What on earth has this to do with Norwich Shawls?

in October 1977 Ian Dury signed up for the 'Stiffs Live' Tour, with Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Nick Lowe, Wreckless Eric and Larry Wallis. Ian Dury and the Blockheads stole the shows completely.

I was there in Norwich and i have kept my half ticket ever since

i seem to remember Ian with a plastic fried egg on his shoulder, it was a great time in my life; art college and punk! what more could one wish for?

and i will leave you with that thought

Travellers Tales at the Bristol Guild

South West Textile Group are having an exhibition at The Bristol Guild from 23rd April until 14th May. 
Title: 'Travellers Tales'

and I have just finished my main piece hurrah

'This I have heard'

 so i have come a long way since my last post about this work. the crocheted containers are now consigned to the drawer marked 'possible use in future projects' and my plaited bus tickets have become the container/reticules. i usually come back to the idea that less is more and to keep things simple and not to overwork them.

working in a spiral manner, stitched with transparent nylon sewing thread through the holes in the previous spiral they remain slightly articulated. each is about 4cm in diameter at their opening and i had to use a magnifier to work the cross stitch letters on a 1cm wide tap. the whole finished piece is 45cm long x 20cm wide.

the background was chosen with some help from my friends at a SWTG meeting and it is actually in keeping with 'tagecoach' buses as here in Exeter they are white blue and orange. the orange is a achieved with a 'Montana' aerosol paint sprayed onto white Ramie fabric and when dried i polished it by rubbing with a smooth surface. So much easier than dyeing.

because essentially they are a collection; bus ticket collection and collected phrases i have treated them like a museum collection and placed them in a perspex box. this one above complete with my image unfortunately.

please do come along and see the exhibition but please check the website for opening times.

'Nature in Art' Stitch Textile Artists exhibition

we are exhibiting over the Easter weekend and onwards at 'Nature in Art' near Gloucester.
the exhibition is our 'On the Edge' exhibition we exhibited last year at ilminster but with quite a few changes (except for mine) to reflect 'nature'

please come and visit

 

Plaiting or is it weaving with bus tickets

i always seem to do it to myself and i'm obviously a sucker for punishment but i'm still plodding through the bus tickets. it all stemmed from conserving a straw bonnet at work and weaving japanese paper strips to match missing areas of  straw plait. i enjoyed the rhythmical nature of the plaiting and thought i would remember it for future use!

Travelling about on the bus here in Devon leaves me with a purse full of tickets i always think a waste to throw away and at last i'm putting them to some good use.

the tickets themselves are quite small 6cm x 8cm so i join about 4 together with adhesive and then cut them into 3mm wide strips! i'm using 5 strips to plait, joining more on when needed. when finished they look a bit stark although the backs are quite colourful with 'McDonald's', 'Subway' or 'Burger King' vouchers on the back - just think of all those missed meals i could have had (or not), perhaps that's another work for the future.

the great thing about the paper they use is that it's heat sensitive so i take an iron to the plait which makes the front a beautiful dark grey. i then wax the whole strip and construct them into reticule type containers using traditional bonnet making techniques by spiralling round and stitching the edge of the braid through the layer underneath.

a taster of part of the finished item. i dread to think how much i have spent on tickets!
 

Hello I am here and ought to visit more often

Been a bit slow this year. the head is still fuzzy from Christmas cold and cough but am beginning to emerge although not enamoured with inspiration or lack of. anyway i am proceeding with my vessels for a future exhibition 'Travellers Tales'.
ideas behind the work are based on people travelling, sparked by a project at work on repacking reticules and purses. something people would need on a journey would be money containers/bags/purses etc. i have expanded on this thinking of carriages and buses, people in the past probably had similar conversations to those nowadays.

'is there anything on the tele?'

 i am still not sure about these so it may all change but thinking about it so watch this space.

i have used crochet and knitting with some machine stitch grids, cross stitch and i have been plaiting my bus tickets as one does! the largest is about 10cm high

bus tickets advertising 'subway'

 to make matters even more intricate, after 30 years i have taken up lace making again! it is coming back but i have set myself a large task even though it is small.

 the makings of a shell
 

Merry Christmas everyone

the first thing i saw this morning

i hope everyone has a great Christmas and Creative 2016

Imprints at Taunton

i spent a few hours last week at the museum stewarding so I was able at last to take a picture of my piece 'Subjoined Lines'. the problem of not having much space at home is that large items never get hung or photographed in their entirety.

the team at Taunton had done a wonderful job with the brackets at the top and although it was hung higher than I had wanted I can see why they did it.

label telling the story

detail and shadows

it was great seeing it in a museum setting. in fact the whole exhibition was really well hung and has had a lot of interest.
On until the beginning of January.