Experimental textiles 2012

I have been experimenting recently with techniques unfamiliar to me, and relating particularly to my focus for this year's college, where I will be working on textile books and journals.  This is a focus I started in 2011 and I enjoyed making books so much (see my website for completed textile books) that I decided to continue and expand in 2012 with a third, recently acquired passion, Altered Books (my first two passions are books of any kind, and birds).  This experiment has a base of a mop-up cloth from fabric painting; then I carved linocuts of abstract shapes which I printed in acrylic paints; layers purple and blue crystal organzas, and a piece of text from a book which I want to use this year with the message "Don't sweat the small stuff, and it's all small stuff."  I used some contrasting yellow silk thread to attach the layers, in running stitch.  I outlined some of the shapes in their colours in silk.  To see larger, click on image.

Notice the loose threads - I don't do "neat" now if I can avoid it.  That was me in the past.

Website

If you have trouble getting to my new January 2012 updated pages - showing an orange Albatrosses & Archaeopteryx Journal at the top - try either Internet Explorer, or type this URL http://www.christinelinton.com.au/index.html - I hope to fix this problem soon!

Feathers of White Ibis

You may notice I have updated my logo.  It is now the feathers you see on the right, instead of the embroidered bottle brush flower.  This is part of my revamp of the website, which I will be uploading by the end of December.  I decided to go for the feathers as part of my artistic development, showing the things that are more important to me right now, and that I am using in my work.  New Year is a good time for a new look.

Preserving leaves

For my Nature Journal I have been preserving leaves in glycerine.  You dilute one part glycerine to 4 parts water, and stand the stem in it for about two weeks.  I have found this is quite successful for gum leaves, and you can soak the whole leaf instead if it has no stem; however the leaf has to be fully green or it doesn't work.  Not all leaves take to it - geranium leaves just wilt and die within a few hours.  I have used some gum leaves, attached to a machine-made cord and a tassel made of silk thread, as a decoration to my Nature Journal.

The journal cover is a fabric collage which I machine embroidered, then made in the normal way into a cover for the A4 sketchbook I am using.  I also added a machine-made cord as a bookmark for inside, attached to the top of the spiral binding like the decorative elements. 

If you have been experimenting with papers and/or fabrics, try using your results as a book cover.

Albatrosses and long line fishing

Below is the centrespread of my textile journal Albatrosses and Archaeopteryx.  I have used my hand-dyed fabrics on which I linoprinted my fishing boat and attached beading wire as the long lines which attract seabirds but drag them under to drown if they are not quick enough to untangle themselves.  The albatrosses are appliqued, with the focal bird incorporating bits of rubbish and mesh to depict other threats from us they tackle every day.  Fishing line and net waste is a major killer of seabirds.

I enjoyed the making of the book which you can see more of on my website when I have finished updating it over the next few weeks.

Textile Journals

This is a photo of the front cover for my "Albatrosses & Archaeopteryx" journal.  I completed this for my major final project for Cert 3 Visual Arts (Textiles) which I have just finished.  During the time I was working on this project, I became very interested in textile art journals and making books and journals of all types, and plan to continue this interest next year when working on Cert 4.  I will show some more of this journal later.  The concept for the journal is the way that our way of life affects birds; the cover shows bits of litter, especially plastic, caught up in the net around the albatross heads.  The net is lace made on the sewing machine.  The heads are lino-printed on organza and calico layered which I dyed.  The beads on the spine are made of painted recycled paper scraps.

Birds - White Ibis

White Ibis are quite common in my local area where I took this.  I've been trying to get some photos of birds taking off so that I can use them in my textiles without copyright issues.  I'm thinking machine embroidery for the body and head and one wing and then white sheers as a detached wing element for that nearside wing ...