Voyages of the Imagination

The textile group that I belong to has decided on a theme for their show next year.

"Voyages of the Imagination - journeys travelled or imagined into illusion or reality, resulting in exploration, questioning, challenge perceptions of reality - speculate and discover stories and techniques on a travelled journey limited only by your imagination"

Doesn't that sound fun!

This used to be a yearly show but has just gone to every second year, I've taken part in several of their smaller challenges but never the 'big' show, it always seemed to come around too quickly, so I thought, as I have the rest of this year to work on it, I'll have a go (of course that doesn't mean it won't come around just as quickly - or that my work will be accepted)

I am heavily into fantasy worlds with my reading so I started skimming a few books, as well as skimming the internet, all in the name of research I keep telling the family.

I landed on a name generator site and discovered that I am really Queen Silvercold of Elencia, which took my fancy.

Elencia sounded vaguely familiar so I thought I should google it and not step on anyone's toes if it is being used.
On the Urban Dictionary site I found that 'Elencia is the rumoured nightmare/psychological "happy place" experienced in a coma'- well, that threw me for a moment (only a moment) and then I decided why not, sounds good to me.

I've decided on two directions of work.
First I need a means of travel to get to my happy place, so a boat sounds in order, to be heavily inspired I think by James Christenson.
Then I need a journal for the voyage:
either the "Expeditionary Journal of Queen Silvercold"
or "A Field Guide to the Flora and Fauna of Elencia"

With the field guide in mind I started this piece:



I'd picked this up at a remnant sale simply because I like the gathers which reminded me a little of shibori, it's some kind of elasticised synthetic, maybe it can be distorted and painted to colour that awful green.





Then I tried a few leaves and shapes with free machining on water soluble Solvy plastic, then painted them.



I made a cord by zig zagging thick rug wool, and draped it over my 'shape' - haven't decided just what it is yet - who knows what strange fungii grow in Elencia.
Then I tried to crochet some leafy bits to the cord.
In retrospect it would have been easier to add all the pieces to the cord before fastening it to the shape, but that is what hindsight is all about.



So here is the first trial piece for the Field Guide, I just have to be careful where I keep it, I have a feeling this is the sort of plant that spreads.

What If Wednesday

I haven't had a What if for a few weeks so here's a double helping.

What if I take a piece of terylene curtaining fabric with embroidered flowers and needle felt through it -
On the front the embroidered threads just chopped up, but I liked this piece best - worked from the back of the fabric the embroidery merged nicely as the wool pushed through to the front of the fabric, and framed the one flower that was not felted.



and here is a very easy way of adding texture to paper,
paint a layer of gesso onto paper then rubber stamp into the still wet gesso.
Best with a large stamp without too much fine detail, here I used stamps that I had carved into erasers.

Icelandic Fairy Story

I do love a good fairy story, especially when it is true.

From Iceland (via Vanity Fair magazine)

"Alcoa, the biggest aluminum company in the country, encountered two problems peculiar to Iceland when, in 2004, it set about erecting its giant smelting plant.

The first was the so-called “hidden people” — or, to put it more plainly, elves — in whom some large number of Icelanders, steeped long and thoroughly in their rich folkloric culture, sincerely believe.

Before Alcoa could build its smelter it had to defer to a government expert to scour the enclosed plant site and certify that no elves were on or under it.

It was a delicate corporate situation, an Alcoa spokesman said, because they had to pay hard cash to declare the site elf-free but, as he put it, “we couldn’t as a company be in a position of acknowledging the existence of hidden people.” "

slow cloth and practical pottery #7

I'm still working on the "thunder of the gods" piece but think it may have gone as far as it's going - I'll put it aside for now (but you haven't seen the last of it)

Meanwhile I whipped up a log cabin, love the logs, they go together so fast, even faster when you don't measure or worry about straight seams!
The colours put me in mind of the red heat of a kiln and the dark bricks and smokey atmosphere of a reduction firing, so I played this by ear and just stitched





ripples of heat haze



and the flames rise higher