The Birth of the Textile Towers #3

The Birth of the Textile Towers #3 - Prudence

"Prudence is a virtue that has two eyes, one that foresees what one has to do, the other examines afterwards what one has done." ... Telemachus, the son of Odysseus displays the characteristics of caution yet good judgement in the classical tale, and this textile tower is a validation of discretion and sensible reasoning in decision making. Recalling the above quotation, it is ironic that I created a figurative depiction of Telemachus, with both eyes closed yet the symbolic 'armour" is covered with a pattern of eyes. Telemachus appears as a smaller figure than the sculptures of Penelope and Odysseus, his mother and father as if his development is incomplete. The tower has three vertical poles and is the least complex of the three in construction and detailed work.

The tower "walls" feature images of maps and stitched directional aids to assist "careful planning" and the avoidance of unnecessary risks. Ancient hand drawn maps were copied onto organza, layered and stitched over hand dyed and waxed cotton.

I also chose green and earthy tones to indicate balanced efficiency and secure harmony. Some of the features of this tower are a piece of hand embroidered linen, which was then manipulated and layered and restitched by machine to create "land contours" and a motif made by pooling hot glue and then stamping into the shape while it is still warm.

Like the other figures, Telemachus is a essentially a cloth "stump" doll with a clay head, created from paper clay and them covered with butter muslin (cheesecloth) and coloured with acrylic paint.

The three towers, Perseverance, Patience and Prudence are by far the largest works in a series I have completed, and together display many different textile and mixed media art techniques. They are great resource material for any textile art student, and I hope that my explanation h=of how the towers were born has been useful. ... Please scroll down the blog posts for explanations of the other two towers.
To acquire these art works either as a series or as a stand alone art work, please contact Timeless Textiles Gallery, via the website or at 90 Hunter Street, Newcastle NSW Australia.

In the Pink

At Tag Tuesday . Pinky O' Hagan is hosting a tag challenge which asks for 'a bit of pink".... not so difficult if you like pink. I don't use a lot of pink in my work, so it was quite a bit of a challenge when I thought only of pink - my thoughts went to pink roses, pink hearts, pink confectionery !!! Then I referred to this week's colour prompts, #coloricombo by artists Este MacLeod.... pink with sap green, dark tea, and sea green. I'm not sure I got the colours in this palette exactly, but here is my tag, a stylised landscape - The collaged background of the tag has torn pieces of watercolour art rejects, painted magazine pages and a little bit of gift paper. The tree silhouette is decorated with paper dots, cut with a hole puncher.

The Sea - for Tag Tuesday

For the current challenge "The Sea" at Tag Tuesday, I made a couple of painted/ hand drawn tags . These were created from a piece of watercolour paper which had been sprayed with acrylic paint - blue, yellow and quinacridone gold. I then sketched over the top , trying to follow some pattern created by the splatter and then add some felt tip pen lines watercolour pencil to highlight the shapes. The tags represent the fantasies of the hidden city of Atlantis and a mermaid. With this theme in mind, I also add a free motion stitched tag I made earlier this year for 29 Faces -

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...

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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