The new work, tentatively titled " Beachwork" is now hanging in place.
Although ‘Beachwork’ is now hanging in place (see previous post, below) this is a work that may always be considered unfinished, in that I could do more with the surface if I feel inspired to add to it sometime. that feels Ok with me, since the beach itself is ever changing with every cycle of tidal action. But for now, it just felt time to stop – to keep it all relatively simple, although heavens knows I have plenty more of the raw hide thonging, the other threads and the little circle-wheel thingies.
The next step in detail added was to free machine embroider these areas of stitch suggesting coarser sand or other small bits and pieces which become trapped in some places between the ridges of sand.
Detail of the hand made needlelace motifs from an antique lace collar.
The little round motifs I scattered onto the surface of this work are hand made units snipped apart from an old lace collar I found on a market stall. On some of them I have cut away part of the circular rim. I bought the collar last year as an interesting example of hand made lace – but it is ruefully stained in places and washing with stuff that normally removs stains didn’t… so as I am not a lace wearing person myself, I felt mentally free to cut some of these motifs off to use in this work. I had to think about it for a while (all of 10 minutes) and you may not agree with the decisision I made to cut part of this object away, perhaps you see this cutting into something old, and ‘precious’ as sacrilege? To me this is a recycling, and maybe I always saw it as a potentially useful supply of something to use in my work – perhaps that is why I was drawn to it’s pattern and texture on the stall there. Anyway, no turning back now! and the collar is still 3/4 intact … not that I’ll ever change my mind on this issue.
Rawhide thonging was either hand stitched , threaded beneath the couched thread, or through one of the circular motifs.
The whole work laid out flat on the grass, so that it can be seen in its entirety - not possible from where it hangs on the wall in its gently folded manner.
Tentatively the work is titled’ Beachwork’ but this could change sometime, too, and if so, I’ll come in and add to this post.
English
Really fascinating, particularly in light of your other work, Alison. Congrats on what looks to me like a breakthrough.
The way the mirror “extends” the piece makes me wonder about making the next piece in this series very long — will it be a series, or was it specific to this piece of fabric? Responding to the qualities of the fabric … such a good starting point!
I walk on the beach most mornings and your new work certainly looks and feels beachy to me. It’s beautiful.
Margaret – I do have more fabric, several metres of it, I bought the whole length the guy had – so yes, a long piece – do you mean ‘horizontal’? might be in the offing sometime, certainly. And I do plan to do more, there is such a lot of potential on my mind. I have a background of creative/interpretive embroidery, before I came to making quilted textiles, but that was literally decades ago, and it feels interesting to be revisiting some of that work – there’s a gallery of early pieces elsewhere on this website. I myself have never seen embroidery and quilting as separate – just different parts of the same field of needle-and-thread-art.
My first reaction to Beachwork was to smell the salt in the air – I love that the piece is so casual and that you did cut into the lace – everything the sea throws back to us is reshaped or changed in some way … I think you’ve captured the essence of the beach and early morning serenity … at least for me. Thank you again.