UPPERCASE magazine

I am thrilled to be included in the current issue of UPPERCASE; a magazine all about creativity, design and art. My 'Grandad's Sweater' is featured in a a special section called Scavenger Hunt - creations made from recycled materials. My piece features a refashioned foot stool using granddad's sweaters and clothing.

Issue 24 is all about textiles. It features sections on modern weavers; visible mending; quilt design; the cultural history of vintage feed sacks; tattooed artists and discovering flea market treasures. Each cover has a swatch of vintage feed sack fabric hand-applied to the cover.

UPPERCASE publishes books and magazines for the creative and curious: products that spark the imagination and inspire creativity. Our eponymous magazine, now in its sixth year, is loved by readers around the world and has been recognized for its design excellence. Our books profile up-and-coming artists or explore emerging trends in design and creativity.

We view everything we publish as an opportunity to create something special, so each product has high production values and attention to detail. A playful exploration of creativity, an affinity for vintage ephemera, and a love of typography are some elements common to many of our publications. -publisher / editor / designer Janine Vangool

For a preview: http://issuu.com/uppercaseyyc/docs/uppercase24-issuu?e=0/10878770   (I'm on page 64!)

http://uppercasemagazine.com

Mister Finch

Mister Finch is a UK textile artist who creates unique stuffed sculptures of humanized animals using scraps of thread, fabric, paper and embroideries. The subject matter of his work is inspired by nature. He's fascinated by flowers, insects, owls and birds, as well as their extraordinary nests and behavior.

His artist's statement: "Most of my pieces use recycled materials, not only as an ethical statement, but I believe they add more authenticity and charm. A story sewn in, woven in. Velvet curtains from an old hotel, a threadbare wedding dress and a vintage apron become birds and beasts, looking for new owners and adventures to have."

And from his website:  "I get very obsessed with creating certain animals and insects and often make many and then don't return to them for sometimes weeks. I recognise this behaviour now and whilst I'm in a particular zone I try to be as productive as possible. So whilst drinking endless cups of tea and keeping my eye on two naughty cats I listen to those Cd's of just the sound of rain, I love them regardless of the weather! They allow me to switch off and I spends hours sat at my table stitching fabrics into the creatures that fill my rainy fairytale mind. When not in my studio I'm on the constant lookout for fabrics and textiles that I can use in my work. I love the hunt and its especially great to find vintage pieces to use. At the end of the day or night I tidy my table up put all my tools away and look for the cats who are always hiding in between the books and jars and close the door until the next day."

http://ohmisterfinch.tumblr.com

Make Do and Mend

 

The original meaning for “Make Do and Mend” was created between 1941 and 1949 in Britain during World War II. Adults were rationed to a small number of clothing coupons per year, the price fixed by law. If you had money, but no coupons, you could not buy, although an illegal black-market grew up of traders willing to supply at a price. The repairing and reinventing of clothing and everyday objects that would normally be discarded due to shortages and rationing began in ernest. Wartime rationing of textiles led to the famous campaign which encouraged women to be frugal and clever to clothe themselves and their families. A ‘make-do and mend’ ethos grew up, recycling old clothes, unpicking the wool from old pullovers to darn socks, for example.

The Make Do and Mend booklet was intended to provide housewives with useful tips on how to be both frugal and stylish in times of harsh rationing. With its thrifty ideas and advice on reusing old clothing, the book was an indispensable guide for households. Women were advised to create pretty 'decorative patches' to cover holes in warn garments; unpick old jumpers to re-knit chic alternatives; turn men's clothes into women's; as well as darn, alter and protect against the 'moth menace'.
There are many blogs, artists and businesses that are using the Make Do and Mend philosophyin the present times as a means to recycle, reuse and save materials that usually go to waste.

http://www.makeitandmendit.com
http://www.battleofbritain1940.net/document-3.html
http://www.wornthrough.com
Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Leah Evans textiles

Artist Leah Evans grew up in the oil refinery town of Augusta, Kansas and was struck by the harsh effect that strip mining for zinc and lead had on the landscape of her home state; "It has left behind troughs that fill up with water and become hazardous wastelands. Despite the danger, some people fish there." What make her quilts interesting is the mix of beauty and the disturbing message underlying them. 

Her artist's statement: My quilted wall hangings consist of layers of the following techniques: appliqué, piecing, natural and synthetic dyeing, needle-felting, hand printing, and a variety of embroidery stitches. There is an overall balance between hand and machine work. Tools I most often employ include a household-use Kenmore sewing machine, chalk, needles, rulers, compass, staple gun, and scissors. I do not use a computer or any imaging software in my work and I try to use hand tools and processes as opposed to electric.

My current work combines aerial photography, maps, and satellite imagery. I also find myself drawn to the more minute systems of the microbial world. I enjoy the play in scale between magnified microbial life forms and remote sensing images of huge tracts of land. Both scales deal with the translation of scientific information into a visual form. At times, these separate bodies of work merge. The overlap is seen in vessel-like arteries of water, tundra pools that look cellular, and microbes that swim through topographic lines.It is the use of maps in organizing our ideas of land that interests me most of all. Often, people ask me for specifics about the places and symbols in my work. Most of my pieces are not based consciously on specific places. For me they are intimate explorations of map language and imagined landscapes. Through my research and experience, I have decided that maps create more questions than they answer.

See more of her work here:

http://www.leahevanstextiles.com, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Leah-Evans-Textiles/185142354873269

Prison Quilts

Quilt made from shirts & jeans

"Sewing has given me a purpose and the ability to see the future in a positive manner.
It has given me the time to think and work through situations which beforehand I may not have come through."

Fine Cell Work, a UK charity, trains prison inmates in the art of needle point. The prisoners do the work when they are locked in their cells, and the earnings give them hope, skills and independence. The work which takes 20 to 40 hours per week, is a powerful antidote to the lives of turmoil and roughness that many prisoners have continually faced.

"Here I am, an ex-boxer, karate teacher, car racer, body-builder and weight lifter, doing sewing! Who’d have thought. Since I first started with FCW I’ve experienced a tremendous amount of stress, heartache and other problems. Being able to stitch was a great way to take my mind off what was going on inside my head. In times of great stress I would pick up my tapestry and immerse myself into it, which helped every single time. At times I wouldn’t put it down until the early hours of the morning. I can confidently state that FCW has helped me get through many problematic times in my life and has stopped me from going over the edge."

"I am what is called a lifer. I was sent to prison in early 2008. I am in a wheelchair. And no I am not after sympathy. I did wrong so I deserved what I got. Anyway, I have suffered from bad depression all my adult life, and I have tried to end it all a few times, and for the first two years of prison life I tried and did self harm a lot. Then I was moved to a new prison and an inmate made himself known to me and to start with he just talked to me. One day he asked me if I could sew.was given a pin cushion and a needle, and with this inmate’s help I began to stitch it. Because I was not thinking bad thoughts, the time that I was banged up behind the door flew by, and I did not self harm at all. To date, I have only self harmed two times, and that’s when I had no work, and that is not bad at all. This is totally because FCW were happy with the work that I was handing in, and believed in me enough to give and keep giving me commissions that keep my hands and mind busy, which is why everything I get I do to the best of my ability. I will continue to do it as long as you feel my work is good enough."

www.finecellwork.co.uk

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/journals/research-journal/issue-01/doing-time-patchwork-as-a-tool-of-social-rehabilitiation-in-british-prisons/

remnants series in progress

While waiting for my sewing machine to be repaired this week I worked on my Remnants piece.
I'm adding the red blood cells...a very meditative process of hand embroidery! And fun to work in red again!

Previous posts about this series:
http://apatchofshade.blogspot.com/2011/07/remnants-series-in-progress.html
http://apatchofshade.blogspot.com/2010/09/work-in-progress.html

remnants series in progress

It all started with these 2 top photos. Driving into New York I would pass these two relics and wonder: What are these things? What happened there? Who worked at the site?

My research lead me to the answers. They're part of a Float Bridge. Designed to transfer freight cars from the railroad to barges that took them out to ships in the Hudson River or onto tracks that ran to the nearby warehouses usually carrying livestock.

I would imagine the dockworkers working in their tattered and stained denim overalls - sometimes torn, only to be mended by their wives and re-worn over and over.

I found out these men lead very hard lives that soften were ended by various types of diseases prevalent at that time: diptheria, influenza, encephalitis, tuberculosis and meningitis. I felt compelled to honor them by creating a piece that includes scraps of work clothing that are sewn together by hand and also mended in places as was done in their time. The hand embroidery   reflects a microscopic view of the various bacteria that caused the illnesses.

It's a work in progress and I am still sewing!

Sophie Truong art

I am in love with Sophie Truong's tea bag quilts! They are amazingly beautiful!
Teabag Panel 1, 2009 used teabags, thread 60” x 48”

http://sophietruong.blogspot.com/

via: http://lariwashburn.blogspot.com/2011/07/sophie-truong-has-new-etsy-shop.html