Eco- printing

L to R - black turtle beans and rusty tacks; spice tea and tacks; steamed walnuts; steamed black turtle beans.

We are doing printing this semester, and I decided to experiment with eco-printing as part of my exploration. I am thrilled by the colour and pattern you can get from simple materials and methods. Next I plan on over-printing with other plants on top of some of these.
I was fascinated to see that my cold-wrapped Black Turtle beans SPROUTED during the week I left them to release their colour! No, I hadn't meant to leave these 4 bundles for a whole week, but I went down with a coldy virus and was at home in bed while my bundles mouldered at uni... I just about needed gloves and a mask to open the other 3 bundles as they were VERY mouldy and slimy. Considering the yuckyness of the bundles as I opened them, I am very pleased with the end results!

Make do and Mend

At the moment I am studying for a BA in Fine Art Textiles at Moray School of Art: I have just begun my second year and have entered Studio Practice. I am gradually getting the hang of what I want to focus on for the next two years - I have been thinking about our relationship to fabric and clothing, how throw-away our society has become and the impact this is having on our home, the Earth.

As a way to help me really understand my own relationship to clothing and fabric I have decided to set myself the challenge of not buying any clothes for the next two years! What I have now I will have to mend, patch and make do with. However, I will allow myself to make new things from old semi worn out clothes; and use fabric, threads and findings I already have to make new, as long as I don't bring anything new to me into my home.

Jeans resurrection mission

This idea has been partly sparked off by my favourite, in fact my only pair of jeans, which over the summer were getting to the point of completely falling to pieces. I had recently seen pictures of Boro mending and this inspired me to use a second pair of worn out jeans to mend my beloved comfy ones! I have been gradually adding patches to the inside of my jeans and attaching them with running stitch over and through the whole surface. This labour of love is turning a throw-away pair of fairly cheap jeans that were second hand (if not 3rd or 4th!) when I first got them, into a work of art that are a delight to wear. The fabric thus created has a robust and substantial handle, looks really interesting and feels full of good vibes.
I am also really enjoying exploring eco dyeing using locally gathered plants and little or no mordants: I can see many of my clothes landing in a pot of leaves and flowers for a new shot of colour over the next two years!

I am going to record my journey through these two years of Make Do and Mend here on this blog, do follow and feel free to comment if you are interested in this idea!

Eucalyptus and Rust

Brambles and Rust

More Eco dye experiments over on my Flickr stream.

Felting Landscapes

I find myself really excited by the prospect of a trip to Orkney this coming weekend! The last summer I went on a road trip to the Isle of Lewis it resulted in this felt  piece, depicting Callanish III.

I love old places where the length of time that humanity has been here in Scotland sings out in spite of the best efforts of wind and weather, time and neglect.

This time I hope to get to Skara Brae and some of the Orkney stone circles, such as The Ring of Brodgar, as well as visiting as many artists studios as possible!

Lewisian Gneiss

Callanish III through the rushes

Callanish III on Lewis

I have hundreds of photos from my trip to Lewis last summer, a goldmine of inspiration for years to come... I hope to have a repeat of this for my Orkney trip!

Callanish I

Rethinking and reinventing

It's been a long time since I last blogged, somehow more than a year has slipped past! I am having a rethink about what I do, my business name and way of working, how it's been affected now I'm studying full time and what changes I may or may not want to make. I have decided to rename my blog as the name "A' Manner O' Things" was a stop-gap name until I knew how I wanted it to be! I have also been questioning the name of my mother and I's business Diva Designs - it just doesn't say anything about what we do, what we are about! I had an eureka moment last night; driving home through the fragrant summer dusk I suddenly knew that I want to call my business Fibre Alchemy! It says it all for me - what else is felting but a magic alchemical-like process of transformation? Turning piles of fluff into a firm but flexible fabric through lavish applications of soapy water and elbow grease!

My local organic flock of Gotlands, a 15 min walk from my front door.

Cap felted with Gotland fleece (from the above flock) and some silk tops

Magic huh? What better name for this process than Fibre Alchemy :)
This is how I want to work: using local, organic materials sourced from within walking distance of my studio and making one of a kind creations that feed the soul of the wearer. I want to work in a way that is truly sustainable and ethical, using only hight quality materials and clean processes and making beautiful, practical and affordable art to wear. I am not all the way there yet, but it's something to aim for!

The Wings of Imagination

'Give me wings that I might fly'

Caught on a sunbeam

My wings in their final position over my bed

After hours and hours of work my wings are finally finished. This photo shoot was done at a local beach where there are some magic caves and cliffs.

Work in progress

Free machining on silk

Dye vat with birch bark

Dyed fabrics with free machined feathers. Still more work to do....

Summer in March?

Some days you just have to head outside, and what better way to spend an evening than by cooking your dinner on a small fire as the birds sing the sun down and the flames get brighter as the new moon and the first star appear. It was so warm tonight; perhaps this is the only "summer" we will have this year, you just never know in Scotland!

I find sitting by a fire with the fragrance of wood-smoke and the quiet crackle and hiss of the flames very very peaceful. It educes deep sighs of contentment and a peaceful dreaminess.

I plan on building a clay pizza oven here, and all the old bricks are collected up for it's floor.... But this being Scotland, I have to build a shelter for my oven first, as the clay won't be fired enough to withstand the quantity of rain we get. I have a beautiful design in mind, the dry-stone plinth is built already, along with a work bench to one side, an open fire pit on the other then stone benches to make the remaining sides of my semi-hexagonal out-door cooking and eating place. Next step is a roof on round wood pilers... I'm not quite so hot on the wood-work front! Love clay, love dry-stoning, but joinery? Um, any volunteers?

Nights like this one make me realise just how much I want my oven finished. Perhaps this year?

February

Sunlight on Water

There have been some beautiful bright days recently. I sat by the Findhorn River and watched the light dance on the water and listened to the birds singing as the sun warmed my knees. It was a brief but much needed respite from the chaos reigning in our studio at the moment. We are having a huge change around and there are builders at work removing one wall and making another. We have had to pack EVERYTHING from one room into the other so that dust and grit doesn't get into all our baskets of fibre...

Last week I had a lovely sunny day for my day off so I went for a beautiful ramble through the woods out the back of the house and gathered rushes to make something special...
At the beginning  of February is St Bride's Day, traditionally celebrated on the 1st of Feb. It's an old Highland and Irish festival with strong Celtic Christian/Pagan roots. I have only been aware of it since I moved to this area as it is celebrated in the Findhorn Foundation.

 It was like coming home to someone I knew to find the Goddess/Saint Bride or Bridget, and her celebration has been an important part of my year ever since. On the Western Isles one of the old, old traditions was to make a Brideag (Little Bridget), a doll-like figure of straw.

Bride's Niche

Over on the East and in the present day I was introduced to the Brideag (sounds like Bree-og) as a guardian figure made of green rushes and wrapped in a cloth. Blue is sacred to Bride and I use a blue silk scarf that belonged to my beloved Granny.







Anyhow, what has all this got to do with creativity? Other than the obvious fact that I spend a blissful hour or two gathering and plating rushes in a very creative style!  I find that time spent doing a gentle yearly ritual, like this re-creation of the Little Bride, is exceedingly nurturing. It anchors me to the year in a very natural way and I find such obscure festivals easier to relate to than more commercialised ones like Christmas or Valentine's day. This year I missed the story telling and candle-lit festivities in the Universal Hall at Findhorn , I even missed the day itself as I was so busy with changing the studio round that I FORGOT that it was St Bride's Day! For me this is almost like forgetting that it's Christmas! When I remembered, a few days later, I also remembered that all the old Celtic festivals were originally anchored not to a specific date but rather to the tides of the natural world. The Snowdrops were only just coming out in my garden, so hay! it's the right time to celebrate!

I leave you with a snippet of sound and sight from my interlude by the Findhorn river.

The Key to the Kingdom and the hunt for inspiration.....

Trying out ideas

 Once upon a time I saw the title to a poem in the front of a book: "This is the Key to the Kingdom, Of the Kingdom this is the Key". It made my heart leap in anticipation and hope, and I raced to the right page to learn, well, SOMETHING magic..... Alas, it wasn't what the title promised, rather, it was more like "This Is The House That Jack Built". What a let down. I closed the book in a huff. For years that first line/title has haunted me with it's promise and has hovered round me tauntingly. If only someone had written the REAL poem that belongs to that phrase. Then one day, with those lines floating and flaunting themselves round my head, I curled up in bed with my favourite pen and writing-in book and I pinned them to the page and followed them to the end of the poem that should have been. This is what emerged:

This is the Key to the Kingdom, of the Kingdom this is the key
This is the Door that the Key unlocks in a high stone wall that none can scale
This is the Garden behind that Door, all tangled and wild with vine and briar
This is the Well at the heart of the Garden, deep and cool and clear
Neath the lip of the Well all hidden in ferns, lies a Box of gold all covered with jewels
Within that box there is a key that unlocks the way to worlds untold
This is the Key to the Kingdom, of the Kingdom this is the Key

I was extremely chuffed with myself over this wee poem at the time, then one day with the lines dancing  round my head as I worked on a stubborn commission I had a realisation. This poem tells of the impossible situation of an artist trying to grasp the inspiration (symbolised by the key) that is locked away behind that stubborn door - all you can get by peering through the key-hole is the barest glimpse of the wonders beyond, and to open the door to that magic realm, you need that blasted key that is INSIDE!!!!!!! So this is the posture of the artist - on bended knee with eye glued to the key-hole of the magic realm begging the key to open the door wide. And some times, some wonderful, magical, mind-blowing times, the door opens a crack and you get this wondrous gust of inspiration washing over you... The only thing to do then is RUN! as fast as you can, to the drawing board, the paint brush, the fleece and hold on with all your might to that fading dream and do your very best to pour it out onto the work table so that you can share it with others. And then, if you are lucky, it all flows - magic happens. It's worth all the hard work, the times that are like kneeling before the key-hole trying to make out a glimpse of something worth showing to the world.

Playing with different ways of using a motif

I have been on my knees an awful lot recently as I struggle with finding inspiration from a source that doesn't inspire me. But it has worked I think, that door opened the tiniest crack and something beautiful slipped out and into my mind. And I caught it too! On the 5th of Feb I have to show my client the possibilities that I have come up with and let her chose what direction she would like me to take the commission. Scary. But at least I now feel I have something worth showing her!