threadsofmemory

[threadsofmemory]

Thursday 26th March 2020

Ten years ago, in search of a perfect cottage garden  I purchased a packet of Hollyhock seeds from our local garden centre.  I potted up these seeds and when the time came transplanted the seedlings to my flower beds. At the same time I pushed the tiny seeds into the cracks and crevices of the patio in our back garden and also around the front of our house on the driveway.

Time passed and the potted seedlings grew and flourished  with pink, white and yellow blooms. Some even came back the following year and for several subsequent years and even today there are one or two surviving. However the seeds that I planted in the gaps in the concrete did nothing for many years -  I had given up hope and had almost forgotten about them.  

Then five years later walking from my car to the front door I noticed the green of a recognisable foliage starting to emerge from a crack in our driveway just in front of the house. Amazingly a seed had lain dormant for years, waiting for just the right time to germinate – water, light, temperature and other more complex chemical conditions had eventually all aligned. A hollyhock had started to grow.

Since then our hollyhock has gone from strength to strength and each year it has come back bigger, taller and stronger even though it is never watered or fed - it is truly a hardy, resilient plant that  loves its position. The first year it flowered it was a bright bubblegum pink, with a dark magenta centre. It blossomed with those colours for several years until 2019. Last year the colour changed to a salmon pink with a bright yellow centre. The biologists in my family suggested that it might now be a different plant germinated from a new seed, mentioning cross pollination, Mendle and peas. I will take their word for it, all I know is it is beautiful  and has consequently inspired a new project. A bit like a dormant seed, this work has taken its time to get going but perhaps this period of isolation will give me some space to think and mull over  ideas and hopefully conclude a project.

[threadsofmemory]

[threadsofmemory]

Monday 1st July 2019

Really enjoyed Fragility at Hoxton Arches;

I was  delighted to have sold 2 of my books - so am now hard at work remaking for our October exhibition - at least I know what all the pitfalls are now!

[threadsofmemory]

Monday 29th April 2019

I have almost completed my current project and am very much looking forward to exhibiting this work at Prism’s Fragility exhibition. Details below;

I have previously written about this project, which involves my childhood flower press and have posted some pictures of several of the books I have made. I have now completed my final 2 books making 5 in total. One is a zigzag book using cyanotype prints and the other is a Japanese bound paper book using a blind embossing techniques to achieve the impression of  flowers.

 During the making of these 5 books - herbaria - I have learnt new techniques, particularly book making which I have never done before and I have revisited other processes such as blind embossing and cyanotype, which I feel were very successful. I am less positive about the devore techniques used on the georgette fabric (grey book below). This fabric was difficult to handle and cut accurately - probably this fabric is better suited to larger pieces of work.

Part of my submission is a video involving the opening of the press;

My intention is to play this on a loop on an ipad. I am currently investigating how to do this and also looking at pad brackets which are a means of fitting an ipad to the wall. I also need to finalise my posters and get them printed and for the first time this year I am intending to sell a few things in the exhibition shop - so still plenty to keep me busy!

[threadsofmemory]

Tuesday 12th March 2019

My Fragility project is well underway and I am quite pleased. I have completed 3 of the 5 books. The first 2 are Coptic bound and the third, a zigzag book.

[threadsofmemory]

Monday 14th January 2019

Over the Christmas period my husband purchased a copy of The Big Issue and I was surprised to find that one of the articles really resonated with me.

John Bird is the founder and editor of this magazine and in the December copy he writes an article entitled Art for Art sake. And for everyone.  He discusses how he loves to visit the National Gallery in London – describing this as a great escape, a recuperation, for rest and relaxation. He goes on to explain how he loves to spend an afternoon there, absorbing the art of Titian, Rembrandt and Michelangelo like a medicine, which helps him forget his responsibilities and restore his strength leaving him refreshed and ready for life’s challenges. In short, Bird advocates using art to refresh the mind and body, strengthening your mental wellbeing.

During my MA I begun to explore some similar themes – however, rather than viewing art in a gallery, for me the link between artistic practice (particularly textile art) and mental wellbeing holds more interest -  I recall reading an article called Knitting and Wellbeing by Corkhill et al. My blog post from May 2016 considers this article in depth but in short this paper explores the varied ways that knitting can enhance our well being. Of particular interest is the notion that the repetitive and rhythmic movements associated with knitting possibly cause the release of the mood enhancing serotonin.

I very much enjoy knitting and crochet but I haven’t participated in either for quite some time. However I am really enjoying my Fragility project and the simple embroidery that forms the core of this work. Over the Christmas period I got stuck into some flower stitching and certainly, as the work developed, I really began to look forward to quietly sitting with my project, enjoying the rhythm of the simple back stitch using it as an escape from the madness of the festive period and an opportunity to recharge my batteries before the next onslaught - without a doubt I was using embroidery to enhance my well being – to help me relax and unwind. Below are some pictures of the work that developed – graphite rubbings, developed by the addition of line drawings using back stitch.

[threadsofmemory]

Tuesday 20th November 2018

Recently I have begun to understand how I wish my Fragility project to develop and although there is much to do and many things to get right and iron out I now feel I have a definite direction.

A few months ago I was reunited with my childhood flower press – it was an interesting and moving experience removing each layer of card and blotting paper and uncovering not only preserved flowers but the marks, stains and indentations – residues and remnants of flowers previously there. These traces are the focus of my work.

Practical processes such as cyanotype, devore and graphite rubbings are all artistic practices I have been exploring which fit nicely with this theme. The result of these processes leave ghostly images – not perfect copies but representations that suggest remnants, memories. However I have been grappling with how these experiments could be brought together, a link made and a final outcome planned.  After much deliberation I have decided that I want to play with the idea of herbariums.

A herbarium according to Wikapedia is;

A collection of preserved plant specimens....... these will usually be in a dried form mounted on a sheet of paper.....but may also be stored in boxes.

This gives me quite a lot of scope but in many of the pictures I have seen, herbariums tend to be in book form. Certainly this is the case for the beautiful herbarium of the poet Emily Dickinson of which a digital facsimile has been created.

I have therefore decided to make a set of herbarium books  - my plan is that the books will be made in different ways and will contain e.g. rubbings of dried flowers whilst another may be made from cyanotype photograms. I have been exploring book binding and have recently been on a Japanese book binding course so I am beginning to develop some knowledge of the craft.

Lots to do and lots to think about.......

[threadsofmemory]

Monday 25th September 2018

I have realised that I have not blogged about my ever expanding collection of dried flowers and these precious little metaphors for memory are becoming more and more central to my current body of work.

Over the Summer I have made collections of flowers from the various places I visited - my parents’ garden in Wales, a walk in Llantwit Major (also in Wales) with dear friends, my holiday in Portugal and also from my own garden and the local cycle path where I often take my bike. Making a special effort to collect flowers/plants has heighten and reinforced each experience in my memory so I can remember more details than I would probably otherwise.  Coupled with that the gathered organic material is infused with a sense of the place that it was collected.

I have previously blogged about my cyanotype experiments using dried flowers - I now have quite a number of photograms - which I think are beautiful in their simplicity.

I have also experimented with wax as a way of further preserving the flowers.

Our next Prism exhibition is entitled Fragility, the definition of which is;

the quality of being easily broken or damaged

This delicate archive of memory I have created over the Summer months will be at the centre of this project.

[threadsofmemory]

Tuesday 11th September 2018

Over the last few months I have been continuing to use plants from my garden and also from the nearby cycle path as stimulus for my work – I am trying to develop a greener, cheaper, artistic practice. I have collected dandelions, nettles, rose petals and blackberries and used then to dye fabric with very pleasing results.

In the garden I have madder, woad and lady’s bedstraw plants all growing very healthily indeed. 

Whilst I have been waiting for these plants to yield enough plant material to use for dyeing I have experimented with shop bought madder and indigo. How beautiful indigo is!

[threadsofmemory]

catherine lewis countryfile from catherine lewis on Vimeo.

#vimeo

[threadsofmemory]

Tuesday 17th July 2018

Hurrah! Finally I am beginning to understand this ecoprinting malarkey. Initially my experiments were producing some pleasing results but the process was quite random plus I had not really made any notes so the chance of reproducing anything was minimal!

I decided therefore to take a more measured approach making good notes and taking lots of photos. Interesting breakthroughs have been made using ferrous sulphate, which perhaps I could recreate on a much larger scale.

[threadsofmemory]

Tuesday 3rd July 2018

Finishing  my last body of work  gave me a great sense of achievement – During the Transient project I had learnt a lot of new things, experimenting with new techniques and processes – knowledge that, I am sure, will feed into my practice in the future. However,  I was a bit concerned  that the project had cost quite a bit of money – buying the materials, framing and making the book all added up to quite a bit of cash. I was also a bit worried about creating plastic objects – even though the bows were only small, somehow creating more plastic in today’s world didn’t seem right.

As a result my work has taken a different turn and I am using my garden and the nearby cycle path as the stimulus for my creativity. I have been exploring natural dyeing, ecoprinting and cyanotype, using dried flowers and plants strictly from the garden and cycle path. So far I am really enjoying my experiments and am excited to see where this will take me. Last week was all about cyanotype so here are a few of those samples.

I really love these photograms of dried flowers - ghostly images of fragile little objects. I am now wondering where to take this next....

[threadsofmemory]

Tuesday 12th June 2018

I am pleased to say that Prism’s exhibition at Hoxton Arches went very well. Here are a few images of my work in situ. The space I was allocated made my work feel like an installation which was great.

 My work included a decaying latex dress and a set of 8 bows mounted in a white box frame. I also had an A1 poster of thumbnails of the dress in different weather conditions and at different times of day. Accompanying this was a book of images of previous latex projects in differing states of impermanence. On the laptop were 3 time-lapses videos shown below.

This was an ambitious project and i learnt a great deal - all in all a good experience!

[threadsofmemory]

Tuesday 8th May 2018

My submission for Prism’s Transient is almost complete - this project has been hard work but I’ve learnt loads and developed my practice a bit further and I now have a set of 8 bows  

 Alongside my bows cast in jesmonite, plaster and wax, I used the same mould to fashion bows in  polyester, polyutherane and silicone.

I then tried out lost wax casting to produce a bow in casting metal. This was  a process of experimentation and took a while to perfect.

Using my silicone mould i first cast a bow in wax attaching 2 wax crayons as pouring holes (above is my first experiment - the black wax crayons were messy - ultimatley I cast 2 tubes of white wax which used the same wax as the bow)

The bow was suspended in a plastic tub and filled with plaster. When the plaster mould was set it was placed in the oven to melt the wax. 

Next, the metal was melted (on my stove in a pan bought especially for the process -  I was very careful !) and poured into the pouring holes. The mould was left to cool and set and then cracked open.

I also cast a bow in cement using the silicone mould to make the set complete.

I am now exploring how to exhibit the bows - a box frame is my current favourite!

[threadsofmemory]

You Have to Begin: the art of Sandra Brownlee

#Vimeo

[threadsofmemory]

Provenance - Claire Wellesley-Smith from R&A Collaborations on Vimeo.

#vimeo

[threadsofmemory]

Sunday 11th March 2018

If you remember my Transience project started by casting a latex dress – this dress is now hanging in the garden and a time lapse camera is photographing its degradation. From this work other things have evolved. I was interested in the bow on the front of the dress – the way the latex picked up the details intrigued me and I started moulding and making bows in other materials

Over the last month I have worked hard to improve my casting techniques resulting in a silicone mould, of the dress bow, which has rendered some very good results.  I now have bows cast in jesmonite, plaster and wax – all of which I am very pleased with.

 Jesmonite;

Wax;

And plaster;

I have also been exploring using pewter to make a bow but this needs quite a bit of work and improvement.

I have also done some paper moulding of the bow but I think this is too 2-dimensional

The mould has also been used to make an ice bow and I have experimented with my I phone making a time lapse of the bow melting. This took several tries to get right – the storage kept getting filled before the bow had melted. Eventually I got it right and I am very happy with the result.

More work to do but at last my project is definitely taking shape.