Grasby Embroiderers Exhibition

I am part of the Grasby Embroiderers group, and we have been working on a new body of work with a difference. Normally, as you would no doubt expect with embroidery, it has been exhibited inside, in a clean, dry environment, but most of this work is outside and exposed to the elements, at Mill Farm Garden, between Brigg and Caistor. In the middle of the week we went to hang the finished work ready for the opening tomorrow.

Helen Boothman, who owns the garden, was excited and intrigued by the idea, and after an initial consultation we went as a group last summer to look round the beautiful, large garden (3 acres!) for inspiration, seeking possible sites to hang the work, with cameras and sketch / note books to gather ideas.

We all came away with our own ideas for individual work, but we also wanted to do a group piece, which we discussed at our next meeting.

I didn’t know quite what I wanted to do for my own piece, but knew where I wanted to hang it! This diamond-shaped peephole into the slatted wooden stucture had caught my attention when Colin and I had visited the garden with Winterton Gardening Club a few years ago. It suggested stained glass to me, using transparent and translucent fabrics.

Once we had had time to mull things over and develop some ideas, we had a second visit as a group, by which time I was thinking sunflower and took some organza to try out. Even with several layers it wasn’t right, so that was put on the back burner while I got on with my leaf for the group piece.

The ferns in our garden were beautiful last year, so I decided to do a machine embroidered fern. My very scribbly quick sketch was about 50 cm high …..

…… some more scribbles…..

……. a test piece on paper …….

……. more tests on dissolvable mediums, layers and layers of zig zag stitch on the sewing machine, hand stitching and more machine stitching of wire, a few broken needles and it became the middle back leaf on the group piece (in situ). All the leaves are different techniques and Mary’s flower is Tyvek.

The sunflower idea had developed over the time it took me to do the leaf.

I had intended to use these agate beads for the centre.

I tried them out in a bracelet, right size, but it was too flimsy to take the weight.

I tried them out within a very large, sturdy earring.

I layered lots of different fine translucent and slightly opaque fabrics together in a hoop. One of the very large earrings was stitched down in the middle, and a hole cut nearly up to it. The extra bits were stitched over the earing, then double petals cut out to go front and back, running stitched through all the layers. The whole flower has several layers of diluted PVA on both sides and then cut out…..

…… but I decided to leave the centre open, so that you can still peep into the wooden building

There are two diamond-shaped “windows”, so I made another sunflower in a different fabric.

The petal outlines are couched down with perlé thread. (These are samples that go with my artist statement.)

This second sunflower does have agates in the middle, but isn’t attached to a backing fabric so the light comes through the gaps between them; the outline of the centre is a twisted cord.

The plants will grow over the next few weeks

The peephole works, as demonstrated by Lorna!

These are a tiny taste of the work and of the lovely garden which is open over the summer every Thursday, Sunday and Bank Holiday from 11am to 4pm. It’s £5 admission to the garden, including the Exhibition.

We just hope that the weather is kind to the work and to the garden!

Altered images – part two

As I mentioned last week Jean suggested that the one of the peacock feathers could be just minimal running stitches, using the marks from the acrylic ink painted lines as a guide.

What I didn’t mention last week was that the orientation of the whole piece changed when it the group looked at it. I had envisaged it with the feathers up – the peacock strutting his stuff and showing off his beautiful feathers, and had mainly worked on it with the “eye” at the top.

Once the strips were to be left loose, it needed to be turned 180∘so that the loose fabric dangled off the bottom, which is how the feathers are when they sweep the ground behind the peacock.

The marks on the left-hand side of the calico worked best for the running stitch approach. I used a shiny viscose rayon purple thread for most of the lines.

Then there was the reel of gold for the “eye”, and a lovely lime green 21st Century cotton for the outer edge of the eye.

The reel of gold has almost become my trademark, it has been used on so many pieces. Another larger reel turned up, with even more on it. It’s very fine, inclined to come unravelled off the cone, and with a tendency to tangle. None of the others wanted it, so guess who came home with it? And very pleased that I did! It’s a slightly lighter, brighter gold, and it’s actually quite nice to stitch with. It’s only when I take it out with me that it tends to come adrift, so it just has to be used at home. I’m going to have to live a very long time to use them both.

I made some purple and lime green cording on the sewing machine way back in February, at a sweetie-wrapper workshop at Scunthorpe Embroidery and Textile Association (S.E.A.T.A). Yes, I was Debbidipping from one project to another, but I did half have the peacock feather in mind when I made it. The cording was couched over the painted lines on the calico.

For the “eye” on the third feather, my original idea didn’t work. I have a roll of yellow organza which I tried to layer up, but it frays dreadfully and I wanted to have a non-fraying edge. I tried several layers, stitched through a white felt “eye” to give a textured effect, having discarded yellow and neutral: both killed the yellow of the organza.

It didn’t look right at all. Jean came up with some gold leather, which didn’t look right either.

Back to the organza, two layers, but the bond-web had disappeared into the black hole again. I searched all over, to no avail. The only suitable sticky stuff was Misty fuse, worth a try. Perfect, it actually made it sparkle more. A line of gold thread was couched down the centre of the eye, some green Goldfingering around the edge, and two couched rows of slubby green yarn a few millimetres away.

The three sections are totally different weights. My initial idea had been to make three separate pieces, but I think I like them better as one. The centre is the heaviest and draws the eye in, and when you go closer in to see the detail you also see the other two, the lighter on the left, and on the right a weight somewhere between the two.

Grasby Embroiderers Exhibition at Elsham

A few months ago it was arranged that the Grasby Embroiderers group, of which I am a member, was going to have an exhibition of our recent work at Elsham Open Gardens this weekend.

We have hung / displayed the work late this afternoon. It’s a lovely light, airy village hall and the work looks good. Some is our new body of work entitled “Altered Images”. We all started with an image of our choice, and then altered it in some way: colour, distortion, reflection, surreal.

The group banner that we all worked on a few years ago is having another airing, too. There were nine of us at the time, and we each did two green letters in techniques of our choice. They were then appliquéd to the stitched background. There were many hours of work with a varigated thread, stitched on canvas on the diagonal in both directions. It has been mistaken for a piece of fabric on a few occasions!

To go with the garden theme, the flowers that were at The Old Rectory exhibition in Epworth last year are also on display. Some new pieces have also been added, and they look quite different when they are displayed differently too. There will no doubt be a different group of people attending the Open Garden event as well.

We’ve also done a canvas work and French knot garden….. or two, or three, or four of them in some cases. It started with a little workshop that Helen did for us all.

We each chose our own flower or leaf for inspiration, which gave us a colour palette as a starting point.

Helen had also prepared and painted the canvas (green) for us all. The photo doesn’t show how textured it really is, but it’s made in two layers, the bottom one just French knots and the top more French knots around the square of canvas work stitches.

This one of mine was inspired by a rose garden. Certainly pinks are out of my comfort zone, but they were a nice change. We chose our own canvas work stitches too, so they all look completely different

The yellows and greens are far more my colour palette, and were inspired by daffodils and narcissi, a lovely pop of colour after the winter. They are mounted on painted coasters, so aren’t very big. All the same, I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess as to how many French knots it took to finish them, and I certainly didn’t do any more for a while afterwards!

The weather forecast is for a hot, sunny weekend, so hopefully it will be a well attended event. I’m helping to man the display on Sunday, so will take more photos then and try to get to see some of the gardens as well.