This morning I ‘finished off’ this second group of sculpted fabric forms I’ve made in this second week of the Clarissa Callesen workshop. You can keep going until eternity with all this – its very calming and soothing to make unit after unit, and though my composition might actually do with a few more bits, I think I felt I’d reached the point where I had to stop some time. Then I embellished a number some of them with stitch, using french knots, stemmed french knots, running stitch, simple chain stitch and a simple irregular couching. Wandering with a needle is just how I normally stitch whatever I’m doing.
The daily Q&A sessions have been compiled into a video you can replay – which is like another instruction tutorial, so definitely enriching. This morning Clarissa answered a question from a student on what sort of notebooks and workbooks she keeps. This blog being essentially my own artist’s diary or workbook, I was really interested to hear her approach – ie she almost apologetically outlined how she doesn’t keep the classical artist’s notebook (which many artists and aspiring artists have come to believe as being almost as essential as doing the work itself) In her own words she isn’t a particularly good drawer, and rather than draw or sketch, she takes photos of things she likes. She prints photos or parts of them off, and places them around her studio. She has no particular way to organise samples she makes. This has a lot in common with my own system, and was quite interesting to hear.
Another part of the discussion was of armatures, structural supports for creations that are not flat, ranging from low relief up to completely 3D, or in the round as a few students have been doing. Down the years, virtually all my art has been 2D, with a few exceptions such as these works dating back many years:
It’s amazing, isn’t it, how you come across long forgotten things when you’re looking for something else. Today I was looking for a magazine article I wrote back in 2004 about improvisational piecing and irregular shaped outer edges. I found it, but in that search I came across this gem, dated 2008, but it feels earlier, so perhaps it was updated then. Note to self – perhaps I should put the date into the text of everything! Funnily enough, though, it’s the essence of a submission to present that I recently made to the organisers of next year’s SAQA conference in NZ. Fingers X – clearly I’ve been thinking about this longer than I thought.
“Article – how my work has been influenced by the life I have led – the history and geography of a quiltmakers background! I have spent most of each of the last few years in Uruguay, where my husband’s mineral exploration activity is concentrated in the company he and another Australian founded to search for gold. This means of course that my career as a trailing spouse continues in another place where it is not possible to buy the fabrics which for so long I’ve been used to accessing easily and instantly. But this is not the hardship posting it might sound. 20+ years of Outback living around Australia have taught me to plan ahead, adapt or improvise, and to be patient if I have to order something up from the nearest capital city. Lately, (2008) it has given me the time and mental space to consider all that I have done in quiltmaking; and one thing I have realised is that much of my work can be read as modern or contemporary scrap quilts.
During a particularly cash strapped period, and feeling a little mortified at how my fabrics and scraps had accumulated, I determined not to buy any new fabric for a while; which is not too dificult to stick to if there’s none around. Experience in Australian Outback living for many years made it easy for me to plan ahead and then be comfortable using what I’d brought across from Australia or down from USA (where the offsprings live). Certainly at first, fabrics were very carefully chosen for enough pre-planned projects to keep me going for as long as I planned to be here, and over this time bags of my scraps gradually relocated here. Every time I return to Australia or come back through the USA I bring a quantity of batting along with plenty of calico and plains to act as fillers, blending fabrics and backings.”
At the time of writing I was working mostly in quilters’ and other 100% cotton fabrics including lovely batiks and designer ranges on the American market, and really I still do, as they suit the way I love to cut and piece. Today, however, I also use a wider array of materials and techniques to make what are still layered ‘quilt’ constructions, ie art quilts, and by early 2005 I had started experimenting with appliqued leather in the surface design on the cotton fabric. Here’s one of my favourites from that time:
At the end of the first week of Clarissa Callesen’s workshop I finished off this first form. It’s changed it a bit from my first pinning in the previous post I added pouffs of fussy cut dotty sections some fabric in lovely Australian desert colours, tufts of a 2mm paper ribbon and french knots.
Stitched sculptural form ~15cm x 6cm
A couple of days ago I took up a crochet hook, and, thinking about couching, made samples to explore crocheting a few cords and ribbons for effect. Across the top is crocheted leather thonging. Below, at left is the paper ribbon, in the centre a fine thread that I have a whole cone of I bought yearas ago at a surface design conference but discovered at home it is impossible to sew with (it’s probably a weaving thread) At the right is a very shiny woven ribbon.
The second video for in depth enrichment, went live this morning, showing us several ways to add found objects (I love the idea of covering stones with antique textile or lace) and suggesting more of what I already discovered of the potential to use the sheer quality of fabric (panty hose !!!) with objects between the fibrefill and fabric – (see gold thread under the sheer in the previous post) You can tell that I’ve found this to be a very inspirational workshop 🙂
TextileArtist.org is producing a series of subscribers-only online workshops they call The Stitch Club, for stitchers and embroiderers, and as soon as they were announced, I signed up for what I term my ‘Pandemic Treat’, since we’re not able to travel to visit the kids and grandkids up in USA. It’s great value, costing about AU$40 or US$29 per month from my credit card, and that will last as long as I’m a member, or until such time as I decide I’ve had enough – which is not yet! The focus is on using what any stitcher might have around home, anyway, rather than needing to buy specialised supplies. Most teachers are also encouraging us to re-purpose fabrics from old clothes or household textiles. Being a practising mixed media/fibre artist, so far I haven’t had to buy anything apart from a roll of wire which really didn’t suit the purpose well, and I found another way to deal with holes in fabric… but that wire has already started to rust, so will be handy for this workshop where rusted fabric is suggested. I must find it in the garage …
I had no expectation of being especially interested in every single one – and indeed, I didn’t complete or even start a couple of projects, watching only the videos and reading the printed materials. There’s no test or grading on this, of course, but some people apparently felt a bit overwhelmed by three 1-week workshops with a 4th week in which to ‘catch up’, and worried they didn’t have enough time to complete every thing. Feedback to the organisers resulted in a change to two 2-week workshops per month, enabling more in-depth enrichment before changing teacher and topic. Questions are now answered daily instead of at the end of the week, either in writing or brief 1-3 minute videos. In two days’ time the second week will begin with a follow-up tutorial/lesson.
The current 2-week period is with American textile artist Clarissa Callesen. Her excellent introductory and demonstration video of the 3D forms she uses to create her art was very inspiring, first recapping the small 3D puffy forms I had occasionally used in my creative embroidery of the 70-80s. However, from what she went on to show us, I now know I barely scratched the surface then, and am freshly enthused.
Initially I thought I’d like to use some of the fine leather pieces I have gathered up and used in the past in wall quilts, but though it was relatively easy to do a running stitch around a shape and pull it together, actually sewing it shut was way too hard on my arthritic hands, even using a leather needle. Those thin pieces were thin, but not as thin and fine as the 6 frog skins once given me by a Uruguayan friend, Graciela Aznarez. I had no idea frogskin could even be tanned, and it’s beautiful. For several years I’ve periodically taken them out and run my hands and fingers over them, while never knowing what I could do with this amazing, generous gift. I’ll be studying them again this afternoon to see if they are thin enough to ‘do something’ with in this workshop – they’re a nice natural warm light brown sandy colour…. but I digress.
Back to my next point for this exercise: being an art quilt maker, I do have heaps of scraps of hand dyed and plain colours of fabric, so made a variety of stuffed shapes in earthy coloured cottons and pinned them together, shown here with some very fine grey ribbon and a couple of tassel thingies that I might add in for interest once the pieces are sewn together.
Next, I thought I’d try some sheer fabrics and the results are great. The silver form in the the middle, above, is a metallic semi-sheer party fabric, and is better shown in the next photo:
The silver fabric has very fine metallic threads going one way, and though smooth when I cut and began working with it, by the time I finished that process it had developed wavy stripes and the surface had become quite lumpy, making it look rather like a caterpillar or grub. Interesting.
Left – A round form of gold sheer fabric in progress, with filling in place, ready to pull together and sew shut. Right – you can now see the gold threads I put between the fabric and filling – an exciting result full of potential when working with sheer fabric.
Since back in the mid-70s, every few years I’ve enrolled myself in a 4-5 day or one week residential workshop or vacation school. A residential workshop’s a terrific way to recharge the batteries while learning new skills and techniques and enjoying interaction with fellow fibre art creatives. As both teacher and student, I’ve always found a one-day workshop frustratingly short, even though I go prepared and waste no time starting on the practical side of a class. I need at least one night to process ideas and info from the first day of a workshop to make more progress building on those experiences.
At least 10+ years ago, I’m sure, I bought a large piece of a cotton batik print in lovely earthy colours that might possibly be African, and could have been on sale at an art quilt conference, symposium or auction; but unusually for me, I really can’t remember where I got it! But anyway, I have have used some of it in my pieced designs from time to time, and still have about 1.5 m of it intact. Clearly I was inspired to use some of it in this quilt based on variations of a simple cross motif. Some blocks feature the fabric and others feature units cut from black leather. Now, a lot of work had already gone into this quilt before, and for a reason which I don’t remember, I folded it all up and put it in the cupboard, where it has lurked ever since. I was always aware it was there, but during that time I had never taken it out and looked at it, until last week.
That work included marking out a ~15cm square grid of 6 x 8 squares with machine stitching, so the grid is reasonably regular but ‘loose’. I had drawn outlines of all the varied shapes to be used, and those were hand cut from fabric or black leather. Once each block’s pieces were set in place they were individually machine appliqued, and when every block contained something, the whole quilt was layered and pinned together for hand quilting. I had already completed quilting several blocks before I folded it away; so clearly my original intent was to sew a highly textured pattern of french knots and stemmed french knots – two of my favourite stitches. For whatever the reason I abandoned it relatively late in the process, that was unusual for me.
Last week I came across it and took it out, thinking that if I need a large piece of my favourite wool batting while the pandemic is still on, I could unpick the quilting, salvage and re-use the batting and backing pieces, and simply fold up this stupid top and put it back in the cupboard.
Today, though, looking up at it on my wall, I have to say
I actually rather like it
have no reason why I shunned it
I have almost no recollection of making it, but
of course it is my work
I will not unpick anything
and one day I will resume the quilting and finish it.
