Costume and Textile Association Conference

This last weekend I attended the 9th Annual Symposium of the Costume & Textile Association of New Zealand, held at TheNewDowse, Lower Hutt. I didn't need any encouragement to register, it was great to have such an event in my home town. About 120 people attended, many from the greater Wellington area, but others from Australia and the USA. This conference was centred around research and conservation practices rather than hands-on.

During a fairly intense weekend we had a programme of 19 presentations. The conference title was Hanging By A Thread and many papers referenced the survival of textiles (and people) in dire circumstances such as war time, Antarctic exploration, and lives of poverty.

Specific topics of interest (to me) included the stitching of Maori dog skins (these dogs are now extinct) in pre-European times; the resurrection of Cambodian weaving; German paper textiles of WW1; the emptying of an old poof (hassock) filled with remnants of torn and mended clothing from the family who owned it, and the stories they engendered; the fight for survival in WW2 and post war Germany; making it last and work in early Antarctic expeditions; replicating a lost carpet in its original style produced in the 1860's for Victoria Mansion USA; the Victorian Tapestry Workshop, Melbourne; a light-hearted look at keeping a stash (knitting wools, fabrics etc); and masculinity and the knitting pattern; plus much more.

Such a lot of wonderful information and food for thought. It was a well organised weekend and great to catch up with many people I already knew, and to meet many more. Next year this conference is to be in Christchurch. Stay tuned!


Natalie Cadenhead, Curator of Antarctic and Canterbury Social History, Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, and Clare Plug, recipient of Antarctic Artist Fellowship, 2006/7, enjoying a light-hearted moment.

Where have they all gone?

Ahhh... its lunch time.

A powerful tool

It has been a busy week with no hands-on progress but lots and lots of thinking. I do have a length of silk/linen prepared, that is washed and with the torn edges over locked/serged, hanging on my display wall and I keep glancing at it, placing the ideas and colours I am envisaging. It is always exciting starting a new piece, the expectations are high.

The over-riding reason for making work is to test myself and my commitment. I think that is what keeps me going; the next piece is always going to be 'the great one'. On looking back over many years of working, however, I feel that approximately one in five pieces actually 'hit the mark'. The other four range from (my own) rejection, okay, and pretty good.

The remaining piece, the fifth (and they don't come in any consecutive order) stands out as a milestone, it pleases, and makes me feel pretty good.

Amongst all this there is that good old fashion gut feeling. This is alway my best judge. Being able to recognise what it is saying is a skill worth nurturing and accepting.

A few moments ago I hadn't any idea what I was going to write about in this blog. But, as always, just starting is enough to come up with something. Just starting is indeed a powerful tool.

This weekend I will be attending the Costume & Textile Association of New Zealand Hanging by a Thread conference, to be held at TheNewDowse here in Lower Hutt. I have not attended this conference before so it will be interesting to see what they have to offer. I shall report next blog.

No pics this week.....

Hiatus

Since completing my latest piece last week, I have been doing some 'housework' in the studio. This means that I have been cleaning up and making my work surfaces vacant for when I start the next piece (see photos).

I have disposed of any unused dye mixes, made sure all the equipment is clean, and washed the drop-cloth on my large printing table. I am always reluctant to tidy up as I go, or tidy up too soon, just in case I need to return to check something out. The unused dyes would have become inactive but then I could, if required, use them as a reference to match a colour or mix up more. Design scribbles are glued into my workbook, but not the failed scribbles! Paper and freezer paper templates are thrown out or saved for recycling.

Finally I have documented my latest piece, using a format which includes size, date, inspiration, materials used etc. This is really essential and a godsend when this information is required at a later date; it certainly saves on getting the work out again. The final job is to get the piece professional photographed, and I usually like to take two or three pieces at a time.

And now it is on to thinking about the next piece. And that is chiefly what I do, think, and then think some more. Occasionally some reference is jotted into my workbook but mostly it goes on in my head.

Finished

My latest piece is now finished, and mounted. I am very pleased with the result. I would love to show you the whole piece but am reluctant to do so just in case I wish to submit it to an exhibition, where whole images must not have been seen on the Internet. The inspiration was, of course, Peru!

© Diana Parkes 2010, A Sense of Place; 133cm x 188cm / 52.5" x 74"; silk/linen and cotton cloth; dye, discharge, textile pigment

In this piece I have used the four letters, one in each corner, which spell out INCA but with the N reversed. This was the starting point for this piece. According to my research, a prominent Inca leader learnt how to read and write after the Spanish arrived but somehow he reversed the N's in all his written works. Whether this was deliberate or unintentional it is not known but it was interesting to see it continued today in Peru on major signage and branding etc.



Mounting this piece on the border-painted canvas backing looks great. The eyelets (grommets) worked out well too. I got these done at a local canvas goods maker / repairer and whereas I thought they would be brass, I was offered black eyelets and responded 'yes, please!' They have all sizes and were very cheap to get done. Very small eyelets eg. shoe lacing size, are best done at a shoe repairers.

Presentation of work

I consider my latest piece to be finished. It is currently resting, like a good roast, and time will determine whether it has indeed reached the end of its road. In the meantime I am considering its presentation.

I have been giving quite a bit of thought to presentation this year, and have made some observations while on gallery crawls, mostly to art exhibitions ie not textile exhibitions. It has been an interesting exercise and I think I have now come to a new possibility.

First I had to do some experimenting and used an earlier piece of work which I don't intend ever to exhibit. I decided to use a heavy canvas (in NZ called calico duck) for the backing piece, and paint a border using a low sheen, water-based interior house paint.

Initially I felt I needed to prime the canvas, so did a test with textile pigment and a house paint undercoat. Once painted over with the colour I decided neither was necessary - see centre portion of test which shows paint coverage without any priming.

I painted a border around another piece of canvas. Because I had not washed it prior to painting, the border area shrunk which made the centre area pucker. Not good!

I repeated this experiment with a pre-washed piece of canvas. Success, it remain flat! The dyed art work is to overlap on to the borders. I did mount the rejected artwork on to this and was pleased with the outcome.

And here are my borders being painted on a very large piece of canvas, to accommodate my latest piece. I have already hemmed the top and lower edges, before painting, but left the sides raw. I painted the front side twice (to get a perfect coverage) and an underside border just once so that if the edges curled they would reveal the same colour.

Next I will get metal eyelets punched into the four corners. I get these things done professionally as it is very hard to get them perfect with equipment here at home.

Good news

From July 9th to August 7th, the works from my exhibition last year (those unsold, that is, plus a couple of new pieces), held at Expressions, Upper Hutt, are to be exhibited again at the Art Gallery Papakura, 10 Averill Street, Papakura. I am looking forward to seeing everything displayed again, in a different setting, and to a new audience.

Yesterday I received news that a grant application to the Creative Communities Scheme Pakakura District, has been accepted. This will help in couriering the pieces to and from the gallery, and other additional expenses in preparing the work. This certainly helps with the overall success of the exhibition. Very pleasing indeed.

Herewith a couple more details of the latest piece. It is almost finished and I am preparing for the mounting processes.

More lino prints

Have made good progress on my piece this week and feel I am nearing the end. I have added some Inca house ruins, seen at Machu Picchu and elsewhere. They seem to have the same basic stone structure but minus their thatched roofs for obvious reasons. I did another quick lino design which worked out well.

Inca houses printed, then the top window spaces discharged to give some contrast.

Machu Picchu and some Inca house ruins, without roofs, top of photo. The delightful baby llama was less than 24 hours old!

A restored thatched house, bottom left.

Grand-daughter has been here again this weekend so more progress on 'the dress'. Curved hem on skirt caused some concern so Nana is to replace it with a hand rolled hem, as any Nana would do!