Since I last wrote I have been travelling, at speed with very little time to even read emails let alond download pics and upload them with thoughts to my blog – dear reader if you are feeling deprived, normal routine should now resume with luck and a fair wind. In addition to family and house and hearth matters, while in Western Australia I attended the Expressive Stitch workshop at Fibres West in Bunbury. Great workshop by Dorothy Caldwell of Canada, in which we were introduced to the technical and cultural aspects of Kantha cloth from NE India, particularly the state of Bihar. The women in the villages which produce these textiles communally decide the content, and several stitchers work on the same piece. In the pic on the right hand side above, is an image of a whole piece about single bed size, constructed of two layers of cloth through which are sitched about half a million small running stitches filling in various desiogn elements outlined in chain stitch. The whole quilt is designed around the impressions of New York USA, felt by a young 19 y.o. girl who accompanied a group of the textiles there for an exhibition. The upper left pic shows a panel in detail from the whole view, featuring a pet shop and all the doodads and gadgetry obtainable there for the pampered pets inNY society, all of which she found amazing.
The last pic, in white on black, is my version of an exercise the whole class did stitching our responses to particular words and phrases, while blindfolded. The dots down the rhs of the pic are french knots which were the starting point for each different response. To our right on our table was a threaded needle for each response, all of which we prepared before we took up our blindfolds. I don’t recall what each was, but the thing that looks like a spectacles frame was I think ‘space’ and certainly the bottom one was ‘positive and negative’. All of us had at least one very interesting outcome, which we then used to build further later on in the class. In future post I will show pics of some of the stitching I did that week.
English
Fascinating stuff – and how great to meet and talk with D. Caldwell. I so admire her work – seen only in reproduction as yet – although I have never wanted to make work quite as abstract as that myself. But it fills me with a glow every time I see an example reproduced somewhere.
I’m curious to know if she talked about her own work as well as that of the Kantha stitchers. One disappointment I have found in some workshops where I’ve looked forward to hearing an artist talking about their own work is that they have come along with a project for us participants to work on so that we can take something complete home. I prefer the intellectual stimulus of an artist sharing, and experimentation that provides a possible springboard.
The exercise you shared is particularly fascinating, and it spoke to me directly. I love blind drawing and the way it frees up my inhibitions. And kantha is the stitch which inspired me to use the general running stitches which are basic to my work (I saw a glorious kantha from Bangladesh in my local ‘Indian’ restaurant – and then started going to a couple of workshops at the UK Embroiderer’s Guild in the year when India was celebrating the 50th anniversary of their independence) although my subject matter is completely different. The idea of combining the two is inspired. It should provide an interesting exercise to loosen up the brain/hand messages if nothing else.
I look forward to any further posts on this subject.
Oh yes, Dorothy shared a lot about her current work, recent projects, and her life in general, as she was one of the evening speakers at the symposium, and was well armed with a large variety of slides to illustrate her talk.
The class was one in which experimentation was edefinitely part of the plan, and the fellow students were a lively lot with lots of good ideas and sharing – and that, too, was very stimulating.
To me it is interesting to hear anyone talk of the ‘kantha stitch’ when in realitiy it is no more than the humble running stitch used in particular ways around particular conventions and traditions. I have a long creative embroidery background, although my current label might be ‘quilter’ more than anything else ! and I have said over and over again that the straight stitch can be the most expresive stitch of all – depending on how it is used.
Omega – if you have some pics up somewhere I could see some of your work, I would be most interested. You might prefer to email me privately perhaps.