patchwork carpet, wonder if you can still get it….

I love this crazy carpet, would so like it in my work room. I wonder where, if anywhere you could get it?  The £20.00 note is just there for scale…..I didn't drop it.

This carpet is in my daughter's Dolphin Bar & Restaurant in Newquay in Cornwall UK.

just remembering the Harrogate Knitting and Stitch show….

Well it was wonderful being a the Knitting and Stitch Show, with so many great memories of my time there.  I exhibited as a member of the Textile Bursary Group, with 10 of us at the show and the time spent on the stand with others from the group was very much enjoyed. My beautiful niece Bethany also came along to assist and we couldn't have managed without her!

Around 40,000 people came through the show over the four days and as a Textile Artist and Designer it is a very positive experience having so many people come up to you and compliment you on your work. 

It was also great to meet many of the other exhibitors from the other stands with such a wide range of working practices and supplies. A wonderful experience, meeting so many like minded people.

I love this picture of someone looking at my work, thank you for letting me share it.

These are the pieces I took, from the series “Conversations”, sourced from my observations around the activity of drinking tea and the human interaction that often accompanies it.  My mixed media processes for these pieces were inspired by Blackwork embroidery, surprisingly not just black, which I researched through a study visit to the wonderful Gawthorpe Textile Collection in Padiham, Lancashire.

“Connected” originally a charcoal sketch, digitally printed onto cotton, embroidered with cotton and embellished with plaited silk cords and brass pins.

“Conversations Past” mixed media piece made as a reference to the older stronger women in our family, although often overlooked by todays cultural slant towards youth I felt the need to acknowledge their hidden strengths. Comprising of derelict teacups, sewn into organza with and fused with heat.

“Voices   a page from my art journal /sketchbook referencing the hum of conversation in a tea shop, linen, acrylic paint, ink, thread and organza.

Tea-towels; the “Cups” design created by drawing and carving small blocks, working with acrylic paint into my art journal and then manipulating the page on Photoshop and digitally printed onto cotton.   “Random Conversations 1 & 2”  were created after haunting tea shops and collecting conversations, then collaging them onto 00 sized paper with ink, acrylic paint and torn strips of paper, photographed from above with the aid of a stepladder and then digitally printed onto cotton.

some of the Textile Art I will be taking to the Harrogate Knitting & Stitch Show this November....

.. this mixed media piece was created from derelict teacups, fused into organza with heat and tied with thin but tough wire and made as a reference to the wonderful, older and through adversity  stronger women in our family, although often overlooked by todays cultural slant towards youth and who I 

felt the need to acknowledge their hidden qualities and strengths.

to me it seemed as these smashed cups had some stories to tell....

more crockery, this time sawn apart from a loved aunts house, I wanted to see what the  fragments would look like if more uniformly cut but decided they were not as interesting

for one of the many samples I embedded the pieces into clay, the tags represent teabags and the conversations that accompanied them. I did not choose to further sample along these lines but find that 'embedding' with a slight reveal of itthe item now seems to often pop up in my work

this is one of the pieces I'll be taking along to the Knitting & Stitch show this November in Harrogate, come along and say hello!

 http://www.twistedthread.com/pages/exhibitions/viewExhibition.aspx?id=45

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

I collect vintage textiles...........

I collect vintage textiles, mainly embroidered table and tray cloths or crocheted items, these photos are of one of my favourite pieces, a fairly small crocheted blanket, just 1m x1.5m. It appears to be made from real wool and I found it in one of my local charity shops.

I love the repeat pattern of the granny squares, the jewel like colours and black 'joining' yarn that have been used. When I'm handling a piece, I have different thoughts going through my mind, were the yarns left over from a multitude of projects for someones precious family as they were growing up? Where was the crocheter sat when they were making this, with other people or quietly on their own? What was the original purpose of their piece, could it have been a gift?

Whatever the case I can only believe that it was made with love.

 

'To the Letter' exhibition at the Platform Gallery in Clitheroe, Lancashire....

The Platform Gallery is a well respected gallery situated in lovely Clitheroe, Lancashire and I'm very pleased to say that one of my 'Conversation' pieces 'Cloak' is currently hanging in the Platform Gallery's 'To the Letter' exhibition with some other amazing artists who employ the use of lettering and word in the their work. The exhibition will run until April 13th.

'Cloak' relates to how we often are in conversation with someone, who may even be quite precious to us and yet whilst we are seemingly light heartedly chatting there is something much more serious, perhaps even life changing that we would like to, but daren't discuss; the hidden conversation.

 

 

For this piece I recycled a cotton jacket, screen printing, with screens created on my thermofax machine and using acrylic paint.

 

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.  

 

I'm mesmerised by the patterns in my crocheted scarves

Here I am, making woolly gifts for Christmas, I've just finished a couple of crocheted scarves, the purple one in Honeycomb stitch and the red one in Double Treble stitch, (sounds hard but very quick to learn). What I really like is the repetition of the patterns that these stitches make.........



 

 

 

 

the rolled up scarf showing the cream edging, I used cream because of the cream flecks within the wool itself

 

this one measures 2.6 metres long

 

 

 

  

 

 

this rolled up scarf measures 2.2 metres long, plenty for a double wrap around that cold neck

some of Preston's old Textile Mills today

I'm often looking up at buildings, admiring their structure, their architects and builders, wondering about the lives that have been lived inside their walls. Lately I've been a little obesessed with the old textile mills, Horrockses, Tulketh and others here in Preston but I've a feeling I shall be travelling further afield quite soon to try and capture more images but here is a small selection of some I took a couple of weeks ago.

I hope to soon visit a Textile Mill not far from Preston the Queen Street Mill in Burnley, Lancashire it is a working museum, and I shall be taking my camera with me!

Thier sheer size is so imposing and whilst some have been redesignated as Antique and furniture warehouses and factories others have become homes and offices. However the ones that really capturing my imagination and morphing into textile art and surface pattern are those that are bound and tethered in wire. They are captured in barbed wire, weldmesh and chain link like huge brick elephants held on the ground, prevented from going about their business. I've read recently (can't recall where) that 37,000 textile workers once worked in these mills.

Most of my raw fabric comes from Whaleys (Bradford) Ltd based in Bradford, where this nobel work is still carried on, I would encourage anyone who uses raw fabric to make their purchases from Whaleys too, and help keep whats left of our textile industry going and increase our GDP! Their goods are high quality, excellent value and the staff are helpful and friendly,
here is a link to Whaley's website  Please note that Whaleys mill is not featured in any of the images below....

Anyway watch this space and my website for the artwork that is being developed around the mills and their bindings of wire......

 

 

 

 

I've done a little more on the 'Becky Attenbourough Jacket'

Whilst trying to squeeze time in for working on my beautiful daughter Rebecca's recycled 'Becky Attenborough Jacket' is like trying to teach my little dog to sing, almost impossible, but all the better when it finally happens......
I've been able to get a bit more done but I'm not sure it's going to make her birthday, more like Christmas at this rate.

  

The back is a 'Tree of Life' piece, the tree has bark made up of strawberry and barbed wire fabrics (reminds me of her when she was a teenager), the owl has been included as she is quite wise and has been since a little mite. Plenty more to do on the tree but the photo shows where I'm going I think. 

 

I wanted a couple of medals for her, one is for her heroics in looking after her little brother. These were many and varied but one particular time springs to mind.... we were living in Zimbabwe for a time and John (her little brother) had a favourite pastime of catching lizards, on one notable occasion he thought (who knows how 9 year old boys brains work?) that it would be a good idea to kiss one, a largish one. Mistake. It caught hold of his lip and hung on through his screaming and running about. Despite tugging at it neither of them could dislodge it so Rebecca filled the bathroom sink and plunged her brother's head into it, luckily the lizard had to let go or drown so a wet John was saved. A babysitter was in attendance but Rebecca at the age of 10 was oh so much more sensible.

  

 

Another badge is one for her love of cats, this is for one cat in particular, her beloved Oscar.
Rebecca also adores the colour purple so had to include a little splash of it for her.....