Better late than Never

I'm only about six months late!

Sorry everyone

So here it is my

Through the Window piece

" Window to my heart"

This piece was inspired by pictures I took in the Burren in Co. Clare with Claire as our tour guide as  research for a larger group piece.
For the last couple of years I've been working on an Elemental theme incorporating the seasons as related to life cycles. It's me working out who and where I am
 ( end of summer, moving into autumn!)
I feel a strong bond to ancient rural sites and the power they hold.
As a child I grew up about half an hours drive from Newgrange, one of the most well known ancient sites and had two ruins of castles to play in, just several fields from home.
Here I've tried to blend me into the ancient stone looking through one window into the past.

 I love to play with all types of photo transfer and have used several of them here. I've used bits of images transferred using transfer paper, image maker and bubble jet set. They all react differently with the fabric and create interesting effects when layered.

Detail showing effect achieved by use of walnut ink wash

This image was taken from an ancient grave stone

and this is the back of the piece which I quiet like.

I burnt the edges so that I wouldn't feel obliged to bind them!

I wanted to keep a raw feeling to the piece.



THE STATE WE'RE IN

Better late than never with the added problem that the piece, like topsy, grew and grew.
The idea came from various sources as outlined in a previous post as well as being a continuation of a current theme.
My overall idea, was, and still is, the view through a wealthy person's window as exemplified by the lively coloured blocks whose random nature refers to the way bankers have gambled with our future. The view through has a background which is a laminated composite of part of a gravestone and poppies together with a poppy petal. I did this because Armistice Day this year was a once in a century 11,11,11,11 and I wanted to reference this with drawn crosses. The figures were used for further works and I liked them so they were put in here too. They represent my feelings about this summer's riots in our cities and this pervades the whole work. It is cheating a bit because it is really outside/outside but there is artistic licence. Anyway, a wealthy individual mght well have these 'wallpaper' blocks on his/her wall.
It is a long time since I used bought fabrics in a work to any degree but time constraints and a previous competition requirement brought me back to them. I thoroughly enjoyed choosing the myriad of colours and tones required for the random blocks but, as usual, struggled to find enough even from my enormous collection. I got addicted to the process of making these.
The colouring of the figures was experimental as I wanted to try out various watersoluble media on fabric which I worked on at our local art club practical evening. The group are nearly all conventional painters and were both bewildered and intrigued by what I was doing.
All in all, I am pleased with this although I did have my doubts at times. It still needs embellishing, quilting and finishing but I need to think about this.
May I suggest that members state the size of their work as this is quite important to our appreciation and visualising of it? Otherwise, we have no reference point. This piece is about 40in. wide by 20in. high. I did say it grew and grew. A full view and a close-up are shown below.

moon reflections: through the window

 here is my interpretation of through the window -  i tried a number of other ideas that just didn't work and ended up going with some small pieces i was puddling around with and it became something bigger.

each panel is a piece of linen sprayed with diluted black ink and stitched with silk thread. the moon centre was made by putting a round sponge in the middle of the fabric and spraying the ink around it.

the bottom layer is canvas painted with black gesso and a piece of silk chiffon painted onto the canvas with more diluted black gesso. each panel is stitched on the foundation canvas/silk layer.

the 'sticks' are pieces of cotton mariner's string soaked in a mixture of paverpol, fibre paste, black pigment powder and fabric paint.

Through The Abbey Window - better photo...

...this is a photo taken in daylight.  The jug and glasses show up much better now.

I forgot to mention on my previous post that the shadows on the sill and the arch above and around the window were created by using a grey Markal paint stick.

Through The Abbey Window

I made it!

Although the photo isn't great.  It's the best I could do in artificial light so I will take another tomorrow in daylight.

Those of you who know me know that I love making art quilts from photos and this one is made from three photos taken on our holiday in and around Bath.

I loved the brickwork on the sides of the one on the left, which is reproduced here with the aid of fusible web and nice sharp scissors!

The garden outside is a photo printed onto silk then hand embroidered.

The lead on the window is machine embroidered.

If you look closely you can see a jug and a couple of glasses on the sill which are taken from the other window and reproduced here with two layers of gold organza with wadding behind to give depth.

Again these might be more noticeable in the daylight.

So I made the deadline...just!  

I'm looking forward to the next one now... 

Done!

Having already done a Through the Window piece for the last challenge, I felt I needed to do something deifferent for this one - and what a journey it has been.  I started from a book I'd been reading, Ruth First's 117 Days, in which she describes her period of solitary confinement (without trial) under the 90-day rule during the apartheid era in South Africa.  It's a powerful description and the mark one piece was almost a sort of illustration of the desciption of her cell in the book.  As I made the piece. I began to reflect on all the other ways in which people may be solitary and confined - for example through ill health, depression, domestic abuse, political oppression, bullying or simply being housebound..  By yesterday night I had not resolved the two ideas and I was dissatisfied with what the quilt had become, but I went to bed thinking I would at least get it finished and off my conscience.

At 4 a.m. I woke with the idea of this piece fully formed, jotted down a few notes and luckily got back to sleep.  Today has been a rush to get it finished - but at least that has made me keep it simple.  All that remains from the orifinal piece is the barred cell window, and I apologise for the fact that the view is not through the window  but this side of the barred window.  Though it's a bit wobbly and rough round the edges I don't find that a problem on this occasion, as it seems to suit the subject-matter.

It is open to a number of interpretations - feel free to ask your own questions and provide your own answers...

Next time I'll start earlier!

Wisteria

My original plan was to make something inspired by the photos I took through the stained glass windows in our house (see my previous post). I was thinking of layering various sheers and painted fabrics. So I did lots of painting with transfer paints - tortuous, abstract, twisted tree trunks, that sort of thing - then after a bit I just started playing with the leftover paint. I made this map-like design by trickling paint over the page and causing it to run into the other lines, a bit like a roadmap.

I thought I would use this design as a sort of abstract stained glass window to layer over the rest, so I ironed it on to lutradur and cut out the white bits. I layered this frame design over the various sheers and painted fabrics; that didn't look right but I felt more of a connection to this lutradur design than to any of the other fabrics I had prepared.

After lots of auditioning fabrics and layers, I found this Indian sari fabric which looked good. Then I started thinking that instead of stained glass windows it would represent the bare wisteria branches growing outside our bedroom window that I have been staring at for years. So it evolved into that. I quilted it along the horizontal wavy lines and some of the vertical branches, and decided to couch some decorative threads to add depth and dimension and bring some of the branches forward a bit.

Then I framed it with these sheer ribbons to look like the window frame.

Added accent beads and it was done! I am pleased with how it has turned out although it changed into a piece different from what I was planning in the beginning!

Rose Window

Here is my take on "Through the Window" As light comes through a window I decided on a Rose window. It is stitched as a reverse Applique. I drew the window pattern on black fabric and each element  was cut and needle-turned with the black being stitched to the "glass" fabric which was behind the black.

Through the Window - Shinkansen

 Ever since  my first digital camera , I've been taking photos from trains at speed - I love the blurring. I've made a few journal quilts and one experimental piece  but have always wanted to scale up - this challenge gave me an opportunity to start  down that road (or should that be rail?!!!!)

 In 2006 I travelled with Susan Briscoe to Yuza-machi  in Japan   and took lots of photos from the Shinkansen train from Tokyo to Yamagata. The  green of rice paddies, the purplish grey roofs , the mountains and the coast were so different from the train photos I'd taken in the UK

 Techniques and materials used? Photos  were printed on colour catchers treated with 'Ink Aid' . I used Photoshop to increase saturation slightly but that's all -the blurring is as captured by camera. These were applied to a section of lightweight fabric from a secondhand kimono bought for Pojagi in Tokyo.

A silk organza scarf with woven lines was laid over the top and attached with twin needle stitching. Interesting difference  between the raised ridges produced  when stitched through 1 layer of kimono and the flatter ones where stitching through both kimono and colour catcher. I really should have stabilised the kimono fabric first but I actually like the effect!
I'd like to produce an even bigger piece next perhaps  inspired by the paintings of Atsuhide Ito although quite how I'd photograph it and display it....

Can't wait to see other peoples interpretation.

Through The Window

As happened last time I am not going to be near a computer for the reveal so I am scheduling this for publication and hope it works.  I am really sorry not to be here for today but I am hoping to get hold of a computer over the next day or so to see what everyone has done.

As I said in my earlier post I was becoming fascinated with the quality of light that comes through a stained glass window and I particularly became fascinated with the cut through process that I had been playing with.  After I had made a pice 10" square for my Journal Quilt I have gone on to make an A3 sized piece for this challenge.  It is not the only piece I have made, more of that in a minute.

As you can see I didn't actually take this particular technique any further, mostly because I didn't have the time but I may well play with it some more when time allows.

I said in my previous post that I wanted to experiment with sheers and I have had a great time doing just that.  I took a selection of neutral organzas, silks and nylon sheers and used fabric paints tostamp and make monoprints on their surfaces.  I kept the monoprints neutral in tones of grey and was a bit worried at first that they might be too light to show up.  Sadly I was so busy working I didn't take any photos of the process.

The next step was to use silk paints to add colour to the pieces of fabric.  I decided on silk paint as I didn't have a lot of time, again.  Once the fabrics were all prepared I started to cut and piece them using a pojagi style of seam.  This is the result:

The photograph above was taken indoors with the piece laying on the top of my sewing table.  It is very slightly smaller than A3 size.  I then took further photographs outside.

After photographing the piece hanging from our driftwood I couldn't resist hanging the 'window' in the lilac tree where the sun was shining through this morning.

I have made a lot of mistakes with the stitching in this technique and a certain amount of drifting has occurred but I am so delighted with the way this has turned out.  The surface marks are really exciting me and I am really happy with my interpretation of 'Through The Window'.  I am quite tempted though to leave it out in the garden to let the sun shine through and see how it ages.  You may also have noticed that this isn't really a quilt as it is only one layer.  Tant pis! (As the French would say).  Actually a couple of the pieces do consist of two layers as I felt the sheer was too fine.

I shall look forward to seeing everyone else's interpretations and to the next challenge!

Can you tell what it is yet....?

...It's coming together, slowly.

The stone inlay on the side of the window took some time, as did the embroidery on the window - it looks a bit like stained glass but it's supposed to be the flowers in the garden outside!

The most intense bit is now over - I hope so it shouldn't take as long for the next bit - I just need more hours in the day!!

Through The Window

 I thought as I hadn't had a lot to say here I would copy most of the post I put on my blog this week describing my thought processes so far for this challenge. 

Similar to the last challenge, as soon as you start thinking about windows you see them everywhere (well, they are aren't they?) and you start thinking about every interpretation of 'through' and 'window'. A window to the past, a window through time, windows of the soul, window of opportunity, looking in through the window, looking out through the window. Window - an opening allowing a connection between one space and another, light pours in through the window, a surface that reflects light and its surroundings. A window can be many shapes; it can be clear, frosted, reinforced, mottled, distorted, etched, of many colours.

An abstract painting that I made on the subject of looking back through time which was made with a window cut from a photograph incorporated into layers of torn watercolour paper with crayon marks added and manipulated in Photoshop.

Inevitably, and to cut a long story short for the moment, my thoughts turned to stained glass windows, which I love for the light that they allow to pass into the room. The window above is part of the stained glass in Chester Cathedral and I have used part of it previously in a watercolour sketch (still need to find that).

In our local parish church we have a beautiful stained glass window by John Hayward entitles Christ Walks on the Water. With the Quilt Artist's eye that I now have I can see several ways of interpreting this window.

Over the years, and particularly in the past these stained glass windows were a way through which people who could not read learned the Bible stories. Over the years stained glass windows have become more abstract and convey their meaning in other ways.

As a way of finding my way into this challenge I thought I would play about with cut through fabrics, especially after reading an item by Naomi Renouf in the June 2010 issue of Workshop on the Web that I found on my computer.

I've started by layering scraps of fabrics onto a background and securing them under a layer of organza with stitching running at right angles to the run of the fabrics. Subsequently I cut through the channels deciding as I went along how far down to cut.

The next step is to machine at right angles to the first lines of stitch opening up and catching down each cut layer to reveal what lies beneath. (detail above)

I am quite pleased with the result so far. I feel it has some of the movement in the window in St Wulfram's church and I am excited to work it on a larger scale.

I have been trying to decide whether this would work with a more transparent feel to it so that light can actually shine through and I've made a further piece but have not achieved that transparnecy yet. Once you start thinking and looking there are a lot of ways of interpreting (light) through the window and I'm glad I've got a few more weeks to work on this project.

I have been trying to track down a link to a programme that brought home to me the power of stained glass some time ago and I can't find it. I think it was a clip of (?Rolf Harris/Michael Palin?) in a chapel with stained glass windows designed I think by Chagall or maybe Matisse. My overriding memory is of the presenter standing in the chapel with light from the window pouring over his fingers like water. For some reason the image took my breath away and brought a lump to my throat. Such is the power of light through a window. (I've just discovered it is the chapel at Vence in France and the artist was Matisse.)

I'm still experimenting wildly with the cut through/chenille and I've also got some mosaic-style ideas to play with too.  This is fun!

The Idea...

...is set in my mind and now the materials are ready.  

I'm combining three photographs altogether - two of them are windows taken in Lacock Abbey - a fascinating National Trust property.  I've taken a photo of one window with an interesting wall around it and the objects from the windowsill in a different photo to create my own window.  The view outside is going to be a textile piece created from a photo printed on silk from the garden at Dyrham Park - another favourite property which we visited this year.

I can't wait to get started - I'm really excited about this!  It's been great seeing how my wedding quilt is developing but I really do need an artistic diversion after all that quilting!

PROTEST - A WORKING TITLE

This projected work had its origins in the almost unbelievable events of this August. It will become part of a series on this theme. I was horrified, as everybody was, by the destruction and looting which took place but I was equally angry at the draconian sentences passed on people who hadn't really done that much. It is influenced also by Ralph McTell's greatest song 'The Streets of London' and this will probably feature in the future.
The following pictures represent only 'pegs to hang my hat on' at the moment. I have several possibilties for the window element. The picture below is from a series taken at the de la Warr Pavilion, Bexhill.
I am influenced as well by the fact that Armistice Day occurs during the course of this Challenge. I know that dates are meaningless when looked at as curiosities but it is interesting that in this year it will be 11,11,11,11. This will not occur again for a century. I hope to use this as my background as I think about Kipling's lines which I shall paraphrase as 'was it for this they died.
I am experimenting with a combination of photographs taken in my local churchyard and poppy pictures. I am thinking of overlaying them and probably laminating the result.
These are some of the ingredients. I must collect the rest and make the recipe.

Windows...

I'm in two minds about this one. The sensible option would be to go with the images I've taken through car windows over the years... in fact, come to think of it, some of the images of Slochd (a mountain on the way to Inverness...sadly, one you have to drive up/round) would be ideal. And there are some more recent images taken in a traffic jam (Norfolk doesn't usually do traffic jams, but it was summer and there were tourists...), of fields seen through the hedgerows and trees at the edge of the road.

But then there's the intangible option. I wrote a dissertation in Russian about the translation of Burns into Russian. I wrote that reading a translation is like looking through a window; you can see what's going on, but there are elements of the action that you can't experience, because you're held away from it by the glass. To be honest, I have no idea how to approach that particular idea, but it seems to be lurking, anyway. Perhaps I'll go with Slochd, and take it from there...

a few ideas

Through The Window

 I knew exactly what I wanted to do when I chose this theme whilst exploring Somerset and Wiltshire...then I found another window which I loved...

...so my idea now is to combine the two along with an outside view of the beautiful flowers in this photo...

I've made a start and will be making this A3 size - unless a specific size has been stipulated??