New work: Finesse: Bound to the Past

Finesse: Bound to the Past by Gillian Cooper 

This is yet another completely finished new piece – I know -  I’ve been very productive recently after a fallow period. 

Finesse: Bound to the Past by Gillian Cooper (detail)

Although the colours are completely different, the work is still related to the Unsung Muses series.  I’ve used a different goddess shape and repeated it across the background using print and embroidery.  There are waves of stitch passing over the background.  The crosses and circles come from the patterns on some of these ancient figures.

Finesse: Bound to the Past by Gillian Cooper (detail)

You may recognise that the crosses are made from the fabric beads I got a bit obsessed with making in February.  It is good to use them, although the quilt is now rather more delicate than it was before.

The beads used, bought from the African Fabric Shop

I love the circle beads I used.  They came from the African Fabric Shop (always a favourite) and are made from recycled glass.  You can see more of them here in lots of different colourways.  In fact, I’m really tempted to add to my collection again.

I’ve hand stitched circles around the glass beads, which again is a bit of a departure from the work I have been doing over the last few years, but takes me back right to where I started with fabric.  However, with hindsight, I think I did mainly hand stitch then as I was afraid of my sewing machine.  How things move on!

Has your work had any major changes recently?

Finesse: Bound to the Past by Gillian Cooper (detail)

 All of these photos apart from the glass bead ones were taken by Alan McCredie.  The piece measures 25x19in.

In my studio: snatches of work

This is all hand-stitched - something I haven't done for a while

Here is a flavour of some of the things I have been working on this week.  In case you have the impression I am some superwoman or a whirling textile dervish, this work hasn’t all happened this week – more stitching had been added or another layer of print to the fabric – not the complete thing.  If only I did have the time or ability to do all of this in one week!

Spot the needle - a definite WIP

In addition to my ‘real’ work, I have been attempting piñata mark II for an important 7^th birthday party on Sunday.  It is currently sitting on my studio table, filled, but still newspaper coloured.  It has to be goblin shaped and coloured by Sunday.  Here’s hoping that it will actually split unlike the last one, which was so indestructible, I had to take a Stanley knife to it so it would spill its contents.  Wish me luck...!

Ripple effect through hand stitch

 

Putting the hand-made beads to use at last

Even more hand-stitching, with beads from the African Fabric Shop

Not hand stitch, but you can probably see the potential for it in the drawing...

How to: 5 easy steps to make fabric beads

The other weekend at the C&G class we were looking at ways of embellishing your work.  As my work is generally unadorned and bling is a definite no-no, this meant lots of research for me.  This is one of my favourite parts of teaching C&G – I have a great excuse to go and look up artists and ideas and techniques and learn more myself.

One of the things I came across was making your own beads using straws (an article in a Quilting Arts freebie on embellishment techniques by Gail Ellspermann – you can get it here).  As I was looking quickly for lots of different ideas, all I took away was straws, fabric and glue and looking back at the article now, I’ve made mine in a completely different way. 

 

So to make my fabric beads, you need:

·         Small strips of fabric  approx 1-2in wide

·         Old threads, plain, fancy, metallic – whatever needs using up

·         Drinking straws

·         Pritt Stick style glue

·         PVA glue in a bottle with a nozzle (mine was Sainsbury’s own brand kids PVA)

·         Scalpel knife or very sharp scissors

They really are very simple to make, but I did find it quite addictive, making many more than I needed for the class and the artwork I’m going to put them on.

1.      Cover one side of the fabric with pritt stick glue.

Wrapping the glue covered fabric around the straw

2.     Stick this to the straw (below the bend if using a bendy straw or at least 2in from the end if not) at approx 45 degree angle.

3.     Wrap the fabric around the straw until you reach the end of either the fabric or straw.  Cut off any excess fabric

4.     Run a line of PVA glue down the fabric and then wrap the thread(s) you want to use down the straw, rubbing the glue in as you go.  Repeat at least twice with the glue, adding more thread if you want. Leave to dry.

Drying straws

5.     ‘Crack’ the pritt glue by gently squashing the fabric, then pull out the straw.  Cut to the desired size using a scalpel knife, and recoat each bead with PVA if need to make firmer or to tidy in ends.

Pile of finished straws waiting to be cut

As I said really easy!  To be contrary, rather than make them in lovely bright colours, I ended up wanting brown beads, although it is amazing how the colour is influenced by even the smallest amount of thread. 

Beads stitched onto my current work in progress

Have you made anything like these?  How have you used them?  The C&G class came up with some great ideas for embellishment and we sent them away to make an over-embellished sample.  I can’t wait to see the results next month.