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Experiments with embroidery thread and fabric pens, top piece shows difference between embroidering straight onto the fabric - even with just one thread and the thinnest needle I've got it puckers, it puckers less if I've covered the fabric with matte or gloss medium and gloss is a little less obvious once it has dried.
I've also been looking at how to transfer the design I want to embroider onto the fabric - middle strip shows fabric pens and one of those 'this fades away pens' and it does but it also bleeds a bit which is difficult if you want something to be quite exact. The lower piece shows a piece I did by embroidering (simple backstitch) over a pencil line - it cvovers it up neatly but I need to get better at drawing my design evenly - the design is inpsired by hearts and flowers tombstones from the 18th century in Dewsbury |
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| Not a v full post it note but lots of experiments on coffin lining offcuts, plus I've now wrapped my embroidery hoops with bias binding so that they'll hopefully grip the fabric better, it's slippery tricksy stuff....the patterned fabric didn't work at all well, the pale pink fabric worked okay-ish, used a print of a scan of a cyanotype I made and cut a bigger piece of paper than thew actual image to see if I could get it so it didn't break up so much around the edges but the colour seemed to bleed in a way the black and white prints don't but might experiment with it further....
So as you can see lots of experimenting rather than photograph taking this last week, still somewhat out of action with a poorly knee, saw a physiotherapist who reassured me that although it might take time to heal the injury to the 'medial collateral ligament' it will heal - and she gave me some exercises to try and it does seem to be getting a little easier and less painful and swollen. PHEW!! but getting down on one knee or kneeling is still too painful so it might be a while since I can take some more pictures.
So I thought I'd use my enforced limited mobility to sit down and do some image transfering and sewing instead. And you can see the results above - some I'm pleased with, some I'm not so pleased with and some I want to work further on and refine. I've also tried using different kinds of brush and spatula to put the matte medium on - spatula seems to really get it into the fabric so much so, I have to turn it over and almost put it back through but it does mean an even coverage with less obvious application marks. I also experimented making a kind of mud wash out of the small amount of soil I harvested from St George's Fields a while back, it looked okay-ish but still needs some refinement I think. I also won't be rushing to use the pale blue patterned material again as it's too uneven to absorb the matte medium equally and it's even shinier than than the other fabric and thicker. Still I might give it another go, other thing I need to experiment with is freezer paper and seeing if I can use that to print onto the fabric. That method does involve ironing though and I've a feeling that might just make the fabric shrivel up - some careful experimenting ahead then. I also decided to actively take some time out and spent one afternoon watching kids telly - partly in the hope of seeing Hacker T Dog who never fails to put a smile on my face. He is a dog from Wigan with a love of meat paste, milky brews, puns, irreverence, Cotton Eye Joe, lucky withered legs and pink dresses. I believe his human handler is called Phil Fletcher. I follow him on Twitter as well and he always makes me chuckle but alas he wasn't on when I switched on but Shaun the Sheep was and so was a new animated series featuring Zig and Zag created by Ciaran Morrison and Mick O'Hara. It wasn't quite as funny as their furry outings on the Big Breakfast and nowhere near as filthy, scatalogical, lewd, chauvanistic as their creators other characters Podge and Rodge. But it did introduce me to the marvellous phrase 'what in the name of Sir Walter Raleigh's Hedgehog is that?'. Podge and Rodge are somewhat of an acquired taste and they make me laugh a lot. Their late night 'Scare at Bedtime' halloween tales (which you can find on Youtube - along with their seminal work Colosto-Me Colosto-You) and their homage to Foster and Allen -Fester and Ailin are amongst my favourite things to watch. Though part of the appeal of Podge and Rodge like Zig and Zag is that they have irish accents and the way they speak, and use of phrases like 'come here to me , you' make me think of my much loved and much missed grandparents. Though neither of them - ever swore either at all or nowhere near as much... I have always loved puppets - of the cheeky and irreverent kind that is, so Sweep, Basil Brush, Zig and Zag/Podge and Rodge, Hacker T Dog are top of my list of things to watch if I want to smile, as is Spongebob Squarepants. I often have things playing on youtube in the background whilst I'm working, though it has mostly been Victoria Wood this last week - her work is a never ending balm and source of laughter. I don't know how many times I have watched Julie Walters as the waitress badly serving 'one soup...... *pencil lick* and another one' to the couple played by Celia Imrie and Duncan Preston waiting for trains but I could never be bored by it and never fail to laugh at it. Comic observational perfection performed wonderfully. Someone else whose work I could never tire of is John Waters - spent part of this weekend rewatching the last film he made in A Dirty Shame (2004) and then Cecil B Demented (2000) and Serial Mom (1994) . I am eagerly awaiting his next book releases too. I like his writing style just as much as I like his film making style. I am still working on my response to his '12 Assholes and a Dirty Foot' (mine is '12 Belle Ends and a Sock On The Door' though it may have to be scaled back to 9 Belle Ends and an Abandoned Pair of Boxers in a Doorway In Dewsbury as I'm struggling to find anymore Belle Ends and the parameters I set myself for the project were: it has to be done on my camera phone and I can't make any of the images, I can only take them.... I've also been experimenting with writing 'done lists' rather than to do lists, in an attempt to feel a bit more on top of things. It did counter the feeling of either 'I've done feck all' or 'I've not done enough' when in fact I have done loads. But I still need a to do list - for fear of forgetting important things I need to do. Which reminds me I must update the big list I've got so I know what times I need to do what by. This month is especially busy - I have three conferences to attend - one I'm delivering a paper at, the other two I'm displaying work, as well as a talk and a couple of important meetings. The other thing I'm experimenting with is doing/completing where possible just one thing per day - or rather trying to concentrate upon one thing at a time rather than having a whole list of things and only doing the easy things off them - I'm not above writing things on my to do list that I've already done just so I can tick them off.... Looking at my diary makes me feel a bit sick - partly because the next few weeks are crammed full but then it all calms down again and then it'll be the end of the course....and I still haven't got quite to grips with organising a phd place yet, other than deciding I defintiely want to do one. It is also coming up to the anniversary of the death of my beloved Lucia - I still miss her so much and I want to find a way to completely distract myself on that day. Anniversaries and dates have such power and significance don't they? or rather we invest them with such - even if we try not to. I can remember taking a flight on September 11th - they first year after the Twin Towers were hit and even though I knew that rationally there was no difference between that day and any other in terms of being on a plane I couldn't shake the extra feeling of dread - on top of all my usual fears re flying. Fears which after a spectacularly turbulent flight have left me reluctant to take a plane unless I absolutely have to...and so far I haven't had to and long may that continue.
I attended a really interesting talk on Victorian Turkish Baths by Malcolm Shifrin at Leeds Library last week. It was part of the series put on by the Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies - all of the lectures are free and anyone can attend them. It was especially lovely to hear one amongst the splendour of the Leeds Library though as opposed to a modern purpose built seminar room.
But as ever I digress Baths as in Turkish/Roman Steam Baths were primarily promoted in this country by David Urquhart (1805-1877) who was a diplomat and member of parliament and his colleague Dr Richard Barter in Ireland. I had realised that bathing was somewhat of a difficult task to accomplish prior to the time of mains water and sewage, I hadn't realised how difficult. Water not only had to be heated but also carried from the pump. And water is really heavy. He was promoting the use of steam baths as opposed to just ordinary bathing. And there was no end of ailments it could help with according to the advertising. Though he did face tough opposition as well as some medics were firmaly against bathing of any kind - especially for the lower classes as it made them weak apparently. There was also much made of the class differences - in both access to bathing facilities and attitudes towards them, not to mention the sexes. Male and female bathers were kept separate at all times and modesty protected with either towels or curtain arrangements that dropped from the ceiling as you emerged from the pool. It seems the that the the middle and upper classes were horrified when baths were opened on a Sunday - yet Sunday was the only day most working class people could attend and of course the working classes were equally being castigated for being dirty. (This in turn makes me think of the dreadful old jokes about people in the north using baths to store coal in) It was also fascinating to hear about some of the advertising used for baths at the time of the suffrage campaigns for women - apparently the effect of the baths on complexions were so 'beautifying' that women wouldn't need the vote as they'd be so beautiful men wouldn't be able to resist their requests for anything....and in the days before chemically treated water the fact that some baths only completely changed their water once a week and so it was cheaper to go later in the week when the water was less fresh... Fascinating stuff. I also read a bit more of Mrs Beetons Book of Household Management and so can pass on thse handy(!) housekeeping tips: 'wash well a saucepan but cleran a frying pan with a slice of bread' (hopefully you then eat the bread but that wasn't specified) and the apposite: 'a good manager looks ahead' and 'clear as you go as muddle makes more muddle' - something which is especially true when you're working in limited space as I am - my workroom is fairly organised but very cramped and it would be lovely to have a bigger house with space for a proper darkroom in the basement... I did toy with the idea of waiting til tomorrow to write this - seeing as it's a Bank Holiday but as it was raining I decided to do this instead as well as tidying round a bit, made a sausage casserole for later and I also did the ironing. And I'm glad I did as it means that is a few less jobs on my to do list for tomorrow...and fingers crossed by this time next week the big jobs on it will also have been done and my knee will be even more healed so I can take some more photographs. I'm getting shutter and lens withdrawl symptoms.....and reading a book by a papparazzi called Shooting Stars by Jennifer Buhl is making me want to go out and take pics. Not of celebrities and nor in an invasive manner but just that thrill of getting exactly the shot you want... I did get some pics back this week though that I took in Skegness a while back. I used Kodak Tri X ISO 400 and my lovely ever supportive husband developed them in the garage (aka pop up meth lab) for me - we'd both been so busy we'd forgotten they needed doing but he found time this week and I scanned them in yesterday morning before going to see a really lovely uplifting heartwarming film at the Hyde Park - Eddie The Eagle. Even if it did give me vertigo looking at it at times - the footage of the careering down the take off jump was stomach churning...but back to the negatives - annoyingly I must have had a cat hair trapped in the back of the camera as there is a thin cat hair like line in the same place on all the pics (easily photoshopped out - ha! see last week's entry for my feelings photoshop) but that aside I've got some images I am well chuffed with which I hope to get printed in a couple of weeks when I'm next in the print room. For me the wait and delay with film is part of the joy of it - you forget what you've taken and then hopefully you're gloriously reminded of it, or sometimes you realise you didn't get them quite right or missed something or have just got a camera with not only cat hair on the lens but also in the back.... ...adds clean and de cat-hair camera to to do list..... |
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