qiilting ahoy

so im very much aware that i havnt blogged since my last exhibition in december, but that doesnt mean i havnt been busy doing work, Since then ive been carrying on with my fortnightly meeting with the liverbirds and i am really loving it. Like i said all the ladies are fantastic at offering help and suggestions, and thats what i need at the moment as im constructing blocks and patches, but theyre able to suggest possibly easier ways to go about doing things. Since Christmas ive began work on a quilt which maps my mother and her social interactions as a nurse, if social interactions is the right word - im not sure. I have my whole quilt pieced together along with the wadding and backing, what im finding is holding me up is that i have two many ideas on how to embellish and quilt the piece to add context and further dimensions to the piece. Anyway, when i figure out what i want to do which will hopefully be tomorow afternoon, il post some pictures of the half finished quilt. I must add that because this quilt is about my mother and the narratives she creates as a nurse, it is made entirely from her various scrubs which she has worn at the hospital, as well as a small saching of one of her old summer dresses to break up the monotonous block colours of the scrubs.

quick before the sun goes down

i worked today on putting my fabricated apples into context and i thought the best way to do this would be to photograph them in situe, so off i went to do so. Unfortunately i only had access to experimental apple designs, so when my exhibitions over i would like to re-shoot an build up an array of photographs. These photographs, especially the ones of the apple treated with dye i believe are asthetically beautiful and fitting to the trees so i would like to, if i could, either propose a small exhibition to a local garden center where i would be able to hang all of my apples, or speak to my local wild flower center at court hey and see if i oculd exhibit inside there center in one of their trees. Il keep you updated on what happens.

As you can see, i played around as much as i could with the apples in context in relation to plants as i looked at trees in parks, aswell as house plants and plants in back yards etc. I believe that the apples int he trees work best as that is where you would expect to find apples, but photographs such as the apple in the vines are equally exciting, just in different ways. Instead of being excited because of how cohesive the works are together, i was instead excited by how juxtaposing the works were, textile with vines,but because of the colours use, one cohesive piece is still achieved i believe.

This one is my favourite image of the day. The pinks and reds of the apple are complemented with the pale yellows and browns of the surrounding leaves, especially when the hanging leaves are hit by the deminishing sun, acting as stained glass and almost tinting the photograph. It evokes warm and homely feelings for me at least of brisk autumn days.

Today was the final day for hanging our mid-year exhibition at manchester met uni and so as you can imagine i have endured a very stressful week in preperation for it and today was no exception as i struggled to trandsport and insert my colour ice cubes which i mentioned as a current experiment in my blog, into their blank textile apple casing. For this exhibition i had discussed and interpreted the theme of nature versus nurture. I juxtaposed the two by creating what could be thought the epitamy of nature its self - the apple, with the knowledge of context that the apple form are man made to our specifications and there a factor of nurture.

I explored this theme through two pieces of work which althought somewhat different in medium, come together int he exploration of a mutual theme. The first of the works was a play on nature through the juxtapositioning of nature and material. Naturalistic form with a tree (upon which apples grow) transformed by man into an everyday commodity - paper. I tried to do this quite litterly by placing on inside the other:




At the same time as developing the previous work i was developing my blankapples and dyes, including man made and natural dyes. Choosing man made dyes against the apple form it evoked a more rapid and vibrant response, emphmasising the evoking question within the theme and all its aspects ( such as of which are these we a product?)

I particularly liked the way the man made dyes conjoined within the apples core and penetraited the surface with distorted boundaries of colour.

To emphasise the man made queslities within a further dimention in this work i crocheted the apple inserting rows of sequins where asthetically appropriate. This for me is a crafgt which truely represents the makings of man. I particularly liked the organic quality i seemed to recieve from this piece.

Now back to the fabric apples. In order to hang them i had to have made an mdf frame which affixed to a ceiling - only problem was the cieling was a hexigan shape which means i have to give special thanks to our technician paul. With his help i was then able to affix my hooks upon which the apples would dangle. These apples i must mention also represent another theme which i am currently exploring, a much wider theme of narrative upon textile and i think the concept of theme apples represents narrative upon textile very appropriately. As the coloured ice cubes inside the plain cottoned apple melts, the story of the colours penetrait the surface, telling a narrative of that moment in time when the ink reaches the surface.

After alot of hard work and alot of man hours, including a few saviours with sewing needles i was able to create the collectively cohesive piece of work that i wanted which i believe demonstraited my theme and evocation of the thoughts behing nature versus nurture. I hope you enjoyed looking at the work, as i enjoyed making it.

sewing machine fun

So today is the four day count down until i have to put up my pending exhibition, and the presence of my first sewing machine coundn't have come at a better time. Instead of having to hand sew individually each of the six segments of each apple, i can get the complete in under half the time and with fewer injuries - which i think is always a positive.

What i have found the most presurising this weekend, was the final stages in planning of the exhibition. Because the site is split between two premisis i cannot finalise the details of the asthetic of my exhibition and therefore am completing my planning with manoverability. Since my last blog which mentioned and thanked the ladies from the Liverbirds, i have been focused on experimenting with the particular textile out of which i construct my apple, and the combination of dyes that i will put inside them.

Liverbirds are lively indeed

i had some trouble yesterday updating my blog, so this blog should actually come afte the next one but never mind. I just wanted to share with everyone my experience of yesterday - i had my first quilters club meeting! It was really interesting and all the ladies were really lovely and keen to help and find out about what i do and like. I couldnt of hoped for a better group of girls. The two hour meeting consisted of getting to know the ladies and what they like to do within quilting or craft, i got my own personal show and tell of the ladies past works including collaberative projects between the group that look stunning. One lady who i feel i should mention even thought all of the ladies were very welcoming was judith. On entering she came straight over to greet me and was just very positive and open and made me feel more than welcome, always offering any help or information if i needed it. Thank you Judith and all the other ladies.

I got some of the basic traditional techniques explained to me and after seeing the show and tell i realised that it was the traditional that i wanted to pursue, so at our next meeting i hope to have completed a few blocks towards my family patchwork quilt.

what to do, what to do?

So, its monday and my fingers have been killing me since about 3pm as i battle with two ideas for a quickly approaching exhibition which i am contructing for. Im finding it hard with which way i want this particular exhibition to go, and which project to display? Do i cut my elaborate apple project short in its development and create a sub-finished project? Or do i display my latest experimentation works which look at the exploration of colour and the narrative it tells as it bleeds from one layer, through to an external. This project is something i will explain in another blog. With the latter, one of the aims i have been trying to complete is instead of freezing one block of food colourant to thaw out within my textile, i want to have two or three colours thaw out, but to appear on my external textile in the order that i want. In this experiments i have stuck with the apples form so therefore i thought it could be interesting to make the colours that appear, mimic nature and colours associated with ripening. I am just going to continue with my colour experimentation this evening. Until next time ...

Contribute to World Aids day in Manchester

There is a patchwork quilt project at the beginning of December that i will certainly be taking a part in, and wanted to extend the invitation to all of you, so just follow this link if your interested.
http://janesinteractivearts.wordpress.com