Work in Progress

  

   Unfortunately I too am going to be late . I had planned to make it last week and printed my fabrics on Monday, intending to start the next day. It said on the tube of fabric printing ink that it was dry to the touch in 24 hours, but I couldn't touch it without leaving my fingers grubby until Saturday, so it is only half pieced now. It probably won't be ready until the end of the week, beginning of next at the latest as I am busy in the next few days.

Apologies

 Sorry, folks but I am going to be late with my submission.  My fault because I should have known from all the previous years that the run up to Christmas is super busy.

I haven't wavered from my first thoughts - just need time to sit down and start.  Life with a dependent husband is quite full and, as usual, I am busy working with school kids on a large wall hanging and plenty of church work.  Believe me, I am not sitting twiddling my thumbs or playing games!  I certainly don't have time to get into mischief!!!

Loving what's coming in.

Bestest, Hilary

PS   Phil I sincerely hope that is NOT your new home!  H

MY NEW HOME !

 Most of you will know that in SA we have what we call settlements.  These are 'illegal' dwellings that spring up around rivers/streams closer to the towns and cities.  They are informal and mostly consist of whatever they can find in the way of builders rubble /boards/wood/2nd hand windows and doors etc.  

Using shapes and forms I have created this piece with applique,paints and stitching.

Literal deconstructivism

I see that I'm not the only one to create work based on the Royal Ontario Museum. I can't say that Deconstructivism appeals to me but the lines of this building did inspire me.

Those of you who know my work will know that I find it hard not to offer up literal interpretations of my design source and this was no exception, but not necessarily as you'd expect.

I began by sketching out the many different planes of the building and looking at how the different materials were used to break up the planes, thinking all the time of how I could re-interpret the different shapes that I was sketching.

By coincidence I'd taken some quilts to show a small group locally, with some of my 12btd pieces including this one:

 Inter-tribal Quilt Song inspired by Alex Janvier

and that was when I had a light bulb moment. This piece was based on the work of different quilting tribes and styles and was created from parts of samples that I'd made over the years. Ka-Ching! 

I'd deconstructed the samples to make the quilt, so why not deconstruct the quilt to make a new one? A different but still literal take on deconstructivism.

I pared down my original design so that I had the various planes forming an irregular shape in the centre of the quilt, framed by a black background as is common in quilts. Then, recalling various definitions of deconstructivism I turned this typical quilt style around and put my colour work around the edge leaving the central area without colour:

Literal Deconstructivism

The Lou Ruvi Center

I was very dubious about this challenge when it was first announced, but as soon as I started looking at images I got quite excited. It is a branch of arcitecture I had always been fascinated by, but never known what it was called. My first thought was to use the building featured on the latest series of a British TV show, Grand Designs, where a private individual had a house designed and built which looked more like a museum than a home. Like most deconstuctive artitecture it was a building you loved or hated. Then I found a picture of the Lou Ruvi Center and changed my mind.

I loved the curves and windows on this building, and I knew I had some fabric that was perfect for it's metal sides. My problem, from a construction point of view, was that the fabric frays extremely badly which is not ideal for raw edge applique, especially on a synthetic fabric where you can't use a really hot iron on the fusing layer. I solved this by using a new technique (to me) of cutting the Steam-a-Seam to the exact shape before fusing it on the first layer, then leaving a small seam allowance when cutting out and folding this back over the edges, using the inherent stickiness of the layer to hold it together before fusing it over the backgroup and windows - a sort of turned-edge reverse applique using a fusible layer. It was fiddly, made worse by my hestitancy to iron on the Steam-a-Seam at too hot a temperture due to the fabric having a tendency to shrink, but on the whole I was pleased with it, and will experiment further. My only regret is that I haven't pushed the design further away from the original building - but that is something I still find incredibly difficult. As soon as I start working on a piece like this the engineer in me takes precedent over the artist and I want to create something that is true to the original, and satisfies basic rules of construction.

Hundertwasser deconstructed

 I took two aspects of Hundertwasser and deconstructivism by taking a painting of his and deconstructing it as well as bringing in the fact that he was before his time as far as protecting the environment was concerned.  He wanted humans to live in harmony with nature and was an Austrian visual artist  who also worked in the field of environmental protection.  When he lived in New Zealand he acquired several properties in the Bay of Islands which included a total area of approximately 372 ha of the Kaurinui valley, where he could live largely self-sufficiently using solar panels, a water wheel and a biological water purification plant and his first grass roof experiment took place there.  (Information from Wikipedia).

Hundertwasser didn't like straight lines which appealed to me so I chose this painting below and deconstructed it and at the same time had fun doing it.

Below is my piece I produced from the above.

Royal Ontario Museum

 Since there is a great example of deconstructivism practically in my own backyard (well, in Toronto - I'm in Montreal) I thought I should use it as a stepping off point.   Here are a few pictures - one of the old building (from 1930) and 2 views of the new addition which has been named The Crystal.  

I drew my inspiration from the section on the top right of the building.   And I used a fabric that I had dyed as a background to represent the sky as I think that one of the ideas behind these glass additions is to allow it to disappear somewhat into the sky.  Not easy to see in this last picture but you get the idea in the second one.  

These are a Few of My Favourite Things

For this challenge it was my turn to chose the architectual theme, and after going round in circles when it comes to Danish architects, I just took a look round our house and seeing some of my favourite things - it had to be: 

Shaker Style

These are a Few of My Favourite Things 16"by16"

Whole cloth quilt, off-white raw silk quiltet vertically to represent the clapboard cladding of a lot of shaker houses. Architectural drawing on printet onto hand dyed abaca paper. Furniture drawn onto used teabags. All needle drawn by machine. Binding with commercial cotton in a dusty 'shaker' blue.

Detail

I enjoyed making it, and perhaps a series of tea bag/needle drawn pieces will emerge from this. 

Apologies to all for being this late for this challenge, especially as it was my choice, sometimes life gets in the way. 

And now to finish the latest challenge - "Deconstructivism" - reveal day tomorrow! Who said anything about thriving on deadlines............ 

NEXT PERSON

 As I will be away from Thursday in the bush (Kruger National Park) I have done the draw for the next person......

Drum roll ........    PATRICIA

Wake-up call

 Hi everyone,

Challenges due in at the end of this month.  It's a wake-up call to me as well - guess who hasn't started?  We are missing a couple from last challenge as well...

Hope you are all keeping your heads up with this dreadful pandemic.  All I can say is, thank goodness for our love of textiles.  Not only is it so much fun, but it is so therapeutic and good for keeping sane!

H xx

and the next Challenge is........

      

                                                     "DECONSTRUCTIVISM"

'This is a movement of postmodern architecture which appeared in the 1980's .  It gives the impression of the fragmentation of the constructed building commonly characterized by an absence of obvious harmony, continuity, or symmetry.'

Shaker staircase on behalf of Rosemary

The minimalist architecture of the Shaker movement did not really inspire me.

However, I used a staircase which provided me with something of interest. 

         This will never be a favourite piece!!!