The three-day masterclass with
Dorothy Caldwell was a delight - "The expressive stitch". We were nine in the class, and the first thing we did was to use a long strip of paper and make stitch marks on one half and inky fingermarks on the other. Put together, they show nine personalities in search of expression
Here we are looking at and thinking about the work -
On the first day we did mark-making on small sheets of nice thick paper, and started small "kantha" pieces, using simple shapes and seeing what happened with the stitching. Dorothy said that on the third day we'd be making our stitched and on-paper work into a book. We continued, or finished, the stitched pieces as homework that evening.
Anyone walking past the classroom the next day might have seen an unusual sight - nine women sat round stitching, with blindfolds on! We'd cleared our worktables and threaded five needles, then basted two pieces of cloth together and made five french knots evenly spaced down the left side. Dorothy read us words, and their definition, from an art dictionary, and we stitched our response to each word. They were: gesture; contrast; shape; transformation; intuition.
We did some rubbing with graphite, painted pages with black gesso, and tried piercing and punching of paper, then moved on to couching thread onto stiff, semi-transparent cotton, adding other stitches as desired.
Above is my work table, below an example of what other people did.
My favourite marks were made with india ink on sheer fabric that had been laid over a nice thick paper. The dark areas are where the ink went through to the paper, and the ink on just the cloth gives a mottled effect.
By now we were getting lots of "pages" together for the book that we'd be making at the end of the class. Next day Dorothy showed us slides of the development of her work and we went to see her exhibition, then on to use wax in a corner of the Virtual Studio, and discharge with chlorine bleach outside, where it was blowing a gale but not raining.
Some results - discharged with chlorine bleach, either painted over completely or dabbed with the end of a small foam brush -
We spent the afternoon organising our pages into signatures, and sewing them together - and admiring our work -
What better tangible outcome than a book to look through, or add to?
Here we are looking at and thinking about the work -
On the first day we did mark-making on small sheets of nice thick paper, and started small "kantha" pieces, using simple shapes and seeing what happened with the stitching. Dorothy said that on the third day we'd be making our stitched and on-paper work into a book. We continued, or finished, the stitched pieces as homework that evening.
Anyone walking past the classroom the next day might have seen an unusual sight - nine women sat round stitching, with blindfolds on! We'd cleared our worktables and threaded five needles, then basted two pieces of cloth together and made five french knots evenly spaced down the left side. Dorothy read us words, and their definition, from an art dictionary, and we stitched our response to each word. They were: gesture; contrast; shape; transformation; intuition.
We did some rubbing with graphite, painted pages with black gesso, and tried piercing and punching of paper, then moved on to couching thread onto stiff, semi-transparent cotton, adding other stitches as desired.
Above is my work table, below an example of what other people did.
My favourite marks were made with india ink on sheer fabric that had been laid over a nice thick paper. The dark areas are where the ink went through to the paper, and the ink on just the cloth gives a mottled effect.
Some results - discharged with chlorine bleach, either painted over completely or dabbed with the end of a small foam brush -
We spent the afternoon organising our pages into signatures, and sewing them together - and admiring our work -
What better tangible outcome than a book to look through, or add to?
Margaret, thanks for sharing the class. I kept returning to her exhibition, fascinated with how dark and yet light it was, does that make sense? The big white stitches on the black, touches of red, selvedges couched. Have you seen her work at :-
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Carole
What a fascinating workshop - you must have been exhausted after all that time and effort, but so nice to have it all in a little book to look at whenever you want. BTW I saw your lovely piece in the journal quilts next to Magsramsay and thought it was just beautiful. You were obviously around, but sorry I missed meeting you and saying hello.
ReplyDeleteWow, this looks an amazing workshop. Wish I could have been there. I loved her exhibit at the show but I could only make Saturday.
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