September Textiles Love

September Textiles Love - Week 1

Background: Seam are a contemporary textile collective based in Bath, England. We are emerging and established embroiderers, printers, knitters, weavers, dyers, fashion designers, eco-designers, makers, artists…

…who want to make textiles that are irresistible, and find their way onto your body, into your house and onto your walls. We share a commitment to pushing the boundaries of our craft and making high quality objects realised in the hands and thoughts of the maker. We hope to make a sustainable living from textiles, work locally and bring textiles into contemporary focus This month, all textile artists are enouraged to share their love of textiles and respond to 30 different textile prompts for on Instagram during September. You can respond to as many of the prompts as you wish, this could be only a few or it may be all of them - with the hashtag #SeptTextileLove

Here is my first week of #SeptTextileLove

Days 1 & 2 - Introduction

Current Project -stitched collages , especially portraits.

Day 3: Tools -

Bernina sewing machine and hand stitching needles , pins and scissors.- I often wonder what I would do without these, then remember that when we were in Papua New Guinea, women showed me how to make a needle and a cutter from found metal waste

Day 4 Inspiration -

I am inspired to create with simple materials by my interest in social justice, women’s issues and personal family and local history and places . My most memorable work is an installation of 193 ‘dolls’ made from sticks, giving voice to the girls of the Newcastle Industrial School (1867-1871) - the first government ‘welfare’ institution in NSW

Day 5 - Stash

There is far too much of everything in my stash but can I do without my abundance of used tea bags and sticks ?

Day 6 - Colour

In one of my recent works , a stole for ‘an upcoming exhibition ,’ Stole the Show’ - I hope these colours help to tell the story of regrowth and regeneration

Day 7 : Inside/Outside

Most of my work starts outside, but inside , the next part of the process happens - the editing of photos and the thinking , writing and the stitching ‘Red Grevillea’ is an example

Day 8 : Pattern

The traditional art of temari (stitched thread wrapped balls) is an engaging journey of discovery and experimentation involving embroidering the endless pattern variations with attention to design , colour and symbolism

Please contact me if you have any questions or add comments below.

For my #SeptTextile Love posts, follow https://www.instagram.com/empress.wu.designs/ and to look at others also posting about textile art this month, follow the hastag.

A November project

A few years ago, I began scheduling into my day, the routine of a daily art practice.... seven years later, I still love #the100dayproject and am a strong advocate of "create something, anything, every day" . In more recent years, I haven't been content with a mere 100 days and have often pursued shorter /or longer projects requiring some daily attention. For example, I completed 145 days of slow stitching my garden and then another 60 day random cross stitch garden.... but that's a digression.... This month, I am being far more practical... I still like to send and give Christmas cards, but am always getting them in the post very late, and trying to make some special unique cards for the family the night before.... so all this month, I am making Christmas cards - just one a day. By 30 November, I should have some to choose from for posting within Australia and for giving in December. Here are my first 4 days .... If you're wondering why bother ...

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...

How does your garden grow with stitch?

"How does your garden grow with stitch?" is an update on a post I published way back in 2015, when I stitched my first "impressionist garden" for a course I was studying at the Embroiderers' Guild. Gardens are my constant inspiration for my artwork, and I create gardens in cloth and stitch repetitively, using many different techniques. I am particularly fond of this heavily stitched embroidered "impressionist" garden. In 2016, I stitched two small gardens in this style for an exhibition and they included photos of my husband's grandmother and her brother and sister as children. Although the collector who bought these two works did not know our family, the children reminded him of his own family from England of about the same era. These two 'gardens' have become my "stitch" reference and images which best showcase the technique although I don't have the originals any more. Since then, quite a few other gardens have gro...

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

Search This Blog