WOW... it certainly is!

Last night I attended the Awards night for this year's World of Wearable Arts. In its 21st year this event certainly maintains the excitement and impact that it has always done since the beginning. Each year it seems to lift its game, not only with the performances, but the quality and creativity of the garments continue to expand into a very sophisticated spectacular show. For the designers, selection into the show is a real privilege. With more and more entries coming from overseas, New Zealanders have to create harder and they most certainly do that. Everyone should be very proud to be part of the show; I know I certainly am.

My piece Iced Sherbert is paraded in the FOLD segment. I was delighted with the way it was presented on the model and her stance as she walked around the stage. She looked very elegant. I felt she certainly held her own amongst the other entries and although not an official prize winner, I feel I am a 'winner', and that is good enough for me.

I can now publish images of my piece. This is definitely prohibited until after the show starts, for obvious reasons! Iced Sherbert reflects the cold, crisp, frosty, mornings when the air shimmers and sparkles as the sun strikes the frost and snow on our surrounding hills.

Here is the scan from the programme. As it is taken from a small thumbnail image it is rather fuzzy. In due course I will receive a certificate acknowledging my piece in the show and it will show a photo of it in action. I shall publish that then.

Front view on my mannequin. Bodice is ruched and stitched with beads and sequins and these reflected in the spotlights. The green tulle represents the trees on the chilled hill tops. The main fabric is a white and silver narrow stripe synthetic fabric which had its own shine.

A view showing the side panniers. The model walked with her arms resting between the two rows of peaks.

28 days to my exhibition. Today is going to be somewhat of a rest day as I bask in satisfaction.

Delta Flow

Continuing with the images of my latest piece...

Some colouring in the background areas. Nothing spectacular but enough to act as a base for further applications.

Then some discharge patterning in the main blue shapes after which I decided these shapes needed a bit more 'umph'. So, during the weekend I added another layer of blue dye over the main shapes, time consuming but it has made a big difference. I have also started to add more texture to the background areas.

And now it is finished and I have to make a confession (drum roll please, da-da), this piece is actually a diptych, and herewith the two pieces together. I did two 'over the bath' dye pours with my big screen and serendipitously, portions from each seemed to work together nicely.

I have called it Delta Flow. On one of my travels to the northern hemisphere the plane flew over the northern coast of Australia. Travel from NZ usually starts around midnight so that arrival, many hours later, is at a civilized hour. For some reason this particular flight chased the sunset and I had a great view of the many estuaries along the coast. My initial dye application reminded me of the various water inlets and ponds. The dots suggest aboriginal paintings, and the red lines are the latitude and longitude lines.

32 days left now....

Working on...

Last blog I showed you my screen with dye poured on to it, resting over the bath. Here it is screened on to the white silk, although I selected only a portion to work with. When I do something like this I put the soda ash into my dye solution, and not pre-soak the fabric in a soda ash solution. The reason for this is so that when I wash off the excess dye residue after cold batching, it does not get grabbed, and stained, by the soda ash in the fabric. This is a huge advantage if I want any of the fabric to remain pristine white.

The next stage underway, defining some of the spaces.

I hope you like this spectacular photo that Clare Plug sent me. It is of the public gardens in her home town of Napier, NZ. I recall my mother planting livingston daises, and marigolds, in her summer flower beds; in those days these were probably all that was on offer, not like today where we have such a variety of annuals from which to make our choice.

Oh yes, only 35 days to my exhibition.

Back home again

I am now back again after the Hamilton Craft and Show. Certainly a busy event with many many people moving through, especially on the Thursday. The numbers always seem to decline as the event comes to a close and on Sunday, not surprisingly, so do the sales! However it was a good event and it was lovely to see and speak to so many people that I know. Some said they actually followed this blog so that was extra nice!

Here are a couple of photos of my stall.





I have almost sorted and packed everything away again and am ready for that final spurt towards my solo exhibition. Only another 39 days to go now; gosh, where does all that time go! Being away with a change of focus certainly was beneficial; I am already back working on a piece just started before I went away. Below is the beginning of what could quite well be one of a diptych. My large screen was placed over the bath with some cold water in it. I then poured dye solution over the screen - very hands on is this! The excess dye drained into the water below (and no the dye doesn't stain the bath). When the screen was dry, it was screened on to the fabric.

Craft and Quilt Fair, Hamilton

This week, September 10 - 13, is the Craft & Quilt Fair, Hamilton, New Zealand. This annual event is held at the Claudelands Events Centre. Along with all the trade stalls full of goodies there are special displays of quilts, spinning and weaving, embroidery, cake icing and ReStyle fashion. Plus there are workshops and craft circles for demonstrations and hands-on learning. Always plenty to see and do.....

I will be there with my Uppity Fabrics, Stall #A23, right next to the entrance/exit to the workshops and displays, so I can't be missed. My stall will have hand-dyed fabric lengths, garments, my Hand-dyed Hues range of variegated embroidery threads, hand-dyed cotton fat quarters, plus scrap bags ideal for doll-makers. Come for a browse and a chat, I look forward to seeing many friends and associates again.

In fact, I sometimes wonder whether this is the secret of these events. There is always such a buzz with people meeting and sharing their love of handcrafts. I know some people make this an annual pilgrimage. This of course is no different from any group which bonds through a common interest, such as gardening, music, cooking etc. They are part of society's well-being and certainly need to be nurtured.

FL43 Hand-dyed silk organza, 140cm wide, 1.9 metres (55" / 74") Ideal for a duster-type jacket to be worn over a simple garment. NZ$85.

Hand-dyed silk blouse, size large, NZ$80

My range of Hand-dyed Hues variegated threads. I started these in 1996, one of the first to do so in New Zealand. These threads are now being discontinued and will be sold at a 20% discount.

Scap Bags of hand-dyed silks $10 each. Ideal for applique, piecing and doll making.

48 days to my exhibition. Being away for almost a week will have the added bonus of separation from this major commitment. Although I thrive on the focus of working towards my exhibition, every now and again there needs to be a break, a change of scenery. Attending the Craft & Quilt Show is therefore good timing. I hope to returned re-energized and ready to complete those last two pieces for my exhibition.

My next blog will be after I return from the Craft and Quilt Fair.

Thanks for reading my blog.

Another piece completed

I have now finished another of my larger individual WholeCloth Banners. I might point out here that these banners are not exactly mainstream in the world of textile art. By this I mean that they have no additional embellishments (stitching, beading, applique etc) and they are not layered as in quilts. They are simply a single piece of silk fabric which has gone through numerous dye processes to achieve an outcome. They celebrate cloth and dye. Indeed, the title of my exhibition is just that CLOTH AND DYE EXPRESSIONS. For those familiar with embroidery and quilting, this may seem somewhat strange, but I strongly believe nothing has to remain as it always has been. There are just as many ways of not doing things as there are of doing things, if you know what I mean!

Here are the progress images of my latest piece, the first three have already been shown earlier but they help, I think, to keep things logical. At the moment the piece is called NETWORKS.

Dye painted on to big screen, and dried (not sure why everything appears so blue, which it wasn't!).

Clear water splashed on to painted screen, and dried.

Screened on to a silk/linen blend fabric with clear manutex / sodium alginate.

I then traced the design from the fabric on to paper using a lightbox. I separated the white areas, mid-tones and dark tones. Then drew a series of double lines at random across the whole piece. Using surplus dye, the colours being of no consequence, I painted in the mid-tone areas and grid.

The painted paper template was placed underneath the cleaned screen which was raised slightly off the table. I have painted fresh dyes on selected areas, following the template design underneath.

The above screened on to original fabric. This brought about an interesting observation. I never pre-wash my silk fabrics as they are not dressed like other fabrics. But they will shrink when the first dye application is washed. This has never been a problem. However, this time I was working with an established screen size which meant that the second screening extended over the sides of the (now shrunk) original screening. I decided to leave these borders and feel this is just another one of those wonderful serendipitous happenings, which I love....

Next came making a freezer paper template in the form of tree roots. I used a gold pigment in a gutta bottle and painted horizontal and vertical lines in a grid. Once dried, the freezer paper was removed.

At this point I felt the lower portion was somewhat surplus, so it was cut away. I feel this gives a more balanced piece. Final size 69cm x 72cm / 27" x 29".

52 more days to my exhibition.

12 pieces now finished

It is almost 12 weeks since I returned from the Surface Design Association conference, and my visit to Canada. I came back with the idea of working 12 equal size pieces for my exhibition in October. The size of each was determined by an existing blank screen printing frame 23 x 33cm (9" x 13"), and with the intention that they eventually get displayed as a group, three rows, four pieces in each. They have the group title of 'Out of the Print Box'. They are all worked with Procion MX dyes and the odd bit of pigment, and mounted individually over padded acid-free board.

As each was completed I blogged a detail. I have now put them as a Gallery on my blog. Click on View My Gallery, double click on single image to open up the 12, then Slide Show; sit back and enjoy.... I hope this wets your appetite for my exhibition.

As a point of interest, to get these 12 pieces I actually started a total of 24, 12 of which were abandoned at varying stages as things went awry or perhaps I just didn't like what was happening. All part of the journey....

57 days to my exhibition