starburst

I forgot to post pictures of the completed starburst before I left for Martinborough, so here it is with some progress shots to show you how it was constructed.

I'll update you with the details of the exhibition when I get home next week.
Enjoy the rest of your week!

making inroads

One of my goals for 2012 is to make inroads into my existing stash of vintage textiles, rather than continuing to add to it. For 11 years I've been intending to turn this gorgeous appliqued and embroidered tablecloth (unusable as such because of a large yellow stain in the middle) into pretty pillowcases. I made a pair today, and there's probably enough fabric remaining to make a couple more besides.

(detail and back-view)

I like to look after my books, but I also like to take a book away with me when I travel, which brings with it the risk of the book getting damaged. An easy problem to resolve as it turns out. Using a small cross-stitched table-runner, I sewed two seams along the edges, and hey presto, a practical and pretty bookbag!

The bookbag is perfect for transporting my Everyman edition of Alice Munro's Selected Stories to Martinborough next week where I'm helping my brother and his partner settle into their new house.

See you at the beginning of Feb. Hasn't this month flown by!

string

A friend gave me a big bunch of rhubarb last week, tied up with a length of beautiful emerald green string. She said the string came from the Trade Aid store. I dropped into the Takapuna branch of Trade Aid the other day and found a basket of string at the back of the shop. It is organic hemp twine made by a collective of women in Bangladesh. I bought six balls. There's 75 metres of twine per ball and lots of kinds to choose from. They cost $3.90 for the single colour balls and $4.90 for the two-colour and multi-colur balls. I imagine there are all kinds of uses for this pretty string, so I'll have fun experimenting.

octagons, starbursts and birds

What are these embroidered hessian octagons for, I hear you asking. 

Well, I'm very excited to report that I've been invited to take part in an exhibition called 'Soft Cuts' at Waikato University. The exhibition, curated by Karl Chitham,  includes illustrative works, and works inspired by illustration, and Karl asked if I'd like to include some of my School Journal textiles in it.

Of course, I jumped at the chance to show my work alongside the likes of graphic artist, illustrator and book designer extraordinaire, Sarah Maxey, and Auckland artist Gavin Hurley, among others. If you've been browsing through bookshops recently, Gavin's gorgeous collage of William Colenso might have caught your eye, gracing the cover of Peter Wells' new book The Hungry Heart: Journeys with William Colenso.

The 'Soft Cuts' exhibition opens at the beginning of February, so I had to bring my glorious Kapiti Coast holiday to a close and get my sewing skates on, so to speak.

Jill McDonald's School Journal covers from the mid-60s were a formative influence on me. My love of symmetry, abstract compositions and bold colours, almost certainly comes from her, and my inability to draw people or animals in three dimensions definitely does. I have a clear memory of Sister Miriam handing me a copy of  'The Hungry Lambs' in my standard four class, and quickly checking to see if I had felt-tip pens in the same colours, so that I could replicate the cover illustration on a piece of butcher's paper when I got home.

A year or so ago,  jeweller Raewyn Walsh kindly gave me the three School Journals pictured above. I've been wanting to convert Jill McDonald's colourful cover designs into textiles ever since, so it's wonderful that Karl's exhibition has provided me with the perfect excuse!

My decision to use hessian for the installation of octagons and starbursts was purely nostalgic, recalling my first experiments in school sewing classes making oven mitts from scratchy pieces of hessian that we decorated with clumsy cross-stitch designs.

Jill McDonald (1927-1982)

Photo taken in the 1960s when Jill was working at Penguin Books.

Reproduced in A Nest of Singing Birds by Gregory O'Brien (Wellington: Learning Media) 2007: 126.

Next up, I think I'll make a couple of textile versions of Jill's lovely red birds to throw into the mix, and see if the octagons and birds look good together on the wall.

Happy New Year everyone!

I hope 2012 is shaping up well for you.