End of year break

I don't expect to be posting again until January, so here is a little something,  Mini Molly that I made for my dolls house.

©Christine LintonMini Molly in her sewing room

Back to Chooky

"Don't be late home" ©Christine Linton

Gathering spinifex for basket weaving

Having used up all my native grasses from the workshop, I went for a walk along by the river where I had seen lots of spinifex growing.  A small amount from a few different plants gave me plenty to work with, and I coiled a wider basket using green crochet cotton to stitch the spinifex.  The smell in my bedroom from the spinifex (which is where I was working with it) was really strong and very pleasant.  You can see that some of the spinifex has started to seed and I left those pieces in for the interest.  (look close to the bottom of the picture on the inside of the basket where there are lighter shades)

Fresh spinifex coiled and stitched with green crochet cotton
 

©Christine Linton

More on basket weaving

I used up the last of my spinifex to make a flat base or coaster, which I was rather pleased with.  Now I have to go out and find some more grasses.

Ipiri weaving using native grasses and raffia, flat

©Christine Linton

This is a detail which shows the construction quite well.

Detail of the above.  Notice the centre where I wove evenly across to make the centre stable - learnt at the workshop last weekend.

©Christine Linton

Having run out of grass, I thought of an article I had been reading about indigenous people using the fishing nets left floating uselessly, off Arnhem Land, by using the nets in place of the grass in the coiling, (this is called ghost net weaving) and I pulled out my bag of mesh nets (from bags of oranges and onions) which are very plasticky for the most part but still a usable found item.  I used them in the coiled basket below, the orange-reddish for the actual coil with red raffia for the stitching and a black one for the top coiled row, still with red raffia for the stitching.  It is rather slippery to work with and I was back to being a beginner again but will do some more of this.

Ipiri woven basket using plastic mesh bags

©Christine Linton

Now feeling adventurous enough to consider some freeform weaving (can't stay following someone else's instructions for very long) I found these websites -
http://ncbasketmakers.com/2013/high-odd.pdf
and
http://gallery.baag.com.au/?p=1576
and
http://fairegarden.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/how-to-make-iris-weavers-for-basketmaking/
with the last using iris leaves which are dried out and ready to be pulled from the plant anyway.  Wow, you really can use anything.

Indigenous Basket Weaving

This weekend I participated with lots of others in a terrific workshop at Port Adelaide, Ipiri Weaving, in which we learnt basket weaving, the coil method, using native grasses such as spinifex, and raffia, and using beads made from native seeds and nuts as decorations.  Three Anangu women from the APY Lands shared their knowledge with us, through Better World Arts.  While I was there, I looked into the Better World Arts shop next door, and bought a great little book called "Art, History, Place", a good primer for people like me who are woefully ignorant about the indigenous art in their own country.  I have put a couple of links in this paragraph for those who want to find out a bit more who I am talking about.

©Christine Linton
The basket I made at the workshop (beware the blue dye - my hands still bear traces!)  Inside are some painted gumnut beads, and some quondong seeds made into beads.  The seeds on the border are Ininti seeds which is a native tree that grows in the Western Desert of Central Australia, which is part of the APY Lands.

The basket I made at home - notice the improvement once I knew what I was doing!  

©Christine Linton

I noticed when making the second basket at home that the bunch of native grass is drying out and more likely to crack but still overall fine to use.  I vaguely remember from school putting long strands of some basketmaking fibre (willow?  too long ago) into water to soften and I can always try that if it gets too dry before I have used it all up.

Making beads

I've been making beads for embellishment of a book I am making.  The colour palette is black and white with a touch of silver glitter, so for the beads I used white crochet cotton, black crochet cotton, and some silver-edged organza ribbon and silver thread.  To make the beads, I wound the crochet cotton round and round a PVA-brushed straw keeping the thread close together, until it was long enough - each one a different length.  I added more PVA glue over the top to hold it in place - being clear this was no problem.  With the ribbon ones, I wound small pieces of the ribbon around and wound the silver thread over the top; again finish with more PVA.  I find three or four beads will fit on each straw comfortably, and then I slip the straw over the top of a wooden skewer stuck into a sponge.  These can sit until the beads are dry.  Usually they slip off the straw but if they don't you can just cut the straw.  This is a technique I learnt at Marden Senior College in Cert 3 Visual Arts (Textiles), with Suzanne Gummow.

Hand-made beads 

©Christine Linton

Weaving with mesh bags

I have been saving up my mesh (orange and onion) bags.  These are often very plasticky but sometimes more flexible.  Either way I wanted to use them and as they have holes in  I naturally tried weaving into them.  I found this very difficult - manageable, but the effect wasn't worth the awkwardness.  Uninteresting.  (They could be fastened to a frame to make it easier).  So I turned the idea around and thought, what if I tried to weave with the bags instead?  So I ripped them into strips of varying widths - they rip neatly along a straight line so next time I will try rough cutting to get a ragged edge.  Then I used a piece of tapestry canvas from the Op Shop to weave these strips into.  One strip at a time looked very sparse - even though I was leaving it loose on top - so I doubled up the strips which gave it a much fuller look.  The overall look was quite ragged looking which I liked very much.  It is a bit hard to see in the photo because the mesh of the bags is thin.  But I like the visual texture (the actual feel is a bit yukky because it is a plasticky type of bag) and worth keeping in mind for some of the 3D stuff I want to start working on.

Weaving with mesh bags, on tapestry canvas

©Christine Linton

While I was thinking about experimental weaving I did some "searches" and found this wonderful piece but with no name:  click here.
Also some other contemporary experimental weaving:  click here.
Once you start searching, there's plenty around, such as Megan Walsh-Cheek, who recently had a terrific exhibition of her weaving up at Hahndorf.

Dare to Differ

The Dare to Differ contemporary art quilt show begins tonight, at Marion's Gallery M.  It's open till 20th October so if you can hop down there and see many interesting quilts, mine amongst them.  My quilt is about the Strands of Life, each one being different; some we like more than others, some are comfortable and some are scratchy.  They all crowd in together and make up our whole life.  Here is a detail to intrigue you.  I have used all recycled items, because we have to take in life what we have, and work with it.  You will see the wrappers from embroidery cottons, bread tags (beads and straight), cords made from all manner of materials.

©Christine Linton

Detail of my "Strands" quilt

3D with bread tags

I have been playing with the last of my bread tag beads, and made this DNA double helix - simplified of course from the real thing.  I used some wires to thread the bread tag beads, and dug it into a sponge before twisting the two strands - not exactly as the diagram I found on the internet, partly because I couldn't make it go that way, and anyway this is art not science.  I used kebab sticks for support, and added bits of curly copper wire and broken jewelry, a piece of plastic peg - DNA can get contaminated.  An enjoyable experiment.  I have put on the video I took to try and show the effect.  Whether it works or not on the blog I will see.  It makes my eyes go a bit funny if I look at it for too long.

Bread Tag DNA 

©Christine Linton

detail showing bits of copper wire curled, bits of broken jewelry, piece of plastic peg 

©Christine Linton

Embroidered brooches

I have been trying out some motifs and brooches, using various sheer fabrics, beads, and embroidery.  This little hat started out as a piece of beading on several layers of fine and sheer fabrics, which I manipulated into a little bunch with beads, then held the outsides down with french knots.  After I had frayed out the edges carefully, I realised it looked like a hat!

©Christine Linton

My hat brooch

Weaving and woven vessels exhibition - wow!

This week I went to an exhibition by Megan Walsh-Cheek, who has been working on some wonderful experimental weaving.  Unfortunately most of my photos didn't come out well, but Megan has kindly given me permission to show her work here, and one of my favourites did photograph well:

weaving from Megan Walsh-Cheek

What I liked so much was not just the variety of materials she used, such as fabric and lace strips, as well as yarns and threads, plus sticks of various kinds, but also the fact that she wove around the shape of the sticks, so that when a stick curved, so did the weaving.  She also made some fantastic vessels which can be seen on her etsy shop, see below.

The exhibition has now finished, but you can see the exhibits on her etsy shop here, it is lovely to look at them again.

Hand embroidery artist Tom Lundberg

I have been looking at the work of Tom Lundberg, in a book called Hand Stitch Perspectives, and on his website.  I like how he does so much work in small scale, but very densely stitched.  Fascinating to look at close up.

Victoria and Albert Museum

Anyone for a browse of beauty?  Go to the website of the V and A.

Hand embroidery threads

I'm back to hand embroidery again, and just discovered this web page in which there is a link, down the left hand side, look under "Resources" and you will see DMC Colour Chart listed, where you can access the full colour range of DMC threads, in glorious colour.  8 pages of them.  It also has stitch instructions - I had been looking up Vandyke Stitch, which was referred to in Jan Messent's book "Celtic, Viking and Anglo-Saxon Embroidery" - a wonderful lavish book with textiles you feast on with your eyes.

I have been working on an embroidered panel "Cootamundra Wattle" for the Port Community Art Centre SALA exhibition, at the Black Diamond Gallery in Port Adelaide, starting 24th August - can't show here until after the exhibition, and that is a contemporary, freeform type of embroidery.  Impressionistic.  I haven't done anything else like that by hand and really enjoyed the freedom - though machine-embroidered plenty of freeform - my hand embroidery previously has always been traditional like this:

Fletcher the 2nd 

Back to bread tags

I've been doing some experimenting for a book cover, with Puff Paint.  One of the things I tried out doesn't look anything like a book cover surface, but definitely reminds me of a birds nest.  It is on a base of cotton fabric, then I put on some thread waste - glued with PVA.  Next I added dobs of Puff Paint, in yellow and blue.  Bread tags, most flat but some already made into bead shapes, were added where the puff paint was, so it would puff around them when heatgunned.  A sprinkle of silver and blue embossing powder topped it off.  When the paint was dry, I heat gunned it to curl the flat bread tags.  Well, mostly the flat ones wouldn't curl because the paint held them in place - but the fibres in the thread waste started to smoke!  I quickly stopped because I didn't want a fire and made a mental note not to heat gun fibres like this.  It is actually too thick for a book cover but the texture does remind me of a birds nest.

Bread tag nest 

©Christine Linton

Flowers into art quilts

Just discovered this beautiful website http://wildflowereurope.org/ which any flower lover will enjoy - there are various themes, countries, locations and so on.  I found out about this in BBC Wildlife magazine, which has such an interesting website, full of information on all kinds of wildlife - highly recommended (by me).

Dare to Differ Art Quilts

Yippee!  My entry has been accepted in the Dare to Differ Exhibition in September.  I have long admired the entries in this exhibition, which has run every year since 2011, and feel honoured to have been accepted. The idea is to make the quilt something different, hence the title, and for some pix of some previous shows, look here.  This exhibition is run by the SA Quilters Guild.  The exhibition opens on 24th September 2013 and runs till 21st October, at Gallery M, in Marion, South Australia.

Beaded Paisley

I have been working on a new interpretation of one of my paisleys.  Working on lilac satin, I used knotted thread which I couched for the outlines.  I tried to double-knot, that is, tie one knot on top of the other to make a larger knot, along the thread but could not always tee-up the knots so some are only singles.  This thread is a full 6-strand DMC embroidery cotton thread in pink.  I couched with a darkish mauve, single strand.  Then I infilled the centre with a variety of sequins to give a good pattern effect.  I echoed one of the sequins by adding five of the same to another area, then a leader sequin at the beginning of the outline at the top.

Beaded Paisley with couched outline 

©Christine Linton

While I was looking online for some like-minded paisley fans, I found this page, which is quite a different style to mine above, but lovely and interesting in its own right.

Phoenix Rising

I have just updated my website with a new wall hanging called Phoenix Rising; it is encaustic wax on silk, with hand embroidery and feathers.  You can find it here.  It is a celebration of rising above adversity, of regeneration, of starting anew.

Phoenix Rising - head detail 

©Christine Linton

Two-eyed needle - more experiments

I started thinking what else I could do with a a two-eyed needle, so I started to use a Twisted Chain Stitch on canvas, using two complementary colours - purple and yellow.  After stitching a very boring straight line downwards, I went back up it making loops with the threads, securing after each pair of loops so that they wouldn't unravel.  As I reached the top, I realised this reminded me of the effect of the Cootamundra Wattle blooms, which are the tiniest little spherical stamens; together a tree in bloom looks like a curtain of golden yellow threads.  The leaves are a blueish-green, with tiny leaflets radiating in lines of pairs from the stem.

Cootamundra Wattle tree - sadly this beautiful specimen has been cut down

©Christine Linton

The blooms of a Cootamundra Wattle

©Christine Linton

I have previously embroidered one:

Embroidered Cootamundra Wattle bloom (turkey stitch/Giordes knot) and leaflets (detached chains) with stem stitch for the actual stems.

©Christine Linton

This is the two-needle experiment that has given me the idea of a different way to embroider this, my favourite tree.

To find out more about this lovely tree, try this page.

Two-eyed needles - yes they have a use.

A fellow textiler sent me the following link about double-eye needles, which you may like to investigate.
http://store.dknits.com/pd-double-eye-needle.cfm

I have tried mine using two different yarns, a thick or novelty yarn along with a thinner tapestry wool; my result was not obviously two yarns, only on the bottom row could you tell and then the next row down that would be covered up.  However the overall result was quite nice, a variegated seascape was in my mind, and I used a piece of rug canvas from the Op Shop.

Seascape using two yarns at a time in a two-eyed needle

©Christine Linton

Hand embroidery - couching

After I couldn't find a picture of a two-eyed needle like my last post showed, I started to think - could I get good use from it with couching?  I found this page and could imagine using two threads - one thick and one thin in the two-eyed needle ...... I'm about to start and will post the result here soon.  I thought I would use this tree bark couching sample I made as inspiration.

Tree bark texture with hand couching yarns and threads

©Christine Linton

What is this?

I couldn't resist buying this needle with two eyes at the local op shop for 50 cents - but what it is for I don't know.  Does anyone out there know?  It's flat where the eyes are and round in between, about 2 - 3 inches long.  It has tiny points at each end but is not sharp and otherwise two wide and flat to go through normal woven fabric.  Tapestry possibly - but why two eyes?  It looks quite old as it is a bit bent and discoloured.

What is this two-eyed needle used for? 

©Christine Linton

Chooky Family Photo

©Christine Linton

A quote

©Christine Linton

Volunteering

I have recently been helping a Helping Hand group with making memory albums, and I made a banner for the Launch of the finished albums, using hand quilting and machine applique.

©Christine Linton

The banner for the group

The way life hangs on!

For several years now, I have been walking up to my local shopping centre which is on a major road.  On the corner, there is a narrow strip of old gravel next to the bank, and a self-seeded native violet has been growing there for all this time and probably years longer.  It has never grown any bigger, and every summer looks like it will be its last - it dries up in the summer heatwaves (days on end all summer of 35 degrees C) as it never gets any water except what rain can get past the small overhanging eave of the bank.  Last year a vigorous weed looked set to thrust it aside, but that has not thrived after all (see it in the background) and the violet is back stronger than ever, with all the rain we've had lately.  What fortitude!

©Christine Linton

©Christine Linton

Paisley scarf with fringe

Working on my paisley designs, I refined one down to one for block printing.  I had carved one in the largest size, then found that as I went smaller, I had to slightly change the design because it became progressively harder to carve detail as I went smaller.  So the three that I ended up with, I was happy with, and printed a silk scarf in three different colours, blue, emerald, violet.  I also blended them at the end as emerald/blue and violet/blue for a few printings.  Then I wanted something equally delicate as fringing, so I used up all my silk embroidery floss in blues, greens and purples.  I'm very happy with it, the colours are my comfort zone and I really enjoyed the printing, the designs came out so well.

©Christine Linton

Gathering Reds - a new bag

 Last week I made a new handbag.  I have been looking for a new one for ages, but they were always just a bit wrong - either the handle wasn't long enough to put over satchel-style, or the design outside was not attractive, or the pockets inside weren't numerous enough - and I had decided I wanted a fabric bag instead of leather, and the insides of bags are always black or at least very dark, so I can't see what I'm looking for ......... so yes, I finally made one, based on measurements of my nearest-to-favourite bag.  I decided to have a feature on the front, which is gathering; I made an adjustable long strap; I made the lining from white homespun so I can see the contents; I made enough pockets to suit me, inside and one on the back; and I tried something I've never tried before - inserting a concealed-edge zip at the top, which is not actually concealed but sits inside a wide zip placket, for stylish but easy opening; and I made a flat bottom.  The actual bag fabric is a piece I bought from a meeting of Fibre Artists Network, where I had made myself go outside my comfort zone and buy RED.  I'm normally a blue/purple/green/yellow person.  The result - I love it!

©Christine Linton

The beaded embellishment I added to the strap  afterwards

©Christine Linton

Before adding the beaded embellishment

©Christine Linton  

The inside

The techniques I learnt for bag-making come partly from my own experience but largely in recent times from a book called The Bag Making Bible, by Lisa Lam - enjoy her blog here.

I have just added a photo to my Bird Diary blog - thank you to all who followed the link last time.

Bird Diary

After four years, I have restarted my other blog - Bird Diary, which is self-explanatory.  Thought I'd post that info here for anyone who is interested in our beautiful flying friends.

©Christine Linton

Paisleys on postcards

Since looking at the Index Card a Day site, I have been drawing on postcards, though not every day - then when I do, I make two or three.  I find the size is ideal for a manageable size, I don't feel I have to fill up a large space.  This one is from this morning:

 Crayon Paisley ©Christine Linton

I was trying out some paisleys with flowers peeping out from behind, and I have decided I like them best with a curly tail.  The crayon is only roughly applied, as it is just an idea that I am working up, but I rather liked the flowers peeking over the top.  I coloured them all red then added different colours to get different purple results.

Pics of Creative Fusion

I have just updated my website with images of my entries into the "Creative Fusion" Exhibition, which was held at the Pepper Street Gallery recently, with close ups of the scroll on the Book Arts Page. 

Chook Tales, my book made from recycled brown paper bags featuring Chookys

©Christine Linton

Crocus in a twirl

Couldn't resist sharing this photo, which I opened in Irfanview and formatted as a twirl.  It is a crocus growing in my garden.  Irfanview is a terrific free program, easily downloaded and so useful for working with images.

©Christine Linton

New challenge

One of the blogs I enjoy is http://aloquin.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/icad-starts-tomorrow.html and if you take a look you will find Aloquin talking about using an index card a day to make some art, in any medium, but using the card.  It sounds fun, without taking a lot of time or planning.  I'm going to have a go and be entirely spontaneous, not deciding ahead of time what I will do.  If any of them please me enough, I will post them on here.  The actual website the challenge comes from is:

http://daisyyellowart.com/icad/icad-faq.html

Paisley printing

I carved one of my paisley designs onto Ezy-Carve printing block.  It was harder than I expected to get fine detail but then I haven't practiced on this for ages.  I did print it and was reasonably pleased for a first attempt.  I put in the texture lines for, well, texture.  As you can see from the shape, I didn't have a whole piece of block.

©Christine Linton

Triple paisleys

blue paisley

purple paisley

Stitching on plastics

I've been experimenting with some old samples from last year.  These are plastics that I decided not to do anything further with.  I wanted something to stitch a double helix onto, as a sample for something else I'm working on, and pulled out a sheet of two colours of gift wrap cellophane, fused together with some clear plastic.  I didn't like working with fusing plastic, the fumes even with a respirator on myself are still in the air polluting it; but I kept the samples I made and the colours attracted me for this.  I used several different colour threads including metallics, to clearly define a double helix.  Not the centre part, just the outlines.

©Christine Linton

Some other machine leaves

Here are a few more of the close ups of the machine embroidered leaves.

printed organza leaves, double layers, free machining over beading wire to twist into shape 

©Christine Linton

heavy machine embroidery on thick upholstery fabric, so it can be twisted into shape easily 

©Christine Linton

the back of the above leaf - in some ways even more interesting 

©Christine Linton

Machine embroidery Leaves

I've had a request to see close-ups of my Leaves - so first the basket, which is how I originally displayed them.

©Christine Linton

Machine embroidered leaves

 Then some of the openwork Leaves.

©Christine Linton

Machine embroidered leaves

To make these, I zigzagged over copper wire for thick pieces, and over beading wire for thin lines.  Broke a few needles if I went too fast, or the wire bent back towards the needle - slow is best for this technique.  I used different colour threads for variety.

More next time.