Making string

Hi I'm back; I haven't been away physically but have been working on ideas, plans and samples for an exhibition I am participating in next year so have not done any experimental work for a while.  I have now started taking part in a workshop at Pepper Street, with basketry and netting.  This first week we made string from plant material; this is a traditional skill world wide.  It is very simple; tie two strips together at the top; bend the right strip back up to the right, then return it to the straight position and bring over the left strip; repeat endlessly.  It is quick and easy, but I found after a while my fingers started to hurt, because I get arthritis in them, so it is something to do in between other tasks that don't affect the fingers so much.  Also you do get to find the natural way to hold and fold the plant material.

This is the coil of string I made, taking about half an hour.

©Christine Linton

You probably can work a lot quicker once you get into the swing of it.

Close up of the string 

©Christine Linton

We also did some coiling which I will show in my next post.  The workshop is run by Lizzie Emery.

Plants as textiles

On a trip to the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, I was fascinated by this coiled up fern in the Bicentennial Conservatory.  I only saw it because a large group of students came walking along the raised boardwalk where I was trying to photograph a turtle in the pond below; to wait until they had gone past, I walked to the other side of the boardwalk and looked at the tall ferns, and was captivated by the texture on this; it reminds me so much of rope or twine or yarn, plaited or knotted, and rolled up inside a strip of polar fleece!

coiled up fern

©Christine Linton

Here is a finished letter further to the post http://craftconversations.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/new-ideas-for-new-year.html 

letter "e", in french knots 

©Christine Linton

Feathers in textiles

This tassel I made from dyed string, which had been used for tie-dyeing fabric, and from feathers collected locally - Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos, Australian Magpies, Lorikeets.

©Christine Linton

©Christine Linton

©Christine Linton

For other feather-inspired textiles, see these or visit here.

A new blog

I have started a new blog to show my adventures with my new camera.  It is at
http://photographyartinnature.blogspot.com.au/

New ideas for the new year

At last my brain has jumped out of its Artists Block - I had been struggling with making a Book Cover at the end of last year, tried lots of techniques and didn't like anything, it all looked so dull, that's why I took a long break from it. I think sometimes your brain freezes up and has to take a rest.  Then I spent some time recently with my new camera, and found that I really enjoyed pictures where the main focus e.g. flower bud, stood out sharply from a soft-focus background.  This gave me the idea to try for this effect in textiles, so I tea-dyed some white cotton sheet from the Op Shop, to get a fuzzy background, and looked for a sharp bright colour to embroider with.  Here is the result - or at least the first part of it.  This is a letter T, almost finished.  Working with french knots, I used mostly doubles, some singles, and some loopies.  So I got lots of texture into it.  It is DMC perle cotton no. 5, thicker than I originally wanted to use but once I started I loved it, had to use a chenille needle for the thickness.  I love the colour, I wanted a beautiful bright blue to contrast with the background.

French knots on tea-dyed cotton sheet

©Christine Linton

Then I went to a natural-dye workshop at Pepper Street Art Centre, with Lizzy Emery as the tutor - who I first met as the tutor of a basketry workshop in December.  Multi-skilled lady!  We used mixed berries for red, onion skins and acacia flowers for yellow, the bark from the ironbark tree for brown - today I will show you the yellow.  I used cotton voile.  If you look at the left near the top, it looks like a frog leaping downwards.

cotton voile dyed with onion skins and acacia flowers

©Christine Linton

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