Threads

                                                    ‘The Thread that binds us.’

When this title was given three months ago, ‘the thread that binds us’ jumped into my head.  It ruminated there until ten days ago – my wedding anniversary.  ‘Marriage – the thread that binds us’ – and away I went!

I painted a 12” square canvas board using a few drops of walnut ink mixed with gesso.  On top of that I placed a sheet of hand made textured paper.  Image transfer techniques were used to transfer my wedding photos as well as those of family members.  I finally embellished it with a piece of nylon ribbon and thread.

I loved the topic and my husband loved his anniversary gift.

Threads: Jerry at the Cottage

I took this image from a drawing I made almost 40 years ago of my father-in-law, Jerry. I used my Cityscapes technique of fusing and heat-away stabilizer to translate the drawing into cloth.

The drawings I made in this series, for a class taken as part of my degree, are not so different from the drawings I have made for Cityscapes, so in a sense I am "picking up the thread". I am also thinking of the "ties that bind", those family relationships that persist even after death. Jerry passed away in 1980, and yet we can still recognize him and remember him as he was, relaxing in his favourite spot at the cottage, no doubt watching football on TV. Looking a lot like his son Ron, my husband. Another thread.

Empty Nest

In celebration of an empty nest to come in the very near future. Two of our children have moved out this year and the last one will be moving next month. The nest was constructed on a clear stabilizer by laying threads and stitching over them. The flying geese are our 3 children flying upward to new beginnings. The 2 crystals in the nest represent my husband and myself shining brightly for our new found freedom.

Spools of Thread

As soon as the theme was announced, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I created a screen from an image I found online (with permission from mysanityspot.blogspot.ca) and printed it on different colours of fabric, then echo quilted it. Instead of batting, I used two layers of black felt, which also stood in for the binding. Voila!

Threads

I may have mentioned before :-) that I am a very literal person so when I read that the next challenge was 'Threads' that's all I wanted to do! Except that I couldn't think of a way of re-creating my photo in fabric - until I attended a workshop/retreat with Gillian Travis on how she creates many of her pieces using paint and stitch. I've written about the workshop Art to Stitch on my 'Occasional Jottings' and quickly realised that I needed to get better acquainted with my acrylic paints!! I'm reasonably happy with the outcome. There are definite glitches in the perspective and whilst I was pleased with the highlights I decided not to push my luck by trying to add the shadows too!!!

Threads

How exciting to see the Threads post building up, it's a bit like waiting for Christmas! Mine is finished and the backing is on, it just needs a quick press and it's ready to photograph - days before the deadline - wowser!

World of Threads Festival, Toronto

Michele and I were delighted to be able to attend the World of Threads Festival in Oakville and Toronto last week. Three years in the making, with 195 artists and 21 venues, it was well worth a visit. We found it to be superbly well-organized, quite a feat considering the scale of the event.

While searching out the different venues, we came across one huge industrial building, 401 Richmond Street West, repurposed for art galleries and creative start-ups. We found the Gladstone Hotel, which houses art display spaces, studios and thirty-some hotel rooms, each decorated by a different artist. We stumbled upon the very interesting Distillery District, featuring Victorian-era red brick buildings which have been renovated to house cafés, galleries and studios. We also found ourselves in a super fabric warehouse on Spadina, King Street Fabrics. And we finished off our trip with a visit to the excellent Freda Kalo / Diego Rivera show at the AGO.

Distillery District, Toronto

I have written three posts to my blog about some of the fascinating art we saw, all of it fibre-based. Michele and I are thinking about submitting work to the Festival at our next opportunity.

Catching up

I've been away a lot over the last couple of months and am spending today catching up! I also began my Threads piece - with only fifteen days to go, several of which I'm away for, it could be 'interesting' ! I'm using a technique we used on the five day class I attended last week, the results of which are on my blog which should make life easier, but who knows what pitfalls there'll be along the way. Here's a taster from the work done last week:

Gallery news and Houston show

I was invited to show my work at the Canadian Guild of Crafts gallery on Sherbrooke Street in Montreal, right next to the Museum of Fine Arts. This is quite an amazing honour! Above are "Many Shades of Grey" and "Night Circus".
In other news, Marion and I were fortunate to go to Houston last week where our Vitamin C quilt was shown.

We were able to meet up with Venetta for lunch. What a treat! We caught up on news and sat outside enjoying the sunshine. I also showed her my Threads piece which is finished!

THREADS ???

I am not sure how the rest of you feel at the moment but with just over three weeks to go I have not been able to settle on anything specific for my piece and so have decided I need to make a decision before time runs out.

My taster takes me to the many, many organisations around South Africa who have empowered black needy women and men with embroidery skills which have enabled them to support families and give them some dignity.

This is part of a cushion cover I have, stitched by one of the people from the Kaross Embroidery Group which is quite well known and well established.

These little pieces are from the local Hillcrest Aids Centre (I think) but very typical of the things that a lot of the groups are producing.  They are small and flat and easy to pack for tourists and can be stitched onto anything or framed at a later stage.  Each one tells a little story and is often linked to the lifestyle or circumstances that the embroiderer has faced or experienced.

Where am I going with this ? ........................The end of November will reveal!

Another VESSEL

Here is the only other vessel I photographed.

The blue pieces are flattened metal bottle tops (Sprite, Soda Water & Smirnoff) and the whole thing works.  I love the shape.  There were about 7or 8 in total and they will be on the KZNSA Gallery site under the Exhibition name 'Recollect'.

HENDRIK STROEBEL - revisited

My favourite local artist, Hendrik Stroebel, has an exhibition on at the moment on some old and some new works which are going to Dubai for his first solo exhibition there in March 2013.

 

 

One of his new items, for me, were his vessels. This one I particularly liked ... ceramic vessel/vase covered with embroidered fabric and decorated with ceramic beads and embroidered hanging bits.

 

 





I cannot explain the reason for the words on the fabric and I cannot for the life of me remember what he called this work which I did not understand either ...... I am not very good!

This is another of his smallish pieces (approx 8" x 10") . The combination of the soft embroidery and the hard ceramic works so well.