Moving on

My explorations into the African project have taken a couple of diversion at the moment.

The first being a suggestion from Laura to make a 12x12 quilt for the Colours of Africa project. I had meant to do something before I went to Tanzania, so having experienced a little of the African culture I was really ready to have a go. It's an amazing project, so if any one has some free time to help I know it will be much appreciated, you can see some of the work that's already been submitted on the blog.



It's not quite finished as you can see, I think I will add a little bit of hand stitching before I bind it.

The second diversion was as invitation to join The West country Budda group in making quilts for next years FOQ, which is very exciting and a great motivator, so thanks to Annabel for setting that up.

As a result I'm still exploring different ideas in my sketch book and decided to have a go at lino printing for the first time in many years. I bought a piece of wrapping paper on holiday and it was decorated with lots of lovely lino cuts, one of which was this great little lizard.



I wasn't too happy with the colours so went back to the original source to see if I could improve on it.



I do love the expression of the male dancer in the top pic, I'd like to think of a way of incorporating this in one of my designs.



I bought a Kuba Cloth at one of the lodges and have found it very insprirational, I love the way it's been pieced. I tried to incorporate the visible turnings into my design for the quilt but found it too cumbersome to work three layers with it, so I think that will have to be a separate project.

Creative spurt

I don't know if it's the thought of winter coming or just a general creative surge after a rest period, but I'm feeling very energised at the moment. I've finally managed to get back into the routine of taking my 2 dedicated creative days a week and have found that really helpful. I never quite know how the day will pan out but I find it a good discipline to stick with the project and see what happens.

I'm gradually moving the African project forward and as a result of my sketch book experiments, I've moved into stitch earlier than I usually do, which is a good sign, maybe I'm becoming more confident, who knows.

Anyway I wanted to see if my paperwork plan would work in reality, so I took some fabrics as close to the original colours as possible and started to work the appliqué patches. Despite having a couple of hand dyed samples, thanks to a swap with Françoise, I wasn't happy with the colours and knew I'd have to dye some fabrics to the colour scheme I'd worked out.



It was such a lovely day I did it outside so I could make a mess with impunity. I used Procion dyes, using the immersion method as I'd run out of Urea and couldn't paint on the dye as I usually do.





The colours came out paler than I would have liked, so I'm now wondering if I should have left them in the dye bath for longer (more than an hour) or put in more dye. My dyes are about 10 years old so it could have been that too. Still, I like these shades so will experiment with them.

Still on a roll I decided to dye my sock wool that I bought back in the Spring. It was pack with the dyes included to be done in the microwave, I couldn't believe how easy it was, can't wait to knit it up now.



And finally I decided to dig out the tailored jacket that I started before the C&G, and have now decided to finish it.



Oh! and plus I blocked my jumper at last today, so now I can sew it up, phew I feel tired just thinking about all of this.

New African project

At last I've been able to get back into the studio after the hectic goings on for the past few months.

Having been so inspired by our holiday in Tanzania I had to make a start with a new sketch book to flesh out some ideas of where I wanted to go with it.



I started with a double spread looking at the various influences I had found exciting, from the people and textiles to the animals. I set the page on a brown Parker ink base ( that I knew would bleach), because it reminded me of the African dusty soil.



From here I went on to look at the colours and designs that the Massai use in their clothing and jewellery. I was also struck by the fact that they use quite a lot of found objects to add to the beading, such as fragments of Coak cans that shine like precious metals in the sun. Their colours and patterns are very bold by Western standards, so I may have think quite hard about the colour pallet that I want to use.



I noticed these wonderful cushion covers in one of the lodges and recognised them as Shoowa cut pile embroidery made by the Kuba people of Zaire. It was great to see them and feel the rough texture of the raphia panels, as I'd studied these textiles on the C&G.
I thought I might use the designs to develop a print, either paper or cloth and maybe experiment with a starch resist.



These cloths, also Kuba, and made with raphia, had been used for lampshades in another lodge. They consist of strips that are joined together with the seams exposed and have various appliquéd shapes. I had the idea to maybe create a coloured version of this using the colours I'd seen in the Massai blankets, and also using the sewing machine to construct it. I wondered what the people would do with our textiles and machines if they had them at their disposal. Maybe they'd wonder why we bother to spend so much time, energy and money, in setting up a machine to do what they do naturally and with virtually no equipment.

As you see I'm a long way from making any decisions yet, but at the moment I'm just enjoying the feeling that I can take this any way I want to, be it a paper print, a painting, or a textile piece.