Taking a Line for a Dance

February 27, 2014February 10, 2020 | janethaigh

GEDSC DIGITAL CAMERA — Simple sample of machine embroidery by Susi Bancroft

“Taking a line for a dance” is a good way to describe what happens with free machine embroidery…the freedom with which the needle can stitch patterns, images and even writing very fast – is really fascinating to watch. First disengage the feed dog – I just love that name for the row of teeth embedded in the metal plate below the needle….

and either using a specially sprung embroidery needle, with or without the old school embroidery hoop to keep the fabric tight, it is possible to move the fabric enabling the still needle to make lines of stitches.

Recently at Heart Space studios, Susi Bancroft taught a group of students how to achieve this technique in just one afternoon. First she got everyone to try to write their names or draw something by moving the paper while someone else held the pencil steady…with very unsteady results…but this is how machine embroidery works. She then got everyone stitching with reference to the drawings and suddenly things started to happen – fast

The first attempts at machining were definitely stronger than the pencil drawings. Susi always gets everyone to stitch in black cotton on white calico first, to gain a strong contrasting line..

It didn’t take long before everyone was feeling a lot more confident and really getting to grips with larger scale drawings

One of the exercises offered was to copy a black and white drawing a drawing – with remarkable results considering no guide lines had been drawn beforehand.

Susi had also brought in a book of samples of her own work and showed the students these to demonstrate what else could be achieved now they had the basics…

Now the colour started to be sampled, this is where all textile people get excited – endless possibilities just by changing the thread ….

and appliqued fabrics started to appear – each person had brought some form of inspirational work, either an illustrated card or photographs and drawings

Now I know that working with the sprung embroidery or darning needle means that the hoops aren’t necessary, but Susi feels that for the first attempts everyone should adopt a belt and braces attitude, the fabric needs to be as taut at possible to get the best results. When everyone feels confident of drawing then they can remove the hoop – however most people took advantage of this restriction – this work below is already framed – it actually reads ” I am Very Happy”

and here the nuisance of not being able to manouvre the stitching past the hoops intrusive clamps has made a new design from the original card – go with the flow…..

Some more renditions of photographs and cards start to take on a life of their own – this is why I think that copying something inspirational is a good way to start off any new technique, the worry of design is taken away and suddenly invention takes over..

and working from lovely photographs is often a good way to get started – the fabric soon asserts itself.

Printing Lino on Linen

February 17, 2014 | janethaigh

simple drawings for sensuous lino cutting

I haven’t cut and printed Lino for oh…..well, since I left art college in the late 1960’s, so that’s almost………. lets’ move on! Checking out our really popular Lino Printing on Linen workshop at Heart Space Studios, run by Jacqui Watkins, I had an overwhelming urge to join in – the sensuous feel of cutting through lino really appeals to me as it is another form of drawing – but the transformation when the block is printed is almost miraculous.

first simple line drawing on sheet of lino

Jackie had asked people to bring in some simple linear images or their own drawings to work with, the first cuts were quickly sampled and assessed..

first sample print from the cut lino bird drawing.

then different colours and fabrics were printed…it is such an immediate technique.

strike-offs of the bird block.

There were many different ideas in the group; lettering traced from a classic alphabet looks very different when cut and printed in this technique

tracing for a child’s name and the resulting cut block – back to front don’t forget!

and the joy of the first sample print – magical….

Da Da….first sample print…easy peasy!

it usually needs a bit of tweaking to arrive at the finished result – to print a personalised kit bag for a daughter to take to school..

finished printed kit bag

Jacqui had brought several samples of her own prints to show that just small simple motifs can be placed together to suggest movement in the birds for example. Brilliant for beginners to just work on a few small images to gain confidence.

sample swatch of small stuff ready to be assembled into different designs.

Looking round the I spied a drawing that was a very popular as a textile motif when I was an Art ‘A’ level student…half a pepper…but so retro now!

the pencil drawing of half a green pepper

I did wonder how the student would manage to overcome the solid shape; pepper insides are fascinating and intricate to draw, but a bit of a lumpen shape outside.

side by side half a pepper and pea pod

But seen next to the giant pea pod on the lino block, I was reminded of the vegetable drawings in vintage cook books by authors such as Elizabeth David and Jane Grigson. When printed onto a linen tea towel the vintage look was made even more apparent

looks exactly like a vintage tea towel, but so fresh and modern

The difference between the initial drawings and the eventual fabric prints was remarkable, even a very commercial tracing of a Jemima Pubbleduck type duck

drawings of a commercial duck design

when translated into a solid shape that carries the texture of the lino surface with the marks left from cutting away the ground, form a lively visual combination .

three bird prints and three slightly different prints…

and this all adds to the attraction of all hand-block print techniques, each print is subtly individual…

just printed lino block with marks made by linen weave on the solid areas.

and looking at the freshly printed surface of the linen weave still apparent on the block above, you can see how this happens. Next time the block is ink rolled and placed on a fresh area of linen the results will be different.

Meanwhile one of the students really took advantage of another result of hand block printing – the intentional inclusion of the cut away surface of the background..

original card of bird image with tracing and eventual print.

as can be seen below, the different stages of printing on different surfaces, on the upper left is the first print with a mottled background, the red and other blue print shows the background cut marks have been rendered in a rhythmical pattern to further enhance the whole image.

various stages of print backgrounds for this bird and branch design.

I am hoping to resurrect my lino printing by making a block of the Heart Hand and Eye symbols that I use for the Heart Space Studio logo, this is from a tiny rubber stamp adapted from a commercial design. I am considering to make products to sell in the our gift shop…so watch this space.

Heart Space Studios Logo

Valentine Hearts

February 13, 2014February 10, 2020 | janethaigh

The small but delightful exhibition that the Heart Space Studios staff made in the mixed media session are all framed and ready to go on the wall ….

the first to arrive through the post was a box of stitched printed paper hearts from Susie Bancroft – so I set about mounting rows of them on Japanese hand-made paper or crumpled tissue papers ready for framing

the cotton threads just going every which way – I think they look like tiny heart shaped kites…….-

the tiny hearts are somehow the most appealing, they came in all manner of materials and techniques….

I must admit that I did take a few liberties with the mounts before framing… the more impact we can give them the better chance to sell them – and this is a selling exhibition

Jane- Marie Mahy Heart Space’s display guru brought hers in already perfectly framed, as did Debbie Bird – her teeny tiny paper printed scraps look very vintage when heavily framed in black

but for something completely different we have knitted copper wires to join paper and fabrics…with a flights of swallows scattered above a nebulous clear pill-case heart

true to her discipline as a designer, Steph sent in 3 variations on her birds and hearts theme,

the third piece is an intricately cut applique of shredded bank notes, paper and woolen blanket stitched and knitted with copper wire…now that’s what I call mixed media.

the beaded paper heart by Libby Butler is at last padded and applied to a dark blue fabric ground.

and right at the last minute this evening a lovely folksy map heart came form Kirsten Hill-Nixon…really worth the wait.

and so for the 14th February 14 heart pictures.

Paper Cut Hearts

February 7, 2014February 10, 2020 | janethaigh

In celebration of Valentin’s day the staff and tutors at Heart Space Studios got together to develop mixed media work based upon Paper Cutting. Debby Bird led the session – a chance for everyone to get to know one another better and swap information, materials and ideas. The project was to make selling exhibition of heart pictures or cards for our gift shop.

The tutors had been asked to bring in materials and equipment from their own practice, and so when these came out everyone stared to play with different things..

everyone had very different pieces of inspirational materials…

the characters of the makers was apparent by the things they chose to bring….

Each person has developed stashes of very personal things and now they had a good excuse to use them…..

in fact even the boxes and bags the materials had been brought in were inspirational.

Just as we were getting started we were visited by a camera team to record the workshop for the regional daily news programme on ITV.

Sophie and I were interviewed separately about various aspects of the how Heart Space works, she was fluent and received a round of applause from the group, but I was told by the interviewer that they had lots of ‘sound bites’ from me – I think this is a polite way of saying I didn’t exactly answer the questions.

But we were all intrigued by the roving miniature camera used to get close-ups of the techniques were using. Back to work after the excitement and after we had given 5 top tips for beginners – more of which later…..

Once the filming was over everyone suddenly seemed to be energised by what they could achieve in the day, they each had to make 1 sample heart picture that would ideally lead to a few other versions when they went home, when framed all this work will make up the Valentine’s exhibition for Heart Space Studios

I was really pleased to see that Libby, who volunteers helping to generate our publicity, used the techniques I had taught at the first session of the Crazy Beading course that run on alternate Saturday mornings – really good to see how simple ideas can be adapted to new materials.

Suddenly hearts started to appear on all the work sites.

a close – up reveals a really strange use of mixed media – now who would have thought that medicine capsules could look so glamorous?

a really interesting idea emerged from Kirsten, she placed hearts and figures either side of a large decorative heart all of which she had cut from maps, I liked the idea that she could make links between the hearts and the figures using the map as a route……..

the simplest hearts are often very successful – these stitched, printed, miniature bunting strips are just so desirable.

When the sampling session was finished everyone set their work out for viewing by everyone – several people were determined to get more work for next week – which apart from St Valentine’s day celebration is the 3rd anniversary of the opening Heart Space Studios.

Well they all promised to send or bring work for exhibition by the end of the week – so the next post will show the results….Oh and the 5 top tips for staring to make with textiles,

1 when threading a needle 1) cut the needle end of the thread at a 45% angle

2 when threading a needle 2) lick both the end of the thread and the eye of the needle

3 use circular needles to knit garments – you only ever have to make the basic knit stitch ( not alternate with rows of purl) and there are fewer seams to stitch up.

4 use the best possible materials you can afford – always.

5 press as you go when making any garments (this is also my own favourite rule)

Left Hand Drawing

January 27, 2014February 10, 2020 | janethaigh

Practice What You Preach, is a good motto to live by: so soon after I broke my right wrist, I decided to start drawing with my left hand – as left or weaker hand drawing is one the basic exercises that I often employ when teaching drawing to a group of nervous beginners as it levels out the drawing ability of everyone.

As you can see I decided to make linear observational drawings of the very thing that was ruling my life, the cast, sling and inert fingers of my right hand, also it would stay in position until I was finished. The first drawing took more than an hour to complete – a really long time for an A4 page of black and white line work. I used a propelling pencil, the first thing to hand, so the range of marks was restricted – but this turned out to be a useful restriction.

This first drawing has all the hallmarks of a weak drawing having been revised – I decided to make a continual line drawing, ie not taking my hands off the page as I seemed to have lost the innate sense of proportion enjoyed with my right hand, I couldn’t trust my judgement of angles and distances between the elements of the hand and arm. When I had finished the first lower drawing it looked really weak and wobbly and lost on the page, so I filled in the background of the scarf – this took a lot of time, my left hand has no strength and the shading looked scribbled instead of nuanced to describe the density of the fabric and the contours of the folds. Then I drew a line drawing of the first drawing, I was surprised that these clumsy drawings do sill look like my work…drawing is like handwriting.

second left hand drawing — my second sling line drawing

The second drawing appears simpler because I had more confidence after drawing for an hour and I used an eraser as a drawing tool – a very blunt instrument in my left hand. Still keeping the continuous line as a discipline this study suffers from overdrawing – a thing I absolutely hate in anyone’s drawing . The second firmer line that covers the first attempt is invariably clumsy and the drawing looks stilted ( see fingers); better a light wispy drawing than a second deader line. But even the writing is a bit more controlled. I also began to change the way of describing the fabrics, the dotted lines are my version of the crepe bandage.

third left hand drawing — my third drawing – sleeping terriers.

Deciding on making descriptive pencil marks rather than the continuous line drawings, the next day I embarked on drawing my dogs. I was confined to the sitting room to keep my arm still and propped above my heart to try to alleviate the bruising, and they had taken to settling down in front of the fire where they snoozed all day, although they often just got up and walked away mid drawing. The full length sleeping dog drawing above looks exactly like my dog Daisy, but not at all like my usual drawings.

I have written frustrated comments around the page – “line easier than shading” but I was finding that shading with a softer drawing pencil meant that I had very little control of the angle of the point – it was like drawing while looking in a mirror. The lines are fuzzy with the pencil lead wearing down quickly as I worked, I was unable to manipulate a sharpener – let alone a knife. The surface is getting rubbed with my left arm as I work and looks really lifeless.When using pencils I rely on the range of different tones available from even an HB pencil – but they rely on pressure to make them.

forth terrier drawing — Daisy lying down

Reverting to the propelling pencil I attempted to make a more linear study of the dog’s fur; the way it grows is one the most interesting things to draw. I tried to add shading to the line without resorting to smudging and rubbing to get darker marks, but my left hand does not have the strength of my right to press down for a blacker thicker line. Again this drawing seems clumsy because of how I chose to make my marks I simply can’t use many of the refined marks available with my right hand. I reverted to my line drawings – they made me feel better!

line drawing terrier head — my reversion to line drawing for Boysie’s head.

Now this really started me thinking about how I relate to my drawings, they aren’t just a useful tool to free the ideas in my head – although this is their most useful service to me; they actually explain the world I see to me and to everyone else who cares to look – they are the most direct and personal extension of me. I have spent a long time (way over the 10,000 hours required to make a craft skill second nature to the maker) developing a fluent style of drawing, almost shorthand, that enables me to both understand what I see and/or imagine. Look at my drawings and you will see who else I am – beyond the person in front of you – and they are how I want to be seen. Heck!

head of sleeping terrier — more recent left hand drawing of Boysie’s sleeping head

2 weeks on and I have started drawing the dogs again. My right hand, still in the cast, has some movement but it is too painful to use often. The drawing of the sleeping terrier above is a fair portrait of Boysie and also my line has become more descriptive. I am learning to make smaller studies, not expect too much – must remember to deal with details when teaching beginners.

Sleeping terrier — Daisy asleep on Sofa next to me. using both left and right hands

Although these drawings are still very clumsy to my mind and painfully slow to make – they are of my scraggy terriers and friends can recognise them individually. The sleeping dogs above were both started with my right hand, I mapped out the whole area to be drawn first using my right hand, you can just see the outline. Now whether my belief in the outline made me feel more secure to use my left hand to work the details or whether using my left hand for the last month has given me more control I do not know – but these are drawings that do not look like they are made with the weaker hand.

But just so that you can see the model that I worked from, enabling you to judge if I am back to my fluent line – here is Daisy still asleep long after I had finished the study above.

sleeping dog daisy — my dog daisy – still asleep

There are all sorts of things written about drawing with your weaker hand – you are more in touch with your inner being, using the opposite side of the brain unearths alternative visions etc. All I have to say is that it is very slow, very demoralising to begin with and completely exhausting – just like learning to draw with your strong hand!

Bling Slings

January 22, 2014February 10, 2020 | janethaigh

To celebrate my return to posting my blogs I am showing a small selection of decorative arm slings – yes dear readers I have a broken wrist, my right wrist; so there has been no writing, stitching and perhaps worst of all no drawing/doodling/scribbling for more than a month now. But I determined to make something visually interesting for HER WORK from the whole unhappy event as soon as I could manage to use my Mac beyond typing/tapping with my left hand

pansy sling — my old favourite pansy scarf

Sensing a dressing -up opportunity I got rid of the NHS white cotton sling as soon as I could – like the next day, and instructed my husband, Steve, to take pictures each morning of mt slings. The commercial alternatives for the longer term support were in dreary colours – as if you wanted to hide the injured limb – I want everyone to see clearly my affliction and Keep Clear! So I determined to find alternatives from my stash of both vintage and modern scarves, let’s face it any excuse to dress up !

woven silk sling — my shot silk woven scarf with my co-ordinated enamel heart brooch and new pink cast

in fact I welcomed the opportunity to wear these old scarves, using them as slings affords much more are pattern to seen, tied around the neck only a small area is glimpsed if you have long hair.

woven striped sling — a really wide and draped stole sling

the really wide slings hide my new bright pink cast when it doesn’t tone with the clothes.

vintage 1950's scarf sling. — vintage 1950’s printed scarf sling

I am especially pleased to be able to wear the original art deco head square, very dynamic and such unusual colours and pattern clash.

art deco silk scarf — my art deco scarf looks so modern worn like this

and last but not least my actual ‘bling sling’ which is a length of vintage black beaded net, that I had previously stitched to a length of velvet ribbon in order to wear as a belt. I went to a party, the only party of the season that I had managed to attend; and I apologise for this bleary image but this was taken after the party had finished and we were both a bit tired and emotional,

black beaded bling sling — the original bling sling with my vintage beaded cardigan

Crazy Barcelona

November 10, 2013February 10, 2020 | janethaigh

cb5 — crazy mosaic by Antoni Gaudi at Parc Guell, Barcelona

Crazy Barcelona – crazy patchworks everywhere, but not in fabric – in ceramic, stone and marble. OK then, crazy mosaics, but whatever you call them there is no better place to appreciate them than at Parc Geull, designed and built by Antoni Gaudi in the first 14 years of the 19th century. I have seen images of these mosaics before but never appreciated the size and the sheer exuberance of the patterns.

cb15 — undulating crazy seating on the terrace

039 — view of the entrance to Parc Geull from the crazy mosaic seating

I was delighted to see broken plates, tiles, and rounded roof ridge tiles put together in a myriad of ways, some where just pretty with sections with large flowers that had been broken but kept intact when cemented together and then surrounded by all shades of one background colour. Here is inspiration indeed, but immediately I thought of the Crazy Embroidery classes that I teach at Heart Space Studios, lots of new ideas to create crazy samplers.

031 — broken flowered ceramic tiles and plates with narrow borders

I started to see how the sustained patterning of the whole site didn’t just merge into one long visual porridge; there were sections of patterns with plain areas between them and the way that the patterns started to drift into plain areas was really brilliantly handled…

cb1 — chintz patterns give way to a plain white area.

Sometimes the crazy patches were confined to simple shapes and surrounded by a sea of broken ceramics in a wide range of whites, the use of white ceramics when fired and glazed to produce many different variations is a major feature in this garden.

cb2 — circle of crazy within white surround

cb4 — diamond of crazy with mixed white surround

cb14 — many different crazy whites shapes make for gentle and cool seating surfaces

there were other more fluid shapes contained by the white ground….

cb12 — commas placed in a line around the base of a column

I also really enjoyed seeing patterns within patterns,

I really like these wonky squares set in a sea of crazy patterns; the makers must have had such a good time doing this work. Transitions from patterns to solid colours was just masterful in places

cb3 — this transition from rich colour to single coloured patterns is masterful

in fact the single coloured sections were simply beautiful – here is a range of crazy blue patterns

034 — typical Spanish hand painted blue tiles

052 — refined diamond designs on blue and white striped ground

while most of the ceramic patterns are traditional in flavour there were also some more abstract patterning to be found,

041 — abstract patterns must have looked strange in the early 1900’s

but this whole set of designs is made from re-cycled materials, apart from the abundance of beautiful old and broken patterned tiles from the Spanish ceramic factories, I was happy to see this poorly fired plate used to good effect.

cb10 — poorly fired glazed plate has been put to good use.

After an hour of my visit I started to see evidence of Crazy everywhere..

cbground2 — the sandy ground in the park is impressed with crazy patterns

looking down at the sandy pathways I saw crazy patterns impressed by the soles of many different shoes, and once out of the park, everywhere I looked was Crazy Heaven.

So now I have decided to try to develop some of these ideas into new Crazy Patchwork designs for cushion cover designs to show Hugh Ehrman at Ehrman Tapestry company for their future collections.

Knitwear – but not as you know it!

September 29, 2013February 10, 2020 | janethaigh

We have a wonderful new exhibition at Heart Space Studios. It is a collection by Stephanie Wooster ( who conducts unusual knit workshops with us) developed from her MA studies and it concerns itself with wrapping, tying and generally caressing the upper body. the names of the different pieces tell how they are perceived by the maker – Swaddle, Swathe, Shawl, Sheath, Mantle, Shroud. The work is embroidered, felted, machine knitted, plaited and patch-worked together, with feathers, braids and calico. It sets a calm but slightly surreal feeling to our small gallery space.

The first things brought in were a series of clear plastic torsos which were then dressed in simple calico shifts before being hung on the wall.

then Steph started to dress them up; first the dramatic feathered collar was placed to set the atmosphere….

Then out came feathered scarves, stoles and wraps, hand knitted and coiled hanks of wool, even felted knitting with feathers as the motif….

the large wraps, shawls or scarves, call them what you will – are made from several different textiles and hand stitched or even embroidered together often using a red knitted braid as a backing, this causes interesting lines to be drawn around the body when draped.

the row of 4 pieces are really powerful and entice people to study them up close and personal…viewers are not quite sure what they are seeing, are these felted woven blankets, some unusual woolen ticking or simple striped knitting?

When this group were placed Steph brought out a whole range of very finely machine knitted lengths in different colours and combinations, these can to worn any which way – I like them draped around the neck as an elegant sort of knitted necklace.

We like to have exhibitions of selling stuff at Heart Space, and most of these pieces are for sale, but Steph also brought a selection of beautifully refined knitted ribbons, that are carefully joined at the back so that they always behave well when draped! This is what I like to have for sale in the studios, exciting but wearable pieces with an edge, not fashion but style!

Also seen in far right of the picture is another knitted and embroidered piece ” I am what I am”

this was made for another exhibition and shown earlier in the year , Mending at the Museum, it was really good to see it again with these earlier pieces and interesting to see how new work develops out of completely different stimuli. Steph has also made a series of mixed media hot water bottle covers, developed from her samples at the Heart Space Mixed Media workshop earlier in the year, with more of her hand warmers( it is Autumn after all) and these have specially colour co-ordinated to the exhibition.

This is what intrigues me about many successful textile makers and designers, they can develop many different types of work, from applied art pieces for museum exhibitions, to practical hand crafted things for everyday use. This is the way many of us manage to make our living while finding time and energy to research and develop our own personal work. In fact without the research and development of private passions many new and commercial designs would never see the light of day.

Looking through this book lets us see how Steph links all sorts of unusual images and ideas and then literally knits them together to make new and exciting wearable textiles.

Ribbon Felted Flowers

September 13, 2013February 10, 2020 | janethaigh

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — my totally moth eaten cashmere cardigan – but with darning still intact!

This is a sad story with a happy ending. My favourite cardigan that was included in my first ever post, Make Do and Mend, where I proudly showed the careful darning that I wore with pride, sadly, got lost. When I eventually found it pushed to the bottom of my laundry basket (don’t ask) it was totally ruined even beyond my restorative darning powers.
I decided to felt it by boiling it twice. The colours are so vibrant that I just had to try to find a use for it and I found the perfect solution when designing with some lovely felted woolen blanket flowers that Kirsten Hill-Nixon had brought along as a new idea for a class at Heart Space Studios.

Kirsten will make the flowers in the morning class and I will develop the design and make session with them in the afternoon…but first I had to design something with what she had brought me, and she had brought me a whole selection of disparate flower heads – just as I has asked her to.

I made 2 colour sets of flowers. the neutrals were really soft and wooly, very tactile and I thought first to just make a heart out of them – well I would wouldn’t I? and in fact this is a really nice idea I may go back to…..

But then I imagined them as adorning a woolly winter jumper or cardigan, they aren’t heavy but they are bulky and a brooch seemed better than stitching them to a piece of clothing. But I had been given so many flowers that I soon decided on a necklace….

I set to work but when stitching them together without a backing fabric, soon realized that I needed just a few more roses….then I remembered my old ruined cardigan. I cut the sleeves into ribbons of different coloured stripes and stared to stitch the rose buds by simply rolling and folding the strips to suggest overlapping rose petals.

I had used this system many times as it is so easy – you just need to stitch as you go and control the folded edge, I found the way to do it in a vintage dressmaking manual from the 1930’s; the natural affinity to roll for cut knitting really helps the rose petal effect. I was starting to see a new life for all my old felted woolens.

I inserted my knitted roses between Kirsten’s more substantial felt blanket ones, ( I really like her use of the blanket stitched edge for a fat rolled rose). She had provided leaves as well so they helped make the reds even stronger. Then I simply stitched 2 suede strips for ties onto the last roses and there it is – now for the neutral necklace.

this time I added wooden beads by threading them onto the leather strips to make a more decorative finish. Kirsten had filled some of the centres of the flowers with soft glowing beads so I added some wooden ones as well, the soft tones and texture of the wood feels just right for this sort of fabric.

I was really getting into my stride, and now I just want to make more of these simple flowers pieces and I didn’t use the lively red tartan rose – so now I need to pluck up courage to felt my tartans and paisley scraps to use with my old washed out jumpers……

JANET HAIGH: HER WORK

MADE WITH HEART, HAND & EYE