Some years ago one of my pupils mother was a dressmaker and she gave me a load of off cuts of fabric. I never throw anything away so luckily I have been able to use these white silk remnants with a white flower embroidered into it and have been experimenting with the bundle dying method. Thanks to Nicola Brown for her tips on the use of Iron Water it is getting better!
The threads are part of my treasures bought at the Knit an Stitch show a few weeks ago. I think that I will be suing these to tell a story of some sort…maybe…..maybe not!
It is difficult to get going at my my own work again. I am unsure as to what it is. I want to create but I want to find a new direction. This new direction may be the same as my old work, I just want to explore and be sure it is honest. As I tell my students we all know what we can do. The difficulty is to do it to its limit and by that I mean both skilfully and to push to the limit of ourselves, not just to stay in our comfort zones. I want to push my self to create work that challenges me and perhaps those that view it. This will probably mean that some people will not ‘like’ it. I do not want to create art that is a commodity that some person wants to own, just because it is valuable. I want to create something that means something to me and that if it means something to someone else they are willing to give me something that I will value in its place. This something may be money, to help me to live or a service or something that enhances my life in some way.
There are those of you will say I am a flake and perhaps you are right. I am also aware that my thinking is very much a first world dilemma, were I living in a third world country I would just want to be able to live well and the dilemma would be food and shelter.
However I do not and I am lucky that my concerns are so trite and trivial really.
Lately like a lot of textile artists I have been playing and toying with the idea of natural dying and using local and recycled items in my work. Apart from anything it is cheaper and hope fully kinder to the environment. Now you will say silk is hardly produced in Dranagh, so I am trying to work my way around this. Any ideas?
