Skip to main content

The Birth of the Textile Towers #2 -Patience

"Patience is a virtue. Possess it if you can ...."
 Inspired by Homer's classic "The Odyssey, Patience is  both a narrative and a metaphoric textile art tower celebrating one of life's virtues.  The four pillared structure tells the story of Penelope, the loyal wife of Odysseus. She spends twenty years at home waiting for his return from war and his travels and rejecting the attention of 108 suitors by pretending to weave a shroud for her father -in-law. She was able to ward off the suitors by stating that when she had finished weaving, she would attend to them, but little did they know that every night she undid her day’s work and the shroud was never finished.   I have always been fascinated by Penelope's story - her patience, her loyalty and of course her cleverness.  I  printed the story on tea bag paper and used the paper as the warp of the weaving to emphasise the transient nature of her waiting.
For the “walls”  I chose wool and felt because of its association  with warmth and "home". Touches of purple and pink were specifically included in the palette - purple, the colour for "waiting" and pink for "unconditional love". The floor is covered with hand dyed paper but its feature is an embroidered fabric tile depicting a seed head .This is also a symbol of "the passing of time".

 The severed 108  polymer clay heads tell the story of the suitors’ sad demise at the hands of Odysseus and his son, Telemachus.  The stylised heart, also made of polymer clay, is an obvious symbol of the enduring love of Penelope and her hero husband, Odysseus.


This tower features  hand dyed  and waxed fabric and paper, needle felting, photo transfer on organza, polymer clay sculpture,  paper clay sculpture, machine and hand embroidery and  bead embroidery 
The next in this series will describe the making of "Prudence" - narrative textile tower celebrating the life of Telemachus. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Fish and Sticks : Art Dolls

This week I've been working on fish and sticks ....  The sticks are the message stick art dolls which were very popular, attracting some attention and a few orders at the Wise Women exhibition. Each of the message stick dolls are from the Wise Women series, each with her own personality and  message of wisdom, handwritten on a handmade timber tag. I gather the sticks during my walks around my neighbourhood and the tags are made from special bits of timber, some collected by me or  my husband or from off cuts gifted to us  from another doll making friend whose husband makes bagpipes. These dolls start off very simply with a wrap around a stick, in the general shape of a body. 'Naked" message stick dolls - strips of wadding wrapped around found sticks.   Then I usually wrap other layers of fabric, wool, and/or fibres, over which I do some simple embroidery. I sculpt  or mould small face masks for these dolls. I really like using "sari ribbon" as w...

Fragments

 Some days are just your lucky days - today I was very fortunate and privileged to open the first ever Australian exhibition "Fragments" by  UK  Fibre Artist  Sue Hotchkis .  Here is a little about the techniques of this amazing textile artist from her own website  ...  Working intuitively with print and stitch, marks, textures and colours are exaggerated, intensified to reveal the detail and complexity within the images. Materials are deconstructed using modern methods, ripped, burnt and dyed. Time is invested in their reconstruction; pieces can take from a week to several months to create. Whilst being aesthetically pleasing the work can also act as a metaphor for deterioration and ruin, associated with urban decay and ultimately death and loss. They evolve organically, built up with layers of print, cloth, paper, and stitch into three-dimensional abstract forms that hover between object and image; to create a unique, visual and tactile lan...

Christmas Countdown 3 ; Christmas tree # 23 - Mannequins and Motors

Mannequin   and Mercedes Benz logo Christmas trees  Advent Blog Day 23 - Mannequins and Motors ... or... What does a Mannequin have in common with a Mercedes Benz?   I have been in such a dilemma as I have so few days left and so many Christmas trees I want to feature.  So, in the spirit of balance today, I've combined a couple of categories into the theme of Mannequins and Motors -   winsome wonders and winning wheels ....  Mannequin and motor oil   Christmas trees  Hubcaps and Mannequin Christmas trees  Not satisfied with auto parts? Decorate with the whole car....  Mannequin and Mini Cooper cars Christmas trees  And tyres seem to be a popular choice and somehow they go beautifully with these 'green' mannequin trees...  Tyres and red ribbons  Tyres and baubles on mannequin Christmas trees  Red bird  wire form and sparkly tyres  Ch...