Early riser

Camouflage

Caught the Camouflage exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in its last week (it closes Sunday 18th). Very interesting, had to read all the labels. Above is a 1936 poster for the museum, incorporating a 1918 print by Edward Wadsworth, who was involved in designing dazzle patterns for ships. You can't hide a ship on the ocean, but the patterns make it difficult to judge its speed and direction. And what a lot of different dazzle patterns there were --
Students from the Royal College of Art were involved in devising the patterns and scaling them up to be painted onto ships.In the second world war, fake tanks were made flat, to be seen from the air - complete with their shadow.

Since then, camouflage patterns first were counterculture icons and street fashion and now have infiltrated into high fashion. Here's a chilling juxtaposition:In the shop, evening bags in camouflage fabric with velvet ribbons and echoes of those badge-wearing 1960s:

Another week, another quiltlet

Last week's lesson in Jane's course had us all thinking about what we wanted more of in our lives. I came up with a long list
and various ideas of how to put these into a "shrine" , one of which was to have them as "windows" in houses; another was to have lots of dangly squares (and note the bit of fabric with Chinese characters on it -- one day I'll get back to learning Chinese!) but when I got out the felt to start making the squares, one piece cried out to be used as is. Paris, and buying shoes there (a bad habit I picked up a few years ago) have been on my mind. So with the help of whatever was lying on the worktable, I roughed out something simpler:
The circles are leftovers from the Moon Quilts series; those at the bottom represent the place for the new shoes, which would be shiny fabric in shoe shapes. Or maybe in felt, because that can be made into 3D shoes quite easily - and the inside can be a different colour - but what colour? I was looking for gold or silver to bond onto the felt, but found that peeling off some of the additions left a lovely lime green - perfect for magic shoes -
Meanwhile the Eiffel Tower needed to happen. My memory needed a jog - none of the quickly-made examples seemed quite right somehow... thank goodness for my big book collection: even though most rarely get opened, they're there when you need them
This shape looks a bit more like the real thing. And the magic shoes - winged slippers - are taking shape.
The "trees" (in the Tuileries gardens, so formally set out) are getting their leaves, but what to use for the treetrunks? And why is one of the trees recognisable as Canary Wharf - that's in London, not Paris! It took a bit of searching to find where that tiny scrap of "railroad yarn" got to, but it was perfect - I love leaving London behind and travelling to Paris by Eurostar.
The finished shoes, with wings on their heels (Geminis have mercurial personalities) -
After much anguish about what colour to use for the "Bon voyage" in the upper left, the limey green overtwisted rayon hardly shows at all - even though it took at least an hour to couch down the lettering.
This piece incorporates my wish for more order, and serenity (via the formal planting of trees), more nature (the leaves on the trees), colour and touch (the felt), depth (the layering of the felt, with unseen colours), connection (the intertwining of the strands of wool in the felt), aspiration (the top of the tower reaches above the background), a bit of glamour (the shiny magazine pages used for the trees), a bit of bright lights and hazy mystery, both (the images on the trees), surprise (that little red tassel on its gold thread, at the bottom, which cried out to be added - it might be something to do with learning more Chinese), comfort (felt slippers), oomph (the wings), and enjoyable travel, looking forward to what's around the next corner and feeling able to cope with it. And, taking all the elements together, a wish for developing my unique vision.

Furoshiki

This wrapping cloth seems to be related to Japan's war in Manchuria, China (1931-40) - note the tanks and airplanes (and the birds). Placenames are written in the language of their own country, said the sign in the Art of Wrapping exhibition, in the excellent Brighton museum.
More birds, this time a pavement in Brighton. Complete with chewing gum, unfortunately. (Don't get me started on Those People That Chew Gum...)

Recent knitting

The hats couldn't be easier - you start in a corner and increase each side till it's 12" long, then decrease one side and keep increasing on the other till the longest side is 17" long, then decrease both sides till you have 3 stitches, then pick up stitches on a long side and do three rows, knitting 2 together, and pull the yarn through the remaining stitches and sew up the short sides.

The leftovers of the blue mohair (from a 210m ball of Kidsilk Spray, wonderfully light and hopefully warm) made a narrow scarfy-thing with a hole in one end to pull the other through, also on the diagonal.

The painted yarn made a long scarf in garter stitch and a shorter one in rib, out of a 100g hank from Touch Yarns. Getting the colours to line up called for some creative tensioning!

Sumac magic

Standing en-tranced under the glowing leaves looking up at the blue, blue sky. I couldn't tear myself away. The workday world seemed an impossibility, until neckpain took over.

New hen in the henhouse

Or battery barn - courtesy of Barbara's cousin. She will keep the keyboard warm.

Some tips for photographers, found on the back of an envelope. They date back to pre-digital days, but could still be useful -

Taking a portrait? have the subject hold white paper below their chin, to reflect light upward. And/or put them in the shade, eg under a tree.

For a quickly made temporary camera bag, tape together some bubble wrap.

Stretch tights over the lens to get soft focus.

To soften the effect of the flash, put cigarette paper over it.

An easily made reflector consists of kitchen foil, scrunched and flattened, over cardboard.

Shoot from the hip. (For unobtrusive pix?)

And here are some cryptic ones, as written:
-tension on lens - string & foot
-sticky tape on kids hand
-metal polish wadding to remove marks
Make of those what you will. Now I can throw that bit of paper away.
The tree pix, apropos of nothing, are from the Jardin Botanique in Paris in spring and from Kew Gardens, London, in winter.

Still with the birds - and beyond

Once you're aware of something (eg, dove-like birds) you see it everywhere. This bowl is from the 1870s, made by Royal Copenhagen.

I found it while looking to find work by Michele Walker on the web. A pioneer of art quilts, her "Complete Book of Quiltmaking" (1986) is out of print but highly regarded, and I've been inspired by another book of hers, "The Passionate Quilter" (1990). See her piece Assault and Battery (2003) here and this site has a photo of Makers Unknown, which was in her 2005 exhibition, Memory Sticks. The poles, wrapped in fabric reclaimed from clothing, are the height of a person; the "hair" is tied on by fabric representing the sweatbands still used by workers.
Now Michele has moved out of quilting per se into a wider textile-based art practice. Caught her Stitching for Survival on its last day - a theme is memory and identity, and it draws on her experience in Japan (mainly researching sashiko and the significance of the patterns) and uses aspects of clothing, drawing on her friendships with "ordinary, unimportant" women who remember sashiko as important in their way of life. One item in the exhibition was a well worn waistcoat made over 70 years ago as part of a wedding dowry; it's full of the hand and life of the maker.

Another piece is based on a cave, Sai no Kawara, visited by parents who had lost children - such caves are thought to represent places where the souls of dead babies and children reside. Outside the cave are hundreds of small statues of the guardian deity of children. Thinking about how to convey her experience, Michele says she started noticing babies' legs and feet sticking out from baby carriers - "the only clue to what was underneath". The piece No Cry consists of characterless, baby-like bundles of cloth, strapped to short poles, with character-full dangling legs and feet.

Looking for more links about Michele's work to add, I found this symposium on 9 November about Japanese craft traditions, and an associated exhibiton, "Craftsmen in the Jail of Beauty", at Gallery 47, 47 Great Russell Street (near the British Museum), 7-10 November.

Useful quote

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak."- Hans Hofmann

Here's what comes up first when you search Google Images for "simplicity":

Lesson 4

The subject is birds, the method is using bondaweb -- lots of possibilities! Battery hens came to mind immediately, but I decided to rise above that depressing thought. So, a quick rummage through the sketchbooks. These drawings from years agowere also interpreted in collage - influenced by an early applique piece by Janet Bolton -
This time I wanted to do doves rather than chickens - inspired by the (misremembered!) dovecote at Rousham
My twists on Jane's instructions are: getting the bird shapes via cutting them out of paper rather than tracing a drawing, and using the bondaweb for the background - here it is drawn on the paper backing -- but I'd forgotten to reverse the drawing -
Here's the fabric palette - muted blues for the background, colourful silks for the doves -
The background in place, and an idea of how the little (and big) doves will fit in.When it came to adding the details, the coloured birds just didn't work. I'd been thinking about Picasso's "palomas" series in the Barcelona Picasso museum, in which the pigeons in his dovecote are white. It's enlightening to see how simply Picasso has depicted the doves - just a couple of circles - and in some of his lithographs, like this one here, the bird appears to be just a couple of squiggles!

Mine of course were much, much more laboured. Clunky, even. As I was laying out the pieces of the big bird, Tony happened by and moved the head and beak to the side, a tiny change that makes all the difference -- The "tail feathers" are done with free machining, and the eyes are french knots.To develop this further, I'd look harder at the structure in Picasso's pix and also do some ink-dropper drawings of memories of birds in motion and at rest (which will involve looking harder at birds in general). And be less restrained in my choice of fabric - look at the bright blues and ochres in the Picasso pix, after all. Just break out a bit, free up....

Doh a dear

In lesson 3 of Jane LaFazio’s Art Quilt Exploration class the task was a painted quilt, using an animal portrait. Try to capture your pet’s aura. OK, not my usual “thing”, but it’ll certainly be different – and stretching – which is what classes are about, right? So I looked at my bookshelves and found a Wildlife Photographer of the Year book, with these images:Which to choose? They’re greyscale here because that’s easier for the next step, but are gloriously colourful in the book. The deer is by Andy Rouse and the seal is by Norbert Wu .
Here’s my improvised lightbox. I’ve already used it, with the photo up on the screen, to trace the creature onto a bit of plastic, and am now retracing it onto unprimed canvas.

Next step is to paint. Why not blue? I used several washes of acrylic paint (the moire effect is confined to the photograph). The small dark areas are due to careless mixing of the paint – bits left in the brush – but that’s ok, we can use those to build the background. Anyway, they remind me of the poppies in the original picture. Then the stitching starts - by hand and machine.

I couldn’t get away from trying to make him look more realistic. And I couldn’t resist adding beads – even if they do look like a swarm of midges!

My big discovery is the “self-framing” effect of using stretchy fabric on the back. Do a “pillowcase” backing, trimming the seams very close to the stitching (zigzag round to stop any unwanted unravelling, then turn). Because the canvas is stiff, the stretchy fabric bends round it, making a thin frame. I used a velour here, and added the beads up the sides to keep that line of darkness in place.

Bookswap

A chain letter arrived that I couldn't resist. It had only two names on it, so the payoff for passing it on would be quick. It promises 36 books, if everyone plays along.

When I send the letter to my 6 friends, I'll enclose a book for them. This clears some space on the shelves, always a problem. If you'd like a copy of my letter (and a book, possibly one of those above), email me or leave a comment.

The text is below in case you want to put a friend's name in the number 1 position and your own in the number 2 (or vice versa) and send it to 6 friends, with or without a book as an inducement.

Welcome to our paperback bookswap .. it's just for fun.

Please send a used paperback to the first name on the list enclosed.

Then re-do the list by:

1. Removing the name under number 1
2. Moving the name currently in the number 2 position to the number 1 position
3. Writing your name as number 2

There should only be 2 names on the list at a time. Send a copy of the new list to 6 of your friends who enjoy reading. Note - if you keep the list separate you can photocopy this page and send it out again.

If you can't participate within 2-10 days, please let me (person at number 2) know to be fair to the others who are participating.

A manila envelope will mail a paperback book. You should receive 36 books. It will be interesting to see where they come from and to what type of book you are introduced.

There is seldom a drop out. You should receive 36 books for the price of the one you have purchased and read.

HAPPY READING!!

1.

2.

To Hampstead Heath

Getting to Hampstead Heath is just a matter of hopping on the 210 bus, which stops outside my door. Early on a Saturday, the bus gets to the top of the Heath in about 20 minutes. Today I got off at the wrong stop and found myself in unfamiliar woods. The enticing blue sky had, during the busride, been covered in cloud, so this looks gloomier than it was. In what century were those trees planted along that earthwork?Occasionally there would be a dog walker
or a runner
doing their daily thing.

Somehow I missed the entrance to Kenwood, and walked along beside the fence, experimenting with zoom and flash penetrating (or not) the gloomy woods beyond.
Overhead, the light came through golden leaves (the way it does)
In front of Kenwood House orangery is an ancient mulberry tree, or is it magnolia? Very old, anyway. The house was remodelled between 1764 and 1779 by Robert Adam for the great judge Lord Mansfield, and was bought in 1925 by brewing magnate Guinness. It's now part of English Heritage, and in it hang some amazing paintings - Vermeer's Guitar Player, and a Rembrandt, as well as lots by English artists. And the caf (in the old stables) is very popular.
Instead of stopping for coffee I went to visit the Henry Moore sculpture.Underfoot were wonderfully decaying leaves. Could be used for screenprinting resists....but I resisted taking any home.