Textile Nature E-Book

Anne Kelly

• Herausgeber: Batsford
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 103

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

An inspirational guide to using nature in textile art, with step-by-step projects Plants, flowers, gardens, insects and birds are a rich source of inspiration for artists and designers of all kinds. This beautiful guide demonstrates how to get the most out of your surroundings to create original and unique pieces in textiles. Beginning with a chapter on drawing from nature, the book demonstrates how to use sketchbooks and create mood boards to explore your local environment and landscape. The author demonstrates how to make small pieces such as folding books based on observational drawing and stitch. Moving on to a section on floral inspiration, the author shows how to use plants and flowers in your work, from using stencilled flower motifs as embellishment to printing with plants onto fabric and making simple relief prints. Finally, the taking flight chapter demonstrates how to move into three-dimensions and sculptural work with birds and insects made from cloth. Featuring step-by-step projects as well as work from contemporary artists, makers and collaborative groups throughout, this practical and beautiful guide shows how practitioners of all kinds can draw from the natural world for making and inspiration.

Leseprobe

Textile Nature

Textile Nature

Textile Techniques and Inspiration from the Natural World

Anne Kelly

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the artists and students named in the text for their contributions (see featured artists here for their details) and the institutions and organizations mentioned in the book for sharing their collections and images. Thank you also to Rachel Whiting, photographer, to Tina Persaud and Kristy Richardson at Batsford for their support of this project, and to family and friends for their unwavering good humour.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1 Drawing from nature

2 Planting in cloth

3 Taking flight

4 Working with green spaces

5 Nature in context

Conclusion

Featured artists

Further reading

Suppliers

Picture credits

Index

Introduction

‘There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge … observation of nature, reflection and experimentation. Observation collects facts; reflection combines them and experimentation verifies the result of that combination.’

Denis Diderot, French philosopher

Bay Tree and Shoe by Anne Kelly.

Artists, designers and makers have always been influenced by nature, and textile artists even more so. An early series of my textile work was based on drawings of plants from the garden and as my pieces have grown in size and complexity, I’ve kept and valued a connection with the natural world. Through my teaching and travels with my work, I’ve observed that practitioners of all ages and abilities share a huge common love of nature and textiles, which has inspired me to write this book.

The journey will take you from its starting points through to making and exhibiting, looking at inspirational examples from around the world, and help you to ‘grow your own’ work and connect with green spaces. I believe that observing nature can provide you with a wealth of information and resources for making unique and meaningful work.

Chapter 1: Drawing from Nature will bring you closer to the natural world, and will show you how to organise your resources to generate creativity and enhance your studio practice. Looking at sketchbooks, folding books, a ‘nature table’ and recording information in different formats will enable you to make work using a variety of art and textile techniques.

Chapter 2: Planting in Cloth. Any student of textile design will recognise the staying power of the plant and floral image. Whether looking at single or many species, pattern, leaf or bud, plants provide endless possibilities for print, stitch, dye or construction. Simplifying your designs and making a printing block can enable you to use one design in a variety of ways.

Pages from the author’s sketchbook.

In Chapter 3: Taking Flight, bird and insect motifs, and how to make and use them in your work, are the focus. These subjects are increasingly popular in all areas of textile work, and we will be looking at the style and substance involved in creating and representing them. The context for creating birds and insects will also be examined as will three-dimensional design.

Chapter 4: Working with Green Spaces continues the theme of connecting with your local environment and making the most of the resources available. My work and other artists’ residencies in gardens in the UK will be explored, and we will look at taking your own work beyond your locality.

Chapter 5: Nature in Context looks at how subjects from nature can be used symbolically or as a jumping-off point for further ideas. I look at the work of practitioners who subvert the themes of nature to send a message, as well as examine some ideas for working when travelling.

My aim in this book is to enable textile artists and students of all ages to find inspiration and ideas.

Drawing from nature

‘Great art picks up where nature ends.’

Marc Chagall

Baroque Ceiling by Anne Kelly.

Drawing from observation

Nature really is the best teacher. It is much more difficult to make up or imagine an object from the natural world than it is to observe it from life. Creating a studio or work environment where inspiring objects are close to hand greatly helps with the creative process. The traditional ‘nature table’ has been a starting point for many students and echoes the cabinet of curiosities dating from medieval times. I have rercreated a contemporary version of it in my studio.

A nature table in my studio

A nature table is a common element in many of our childhood memories. It is used in primary schools to introduce children to elements of the natural world. A range of found seasonal items, such as leaves, acorns, feathers, shells and plants can be placed together and the table allows children to identify and become familiar with seasonal objects and to handle them. Many artists employ a similar method to display and work from inspiring items collected in their daily life and travels. My studio is in my garden, not far from the house but far enough away to be able to observe the changing seasons and foliage up close. The windows give sufficient light to work without artificial light most days. I enjoy collecting unusual objects with students who use my studio and I have assembled some of these in a display with seasonal flowers and plants. I’m drawn to vintage fabric and ephemera so these are included. This provides several opportunities – to be able to draw from objects, either singly or in groups. The objects themselves are interesting enough but the patterns and structures found in them can also be used in a variety of ways.

The nature table in the author’s studio.

What you can do with one plant…

Bay embroidery by Anne Kelly.

Bay is from an early series of embroideries based on the plants in my garden. I chose plants that I could see from my studio and embellished them with colours and textures that fit the theme. Taking the bay leaf (or any garden plant) as a starting point, you can create a range of work using a series of different techniques.

• Stitch (appliqué and embroider): using a variety of coloured fabrics, cut out a leaf shape from one of the fabrics and appliqué it onto a background, stitching in the details of the veins and embellishing it with a mixture of hand and machine stitching.

• Print: make a template from the shape of the leaf and use it to create a repeat print design. Shown right is a Gelli© print, taken from an actual bay leaf. Although it is possible to make monoprints without Gelli© plates, these do give a crisp and clean print. Roll the Gelli© plate with acrylic paint and a roller/brayer and lay your leaves into the painted surface. Remove gently and place your fabric over the plate. Roll with a dry roller/brayer and remove the print.

• Dye: mix up a variety of green dyes to paint the leaf outline, shape and detail onto fabric. Then overstitch and paint in. I use non-toxic Brusho© dyes, which are fine for work that will not be worn or washed. The colours are not as vibrant as Procion© dyes, but they are naturalistic and good for painting on cloth. I mix the quantity I need into paint wells in a palette and use the colours required, mixing them as I go.

• Weave: use the leaf shapes to create a Japanese-inspired screen. Cut bay-leaf shapes out of felt, tracing around the shape of the leaf, and using an over/under weaving method, work into a cut fabric background, arranging in a pattern of your choice.

Emma Nishimura

Looking at leaves, either singly or in groups, can be rewarding as you discover their intricate and individual structure. I was inspired to make a miniature screen after seeing the work of Emma Nishimura at the World of Threads Festival of Contemporary Fiber Arts near Toronto, Canada. She created a beautiful sculpture, Shifting Views, using small leaf shapes, wire rods and soil to create a field of reeds.

Detail from Shifting Views by Emma Nishimura.

Emma says about her work: ‘The silhouette of a mountain and a cloudy sky: a photographic record of the present, at the site of the past. When viewed from afar, this piece evokes the memory of a landscape, yet upon closer investigation, it’s actually a field made up of hundreds of reeds. A study in duality and all that lies between, the past and the present, the concrete and the intangible, the fleeting and the grounded, this piece is part of my ongoing exploration into the myriad layers contained within a story. Working with an image taken from the landscape in which my grandparents lived during their internment as Japanese Canadians in the Second World War, a vista has been re-created and a memory rooted. Yet from all angles, this piece offers only a shifting, fractured reading; nothing is complete or whole, just as no story is ever fully experienced, told or remembered.’

Going large

Often you will want to start small, as in the samples here, but a lot can be gained from supersizing your work, even in the early stages of exploration. This will drive you towards studying the details of your subject, perhaps using a magnifying glass or photographic enlargement. It can also produce some dramatic and stunning pieces, as in the work of Pauline Verrinder and Meredith Woolnough, shown here.

Pauline Verrinder

Pauline is a well-established tutor and embroiderer, based near Cambridge, England. I was fortunate enough to meet her when teaching in Bedfordshire. She was making leaves, embroidered on a stretched scrim support and embellished on the sewing machine. The delicate veins of the leaves come through in her work and, when finished, the leaf is a strong enough shape and form to be presented by itself.

Pauline describes her piece: ‘Natural forms are the inspiration used for the wired leaf shown in this image. Shapes are formed using cotton-covered wire. The leaf shape is applied to framed cotton scrim using free-machine embroidery set to zigzag (width on 4). Edges and veins of the leaf are covered closely with zigzag stitch using a cotton thread. Using the same machine setting, I randomly scribble on the scrim to give a distressed look to the leaf. To finish, the formed shape can be coloured with silk paint or Dye-Na-Flow© and heat set.’

Leaf sample for workshop by Pauline Verrinder.

Meredith Woolnough

Scribbly Gum Leaf, embroidered textile by Meredith Woolnough.

Meredith is an artist working in New South Wales, Australia. She writes about her work: ‘I have always found inspiration in the natural world. I am lucky enough to live close to both coastal and bush land environments so I get to visit various habitats frequently. Exploring, collecting and drawing makes up a large part of the fieldwork aspect of my practice and I like to research any plant or animal thoroughly so I understand it before I translate it into stitches. I am also a keen scuba diver so I love to explore the world below the waves as well. I have always been fascinated by the structure of things, from the hard shapes of coral colonies to the minute arterial veins in leaves. I like to draw parallels between the growth and life systems of various organisms in my work commenting upon the interconnectedness of all living things. My process involves using a domestic sewing machine as an unconventional drawing tool. I employ a similar process to traditional machine darning or the more modern name “freehand machine embroidery” where the feed teeth are turned off, giving you complete control about how you move the base fabric under the needle. I use a water-soluble base fabric to create my work and once my embroidered design is complete I simply wash it all away in hot water to leave my skeleton of stitches behind.’

Sampling nature

While you are studying your subject, don’t just think about its form – consider its texture too. You could utilize some of the many traditional embroidery stitches for this, both from your own culture and others. Think outside the box if you can. Do you have any fabrics or other bits and bobs that could be incorporated to convey texture and form?

Tunbridge Wells Embroiderers’ Guild

In her seminal book The Constance Howard Book of Stitches, the well-known author and tutor Constance Howard worked in co-operation with the Tunbridge Wells Embroiderers’ Guild. The book is a wonderful compendium of sample stiches and instruction, but also, more importantly, detailed interpretation.