Did your grandmother teach you how to sew?
So many of our artist statements begin with heartfelt stories of our grandmothers, mothers, aunts or neighbors who taught us to sew. And many of us offer lectures that begin with our family heritage connected with our sewing journey. Our grandmothers grew up during the depression and sewed with bits
Irrational Fear
When looking at this prompt and how it relates to New Zealand my immediate response was all the swing bridges on all the walking tracks throughout the country. New Zealand is well known for tracks like the Heaphy, the Abel Tasman, St James Walkway and many many more. There are
Deb’s Idea for Heritage
When Bethany Garner gave us the current prompt, she titled her post “HERITAGE… bring ART into the family structure.” Structure is the overarching theme of this third round of Cloth in Common prompts. So far, we’ve worked on Faces, Lost Worlds, Anatomy, Buildings, Light, Cells, and Flexible. If you click
JUST OUTSIDE THE WINDOW
Creativity…learning to take a piece of cloth and build on an idea. And once in a while the focus slips and the cloth takes over… all the while, the artist/maker waits, wonders a bit, or alternatively, knows exactly what the result could be. Then waits… I did. A simple pieced
HERITAGE… bring ART into the family structure
Reaching a milestone in my adult life and with a focus on my art, I am finally moving toward the use of my skills as a textile artist to study and celebrate the history of my heritage. Learning, sharing, and celebrating… perhaps to leave a touch of a legacy for
Willow fluff
I saw the story of a woman on a TV documentary show. The first scene was small town in China where the willow fluff was falling like snow. She was refugee and settle down there after wondering in the Middle East. She had supported her family life as a dancer.
Flexible Arrangement
There’s a saying when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. What it really means is be flexible. When I proposed the prompt, “flexible,” I didn’t realize how flexible I would need to be. Life can be a literal pain in the neck sometimes. And when that pain radiates down to
Saltwater Taffy
Thank you, Deb for such a flexible prompt! Here’s Saltwater Taffy – a very flexible treat that reminds me of the cool ocean breeze, wide sandy beaches, and summer fun. I loved standing in front of the candy shop window watching the confectioner pull and stretch, fold, pull and stretch,
Lifelines
cotton, hand-dyed, breakdown-printing, machine-quilted Much is often planned in our life, some even assume that much is predetermined. Nevertheless, our life lines do not run in a straight line. There are events and cuts that happen consciously or unconsciously, intentionally or unintentionally, planned or unplanned. Which can have a positive
Flexible dance
This piece was completed inspired by sea grass or Kelp in the sea. They don’t resist the flow of seawater and move along with it. Its movement are very flexible, soft and beautiful. It looks like it’s dancing softly in the rhythm. Unlike trees that break in strong wind, they
Les Cathédrales
During our camper holiday in Spain, we visited the north coast. The most famous beaches are internationally known As Catedrais, the beach of the cathedrals. The name is due to the characteristic arched rock formations. Some are broken under the intense activity of the sea. A visit at high tide can be done
POTENTIAL
Karol Kusmaul The prompt was Flexible Structure. I decided I wanted to work with some of my hand dyed fabrics, so I pulled out several groupings. Here are some pieces I considered stitching together as a background on which to ‘build’ a flexible structure. I searched through several other ice-dyed