Stitch Loop

Anish Kapoor at the Royal Academy

2009-11-08T06:45:00.000-08:00

Spot the photographer!

Photos of the amazing reflective spheres outside the Royal Academy of Arts while queueing for the Anish Kapoor exhibition. It's on until 11th December if you're in London near Piccadilly Circus, you can see these spheres in the courtyard without going into the exhibition. An interesting way of creating distorted images - ideas for designing perhaps?

Goodbye SpIishy

2009-10-05T23:57:00.000-07:00

Splish died during August. She was my constant studio companion of 14 years who knew just the right background to enhance her colouring. Below, Splish poses with the ever growing length of the 'path' for my 'Tread Softly' exhibit.

The Knitting and Stitching show opens at Alexandra Palace on Thursday 8th October and I shall be there if anyone wants to say hello. I'm not attached to a particular show or stand this year but I shall be spending some time at the Pfaff Art Embroidery exhibition if you'd like to seek me out. Look out, also for 'Thread Softly', my piece of work in this exhibition. An image of this was posted on 16th May 2009.

Distant Stitch Summer School 2009

2009-07-26T12:46:00.000-07:00

Candid shots in the Stableyard Studio - lots more on www.distantstitch.co.uk

Season's Greeting - Mother and Child

2007-12-14T04:45:00.000-08:00

Sian and Iris Martin, mother and child.

Wishing everyone, especially all my Distant Stitch students, the season's greetings.

I am currently preparing work for a group exhibition by the Practical Study Group (http://www.practicalstudygroup.co.uk/) called "Creative Dialogues". My 'dialogue' is with my mother who died a few years ago but who gave me my love of embroidery and all things to do with textiles and design. This exhibition will open at the Bankfield Gallery, Halifax, Yorkshire on March 8th 2008 (more details later).
Continuing the theme of 'mother and child' I've posted two examples of her many embroidered commissions for churches; a mother and child banner for St. Peter's Church, Llanelli South Wales. Also I thought you might like to see this embroidered frontal at Bangor cathedral (North Wales) which was designed and made by my mother. It's up-lifting and out-spreading shapes in the design incorporates the passions and hopes of the people of Wales.

Making 3D shapes from Solufleece

2009-07-16T00:08:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a chosen artist, everyone made pieces of machine stitched water-soluble 'solufleece'. This was then genlty sponged onto a 3 D shape such as a bottle, head or shoe form to dry into a stiff shape. The Summer School finished with a show of these pieces along with the named badges everyone had stitched on the first evening - also inspired by the same artist.

Betty and Avis in photo below, Helen and Karen below that and Julie, Alison and Meg in the bottom photo.

Here in Colorado

2009-05-26T19:53:00.000-07:00

Morning feeding for the humming birds at Pitkin Road, Paonia, the home of Rain and Gary Klepper, my hosts for the week.The Black Canyon on the Gunnison River - tributary of the Colorado River that runs through the Grand Canyon.Exploring the vertical cliffs at the Black Canyon with Rain Klepper, my host and Distant Stitch student at the workshop Paonia, Colorado.

Aspen trees

Another Day - with Banksy

2009-07-13T00:40:00.001-07:00

It was a pleasant ninety minute queue in the sunshine outside Bristol Museum to see the Banksy exhibition after spotting an original on a wall down the road. Banksy was asked to respond to exhibits within the museum. It was a fabulous exhibition. As well as the main foyer and rooms specifically to show his new work/installations, we were encouraged to 'spot the Banksy' amoungst the other galleries showing collections of ceramics, silverware, rocks and minerals, Egypt, dinasaurs etc. It was great fun. here are a few of my favourite ones that are 'printable! The leopard in the cage was a fur coat, whose belt 'twitched'.

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. - Albert Einstein

2009-07-11T00:17:00.000-07:00

View of the hill just outside Cannington, called Cannington Park.

I hope you like this quote which Kathy Johnson puts at the bottom of her emails. Thank you Kathryn for your message left here, but I couldn't find a way of replying to it other than saying here that I hope all goes peacefully for you.

Today is the funeral of my friend Jenny who died last week at 55 just before her youngest son's 18th birthday. Jenny was a gentle soul who grew native species trees and shrubs in her small nursery around her cottage, just along the narrow lane from me. She also had a strength and determination to fight injustice. She encouraged a group of us neighbours to protest about the expansion of a nearby quarry which is eating away at a small wooded hill on the outskirts of Cannington; the site of an historical iron-age fort as well as a local beauty spot. Jenny organised us, wrote letters and walked experts from English Heritage around the hill. The battle is not won as too many motorways and runways call for the limestone from this hill. I expect the whole village will be at the church.

More photos from the Summer School tomorrow.

A Final Wave

2009-07-10T10:20:00.000-07:00

The whole class of 2009, wave from the steps outside the dining room at Urchfont Manor. Everyone looks very happy at the end of a very successful Summer School. Who is that person wearing those very loud patterned trousers in the front? Surely it can't be your tutor!

A huge thank you to all the staff at Urchfont who provided us with such cheerful and helpful hospitality and meals that seemed more delicious than ever.

On to Ontario

2009-06-15T11:33:00.000-07:00

Johnnene and Gail against a wonderful cottonwood tree alongside the River Thames in London, Ontario.

Daisy May, left, and Bobbins, right helped to make my stay with Johnnene Maddison and Dave in London, Ontario, a very pleasant and comfortable 'home from home'.

A decorative house in the town of Stratford, (Ontario) which has several theatres, a statue of Shakespsear and a River Avon.

Jackie and Eleanor on the pebble shore of Lake Erie. 60 miles across to the other shore!

An 'assemblage' on the shore.

A ground hog 'mom' enjoying the sun in the unniversity. Her three babies sometimes joined her for a run around on the grass.

A few examples of the resolved textile pieces as a result of the 'Assemblage' workshop from Susan, Johnnene, Gail, Maggie, Kathy, Leanne, Jackie, Betty and Ruth Ann. There were many other exciting pieces, too numerous to add here that used different methods of attachment to create assembled textiles, combining old and new materials, some dipped in a dye bath of potassium permanganate solution to help to unify the different parts.

Rael, a bursary student from the University Textiles Course, arranges her work for the evaluation session.

Students attending the Embroiderers' Guild Summer School in the 'Assemblage' class in one of the spacious workshop rooms in Western Ontario University. The 19 students gather to discuss their work at the last session of the workshop. Do any of you have any other photos?

'Assemblage' workshop, Colorado

2009-06-01T17:04:00.000-07:00

A concentrating time in the 'dry' studio; Rain in centre.

Paper collage, coloured with potassium permanganate and discharged with lemon juic e by Cynde. A fragment of paper lace in the centre.

Terri's colourful painted design idea relating to her stitched paper lace pieces.

Fabulous meals were prepared by Rain and Gary to replace the calories we lost in all the energetic creative work in the studios. I never got to take a photo of full plates!!!

Colorado Class

2009-05-31T17:32:00.000-07:00

A happy bunch of students and tutor at Rain Klepper's wonderful studios in Paonia, Colorado.
Top from left: Cynde, Sian, Terri and Georgia: seated in front, Rain (left) and Cathy.

Courses by Bobby Britnell - highly recommended

2009-05-18T12:10:00.000-07:00

'Tread Softly'

2009-05-16T07:43:00.000-07:00

Close-up detail below.

It's been a busy time for deadlines to produce my own work. I've just sent off 'Tread Softly' as a possible entry to the Pfaff Art Embroidery competition. [I was one of the finalists last year with a large piece using a surface of broken egg shells called 'Break an Egg to Save a Sailor' - see blog entry two years ago.]

The theme of this competition is 'Landscape, Let's Travel'. My piece is made of small fragments of personal photos and fabrics, stitched together to form a pathway, strewn with daisies. Water-soluble machine stitched 'feet', lightly walk over the path. The words 'tread softly' form the lacy stitching on the feet.

This quote from W B Yeats from his poem 'He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven' seem to echo my thoughts; "I have spread my dreams under your feet. Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."

'Humming the Air'

2009-05-16T07:23:00.000-07:00

A recently completed textile 'Humming the Air' will be included in the 62Group exhibition 'Bending the Line' to celebrate the bicentenary of the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson, at the Hub, Sleaford, Lincolnshire, 11th July to 6th September 2009. The photograph is not a good one I'm afraid as it was done in a rush before I had to pack it up to catch the carrier office before it closed! Last minute again! I hope you can see it well enough to make out that it is constructed from multiple layers of tracing paper shapes, previously machine stitched to make lots of perforations. The lines of the holes spell out the letters of its title. Threads were then threaded through some of the holes to string them all together. The idea is to make the words appear as if they are falling out of the wall panel, which has photocopies of pages from Tennyson's poems.

For those who might be interested in the meaning of this piece I need to explain the term 'ekphrasis'; this is a term from Greek rhetoric that originally meant the intense description of a thing, conjured so vividly in words as to appear before the mind's eye. Andrew Motion uses the phrase 'humming the air' to describe how poets should use this to make words appear to lift off the page when writing poetry.

Mini Textiles

2009-03-20T00:32:00.000-07:00

My entry into the IX Triennale Internationale des mini-textiles, whose theme was "With or Without Water" has been accepted. It will be shown at the Musees d'Angers, Angers, France from 26th June to 15th November. Weekend in the Loire Valley anyone?

Sara - for you.

2009-03-17T01:25:00.000-07:00

Sara has just sent me some lovely textured surfaces made from grout and plaster - see her blog http://www.englishroseinkuwait.blogspot.com/. I've taken one image of the plaster on scrunched tissue through different 'image effects' in PaintShopPro. The results could be used as 2D texture as well as provide you with shapes for the 'shape study'. You could also take a small section and work from that. Ideas for everyone else working on the texture stage in Module 1 of the Diploma. Have fun.

Creative Dialogues at Taunton

2009-01-15T01:11:00.000-08:00

'Creative Dialogues' at the Brewhouse, Taunton, Somerset, is a touring exhibition by members of the PSG until March 7th 2009. Each exhibitor shows work by themselves and of a chosen collaborator. The new work produced by both partners is as a result of this creative dialogue. A one day workshop is offered in February by Sian Martin and Jenny Blackburn, who, in collaboration with each other, will offer creative ways in which artists can work together to inspire each other. Please contact me if you're interested in booking a place on this workshop. Pieces by Rose Campbell and her collaborator, Moira Dickinson. Chris Berry on the far wall. Tricia Hubbard, a past student of mine in both City and Guilds and degree courses over the years, reads the catalogue. She is a well established artist, making textiles from her own special method of colouring and laminating tissue paper.

Three large panels by Kay Greenlees make a powerful statement on the wall opposite the Phillips Gallery entrance.

The Brewhouse Theatre and Art gallery offers two areas for exhibitions: the long walls within the cafe/bar area and also the Phillips gallery, a wonderful white space with high walls, leading off the cafe/bar area. The Creative Dialogues exhibition was hung in both areas. The photo above shows visitors starting to arrive for the Opening on January 10th.

The long wall opposite the cafe/bar shows many of the framed textile pieces. Left shows work by James Hunting and above by Mary Sleigh and Jan Evans.

The long wall of the cafe/bar area shows (from the right) work by Jane Lemon, Ruth Issett and Jan Evans and her collaborators.
Ros Chilcott's three hangings based on her experience of working with a theatre group in her home village in the middle of Dartmoor. Linda Tudor's magnificent 'bowl' form sits on a plinth to the right, alongside a sculptural piece in iron by her collaborator.
Jenny Bullen's work in blue and Amanda Clayton's in ecru hang from the ceiling and make full use of the vast gallery area.
We clambered up enormous ladders to suspend items from the ceil to hang in the centre of the gallery. Tim worked from the top to attach the invisible thread from the ceiling structure and I went half way up to attach the textiles. Jenny Blackburn's large triple hanging lies on the heated floor to flatten out after packing before hanging. Jenny collaborated with Janet Stoyal, a past student, using pieces of her heat treated metal within the hanging. Visitors investigate my exhibits 'To Warm the Cockles of my Heart' and 'The Cockle Gatherer' a painting by my mother Iris Martin. A 'cloud' of suspended shibori shapes 'Shelter Collection' based on shells, hang from the ceiling in front of the wall pieces.
I am persuaded to say a few words to open the exhibition and to say thank you to everyone involved in the hard work of unpacking and setting it all up.

Distant Stitch Summer School 2009

2008-10-06T00:11:00.000-07:00

DISTANT STITCH SUMMER SCHOOL 2009

The dates for next year's Summer School are 5th to 8th July, starting with dinner after the Textile Open Day at Urchfont Manor. Our celebrity guest tutor this year will be Janet Edmonds and the theme will be Three Dimensional Design. You can see some of her work below and via this link -

http://www.embroiderersguild.com/workshops/tutors/janetedmonds/

All Distant Stitch students are eligible to book a place. Mandy Dixon at Urchfont will start to take your booking from 1st November 2008.

mandydixon@wiltshire.gov.uk or phone 01380 840495.

Dresses of Glass

2008-12-10T00:12:00.000-08:00

Glass Artist - Diana Dias-Leao

'The Danger of the Image' exhibition runs until the Spring at Broadfield House Museum, Kingswinford near Dudley. Look up website at www.glassmuseum.org.uk

Tribute to Julia Caprara at Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show

2008-11-25T00:17:00.000-08:00

Photographs taken by Stephanie Mawdsley

Remembering you

2008-11-09T08:37:00.000-08:00

A message from Andrew Salmon, director of the Knitting and Stitching Shows -

"Julia Caprara died on the 24th October. She was a great friend, a consummate artist and teacher, as well as a massive inspiration for so many of us.

Alex Caprara has kindly given his permission for us to stage a retrospective to mark Julia’s contribution but we do not intend to mount that exhibition until 2010 in order to do full justice to her work. Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn have kindly agreed to curate this exhibition.

However, back in 2001 and inspired by the terrorist attacks in New York, Julia created a special piece for The Knitting and Stitching Show which comprised a ball of barbed wire – the idea being that visitors to our events could add their stitched thoughts as a gesture to the victims and their families.

Julia’s only regret about the piece at the time was that the barbed wire was fresh, bright and new. She wanted that ageing patina she associated with World War I sites!

Well, we have found that ball of barbed wire and, over the years, it has acquired that very patina that we know Julia would have loved.

We intend to place the ball in the entrance to Hall M at The Knitting and Stitching Show and, if you will be visiting and knew Julia, (or knew of her through her books, her art or teaching), we would love you to stitch or write a message for her and attach it as you come in. She loved colour – so please don’t be timid."

Below is my contribution, made up of embroidered fabric poppies stitched onto a length of ribbon - a friendship ribbon - to hang from that ball of barbed wire. I stitched it today after going to the War Memorial ceremony on our village green.

Look out for it if you're going to the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show and take a photo for me please.

2008-10-27T12:18:00.000-07:00

'Common Threads' 2008,a selected exhibition by the Midlands Textile Forum, opens in Leicester on November 17th until December 4th.

Selectors, Sian Martin and Michael Brennan-Wood will also be exhibiting.

Textiles by Susan Strachan Johnson

2008-10-09T08:49:00.000-07:00

I thought you might like to take a look at two spectacular textile pieces created by Susan Strachan Johnson, a current Diploma student with Distant Stitch. Susan has had a piece selected for “Twenty Artists Stitch for Peace” a show at the ACA Gallery in Toronto recently. 'Forest Floor' by Susan Strachan Johnson. This textile piece includes non-textile pieces such as a torn wedding invitation, a beer cap, the wire from a champagne cork and a jacket button ["quite a wedding" quote Susan].

'Riverbed' by Susan Strachan Johnson. This textile piece is made from re-cycled samples with hand and machine stitching and uses non-textile items such as a pop can tab, a plastic bag and some plastic net. 26” x 25” framed.

Heraclitus, the ancient Greek philosopher, said “you cannot step into the same river twice.” Canada’s freshwaters are our most precious natural resource, and here present an allegory for the peaceful passage of time. While there is still much work to do to clean up our rivers, there is also hope. Our lakes and rivers are getting cleaner: not only do previous “acid” lakes now support fish and plant life, but the water is clearing. Now we can see our way to clearing up the detritus on the riverbed as well. In this quilt, the sun glints on an eddy of clean-looking river water, through which we see all kinds of evidence of neglect.

A Journey Through Portugal

2008-09-04T08:28:00.000-07:00

My long, continuous sketchbook records my journey from Cannington to Lisbon to Porto using papers acquired during the trip. Tickets, boarding passes, camomile tea bags, paper napkins and the sick bag from the aeroplane were all useful materials to combine to make my pages with a limited kit of needle and thread, water soluble pencils, a pencil and a black pen. I venture from home to Bristol airport via a carpark in a mushroom farm and then on to Lisbon.

A train journey through the dismal suburbs of Lisbon, past Benfica football ground.

An oasis in Sintra, pure silk.

Wrought iron balconies, stone urns, hanging fushias.

Hydrangea, wiseria, sugar packets.

Decorative tiles in summer palaces in leafy, hilly Sintra.

Following the river through old towns: picked eucalypus leaves.

The hills that bordered the river Douro are covered with stripes of vines that produce a lovely port wine that enabled the journey to continue at home!