the image

Stitching progresses

I've not been entirely occupation'less since my post last month, but did get into the dreaful doldrums with my City and Guilds, so have withdrawn from that. I hate giving up on things, but it was all getting too much and my tutor Barbara was very understanding. I have felt a great sense of relief since doing so, which suggests it was the right decision. I've also felt there is more time to work on other things like this.

My feather is developing, as is the breath of God. The phrase comes from Hildegard of Bingen, who was a 12th Century mystic, writer, composer and Benedictine Abbess. Her music is sublime, I fell in love with it many years ago and so wanted to find out more about her. I was very interested by her illuminations to the several writings she produced, on both her visions and the spiritual life in general. When I saw the way the dye had blended and spread on this piece of fabric I was put in mind of a feather, albeit one from a very vivid bird, swirling a cosmic burst of energy, and thought of Hildegard's image. I have been revisiting her illuminations to try and find motifs to use on this, to tie it in visually with her work, whilst still keeping to the spirit of the cloth itself.

She seems to have been a woman of great individuality and strength, in a society where women often found it hard to express themselves. In fact, the religious life was, I suspect, one of the few paths to relative freedom that a woman could take in those days. It released her from the necessity of marriage and provided a space to be herself, albeit within a context that was still primarily under the rule of men

You can read here what inspired this phrase, in which she uses the simile of a feather, floating on the breeze to express her sense of her relationship with God. Whilst I no longer have any faith to speak of I still have a deep respect for that of others, and an inner sense that, perhaps, this physical realm is not quiet all that there is to life; so agnostic rather than atheist, with leanings towards mindfulness as a wise path for living. I try to bring that mindfulness into my stitching, working slowly rather than rushing to finish a piece, so that the imagery and flow of stitching has time to develop..

Leaving City and Guilds has also freed my mind to think more about what I'll do in Christine's class come September. I'm going to stick with Creative Development as that seems to be a context I'm enjoying. I might just take the year to explore shibori in more depth; I keep finding myself thinking about what effect is would have if I did this or that, folded this way, stitched here, clamped there. I do have several books to inspire me!

A little bit of stitch in progress

One of my hand dyed pieces, not from my recent foray, but from Christine's classes. Not finished by any means, but coming along

A feather on the breath of God

Natural Dyeing Workshop

I can't begin to tell you what fun I had last week, but I'll try. I went to a workshop being held at the Potters Farm Studio belonging to Claire Benn of Committed to Cloth. The workshop was run by Michel Garcia who's research into sustainable and benign methods of dyeing using natural dyes and mordants, I'd come across before from a various mentions in blog land and on YouTube. 

I had no idea what to expect, being pretty new to the whole process of dyeing fabrics. What I got was a week of fascinating experiments, made all the more fun by Michel's warm personality and quirky humour. He is an expert in the subject, having a background in both chemistry and botany, and took the group through the process step by step, to show us how different mordants react with different dyestuffs. We had three days of experimenting with fabrics, dyes, mordants and as many variations on those three things as we had time for and materials to work with, including going out into the lovely surrounding landscape and collecting fresh plant material to see what happened. His teaching process takes you step by step in a very methodical way, creating swatches of fabric with patches of each of the mordants and dyes so you can see exactly what you will get. The magic comes from placing a piece of plain fabric with splotches of mordant into the pot, and pulling out a multicoloured sample to use as reference. In the final two days we were introduced to the indigo dyevat (also known as the donkey), using resists and multiple dips in the to create a range from deep blue to white. We then applied mordants and dyes to get a full range of colours on one piece of fabric. It really was inspiring, and Claire's studio is a wonderful place to learn, especially as she generously gave us time after the formal teaching to finish off, or prepare for the next day. We were also treated to delicious meals each day to give us energy for our experiments. 

The rest of the class were all experienced textile artists of one sort or another so I felt very much the amateur, but the opportunity to spend a week with this group of creative people was a genuine pleasure and I learned a great deal both from Michel and Claire, and from watching the the way the rest of the group worked. It taught me that we are all different, and that there isn't necessarily a "right" way to be creative, just the way that works for you. 

I would love to say that I'm now going to put into practice all that I learned, so it sticks in my mind. However, life doesn't usually work this way. This week I am looking after my beloved Aunt Cecil while her carer is away and next week it will be straight back to work which, over the past several months, has been full on and left me coming home each evening with not an ounce of energy to spare. I'll store all the learning (and samples) up until such time as life settles down and I can give myself some down time to have another go, 

Here are a few images - just to give you an idea of what we did, rather than because I think I achieved anything wonderful!

The dye swatches - my reference charts

some experiments with screens various

some happy fishes

and a few bits of indigo shibori 

If you have the chance to attend either a workshop by Michel, or one run at Potters Farm, I'd really recommend it.

Measuring out

I'm really feeling my way on this, I've never made a bag before, but have quite a clear idea of what I want - a boxy shape with depth front and back to allow for the water bottle and small camera, not too wide, easy to get a sketch book in and out, lightweight.

This bag that I got in Istanbul is almost perfect, but the way it's constructed leaves stuff wallowing about in a rather unstructured space. It's also hard to get stuff in and out of, as the handle is part of the structure of the bag. this creates and awkwardness around the zippered opening. It's a good rough structure though, as it hangs to the right length across my body, and the wide strap spreads the 

weight. It's also good to get a rough idea of the dimensions as I can put a pin roughly where I'd expect the edge of my bag to be, then make a toile; meaning a trial in calico to test the shape and get an idea 

of scale.

I've also traced out the basics of the wing structure to get an idea of the separate elements and how they mesh together. Again, feeling my way vaguely forward, consulting the odd book occasionally!

So here's the plan

This is a design from the work I did in the summer on insects

based on a photograph taken years ago of a dragonfly casualty - blame the cats

and some fabrics dyed at Studio11 on the day we spent with Christine as part of City and Guilds

one watery and flowing, to evoke the nymph stage of the dragonfly's life, one crumple dyed with evocative shapes lurking in the random patterns. Beneath, a teal cotton velvet, garnered from curtain shop remnants, to provide practical strength for ... a sketcher's bag to hold sketchbook, pencil case, camera and water bottle

I'll create a front panel using the water ripple fabric with organza layered over and stitched into with the dragonfly wing pattern in couched and linear stitches. I'm also thinking of using wave stitch in the finely patterned areas to emulate, but not copy the cell structure. Then I'd do the rear panel using the crumple dyed fabric and hand quilt over those lines that evoke a wing shape.

The strap will go across my body and will be the velvet on the underside and a strip of the ripple fabric on the top to tie in with the embroidered panels.

I'll probably adapt the image below to a design like the one above, as it's more graphic and has a clearer reference to the actual wing shape - here played with in Picasa

Are you getting the idea?