Whilst i was in london last week i visited my old work place,the V&A! my intention was to see, at last, the new Medieval and Renaissance galleries which i must say are looking rather splendid and these photos don't do them justice (i blame the camera!)
it was such a pity that they weren't open when i did my Opus Anglicanum study and that it took a funeral for the opportunity to see them. if anyone is working on their Opus study i highly recommend a visit to give you some idea of the pieces 'in the flesh', albeit behind glass and some unfortunately at the back of the cases when they would have benefited from being much closer to the viewer (John of Thanet being one).There are some stunning pieces and the one you can get closest too is amazingly intricate.it was also a very pleasant surprise to see displayed the small burse panel depicting St.George slaying the dragon and St.Catherine which i had conserved some eight years ago (oh dear cat out of bag!).
I swore I would never use this blog for personal information but somehow it seems wrong not to on this occassion. My brother died recently and much too young. He will be sadly missed by me and many other people. TRIBUTE
at last i think I've done it! it seems so long ago that i started this study. it was before Christmas i did some of these drawings. see my previous post for photos of the actual textile. in the end i studied 4 pieces, a small box i have been trying to get rid of for ages!,one i borrowed from a friend,another a small Christmas tree decoration i bought from Chadni Chowk and a woman's tunic (chola)i studied at the museum in Exeter and for copyright reasons i have no photos of this.i realised that i haven't labelled these pictures but i think they are fairly self explanatory.
the piece i borrowed was a bit of a patchwork and i was not able to see the reverse.some of the threads were quite flourescent so i used gel pens.
above a drawing from my box, worked in metallic threads.
next one above is the Christmas decoration, the reason i bought it was the fact it had lettering on the mirror, which appealed to my sense of the offbeat!
above drawing from the Chola which had added sequins.
i then did some extension drawings, mainly using chalks (oil and chalk)
above pink was brusho and bleach.
oil pastels on yellow tissue.
then i did quite a few using brusho, bleach and oil pastels. it took me quite a while to get into the extended drawings but i am really pleased with the above one and the following.
i did some on a hand made paper which was brushoed and then stamped with an Indian stamp in bleach and then drawn on top.
finally the stitched study! i noticed in my study how many Indian textiles are embroidered on a patterned fabric that bears no relationship whatsoever to the embroidered design, so i worked my stitches onto patterned paper. the other thing that evokes Indian textiles are the many varied colours, so i chose colours i had observed in my studies. the idea of the patchwork was from the first textile.
chain stitch
buttonhole stitch and couching on a poppadom wrapper
Kutch stitch which appears everywhere and in many shapes and patterns all based on a grid of threads.
the last stitch is a combination of Kutch and two types of herringbone with a back stitch at the base. half way through my study i was having difficulty finding the stitch techniques i wanted so i ordered Anne Morrell's 'The Technique of Indian Embroidery' book through the library. Who would have thought that Budleigh Salterton would come up trumps on inter library loan. Budleigh pops up everywhere, even in Noel Cowards 'Blythe Spirit'!!!
As an aside i have just been to see 'Paper Works' an exhibition of art made from paper at The Devon Guild of Craftsmen, wonderfully inspiring. tomorrow i am hopefully going to Bristol to see 'Celebrating Paper' at the Royal West of England Academy and hopefully pop into Colston Hall in en route to see Matthew Harris' walls!! Oh and i can thoroughly recommend the Chris Ofili at Tate Britain, WOW i want some polyester resin to play with.
Whilst i was in london last week i visited my old work place,the V&A! my intention was to see, at last, the new Medieval and Renaissance galleries which i must say are looking rather splendid and these photos don't do them justice (i blame the camera!)
it was such a pity that they weren't open when i did my Opus Anglicanum study and that it took a funeral for the opportunity to see them. if anyone is working on their Opus study i highly recommend a visit to give you some idea of the pieces 'in the flesh', albeit behind glass and some unfortunately at the back of the cases when they would have benefited from being much closer to the viewer (John of Thanet being one).There are some stunning pieces and the one you can get closest too is amazingly intricate.
