Gwyneth Depport - Artist in Residence for the Heritage Open Day at the National Trust property Gawthorpe Hall

I'm very much looking forward to being able to show some of my work at Gawthorpe Hall in Padiham, Lancashire on Saturday September 14th. Hope to see you there! http://www.gawthorpetextiles.org.uk

It was at the hall that I first was introduced to the wonderful textile collection amassed by a forward thinking Miss Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth and I have returned on several occasions, once on a study visit to get a closer look a the Blackwork held in the collection.

One of my first surprises was that Blackwork was not just black but that other colours were used on occasion and I have seen red, blue green and pink amongst others.

My attendance will be to show some of my work that has been influenced by the Blackwork and I have to say that it still does, I enjoy  mixing elements of Blackwork with other styles of working but especially enjoy the monochrome effect! Here is a small taster.....

just running through some of my machine stitches then getting carried away with it, especially loving the reverse of the fabric when the whirring had stopped......

this was a 'captured' image, made by placing a chair onto a  double OO piece of paper then spray painting it for its shadow, the chair survived but is now also Blackwork in its own right!

this is a motif I designed after experimenting with my absorption with the  roses on tea cups digitally printed onto cotton

some initial work from my Textile Mills project

I've enjoyed this project so far, I know it will be along time before I feel I have got everything I can from it.  I feel such a great affection for these mills and how they link us to the rich history of textiles here in Lancashire. These are my very first outcomes from the project, screen prints onto heavy cotton. Watch this space there will be more to come. I am especially focused on them as (fingers crossed re house sale) I may soon be leaving Lancashire, going home to Mid Wales, to another area reknowed for its historic textile production.

 

 

 

 

The process I used to create this printed cloth is as follows;

After looking at the photographs from my orignal research (shown in my blog post of Oct 25) over a period of several days, certain elements of my images start to make an imprint on me. For me it is the oft quoted 'dark satanic mills' essence of the buildings, their tall chimneys, with huge areas of bricks, all surrounded, whether still in use or not, by quite evil looking wire, chain link and barbed, rusted and twisted out of shape more often than not.

After first sketching the mills with indian ink, I ran the drawings through my thermofax machine with specialist plastic mesh over them. The carbon in the indian ink (any carbon media would work) then heats up on its way through and melts where it touches the mesh. I then frame the mesh 'negative' with duck tape creating my own mini screens which will stand up to many uses if treated kindly. I screen print with textile dyes which are then heat fixed.