Who Does this Remind you of?

' I have a vision of a place of meeting where neighbours will come for many reasons to seek stimulating thought by meeting other active minds, to find refreshment and inspiration and a joy in beauty.' - Rachel.B. Kay - Shuttlework, 1912


You only have to add ' cake' and it sounds like Brunel Broderer's meetings.

I am working on some little sketchbooks for Suited. The books with eyelets are great because you can make and add pages as you go along, it was hard to get the eyelets through the fabric and board! The top left is a bought sketchbook that I have covered using the tweed and selvedges.

a particular kind of tailoring...

Whilst thinking about work for our 'Suited' Exhibition, I have made some links in my mind.
I hope they make sense in sharing them here!
Tailoring requires considerable skill, craft, attention to detail, practise, experience...
It is about a careful honouring of the person the clothing is for. To 'make the best' that is possible with cloth, fit, detail.
For the Exhibition, I am working on buttonhole stitch (cherry red buttonhole twist as in the Tailor of Gloucester, but that progress is for another post!)
Meanwhile..

 Buttonhole in another context. This one is about mending - about continuing to care for clothing that has lead a full life - about trying to nurture - to catch tears and bring colour and beauty and new life.
The buttonhole stitch here stops an unravelling, makes a feature of wear and tear!

It also honours (I hope) the skill of makers of mass produced clothing by not wasting it, by rejuvenating and extending it's life. I am bringing a different craft and skill and, in so doing, am also 'customising' - making something relevant and personal to an individual, adding detail in a light way -  'making the best' and bringing some creative attention to everyday denim...
To read more, see my blog post at boostitch

Thought you might like to see this bio-geometric tailoring

Unchecked and unstructured

Still thinking how to make all these very formal tailoring fabrics work for me.
I am trying to "UN-SUIT" them to change their quality.
Firstly "unchecked"

 and then "unstructured"

A thought

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.
Thomas Merton

Yes, this is me stitching with the sewing machine. I think the snow must have got to my brain; I am trying out some machine stitching as a comparison to the hand stitch.  I am finding it very strange to have this big lump of metal to tame, rather than a needle directly in the hands.

Bag in the Snow

This is my house in the snow today with a new bag and further up the garden to show a very chilly Cotswolds!

Snow

We are planning our AGM on Sunday but these are the images of the snow from the door in my house - we may have to think again.

This is a great new exhibition at the Black Swan Gallery in Frome.  Our own Alison Harper is part of the exhibition and requests that you 'take part' in her work by adding to it.  I have crocheted something into it on this cold wintery morning.  A thought provoking exhibition.

This is our new postcard for the exhibition 'Suited' designed by Lizzie.

Pleats

Another piece of Deepa Panchamia's work - thought I would like to see it with mine.

Inspiration

I love this artists work.  Deepa Panchamia. She produces large scale installations and fashion pieces.  I find her work very inspiring.Not sure how big these are, thats the problem with images they could be very large floor standing piece or very small fit in the hand pieces.

Hi Everyone and a Happy New Year to all.  I wish us all a year full of peace and creativity. 

Our next exhibition is very 'material' led and I thought I would share this quote with you by the Japanese designer and weaver Junichi Arai,  He talks about materials in these words.


' All artistic expression is by means of materials.  Materials are words.  The combination of words result in a semantic style used to create expressive form.  Our task at the present time is to develop a new method of composition, by discovering newborn words and abandoning dead words.'