Friday, 21 April 2017

River of the sky

 River of the sky- wall hanging
River of the sky. 2017. 93cm x 60cm

I'm going to highlight a larger piece of work that I recently shown at the textile fair last month. It's the largest stitched piece I have made to date which is sometimes a bit of a gamble to dedicate so much time to one project. An expansion on an earlier piece I made a few years ago, Backbone of the Night, the Milky Way is the theme and both of their title names refer to that.

There is a lot of handstitching involved which of course, is extremely time consuming but more effective because of it. I couldn't even begin to tell you how many stitches there are! 

 

For the sewing enthusiasts, I've used a combination of threads made from cotton, linen and silk, all different textures and some hand dyed. 

I like to use vintage fabrics in my work as part of the "boro" aesthetic of patching and mending. It also fits nicely into the the notion of the universe continually regenerating itself. 

 

Techniques employed are dyeing, painting, cyanotype printing, some machine stitching but mainly hand embroidered.