Winds of Change

The winds of change have been blowing around Traverse recently and I'm not talking about the horrendous weather we have been experiencing, which thankfully now seems to have gone away. I'm sitting here looking out at blue skies, sunshine, early blossom and daffodils, which make me smile and remind me of one of my favourite songs I sang as a child at school, 'Glad That I Live Am I' (Lizette W. Rees, 1909). It was the chorus which came to me this morning:

After the sun, the rain,

After the rain, the sun,

This is the way of life,

Till the work be done.

I've always struggled with change - it pushes me out of my comfort zone and I like it there! However, maybe I need to accept change as an inevitable part of 'the way of life' and try to embrace it like the sun and the rain, as a force for good - which brings me to the reason for writing.

A new season brings our new blog header, which reflects a major change for us - Becca and Bernice have made the decision to step away from Traverse to continue their creative life on separate paths. We will miss them and wish them all the very best, both personally and artistically.

'A bend in the road is not the end of the road ... unless you fail to make the turn.' 

Helen Keller

I will use their own words to tell their stories.

Becca

Following on from my mentoring course last year, I have been giving a lot of thought to where I want to go with my work and how to achieve this. I'm also aware that Traverse is starting to think about the next body of new work and this has been another consideration in my decision. I have decided I want to take some time to explore my current theme of work further and to spend time working on developing my artistic voice and practice. As a result, I feel that the time has come for me to leave Traverse. I have really enjoyed my time within the group and wish all of you all the best for your future work together.

As some of you will know, Becca's work has great personal significance, based on her experiences of living with deafness - an invisible disability - and has been widely admired during our exhibitions last year. Her Traverse blogpost Making the Invisible Visible describes her inspiration and the reaction to her work most eloquently. Alongside her administrative work within the group, helping a lot with social media, we will also miss that individual creative input and the extra dimension Becca's work brought to Traverse.

The Hidden Face - Becca

Bernice

It is hard to list Bernice's contribution to Traverse in detail as there was so much she did behind the scenes.  With us right from the beginning, when we sat eating curry and trying to decide on a name, she has been instrumental in so much, including setting up our social media, this website and covering many aspects of the organisation and paperwork. Her work rate is phenomenal and she always came to our meetings with several new pieces to share. We will miss the diversity her mixed media work gave to our exhibitions, the many beautiful books and her wonderful printed and stitched fabrics.

Bernice wrote the following after a 5-day workshop at Committed to Cloth, where she thought a lot about her work:

I have spent my days last week at C2C looking at my current work and practice, and where I want to take my work in the future. I have decided from all this thinking and private journaling that I need to cut back on techniques, materials, workshops and other commitments. To this end I have decided that our next Traverse weekend will be my last.

The Road Not Taken - Bernice

Bernice describes her decision in much more detail on her personal blog here, comparing it to 'climbing a spiral staircase', where the view changes slightly as you climb. Like me, she also talks about not liking change - 'I like to think I'm open to change but in reality I can be quite resistant'.

So I've come full circle, which seems rather appropriate as, after climbing a spiral staircase of my own, my view of the winds of change is different now.

The Fab Four of Deb, Dia, Vicki and I are committed to carrying on as Traverse, embracing and making the most of the changes and, in Becca's words, 'working to keep Traverse a great group.' We have exhibitions lined up for this year, which we are busily preparing for, following our theme of 'Senses'. More on that later but here's a sneak peek.

'When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills.'

Chinese proverb

Cath

Please Touch at Sense

Some of you may remember my post about our collaboration with On The Surface at the West Country Quilt and Textile Show, entitled Please Touch. It was very well received, although the idea of not being allowed to touch art was so ingrained in our visitors that we did have to give many people very strong encouragement to actually touch the pieces!

We are very pleased to be bringing a selection of our Please Touch work back to its inspirational home at Sense. the charity which supports deafblind people and those with complex disabilities, for whom the sense of touch is so important. You can read more about their work on their website here.

The exhibition opens next week at TouchBase Pears, running from 3rd to 28th February, and we are really looking forward to sharing our work there. Inspired by Sense, these pieces were designed specifically to be explored by touch, with interesting texture created in various ways - weaving, winding and stitching with yarn, fabric, felt, paper and paint, adding buttons and beads. Here is a selection:

Weaving Waves - Cath
Woven painted card, printed with hand-made printing blocks, machine-stitched

Mono Media - Cath
Layered synthetics, stitched, heat-treated, mounted on cotton duck & painted white

Tower of Holes - Cath
Vessel, wet felted with resists and simple hand stitch

Twisted Tower - Cath
Vessel, layered synthetics, stitched & heat-treated, central band of metal foil, painted

Deb's dress - Gaia

Close-up

Twiddle-Fiddle - Bernice
Printed & dyed cotton, machine stitched, added textures & twiddly bits

Acquiescence - Vicki

Close-up

Black & White: Grey Precision - Dia
Wet felted using Puku Finn sheep fibres, resist, metal coffee capsules & organza

Blue & Green: Bluish Climber - Dia
Green fabric, blue & green wool & blue plastic coffee capsules

If you are anywhere near Selly Oak, Birmingham, in the next few weeks, please pop in to TouchBase Pears to see our work - you could also check out the Hive Cafe!

Cath

Looking back

This time last year I wrote a blog, looking back on some workshops I'd attended and various unfinished pieces I needed to work on in the New Year ... and unsurprisingly, I have to admit that several of them are still waiting! This year my thoughts have turned not to the unfinished but the finished - our Revealed exhibition, which we really enjoyed sharing with the many people we met in 2019.

I'm in the middle of updating our Gallery page and looking back and remembering the reactions and various conversations we had with visitors about our work. So, I thought I'd share some of my memories of our year here. Our exhibition, 'Revealed', explored our individual approaches to the idea of what is seen or unseen, using unconventional viewpoints, revealing various hidden layers - in the physical world, in our emotional landscapes and also in our work itself. As always, we came up with a variety of ideas.

Some of our work came from a very personal perspective - most notably, Becca's work relating to her deafness and the response to them was very positive, particularly from the deaf community. Becca has written her own post here eloquently describing her feelings and the various conversations she had. I just remember the smiles and excited faces of the members of the deaf community I met, as I pointed out the inspiration behind the work - leading to the following comment in our book, 'Very impressive work - from deaf fellows'.

The Hidden Face

Hidden Deafness 1/3

Hidden Deafness 2/3

Hidden Deafness 3/3

Bernice was also inspired by a personal accident for the following machine-stitched piece 'Hidden Support', described here in her own words: A personal journey about my breaking my fingers in 2018. The base of the piece is made from the two muslin slings I was given. I kept a photo diary of my treatment and recovery and most of these photos were printed out on cotton fabric. The top layer is made from the hospital appointment letters. The tags show the dates of the appointments up to December 31st.

Visitors were fascinated to learn of the story behind both this and also the following piece. I saw many a smile on the faces of people, reading the label for 'My Mother Said' and pointing it out to their friends. The label said: On the first layer I wrote about my mother disapproving of even a bra strap showing, unlike now when almost anything goes!

My Mother Said
Mixed media distressed vest, made with paper, fabric, stitch and beads

As the following comment shows, some people were very interested to find out the stories behind our work: 'An amazing display of work and so interesting to hear the background of some of the exhibitors'.

Vicki also found inspiration in the human body and biological structure, here exploring hidden vulnerability and disease. This wonderful, delicate stitching showed the fragility of osteoporosis.

Osseous

The inspiration for this was of great interest to some, maybe with personal experience of the disease, and some commented how good it was to have a common theme running through an artist's work. However, it was interesting to listen to other conversations about this piece as it was clear that it wasn't necessary to know the inspiration behind it to appreciate the work, as is also often the case. It's seen here displayed as it was on a wonderful glass head ...

... which led to many people discussing its suitability as a fascinator and one loud comment, 'It's beautiful - I'd wear it for my wedding!'

Deb's fabulous 'unwearable' dress was also very popular, with many people commenting on the wonderful texture she has created on the surface. The general consensus was that it was definitely wearable - someone wrote the following in our book: 'Green outfit absolutely beautiful. Could definitely be wearable. So beautiful and so clever to be able to have the foresight'.

Another of Deb's pieces which was greatly admired was her beautiful stitched piece - just stunning!

In some cases, a personal response to the work came from a shared experience with a visitor, which was the case with these wonderful needle felted landscapes from Dia. They grew out of her recent holiday in Namibia ...

Sossusvlei

Deadvlei

... and 'Deadvlei' in particular brought back very happy memories of a very special place for one visitor, who talked excitedly with Dia about the work for some time. She had lived in Namibia for many years and wrote in our book: 'Beautiful work. Such skills ... and the picture of Deadvlei, Namibia is a treasure!'

Several of us chose to use wet-felting with resists techniques for 'Revealed', as these close-ups show.

In 'Spiral Space', I challenged myself to do a large spiral resist and it ended up being the largest piece of wet felting I've ever done - physically, quite hard work and definitely a challenge! However, I was very pleased with it and had many conversations about how I had worked it and the various methods I had to use to make the spiral stand up.

Spiral Space
Wet felted with spiral resist, yarn, threads and pre-felted shapes, hand & machine stitch

Another of my wet-felted resist pieces which drew comments was 3D - the vessel, 'Rainbow Totem'. This had multi-layered resists and one of my favourite colour combinations - orange, red and turquoise. After I'd pointed out 'Spiral Space' to one visitor as wet-felting with a resist, she rushed instead towards the vessel, saying, 'Ooh, I like the spiral, but I lo-o-o-ve this!'

Rainbow Totem
Wet felting with resists, nuno felted with silk chiffon

This also had some nuno-felted areas and so combined felting techniques, learned on separate workshops with two inspirational felters, Caroline Merrell and Clare Bullock. The joy of learning new techniques and sharing ideas within the textile art community is important to me and also a very special part of my reason for doing exhibitions. I hope that sharing our work, as we do, also plays a small part in inspiring others - which is why this is possibly my favourite comment of all written in our book this year: 'Thanks for your information and inspiration. I am going to have a go!'


So, we say goodbye to 2019 and 'Revealed' and look forward to next year, where our theme will be 'Senses'. I'll close with one more close-up image of my 'Starshine' lampcover, also inspired by another wonderful tutor, Alysn Midgelow-Marsden, which drew this comment in our book: 'Starshine is spectacular! Magical!'

Starshine
Copper shim and mesh, stainless steel fabric, heat treated,
zapped layered synthetics, hand & machine stitch, sequins and beads

It brings spectacular and magical 'Happy New Year' wishes to you all with love and thanks from all of us here at Traverse.


Cath

West Country Quilt & Textile Show

This is the second time we have exhibited at the West Country Quilt & Textile Show.  It is one of our favourite venues.  It is a conference centre and has excellent lighting.  Better still, it has an amazing atmosphere.

This year we shared a stand with On The Surface.  We each had a wall for our own exhibition and a wall between us for our joint exhibition Please Touch.

Cath, Becca and Deb were ready and waiting to greet the many visitors to our stand.

Cath demonstrated needlefelting on the Embellisher whilst Dia used a needle and brush.

It was so great to see the number of visitors who were interested in our work.

Here's part of our Please Touch exhibition - this photo mainly showing Becca's work about deafness.

And on the table more pieces for people to touch.  Some people found it really difficult to touch pieces.  They are so used to exhibitions having Do Not Touch notices - but that was the whole point of our exhibition.  We had made pieces deliberately for people to touch. The idea was suggested by Deb Day who worked with Sense, a charity supporting deafblind people and those with complex disabilities, helping them communicate and experience the world.

Revealed

We also exhibited our Revealed work.  Becca's work on sounds and deafness hung above Bernice's piece about her broken fingers.

We tend to hang our exhibitions by colour rather than artist.  Although some of us have a particular colour palette we work with so our work may be hung altogether.  Deb made the spectacular green dress called Gaia.

Deb had also made this beautiful dress which stood alongside Cath's felted spiral at the edge of our gallery and attracted the visitors in.

As you look at the next few photos, you will see how varied our work is.  That's what makes us 'Traverse'.

Our next exhibition is at the Big Textile Show at Leicester Racecourse.  We hope you will visit us there.

The Traverse Team

Q&A with Bernice

For our second question and answer session, I am going to speak to Bernice - Bernice is one of the founding members of Traverse, she is also one of the main posters on the Traverse blog and, has her own blog (link below) so if you are familiar with our blog, then you will know Bernice but, let's find out more:

Can you tell us about you?
I have been married to Roger for 36 years and we have one son. He and his wife and children live in Sydney, Australia.  After working as a teacher I spent 13 years as a Church Administrator and 18 months as an office manager for a friend's electrical company before properly retiring in 2011.

How did you get into textiles?
I took ill health retirement from teaching when I was 43 and was introduced to textile classes by my neighbour. She told me about City & Guilds Creative Embroidery and I spent 4 years doing parts 1 & 2. I stopped doing textiles for a while and came back several years later by way of scrapbooking and art journaling. I am a compulsive workshop collector and have done far too many to list. They are mostly technique workshops, so I know a lot of techniques but rarely spend time developing them into something that is me.

What inspires your work?
Anything and everything!

Currently my work is based on the theme for the next Traverse exhibition or the Art Textile Group I belong to at Littleheath Barn Studio. I work better with themes and with deadlines.

I am also taking a Master Practitioner course with the School of Stitched Textiles.  Currently I'm working on the 2nd module of  three.  You can follow my progress with this on my blog: Newly Creative.  My completed module 1 piece is part of the current Traverse exhibition - Revealed.

The Road Not Taken

What are your favourite techniques to use? What are your favourite mediums?
I love mixed media but I am still trying to work out how to use the techniques I use in art journaling in textiles.

I really like Breakdown Printing and spent 5 days with Leslie Morgan at Committed to Cloth last year learning the technique. I am attending 2 Leah Higgins courses later in the year to develop this technique more.

Breakdown Printing

How did find your creative style?
I am still trying to find it. Recently someone said my work looked pared down and edited. I’m hoping that was a compliment! I keep going to workshops in the hopes I’ll find something that will become my style.

How do you start a new project?
I think about the theme a lot and quite often do a mind map (or whatever it’s called these days) to see what ideas I have. And then I just jump in. I rarely do samples and I let the fabric or media tell me where it wants to go. I do a lot of thinking on the way. I ask myself ‘what if I did this or that?’ and work out what would happen in my head rather than through samples.

What do you do if you hit a creative block?
I walk away. I read or watch television. I’ve given up Pinterest because although there are lots of ideas I feel I can’t match up to what I see there. I know that is daft as my work is well done but I tend to think if someone has made a piece that they have said all there is to say. And yet I know that’s not true as what I have to say will be different. Perhaps these thoughts are what cause the creative block!

Favourite quote?
I’ve only just found this quote but I think it describes how I work to a T.
Jasper Johns: ‘Do something, do something to that, and then do something to that.’

My other favourite quote and one to live by is from John Wesley:
‘Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.’

Bernice

Thank you Bernice, it has been good to find out more about you and your work. Our next Q&A piece will be with myself!

Becca

If in doubt, cut it up!

As Cath promised here is part 3 of Marvellous Mixed Media Felting Workshop.  Those who read my personal blog know that I am very prone to cutting things up - especially those pieces that I think don't work or I just don't like.  Here you will find an example of both reasons.

I liked the colours I had used with this first piece.  It was only meant to be a sample.  The original piece of felt I thought was two big so I had cut it into two thirds and a third whilst we were at the workshop.  This is the two thirds piece.

I didn't think either piece worked so when I got home I cut up both pieces into smaller pieces.  Of course I could have left it as a sample but decided I'd rather make it into something.

I tried various ways of reassembling the bits.

I stitched on each piece separately and added gold acrylic paint.

I put the pieces together and sewed them to make this whole textile called Piece by Piece 1

These were  the two pieces I made on the second day of the workshop.  And I didn't like them.  Especially the one on the right that looked like it was an African or Aboriginal mask.

So you surely know what is coming next!  Yes.  I cut them both up.

Then I experimented with the reassembly until I came up with something I liked.   Some of the pieces were very thick but by needlefelting them I managed to get them thinner.

I stitched on the pieces and sewed the pieces together.  I added copper acrylic paint.  This one is called Piece by Piece 2.

If you come to our exhibition at the British Quilt and Stitch Village from April 12th-14th you can see whether these pieces stayed like this or whether I was tempted by more stitching or more cutting up!

Bernice