Chapter 8. The nurses and fun portraying their uniforms through stitch

 This was going to be fun and I have looked forward to working on these!

Again I used a photograph as reference. I took a sheet of tissue paper to trace the image. I then took firstly snippets of red dyed calico and traced the sleeves / lower skirt hems and then bits of an old white linen tablecloth to represent the aprons [ this was no longer fit for use and rotten in places! It felt good to give it a new lease of life in this way!].  These were traced onto fusible web and ironed in place carefully onto an antique napkin  ensuring that they all lined up

With the sleeves and aprons ironed into place the tissue tracing was laid over the top taking care to line the image in place and secured in an embroidery hoop ready for stitching into place. I used black thread and free machine stitching to complete the image using an embroidery foot. 

   

 Stitching complete:

I'm really pleased with this and excited about the scalloped edges of the napkin as these will reflect the shapes of the oak leaves as the composition takes shape:

 I tried another with plain sleeves and apron but feel they are all equally characterful:

I love the original photograph of these two nurses and feel the stitched versions capture their friendship and support for each other.

Inspiration for this technique originally came from a workshop I attended with textile artist Rosie James who produces fabulous images with the threads left uncut. This suggests a lot of atmospheric movement and I have experimented with this below with the nurses and examples worked from the family photos in the first chapter.

But for the purposes of this current piece of work I've decided to take the threads to the back of the work as this seems more appropriate on this occasion:

Chapter 7 The transfer of photographs onto fabric

 I knew I wanted to use some of the photos in the final textile piece but needed to find a way of transferring them onto fabric to facilitate resilience for stitching. 

I have experimented with freezer paper and have been delighted with the results.

Freezer paper is easy to come by on line, it's cheap and easy to use. 

The paper is plastic coated. I simply ironed the plastic coated side to a piece of fabric which has been cut slightly larger than A4. I keep an old iron specifically for such jobs and use baking parchment to protect it. I then trimmed the paper /fabric to A4 size to fit my Inkjet printer, selected the image to be printed from my computer files and taking care to place the fabric the right way up pressed print and looked on in wonder as my image emerged on fabric!

The results:

 The clinic for soldiers printed onto calico:

The autograph book inside cover with it's beautiful leaf patterns printed on calico:

An example of one the autograph book pages with a soldier's entry printed on calico:

One of my Grandmother's embroideries printed on scrim:

I'd like to develop ideas to incorporate these images within a fabric collage using stitch and textural effects.

I love the embroidered image on scrim and would like to experiment to hand stitch into this. This piece defined my red / green colour scheme, so beautiful.

Chapter 6. Surface decoration on fabric - monoprinting and solar printing. Reverse applique.

 Monoprinting seems to work really well to interpret the oak leaves and so I decided to work with this on fabric. I used acrylic paints with a fabric painting medium, the latter extends the drying time of the acrylics and offers a softer finish.

I used the same method as follows:

Monoprints on silk laid as a collage onto a calico backing, I've allowed the silk to fray when it overlaps for added texture and interest:

Detail:

Detail 2

Monoprints on calico over laid with monoprints on tissue paper:

Monoprints on calico and then flooded with silk paint:

Solar printing.

I used calico and silk both of which were washed to remove any dressing.

Early experiments [ not linked to this project]:

The fabric was painted with Setacolor paints and laid over surface which would take pins.

 Flowers pinned into place and then placed in a sunny spot for a couple of hours:

 

Until a negative image develops:

Now using oak leaves:

The result:

I have yet to stitch the above samples awaiting development.

Added information re solar printing taken from The Found Object by Cas Holmes. 

Below is a sample of reverse applique. I used a monoprinted piece of calico with some free machine embroidery as a bottom layer. I had a piece of silk painted with Setacolor paints which had not responded to sunlight which I used as atop layer, I monoprinted oak leaves onto this before stitching oak leaf shapes at random on the back. I then cut away these shapes on the right side and free machine stitched around the cutaway shapes

I finished by adding stitching to the monoprinted oak leaf shapes on the upper side. to produce some interesting textural effects.

My monoprinting tile after a long printing session, much too beautiful to wash away!

Chapter 5. Decorated papers and surface decoration.

 Monoprints:

My favourite way of decorating papers is to monoprint. This works particularly with leaves and results in the most intricate detail.

Monoprint with acrylic paint on cartridge paper

Monoprint on tissue paper with acrylic paints:

Sketchbook page monoprints:

Sketchbook page - layers of monoprinted tissue paper:

Charcoal rubbing: 

Frottage:

Frottage is a way laying paper over textured surfaces to create interesting rubbings, I've used a cardboard leaf shape and a leaf shape fashioned out of string and set with PVA glue.

The results using oil paint sticks, Aquarelle and water colour pencils on cartridge paper:

Resist methods:

Resist methods are achieved by using water resistant wax crayons, oil paint sticks, oil pastels or candles which are then washed over with inks or water colour paints, in this case inks and Brusho paints

 

Chapter 4. My Grandmother's embroideries. Colour scheme and verbal prompts for design.

 My Grandmother's embroideries are scattered around my mother's cottage in Somerset, these are made up of tablecloths which were fashionable in her day plus beautiful tapestries either framed as pictures or made into dining room chair covers. Obviously these are not available for me to use but they photographed well:

I really admire the floral arrangement in the top left hand corner but particularly love the one below it.In fact I decided to base my choice of colour scheme on this embroidery picking out the red and green as I felt they would reflect the colours of the Red Cross, nurses uniforms and the oak leaves. 

Red and green are opposites on the colour wheel and will, therefore create  a beautiful vibrancy. Red is also, of course, the colour of the poppy, such a powerful symbol of the battlefield. Red is also the colour associated with love and passion, strength and hatred whilst green is the colour of nature, peace, tranquility and hope. Many contrasts and paradoxical meanings which give way to powerful emotions.

Looking at colour symbolism led me onto considering verbal prompts associated with the project:

Chapter 3. The autograph book.

 This little book is now 105 years old and is one of my most treasured possessions. /even though autographs books were popular I know we are a family who love journaling. My Aunt left us her memoirs and it is from here that I have been able to resource the photos of my Grandmother. I always keep a holiday sketchbook / journal on our holidays and they are a source of precious moments and memories which may otherwise be forgotten. 

The autograph book is worse for wear : 

I am particularly inspired by the lining of the covers which has a beautiful leaf pattern. I can't help but link this up with the seasonal autumnal changes my Grandmother would have experienced especially the oak leaves. These have become an important element in the design components of the fabric collages.  

Chapter 2. My Grandmother's enrollment and The Red Cross.

 My Grandmother enrolled with the Red Cross on 13th October, 1915 and I find it very poignant that I am writing this at the same time of year, she would almost certainly have experienced similar seasonal autumnal changes. 

Members of the Red Cross were organised into Voluntary Aid Detachments and a primary role was to help the Naval and Military Services treat sick and wounded soldiers and sailors. A total of 90,000 volunteers worked at home and abroad taking part in nursing duties plus air raid duties, searching for missing persons and transporting the wounded.

I found her date of registration on the www.vad.redcross.org.uk a discovery which her really brought her to life. 

We are fortunate to have this photo of a clinic for the soldiers in Exeter [I think]. It's interesting to see the nurses in the background.

I don't have a photo of my Grandmother in her uniform but I founded some beautiful examples on google images, I feel they convey the camaraderie these young women almost certainly experienced in what most have been a very challenging time: 

Chapter 1. Telling a story. Setting the scene. My Grandmother's war - an introduction using vintage photographs

This is my first major project since completing my City and Guilds Certificate in Embroidery with Distant Stitch. I've decided to record my work as it's good practice and helps to keep me organised! It also means I can refer back to experimental methods in the future.I'm looking forward to creating a textile piece to honour my Grandmother's achievements. At the moment my idea is to create a fabric collage and to translate images and photographs onto fabric with added textural techniques to bring interest and intrigue. I'm constantly fascinated by how fabric and thread can interpret and convey so beautifully experiences and memories of past events especially those which are emotive. I have uploaded my sketchbook pages plus added photos for extra detail or a close up view.

This weekend would have been spent at the Ammerdown Centre in Somerset with The Stitched Textile Group for a  Master Class with textile artist Sian Martin and I had decided to take aspects of this project with me to develop my ideas but Covid 19 has  landed us with a month in Lockdown starting today. We will enjoy a zoom week end instead and I felt it would help to record my work thus far on my blog should Sian need to take a look.

Introduction

This project has been bubbling under the surface for sometime and has been inspired by a little autograph book kept by my Grandmother who volunteered as a nurse with the Red Cross in 1915 to help care for wounded soldiers in Exeter. This little book is full of wonderful comments entered by the soldiers as she went about her nursing duties. Their comments give graphic detail of their war time experiences along with expressions of their heartfelt thanks for my Grandmother's care, attention and patience. I now have the privilege of taking care of this little book of treasured memories.

Firstly to set the scene I have a collection of photographs which I feel bring my Grandmother to life. I have such fond memories of her and she was very dear to me. These photos include those of her wedding in 1922 and her life as a farmer's wife and mother in rural Somerset. I find it fascinating to think of these as moments in time and glimpses of my family history:

To look closer:

A country wedding:

With my Grandfather [his bucket would suggest he'd just fed the pigs!], her 3 children [my mother is standing in the front centre] and an elderly aunt:

My mother and her siblings playing in the farmyard - I'd love to know who took this wonderful photo:

In later life and as I remember her:

Chapter 12 Take three artists

Chapter 12

Study three artists

The brief is to look at the work of two artists Jae Maries and Barbara Lee Smith and then select another of my choice who has inspired has inspired me in any aspect of the of the work studied in this module.

Jae Maries

Sian has provided a little information about each starting with Jae Maries who is a free-lance artist and tutor who has exhibited widely, including solo shows in the USA and Switzerland. She is a member of the 62 Group of Textile Artists and the Designer-Craftsmen Society.  She chooses themes for her work which are based on stories or comments on society and  uses simple shapes and colours to create a mood and to tell the story in a visual way.  She makes her designs in coloured paper collages and interprets these freely into embroidery,  colours her fabrics with dyes and paints and then uses appliqué techniques with hand and machine stitchery.

‘Ebbtide’ (BBC collection)

As I researched further I was fascinated by information available on both the 62 Group website and jaemaries.com:

http://www.62group.org.uk/artist/jae-maries/

In her work, Jae explores her personal environment through a Visual Diary. She combines several techniques including oil painting, printing and hand and machine stitching. She has work in several public collections and it can be seen in various publications including her book ‘Contrasting Elements’.

For many years, Jae’s work explored the relationships between people and their environment but recently her work has taken a much more personal slant. She is now interpreting, through stitch and paint, her immediate environment using sketchbooks to record her daily life, using symbolic and abstracted marks and forms which are then translated into larger artworks.

Her work is unplanned and evolves through a series of processes each exploring certain events, actions, feelings or memories on a daily basis. The subsequent layers, maybe in paint, overlay the previous marks suggesting the fading of memories as time passes

Jae enjoys the challenge of using mixed media techniques in her work especially that of combining oil paint with stitched textiles relishing the contrast between the hands-on sensual quality of working with fabrics and threads and the thrill and spontaneity of brush marks.

Jae works full-time on artwork and  has work in several public collections . She is a freelance lecturer and tutor and has published a book Contrasting Elements.
 Jae has BA Hons. Fine Art and a Diploma in Creative Embroidery from Brighton University. She exhibits internationally and has now returned to being an ordinary member of the 62 Group having been Chairperson from 2009 – 2013.

http://www.jaemaries.com/

Water, water.

Barbara Lee Smith

By painting, spraying and printing colour on fabric which is then collaged by heat fusion and stitched with machine embroidery, this leading American artist and teacher creates powerful, large scale work. This celebrates the space, time, light and colour associated with landscape in a series of atmospheric, lyrical impressions.

On further research and via her website www.barbaraleesmith.com/about-the-work I discovered that Barbara describes her work in three stages - painting, collage and drawing. She paints on an industrial grade polyester non-woven fabric which serves as her artist’s canvas before bonding several layers together to form a heavy base on which to collage small elements of the same painted material. When the composition is complete she machine stitches a line resembling a topographic map which visually ties the layers of paint and collage together.

In an interview for textileartist.org Barbara recalls being taught to stitch by her sister as a child and then as a young mother discovering books by Mariska Karasz and Constance Howard. It was coming across an Embroiders’ Guild exhibition which finally influenced her.

I can so strongly identify with this – the family connections with creativity, discovering the work of contemporary textile artists and then as a young mother happening upon an Embroiders’ Guild exhibition in Glastonbury, Somerset.

White caps:

Carol Naylor

Carol Naylor is a contemporary textile artist specialising in machine embroidery.

In an interview with textileartist.org she recalls a love of drawing as a child and an appreciation of the work of Gaugin and Klee from an early age.

Having studied Art Foundation at Hastings School of Art Carol moved on to Goldsmiths where she gained a BA and post graduate diploma in Textile Art. Following a successful career in teaching and lecturing she became freelance in 1997 and went on to develop a unique style in machine embroidery. She is a Fellow of the Society of Designer Craftsmen, has exhibited widely in the UK and Europe and has worked as a guest lecturer in USA and New Zealand.

Translating her ideas from her drawings and notes taken on location Carol stitches directly onto artist’s canvas using a wide variety of threads and changes in tension. Working mainly in cable stitch she creates a surface which undulates and flows directly as a result of intensive continual stitching. These are then complimented by the addition of a sculptural quality which develops as a result of the tension and thread changes.

Carol describes her work as an exploration of surface and mark making looking at qualities of light and colour observed on land and over water, shadows and tonal contrasts are explored through heavily stitched surfaces.

I have selected Carol as my third artist for her machine embroidery skills which reflect somewhat the directional free machine stitching, whipped tension effects and cable stitch I have used to represent the sea water and opposing tidal currents in my final project.

I love this piece below, Sea Divided, for it's textures, tonal qualities and colourways.

http://www.carolnaylor.co.uk/gallery/gallery10.html#

https://www.textileartist.org/carol-naylor-the-best-second-