Mouth Wash, French Dressing and Needlepunch

More of my most recent embroideries.

I'm starting to panic a bit now about the degree show and which pieces I'm going to show.

This top needle-punch piece is pleasing me, maybe some things more along these lines?

I'm enjoying using the embellisher at the moment as well (patches on the mouth wash recipe). It adds texture and is a very fast way of making marks, but I still think I prefer the hand embroidered approach (the tape mark on the bottom recipe).

Still lots more embroidering to be doing!

166bpm at Walcot Chapel

Tom Oliver Maryniak

'Decline and Fall' 2011. (Installation and Woodcut)

Mike Smart

'Untitled' (Cups) 2011

Sophie Jilliard

'Ongoing' 2011 (Mixed media)

Last night we popped along to the private view of 166bpm at Walcot Chapel, Bath. It was buzzing and loads of people had turned up to have a look.

The exhibition itself was really varied and was brilliantly colour coordinated, from the red yarn on the gates to the deliberate red-ness of the canapés and candles that were dotted around.

These are pieces that I particularly liked: Tom Oliver Maryniak, Mike Smart and Sophie Jilliard.

The next recipes

Just scanned these little lovelies in. These are the recipes I'll be working on over the next few days.

I'll keep you updated!!

Charity shopping (again)

On friday when I was in worcester visiting Jess we happened across a row of about 12 charity shops. Jess said she had never been in before?!?

There was amazing, beauteous things inside, completely untouched by the Cool-Cats-Of-Bath.

Despite being hideously poor at the moment I treated myself to a grey snake print top and this shoulder-padded beaded beauty in Scope. (Scope was the most fruitful.) Along the road I also found a rusty orange Jaeger lambs wool cardigan with big gold buttons and a floral blouse.

I spent a grand total of £18.

The find of the day has to be this £5 beaded top!

Pots in the Sunshine

It's been a beautiful sunny day today, and we sat outside sketchbook-ing in the sun, but tonight saw another late night at uni and this little man popped out of his mould. I like him better than yesterday's pot.

I've also had a play with underglaze this week, I really like what it does to the faces and how it highlights the stitch. Nice.

I'm off to Worcester tomorrow - It will be so lovely to have a day off!

Lightbox

Today I did lots more needlepunch and played about with putting it on the lightbox.

I really liked how the light makes the fabrics translucent so you can see the layers of fabric underneath.

I really want a light box. Perhaps I'll find someone to make me one?

Mould Making

This week has seen 4 days in the plaster workshop - Good news that uni is now shutting at 10pm!

The plaster workshop is about the most frustrating, demotivating, mathematical place in the whole world, everything takes 5 attempts!

But I'm pleased with my mould - and it's almost been worth it!

I made a second model (the first one was well wonky!) and made a mould from it, I had no huge plaster leaks and achieved a small fortress of a mould-set-up!

Time to launch myself into the glaze room next week! And carry on embroidering faces!

Drawings - Louisa and Ernest

I've been busy compiling the final drawings of the people for my pots. I've not finished them all, and I've not stitched them yet. I think there's only one of the original people that i'm going to be able to use, But these two are my favourite so far. Great Grandma Louisa has an amazing face. She always looks so stern. And Grandad Ernest, he looks quite friendly - on all accounts he was a proper 1590's dad!

Trout Spoons

Based on the imagery from the live project I did for Stroud International Textile Festival last year I've dug out my spoons! I had a a little play with combining them with a recipe for poaching trout.

Embroidered chair-back with recipes.

This is a piece I embroidered between workshops whilst in residency at Lyndon School. It took me the best part of a week on and off and i'm really pleased with it. I've split the photographs up into separate scanned recipes - the photograph didn't show enough detail.

Recipes, latex and stitch

I found a piece of fabric which I had part coated in latex a couple of weeks ago. After a small battle and only mild loss of sewing machine needles I managed to embroider onto it turning it into a lined paper extract from a book.

I embroidered a little bit onto it and decided to scan it and try playing with the photo transfer paper. I embroidered on top of it, and here are the results.

I really quite like them!

I thought the back of the piece was quite interesting too, I was surprised that you could still read the writing. So I scanned it in and flipped it - Happy Accident!