Coiling mesh bags

One of the coiling techniques I wanted to try was coiling mesh bags.  I had tried it once before but didn't really like it because the mesh, being plastic, was so slippery and unpleasant to work with.  So I used a mesh bag with a better feel (still plastic but not so slippery) stitching it with raffia.  I did alternate rows of totally covered bag and open stitching.

Coiling mesh bag stitched with raffia

©Christine Linton

detail of the bag 

©Christine Linton

The result was actually what I wanted - but still, the plastic feel was there, which puts me off continuing in this vein.

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

Paisley

I'm in the middle of making a book - needing a bit of time to let my head rest.  So I looked through some stuff I had been collecting for ages on Paisley.  I love this pattern, probably because it takes me back to when I was a teenager in the 1960's, and I have started to try out a few paisley designs of my own.  Just a bit of sketching.  You can see by the different background colours that this is a sketchbook I made from recycled paper.

©Christine Linton

Weaving a rock formation

I've become fascinated by some rock formations near home.  This is one of the photos I took -

and I decided to try some experimental weaving to interpret it in fibres/textile.  So I took a mesh bag that held oranges last week, and some wool I bought for 50 cents at the op shop, and some dyed string in small pieces from the dyeing I did last year  where I had to cut the string off the pole-wrap shibori because I couldn't undo the knots; also a bit of tapestry wool from a bag of them also from the op shop.  I love recycling and everything in this is - or in fact upcycled, made into something better instead of languishing in the back of a cupboard.  Here is the result -

Experimental weaving on mesh bag, 100% recycled stuff 

©Christine Linton

Originally I had it facing up the other way to better reflect the curves of the rock formation but when I dropped it and picked it up upside down, I immediately liked the effect better.  Never mind accuracy, it's effect I'm aiming for.

There are two blogs I follow that have inspired me to try weaving:

http://windthread.typepad.com/windthread/2013/02/maybe.html

http://avisualsensibility.com

both different approaches and both very individual, and both worth looking at.

Working with recycled threads

One of the things I want to focus on this year is using a lot more recycled stuff - threads, fabrics and other textiles, as well as recycling paper by dyeing and painting on stuff I already have.  Less wastage on my conscience.  I've been looking out at Op shops, charity shops and plain old second-hand shops, for threads in particular, as they don't seem so easy to come by.  I realise they lose strength in time and may be too breakable to use if really old, but some must be ok, I've had threads for years before using them myself and they've been ok.  For an exhibition piece I'm working on, I've used as much recycled textiles (and plastic bread tags) as possible and for the next part I intend to use almost entirely recycled threads and yarns as bought from op shops or given to me.  This is a pack I found at the local charity shop for $1.

The pleasures of plain sewing

I've been doing some plain sewing today, which is really a big change for me after so much experimenting the last few months.  It's been quite restful.  I have been asked to assist a group to make a textile book which I designed and made for dementia patients a few years ago.  I always meant to do more with it but after selling the original and donating the other one to the same Residential Care home, I went back to work full time and never did contact any other group about it.  So now my daughter was talking about it to someone in a care organisation, and they have asked me to assist a group to make their own.  So I have been cutting out calico and sewing it together, embellishing it - it will be different to the originals because I like to work with what I have as much as possible, rather than keep buying new stuff all the time.  There's so much wastage that I try to minimise my own.

The original book looked like this:

"Treasury of Experience" closed  

©Christine Linton

The idea is to stimulate and interest dementia patients with items they can relate to, especially stuff from their own lives such as their old jewelry, a mothers day card, feathers for touching, bells to listen to, and so on.  It is designed to be used with a carer to provoke memories and talk about what they see and feel.  I'm so pleased I've got time nowadays to participate in something like this.

Changing the appearance of a weaving sample

How to still sew in the middle of an Aussie heatweave - had to go out and buy a fan for my studio so that I could sew; the heat 45 Celsuis/110 Fahrenheit finally succeeded in draining my energy.  So today I've been able to set up sewing again and stitched this Experimental Weaving onto my Connotations cloth. First I gathered these strips stitching from side to side which helps them twist, then gathered them; then wove them together.

Connotations Experimental Weaving  with gathered fabric threads.

Then I slid the weaving onto a space on my Connotations.  I let the strips fall naturally in different ways as I slid the weaving piece on because then I had two different appearances and two photos to look at.  (Addicted to photographing my work in all stages.)  Once it  had fallen into its new alignment, which makes it look totally different, I used bright orange DMC cotton embroidery thread to stitch it in place, varying my stitch size for a naive look.  My colour scheme for Connotations is blues, greens and orange.  I love this because of the high contrast of the orange, yet using blues and greens for the fabrics and orange for the thread (mostly, not entirely) means I am keeping some consistency.   

Connotations Experimental Weaving after stitching onto cloth

On the left of the weaving you can see an area of threads.  These are from my "waste thread" bag which hangs under my sewing machine table; I stitched these on by hand which is new for me because usually I free-machine thread waste onto fabric.  I'm consciously working a lot more hand stitching nowadays.  I find it very relaxing, the effect is similar to when you are walking in a place of natural beauty.

The fabrics themselves are strips of  hand-dyed, or painted with fabric paint, or plain commercial fabric (that is the blueish maive one.  The colour is exactly in the middle of blue and purple, if you put it against one of those it looks like the other.)

More on Connotations

Worked on my 3rd piece for "Connotations".    This one I stitched a lot more, mainly running but a bit of chain stitch; also used dyed string couched on top.  This is strong I used when pole-wrapping shibori last year, which of course retained the dyes used so I couldn't chuck it.  So pleased to find a use for it.

I'm wondering if this piece has too little contrast - any ideas?

This is a detail - I actually like it better close up than from a distance, I just don't think it grabs any attention because the tonal values are all the same except for the string.  What can I do?

Connotations

I can’t bring myself to buy any more new fabrics while I have so much already.  My intention is to use up all my stash (4 big drawers full) and now I have a channel for it.

I have been fascinated with Jude Hill and Spirit Cloth lately; her blog has fired my imagination to start my recycle cloth.  My underlying concept is that every piece of cloth I use has a value to me – the significance of its background – why I bought it, the purpose, was it for experimental, for college, for a quilt  – where did I buy it  - charity shop, big fabric store on a day out  – did someone give it to me – is it a recycled piece from family – do I like it, what are my feelings surrounding it and its previous use – affection for it, association with circumstances.

All this leads to the name I have for it “Connotations”, the definition of this word is a meaning in addition to the primary meaning – in other words, for example, my daughter’s old blouse is highly textured fabric that delights me, and that also reminds me of her.

I have thrown out so many scraps of fabric over the years, and in a way this is reclaiming that waste – not literally but symbolically.  Here are photo details of the first two pieces:

Detail of Piece 1, in which I layered my only sheer with text, over the other layers - not really enough stitching on it.

As you see I am using layers of scraps from dye projects in any lightweight fabric, bits of sheers, bits of silk -  I was going to call it Layers of Meaning.  Every piece reminds me of that part of my life, which overlays another part of life ...

In this detail of Piece 2 you can see I have more stitching - and there is a piece of dyed silk with my name on from a college project.

I am finding this stitching is bringing me peaceful feelings that put troubling considerations into perspective.  Is this why so many work with hand-stitching?

I wonder how big is the recycling fabric movement?  Can’t just be me and a few others that I know ...

Making a journal from recycled papers and covers

First, another bird photo from Linear Park, Adelaide - an Eastern Rosella.

Just a thought - birds are inspiration - birds keep moving - keep the inspiration moving by watching birds - I used to go roller skating like Cherry the Chook but now I go for walks along by the river and get my inspiration from all the birds there.  Such beauty in everyday sights.

Cherry the Chook on roller skates - Cherry is my personal phoenix, a chook that I draw in many different poses.

This is the front page/endpaper of a journal I have just made.  This one I decided to make entirely from recycled things.  I bought a hardcover children's book in the charity shop and removed the text block to use later.  The cover is in good condition.  For the paper inside, I took from my recycle box old A4 notebook pages with notes I no longer need, and A4 paper with stuff I had printed from the computer but that I had now updated and again, no longer needed.  I can't throw away paper only printed on one side anymore.  The notepad paper was a bit thin but by the time I had painted it all with acrylic paints that I had leftover from last year's Fabric Painting class, that thickened it up a bit.  Some sides I left unpainted for variety.  I used lots of different colours and let them mix, and let them pick up paint that had transferred to my plastic sheet.  I used rollers for all of it.  The effects were great, and I will post more pix on my website when I update the Book Arts Page - currently working on that and hope to have it up and running by the end of October.  I still made it using Flat Back instructions (for strength) from Keith Smith, my favourite book artist, in his book "Bookbinding for Book Artists".  I have used this book so much since I bought it, it is very detailed and not just instructions in it but also photos of artist books.  Worth every cent of $35 U.S.

I will have more pix on my Book Arts Page once it is updated, hopefully by the end of October.

Sustainability

One of my most important concepts in my work and my life is the issue of recycling/upcycling.  Apparently someone called   Reiner Pilz of Pilz first used the term upcycling as opposed to recycling, because recycling often means smashing up items to remake them into something of less value.  Upcycling as a term means giving an item more value by reusing it in a different way.
With recycling/upcycling comes sustainability - for our own personal resources and cash, for the beautiful planet we live on.  There is much in our daily art and craft practice that we can reuse.  When we experiment with a technique and hate the result, we can use that as the backing layer for something else.  If we print an article that we decide is irrelevant after all, we can upcycle those pages into a trial run for a folded book.  You get the idea.  My own favourite is using bread tags as beads - yes those little plastic things around the top of the plastic bread bag.  More and more plastic, but this is something I collect and use to hang from the spine of my journal.  Use heat-protective gloves when heat-gunning; they curl up beautifully, singly or in groups.  Or use them as they are because even a small heat gun uses up electricity.

Bread Tag Beads, heat-gunned

I have been inspired often by re-reading the following post on "Slow Cloth".
http://www.handeyemagazine.com/content/slow-cloth
Jude Hill (Spirit Cloth) and Elaine Lipson (Red Thread Studio) are two artists who use and promote Slow Cloth principles, which you can read in HandEye above.