This is Dougal, a Miniature Schnauzer, in 2 very different images, of the many sent by Marcus Wells , who commissioned me to make a large scale quilt of dogs. He later asked me to portray his own dog, as a single embroidery. This for me is a perfect outcome to any work I undertake, when one piece engenders another; if only life was always like that! I never met Dougal but I spent a whole month with him in my studio and the first thing that I had to decide – which Dougal, the “Are you looking at me” Dougal? or the ” But you promised me a biscuit” Dougal.
I decided to make a collage of a head that looked friendly (but maybe without the tongue) coupled to his smart alert sitting stance. Above is the collage as recorded in the first page of my research/sketch book for this project.
Marcus had requested a portrait with a background, as he liked all the different techniques that I had used in the dog quilt. I sent rough ideas for the whole image, asking him to choose between several backgrounds, including traditional Paisley or herringboned stitched ribbons. The floor that Dougal sits on is the tiled hallway of the house where he lives; and the best way to reproduce a strict geometrical pattern in embroidery is hand stitched canvas work. Meanwhile – Dougal needs attention.
While I was slowly stitching the canvas work, I started embroidering Dougal. First a quick paper pattern to cut the dog shape out of felt and placed onto a piece of waste scrim. The dog coat was embroidered in fine crewel wools and cut away when finished. Placed onto the finished background of ribbons and canvas-work shows and oversewn into position. Now his eyes had to be stitched in – this took days of trying to get him to look at me….eventually I changed the shape of his eyebrows, rimmed his eyes, and there he was!
And here he is stretched and ready to be framed in great style by Marcus……watch this space.
although I was not aware of it at the time I wrote this blog this is the very last post for Heart Space Studios…we conducted many more parties, clubs and classes , we have now ceased trading as a class based studio – however I continue to make my work and explain many different ways of constructing and thinking about the making of ‘Her Work‘ in my ongoing blog http://www.janethaighherwork.com.
Susi Bancroft stitching her suspended large Kantha piece in Heart Space Studios
Autumn is here and the new term started for Kantha Club – run by Susi Bancroft for Heart Space Studios. We all wanted to swap summer experiences and stories and show what we had been up to – or not!
Kay at the back of the Kantha sheet – the light shining though the colour was lovely, showing up the rows of stitches.
Susi had embarked on a very large piece ( I meanwhile had put my first attempt at a large piece aside). She had dyed the fabric in Turmeric and Tea to get this very subtle yellow. She finds it easier to hold the needle at the eye end to keep the cloth steady – so each stitch requires 2 hands on the needle, standing to work on such a large-scale fabric she says ” I am surrounded by beautiful colour with the light behind you, like being cocooned in colour “
closed hand with thumb kept into palm = the narrow band
wide open hand = the wide band of stitches
Explaining how she made decisions for spacing the stitching bands by using simple hand measurements she said “I used the fact that I couldn’t see the whole cloth working so close up so the hand spans were the measurement I adopted”
hand spans for the gaps between stitching lines
to enable her to keep stitching rhythmically while standing up, she threaded several needles at a time in different colours, using each as she felt that she wanted them – relying on her instinct for the colour striations, she enjoyed the feeling of the fabric being “just being out of my reach’ whilst she worked.
Kay Swancutt showed us some dying samples that she had stitched , she had exhibited these recently at Nature in Art and used many natural materials to make the different patterns and colours
samples of natural dyed fabrics by Kay Swancutt
more of Kay’s experimental samples
Steph Wooster brought several examples of her earlier drawn textile work that she has now worked with a kantha stitched ground…these were also exhibited at Nature in Art and I feel that they could lead to even more intricate background stitched patterns – I am thinking animal skin patterns, leaves, grass..
Steph Wooster’s Biro drawing of animals from the Bristol Museum, augmented with ripples of stitching
I particularly like the combination of the stark elegant drawings and the tone on tone rippled grounds.
Biro drawing of animals and kantha stitched ground – Steph Wooster
she also brought a new piece fabric that she wanted some feedback from us – it was a parachute silk sheet, very old and damaged,
choosing coloured threads to mend the fragile silk sheet
she wanted to mend it – we suggested she start with the weakest area.
carefully searching for the weakest points ot start to mend using Kantha as a technique
Meanwhile Naomi Clarke has been having fun just using Kantha technique to stitch the patterned cloth and also appliqueing it to the tie- dyed ground – as a technique this could really be developed to make lively fabrics
Naomi Clarke’s Kantha applique
I had started another project in the break – a quilt based on a painting by Alfred Stockham, an old friend and ex colleague, it is a small painting that had always called to me to be made as a patchwork…
oil painting by Alfred Stockham
starting in the top right hand corner I ripped some pieces of shot cottons into squares and strips and stitched them down onto a red cotton ground…the coours of the threads made for the nuance of his dragged brush marks
starting the squares of painting patchwork
completed square of kantha stitched patchwork
during the last few hectic weeks of launching my book it has been a relief to get back to simply stitching these square transitions from paint to cloth
I am interested to see how each square is in itself a small complete composition
I am fascinated by this work but it may take some time to get finished
the start of the first row of patches for the painting quilt.
Indian modern Kantha fabric – from Liz Hewitt’s collection – wonderful patterns to start us all stitching
New to Heart Space Studios – Kantha Club; started as so many people who have been to our day classes, tutored by Susi Bancroft, have become fascinated by this simple method of hand quilting. We have 3 trial sessions being held once a month – each meeting is 3 hours long – enough to get re-acquainted with the technique and start something to take home to develop further.
3 different Kantha pieces from Susi s collection demonstrating the different types of fabrics, colours and patterns afforded by this technique
Susi, had brought lots of different pieces from her own work, the most interesting for me are the tiny patches of patterned fabrics all held together with simple rows of running stitches and by allowing frayed and ripped fabrics to be caught in place, dense and rich cloths have been developed.
One of the things that I find interesting in Kantha is that each side of the cloth looks different depending on the choice of fabrics – so a simple ground will show up the stitches but a patterned ground is given another layer of pattern – the fabric below shows this very clearly.
Kantha strip showing back and front of the stitching – intriguing
Several people had brought in their own samples, some from earlier classes that they now wanted to develop….others already used the technique for their own practice and just wanted to meet up and develop and discuss the work with other people – we are hoping that the new textile clubs we are planning at Heart Space, will enable like-minded people to develop new work together….the 2 pieces below are by makers who has studied Kantha previously, Kay Swancutt, and Liz Hewitt ,
beautifully simple stitching by Kay Swancutt
detail of Liz Hewitt’s densely stitched Kantha hanging
but some people although used to stitching, came along for a new experience – they brought other types of things – the different types of work were really interesting, I am looking forward to seeing how everyone develops in the coming months.
small perfectly stitched quilted heart – but enough to get a maker to the next stage of developing new ideas and techniques
beautiful etheral embroidered and lacy fabrics combined with Kantha stitches by Nicky
After the introductions we all started to work on our own projects
the club gets down to real stitching, and Nicky is stitching the piece above right
I have joined the club as well as I want to develop new work using this technique – I have played with this way of setting up rhythms across fine fabrics and I brought in several pieces of old work to demonstrate how I wanted the work to develop – I want to make a stitched sea/sky/land scape – very large using images from my photographs of the views of sunrise and sunsets from my windows at home.
series of my sky photographs from over the Bristol Channel
my first attempt at putting the sky fabrics together
I am layering transparent fabrics so that many subtle colours are made to represent the sky, then held held in place by rows of running stitches. As my home view includes a stretch of the Severn Estuary and the Welsh hills, the textures and rhythms of the water, mud flats and tidal salt marsh in front of the house, could successfully be rendered using this technique, we will see…
the layers of transparent fabrics are eventually held in place by massive tacking stitches
when everyone got to working Susi provided us with background fabrics and a wonderful array of her own threads, as well as books and a variety of other materials to help us help ourselves.
Susi’s own stash of threads; and just visible my “kantha bible” The Techniques of Indian Embroidery by Anne Morrell
Several people started developing different motifs as samplers, using the books that Susi provided..
continuing older work using new inspiration
working a sampler directly from the books provided
So we ended the first week with everyone having a piece of work to develop (or not!) for the next meeting…there were a few surprises in store.Some people had started new pieces and developed different techniques….
embellishing a ready printed fabric is a really good way to get started…
some really adventurous samplers have been started..
Vibrant Kantha motif sampler on hand dyed base – Naomi Clarke
then there was this perfectly ordered piece of quilting on top of a traditional Indian fabric heart
Heart Kantha by Jo Hurst
Others continued to develop their own work – I do like the ancient next to the modern in the image below – traditional stork embroidery scissors, hand made pin cushion and mobile phone!
continuing to develop the first colourful sampler – Jo Hurst
The motifs seem to be very popular but, like me Anne is trying some new colour background fabrics strips – really looking forward to seeing this develop
strong coloured ground strips for experimental work by Anne Harrington
I hope she has more luck than I did! Eventually I want to make a large piece of work – at least 1 metre wide – so I had started off using wide strips – but found that the rhythms of the stitches started to develop a mind of their own, which I couldn’t get to grips with – so I chopped my original work into smaller segments and really let the running stitches go where they would – it is very exciting to work with…..but where do I go from here?
my tiny but wayward stitched sampler of sky and sea kantha
Well – where else but back to the third Kantha club meeting to see how everyone else has developed and if they all feel that they want to carry this experimental approach forward into a functioning club, with membership, regular meetings, guest speakers, exhibitions and all the other benefits joining a club entails….watch this space.
