first page of my reborn Flora research/sketchbook – Flowers Again!
Recently, the “After Winifred” embroidery has inspired me to develop work to use as Giclee prints in order to add a fresh way of getting my work ‘out there’. I turned to my old Flora workbook, some 20+years old – but still alive for me as a source of inspiration.
last last pages of drawings circa 2000 in Flora workbook .
drawings and stitching samples for Auricular Theatre 1998
painted studies of garden Iris circa 2000
most used pages -Anemonies painted from life and photos.
I found some empty pages at the end of the old book and started to collate recent samples and drawings of bunches of flowers grown and made up at Court House Farm, where I conduct drawing workshops, using the cutting garden as inspiration.
second page of the book – old samples and magazine cuttings for colour a small bunch of dahliasobvious inspiration from Winifred Nicholson flower paintingmy initial research fixed now into book showing early samples of new-to-me Inktense pencils – as dyed ground for stitching
looking back at my Flora work, which is 3 dimensional and very heavily embroidery, I now want a freer drawn imagery to stitch into. So I bought some Derwent Inktense pencils that basically act as dyes when wetted and left to dry – I did many samples but found my drawings had too much information in them – I needed to loosen up further. Ha ha – the story of my working life!
first inkjet pencil drawing second freer drawing sample hand stitchingdesign page using a very old photograph of my own collection of hellebores against a silk ribbon applique.
To enable me to play easily with the new ink crayons I chose an old set of drawing research and photographs to work with. The colours of the crayons are very brilliant and I needed to find ways of making more subtle colours, so stippling, cross hatching and dotting colours one over another made for rich but softer ground colours – these techniques are still a work in progress. Below are 2 studies of the under drawings using pencil dyes ready to be stitched
Meanwhile I have been looking at all my old flowery finished works and their drawings to use as reference and then reframing/remounting stitched pieces ready for the printers.
original drawing for this older Hellebore embroidery right early Hellebores silk embroidery
the little Hellebore image above is my first Giclee print and the smallest at 30cms/12inches square.
Here is a set of drawings that have lain in a research book for more than 10 years, the reason that I did them was in a university research project workshop – making our own brushes with the amazingly inventive American maker Bob Ebendorf. I made several brushes out of grasses, leaves and branches, picked on my morning dog walk. None survived the drawing session, shown below, in any state to be used again.
But these are the drawings that I made and they are completely unlike any of my other drawings – ever. the colour is Red ink and the single pages measure roughly A2 (26x36cms.) There are other maker’s brushes used as well, and in some I have drawn the brush with itself, then taken it for a ride over the whole page. I still find them exhilarating and teasingly inspirational.
Sea-heather brush and some small feather drawings, Hellebore stalk and Squirreltail Grass brushes draw there own self portraitsSeeded grass self portrait.Red Ink – double sketch book page Left: squirrel tail brush. Right: grain stalks brush self portrait. Red Ink mark making double page: Left: metal jewellery chains brush. Right: racoon hair brushesLeft: pattern making, metal chains brush & copper wire brush. Right: different brushes together.Red Ink and Long Human Hair brush over double page.
I have been invited to deliver 3 day drawing classes at the Bristol Drawing School based at the Royal West of England Academy. I was asked to work with my collections of vintage embroidered textiles which include Chinese embroidered robes, Japanese kimono and Indian/Pakistani children’s clothing and tent hangings.. first I brought in the Chinese robes…
starting to draw the threadbare theatrical Chinese Dragon robe
the old tattered, ripped and worn fabrics never fail to inspire students; each class is different – although my teaching methods remain basically the same: – take care to tell the truth about what you are seeing, pay close attention to the making processes and most of all the colour.
the sensitive drawing slowly evolves
As we start to draw using only dry media – pastels, crayon and pencils – getting the colour correct is always tricky, but I try to get students to develop a colour quality rather than to try to copy the real colours…this teaches awareness of atmospheric colour.
another study of the same fabric – aiming to describe how it is stitched; not painted printed or stencilled…
I gave these students an hour to develop their first studies… they seemed to be engaged immediately – always surprising who picks what to draw. Unfortunately I have a very bad grasp of names – I could describe each student’s appearance perfectly by looking at their individual drawings but names evade me for this first week – my apologies to all.
starting out….
trying to get that elusive faded grey/ brown silk ground colour
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The silk theatrical costume of a dragon is really in a sorry state now but the colours are subtle, faded and very beautiful. The wild cardboard eyes of the dragon still command attention and trying to capture the quality of the threadbare silk really tests the students. For a totally opposite colour experience, the choice for those who like bold colour is the red and blue silk court skirt…
starting out with bold geometric colour blocks
working from more decorative sections of the skirt still produces a strong response.
starting to map out the decoration – in reality a tiny hand stitched red binding on a yellow silk applique
getting to grips with the colour of the yellow silk
using the coloured paper grounds with the pastels makes it possible to give an impression of the nuanced colours of the faded and friable silks – blending the colors to achieve the exact shade is difficult but rewarding – and you learn a lot about colour mixing and trying to keep everything clean…
1 hour into the drawing, it takes time to build up this quality of colour in pastels.
The soft grey-blue padded jacket, embroidered with wisteria blossoms, brought out everyone best attention to stitch…and although the colour proved illusive, many lovely studies were made from it.
drawing the meandering blossom on the padded and embroidered jacket
this simple tentative sketch captures the quality of the meandering blossom stalks
well the colour is way off – but what an interesting series of marks to try to capture the nuanced and subtle effect of the silk embroidery
We ended the morning with a short critical discussion about the work achieved in the first hours of the morning. In the afternoon session everyone chose different pieces to work with. I had more or less dictated the scope of first drawings (detail, detail, detail) now the students could choose how they wished to interpret the fabrics. The grey silk jacket still held its appeal.
wriggly line drawing trying to capture the crepe silk and hand stitched appliqued braid.
detail of the fastenings and braiding of the silk jacket
detail of the the hem of a large embroidered court robe with resplendent dragon
it is always interesting to see different interpretations of the same subject…the drawings below probably say more about the artists than the robe.
careful but lively study of the embroidered sea.
flamboyant cloud interpretation from the robe above
careful gradation of colours to describe the embroidered flower
My own black modern Chinese embroidered jacket has resulted in these 2 different interpretations…however in the drawing below, the student told us that she had not drawn anything for more than 20 years – so as far as I am concerned this study is a major achievement – for bravery – but had it been on black it would have been even more striking…
strong drawing of a tiny frogged fastening – a very brave and successful start after 20 years of not drawing!
when studying textiles it is often difficult not to get engrossed by the garment they constitute – here are 2 images of drawing the same skirt – the first is about the skirt, the second about the textile and the fabric manipulation.
getting engrossed in the bands of stripes made by a shibori technique on a hand woven hemp, Chinese skirt.
more attention to the detail of the dying technique shown in the second study
the following drawing is totally different in its approach – the whole folded cloth has become a world of its own..
this large undulating drawing reminded me of a surreal landscape – fabrics as fold.
who would have guessed it is a study from a wrapped and folded silk skirt…but oh the colours!
how innovative to fold an old silk skirt and make a colour study .
and last of all this simple line drawing of a white hand embroidered black jacket – each line describing the direction of the stitch. How wonderful it would be to see this extended for a whole wall full!
simple linear drawing – a tiny detail from a Chinese embroidered landscaped jacket.
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….
free machine embroidery using a hoop and the sprung 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.
first drawing by moving the paper and not the pencil
moving page animal drawing – dog or cat?
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..
first attempt to stitch drawing and writing
writing and dog drawing
It didn’t take long before everyone was feeling a lot more confident and really getting to grips with larger scale drawings
freely machine stitched dog portrait
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.
copying a line drawing of a fish – a free embroidery challenge.
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…
vermicelli linear stitching sample – Susi Bancroft
sample machined writing – Susi Bancroft
Now the colour started to be sampled, this is where all textile people get excited – endless possibilities just by changing the thread ….
playing with coloured free machine with extra outlines
and appliqued fabrics started to appear – each person had brought some form of inspirational work, either an illustrated card or photographs and drawings
working small appliqued motifs from a commercial card design
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”
circular embroidery made by keeping to frame restrictions.
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…..
design due to the constricting clamps – this is what sampling is all about – work with what you have got.
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..
copying the design in fabrics brings so much more pattern and texture
and working from lovely photographs is often a good way to get started – the fabric soon asserts itself.
photographic inspiration works for a colour gamut to get things going.
Janet Haigh : Her Work 