Times of beginnings

I've been contemplating writing this new blog for several weeks now, in a spectacular case of procrastination, and I've realised that sometimes you just have to go for it, even if you're not sure what you're going to say. It's been such a long time since the previous one at the end of last year and in some ways very little was changing in Traverse's world. My relationship with my textile art to a large extent remained tenuous and I've gone for long periods without making anything, apart from occasional bursts of creative energy. I know from our Zoom chats that Deb, Dia and Vicki have also, for various reasons, gone for long periods without doing much textile art.

However, things are slowly changing and finally we've managed to meet together in Deb's studio a couple of times recently. It's felt so good to be in the studio again, working alongside each other and sparking creativity and inspiration together. We are keeping everything crossed that planned shows next year will be going ahead and also have our very first gallery exhibition coming up in January next year. It will be at Sock Gallery, Loughborough Town Hall and we are very excited!

We decided to call the exhibition 'Together/Apart -  a Retrospective' to reflect how our creative lives have been affected recently. As we wrote in our description:

“An important part of our ethos is to celebrate our diversity, share our various strengths and to grow together, working side by side. However, having recently lived through strange times in our world and working apart for over a year, we are celebrating coming together again to present this retrospective, which reflects not only work on our themes but also work produced alone, exploring loss, personal viewpoints and our emotional landscapes – together and apart.”

Here are a few sneak peeks at what we've been up to.

Vicki has been making her own printing blocks and playing with paint and embossing powder ... 

... and a little bit of fabric manipulation.

Dia has been recycling (or is it upcycling?) coffee capsules, inspired by fireworks - the first stage is playing around with different arrangements before adding stitch.

I wonder if this will be the final choice.

Another of Dia's explorations with this felted background and more fabric manipulation ...

... and some stitching on some beautiful hand- dyed fabric.

Some more gorgeous stitching from Deb ...

...and part of her latest unwearable dress - I love the colours on this one!

I have been playing around with a couple of pieces - both of them things I started ages ago. First, something from the Experimental Textiles course where Traverse first met and it definitely needs a lot of work, specifically on the very flat background, which  needs texture. The embellished felted pieces have copper either inlaid or on top so I've been experimenting.

Where shall I put the small copper circles and should they have a dark red (or maybe turquoise) border?

Maybe I'll move some copper from the bottom to the top.

I think I've found some interesting texture for the background anyway!

The second piece is much older - I began it on a workshop with Alysn Midgelow Marsden in 2014! I know I put it away because it was quite fiddly, working with Romeo soluble and tiny pieces of metal cloth but I didn't intend to leave it for quite so long! I love the texture created and also the heat patination on the three different metals - steel, bronze and copper. I'm trying to decide which orientation I prefer and was surprised at the difference it made when I rotated the following photograph taken in Deb's studio.

 

The sunlight coming in through Deb's window was creating some very interesting shadows that day and the way I look at it now makes quite a difference. A bit of a theme for me lately and I'm still not quite sure how it will end up but remembering my opening sentence - 'sometimes you just have to go for it, even if you're not sure what you're going to do'.

Cath

Navigating through life's complications

In the previous blog on our Lockdown Life, I mentioned how the strangeness of the situation had led sometimes to a feeling of being 'stuck' creatively as well as literally, and how inspiration can come unexpectedly - but what do you do if you hit a creative block?

In her introductory Q & A session here on the blog, Vicki gave us a few clues to her approach with these words: 'Usually, when I'm in a creative fug or bored with what I'm working on, I'll find something else to do and experiment a bit'. Describing her style as 'haphazard, intuitive and organic', she said she was 'trying to navigate through life's complications', dipping into 'years worth of materials to make things'.

The following recent images show her further exploring process. With a love of the rhythm and repetition of stitch and the history around different techniques, she has been taking inspiration from traditional crafts and the rhythms that distract and comfort - but combining them with materials that render them impractical.

In my introduction, I didn't mention that the other word Vicki used to describe her style was 'lazy' and, looking at all this work, I have to politely disagree! I love all these explorations and I'm fascinated by the ideas behind them. I look forward to seeing how they develop over the coming weeks and months and will keep you all posted ...

"Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent and independent with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play"

Henri Matisse

Cath

Did I say 'Winds of Change'?

My previous blog referred to winds of change blowing around Traverse and we really had no idea of what was coming or how far those winds would spread! Along with so many people all around the world, our day-to-day lives have changed dramatically - and we are still not sure of the true implications for Traverse's activities. So far, we have only had one show affected - the Quilt & Stitch Village, 17th - 19th April, at Uttoxeter Racecourse has been re-scheduled for 18th - 20th September, in the first instance. We don't know what is happening for the rest of our planned shows and we will wait to hear from them. As I write this, lockdown is slowly being loosened but there are still big questions regarding many aspects of 'normal' life.

I am just grateful not to have lost anyone to the pandemic and have tried to accept the changes with good grace - a life full of virtual choirs, gardening in the sun and possibly a bit too much baking, alongside my creative activities. I've been meaning to write about a piece I actually finished just before everything changed and have decided now is the time! It was conceived as part of our work on the theme of 'Senses', where I have focused on how sight and sound contribute to a sense of place.

Some of you may remember this:

Round and Round the Garden

It was inspired by the gardens of  the South of France, and in particular one in Menton, where we spent a glorious afternoon exploring. We particularly wanted to see the waterlilies and seemed to go round and round through all the other areas, spiralling in towards the pool - the jewel in the centre.

I actually began work on it last October at a workshop with Alysn Midgelow-Marsden but I had prepared the fabric beforehand - kunin felt, transfer printed with a heat press. The design was another link back to the art of Southern France - a homage to Matisse's collage, 'The Snail'. I transfer-painted  computer printer paper in a random way, remembering to note the colour as it always amazes me how they change when heated. The torn painted papers were arranged in a spiral and printed with the heat press, in several different layers, filling in the gaps with consecutive prints.

 

I intended to use my embellisher at the workshop to add loads of texture and also metal, wire and beads - but I came up against a problem with the embellisher. Although it has 12 needles, it proved very difficult to use on my prepared surface. I've successfully embellished kunin felt many times before so it seemed to be something to do with the heat process - the surface seemed to have melted slightly. I was a bit thrown by this but with perseverance, I found I could use a hand needle felting tool to add some yarn, wool and silk fibres.

Alysn showed us how to use shrink plastic to achieve some interesting effects and I decided to use one sample as the centre of my spiral, adding a little hand stitching and beads. I also found french knots very useful to anchor down some of my scrim and fibres that were rather precariously needle felted in,

 

In a classic example of 'design through process', my ideas changed significantly as I slowly worked my way outwards. I decided to keep much of the printed felt visible, rather than cover it up with texture as I'd originally planned. I decided against any more beads and wire, using only a few crescent shapes cut from metal coffee pods to give a different texture. I had a circle canvas, which I needed to use for my planned concept, so I outlined the exact size in a variegated running stitch before following the spiral and outlining some of the printed shapes with free motion stitch.

I wrapped the circular canvas and then added more running stitch through the canvas in selected shapes, which served to anchor the work securely. See wrapped canvas and close up of stitch details below (apologies for slightly out of focus image on the left).

 

When I posted this on social media, I said that it was still not finished and some people wondered where I would take it from here ... and now I'll show you what happened next. My plan all along was to make an ocean drum - it seemed like the perfect evocation of beach walks, with the sound of the ocean and also the amazing shades of turquoise in the sea. One side would be a walk round the garden and the reverse would be a walk by the sea.

During the second half of Alysn's workshop, I began preparing how to show those colours and the translucence of the water.  I made my own printing blocks based on a drawing of the shapes of the ripples in some of my photos of the sea on my holiday and then printed papers and also various stainless steel and copper fabrics with a variety of shades of blue and turquoise. Using soluble plastic film for stability, I cut some of the fabric and began stitching it together in wavy lines.

Back at home, after finishing the garden side, I used the printed paper to line the central well of the canvas, conveniently hiding the running stitches I'd used to anchor the felt and also giving a wonderful splash (!) of colour, especially after a few coats of acrylic wax.

After trialling the metal fabric to see how translucent it was, I decided to change the  scrunched line of copper (towards top of left hand picture) to make it easier to see through to the painted paper beneath.

 

 It was very difficult to photograph but this close up gives you some idea.

                                           
Feeling very pleased with the effect, I explored different sized beads to see which would roll easily and make the best sound. Trials in the open well of the canvas produced many spills and some interesting patterns on the kitchen floor as they bounced out and around! Then I stapled the metal fabric into place and turned my mind to how to hide the staples. I decided to make an embellished border, using yarns and stitch on bright turquoise felt.

I used double-sided extra strong carpet tape to stick it into position and slip stitched it invisibly to the kunin felt covering the edge of the canvas.

Finished at last ...

La Mer

... and it worked!

(Sound doesn't carry brilliantly in this but you should get some idea.)

Well, I've made up for the lack of blog posts recently by writing a mammoth one!

Hope you all stay safe and well,

Cath

Making the Invisible Visible

The Quilt and Stitch Show at Uttoxeter Racecourse was my first exhibition with Traverse but also my first exhibition with my current theme of work 'Making the Invisible Visible'. 'Making the Invisible Visible' is informed by my own experiences of invisible disability and chronic illness and as part of Traverse's theme 'Revealed', I have been keen to show, or reveal, the emotions behind the facade that many people with invisible disability and chronic illness develop.

Traverse's stand at The Quilt and Stitch Show, Uttoxeter. April 2019.

For those of you who don't know me, I'm profoundly deaf, not that you would know unless I told you. For me, it truly is an invisible disability and throughout my life, like many deaf people, I have faced comments such as "You don't look deaf"; "You are not as deaf as you pretend to be"; "You use your deafness as an excuse"; "Can you hear me?" said in either an exaggerated way which is totally useless if you lip read as it alters the lip pattern you are trying to follow or as a whisper behind their hand as they try to 'catch' me out. I could go on, I have many examples. The majority were not funny the first time I heard them, most make me feel very embarrassed and some are truly hurtful.

But the worst thing?

It’s that every deaf person I have met, whether people like myself who have been deaf (of varying levels) since birth or people who have had a hearing loss later on in life have faced these comments. And every deaf person and every person who has an invisible disability or chronic health condition (of which I also have with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue) who face this lack of understanding and support, put on a 'face', that is a face they hide behind, an "I'm fine" face that they face the outside world with to try to minimise any vulnerabilities shown to those who don't understand.

'The Hidden Face'

Using my own experiences and those of various people I have spoken with, I wanted to try and show the emotions behind the facade, the struggle that deaf people (and anyone with an invisible disability or chronic illness) face every day and reveal how different levels of hearing loss affect what we can hear.

Although I have had many a conversation and positive response from the other members of Traverse and a handful of other artists about the work I was creating, I wasn't entirely sure how complete strangers would react and The Quilt & Stitch Show was kind of nerve wracking for that reason! Every artist, whatever media they use, faces worries about how others will perceive their work and worries about whether their work is truly good enough. But I was also wondering if what I was trying to convey would be understood by those viewing my work.

On Friday, the first day of the show, Cath and I were stewarding the Traverse stand and it proved to be a very interesting day - for all of us as we all received lots of nice comments and support from visitors - but especially for me as I met several people who expressed their interest in my work. Three such visitors really stick in my memory of the day:

The first was an elderly gentleman who had age related hearing loss and he instantly 'got' what I was trying to convey - both from the statements that people say and from the difficulties faced with hearing loss in a hearing world. We did what seems to be a typical topic of conversation whenever I meet someone with hearing loss - have a good discussion over the difficulties of trying to hear in different situations, what different hearing aids are like and how hard it is to cope with people who don't understand that different situations affect how well you can hear and follow what is going on - I suspect some of this typical conversation comes from the fact I was an audiologist pre-children and have an inbuilt nature to want to help those I meet rather than a totally typical fellow “deafie” conversation but there is a bit of that too!

'Hidden Deafness' 1/3

'Hidden Deafness' 2/3

'Hidden Deafness' 3/3

I then had a conversation with fellow textile artist Jane Murdock, who is studying with the Open College of Arts and is also a fellow “deafie”, invisible disability and chronic illness warrior. Jane has written a blog post as part of her OCA research looking into how disability or chronic illness is portrayed in art and has included my work from the exhibition in her post. Jane understood instantly what I was trying to convey with the use of text in my Hidden Deafness series, a series of 3 panels based on the levels of hearing I not only experience each day but have experienced throughout my life.

Sound is all around us but how we hear sound is very different to each of us and much more so with hearing loss. Sound can be misheard, can be muddled or even just not heard at all and this leads to frustration, exhaustion, hurt and loneliness. The text was a piece of writing I wrote to try and convey in words the difficulties of being deaf and in each piece I distressed the writing and the stitching (which represents sound waves) to reflect the level of hearing loss being depicted and therefore, how much I could hear and understand of what was said. 

Close up of 'Hidden Deafness' 2 showing some of the text used.

My piece “Making the Invisible Visible” tries to show the hidden layers we have behind the perfect yet imperfect, strong yet fragile façade to show the frustration and irritation we feel when in contact with those who don’t understand the struggles we are facing. Jane could really relate to the feelings being expressed and felt so enthused by my work that she could see ways she could take her own work further and also as part of her OCA course, continued to explore how artists through history have portrayed chronic illness or disability in their art. You can find Jane’s blog post here.

'Making the Invisible Visible'

Finally I met two profoundly deaf ladies who were very moved by the subject matter. Deafness isn't something that comes up in art, let alone textile art very often so it was quite a surprise to them to find something that was so relevant to them - the worries, the difficulties and the frustration that occurs every day.

A full conversation proved slightly difficult as their first language was British Sign Language and mine is English –  despite the common thought that deaf people can’t speak and can only sign, I was actually brought up using oral language/spoken English so I speak but sign very little (something I am working on improving). But we did our best and following “the conversation” (as mentioned above) we discovered that we actually live very close by, in fact one of the ladies lives only 5 minutes away, not a connection I expected to make from a small show in the Midlands!

Becca