Element of Water

detail

Riverbed

Recently I have been busy exploring the notion of 'elements' as they are viewed cross culturally.  I found it fascinating that most cultures overlap with regards to what is understood to be essential elements.
This is my interpretation of

Water

The fabric is hand dyed cotton.  The river stones are a result of my drawing, manipulated on the computer and then digitally printed on to the cotton.  After that, the fabric was gathered and stitched with free motion and quilted.

detail of the collar

 Water, once again, as a wearable.  I dyed this silk fabric and the collar is dyed using a shibori technique.

Element of Cement

Cement

When exploring the elements, I felt that since I live in a big city, one of my elements is cement  (which is after all made from stone and water).  I am surrounded by cement, and so, this is my reality when it comes to basic elements.

Element of Earth

Earth

This is my interpretation of the element earth.  the fabric was hand dyed and then the quilting was done by both hand and machine.

detail

detail too

memories

I feel terribly guilty about not publishing anything for so long.  However, it is not for lack of working.  In fact, because I have been so busy 'making'  I disconnected from my blogging fun.  But, have no fear, I plan to make up for lost cyberspace.

This first piece was created as an installation for a seniors' long term residence here in Toronto. 

MEMORIES

 

 

 

Memories, detail

It has been said that "memory is a way of holding on to the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose."  Some of our memories are bright, others somber, some clear and others ephemeral and elusive.  In this work, I have tried to capture the notion of memory over time.

Memories, detail

The background is cotton that I immersed in soy wax using a batik process of immersing the cotton in wax, letting it dry and then 'crunching it up'  and immersing it in the black dye.

The layered squares are also all hand dyed including the batting.  (grey colour)  This is my ode to quilting by exposing the inside out!

The thread work was created using solvy. The work is about 6 feet wide and about 4 feet tall, created to snuggly fit into an alcove in the residence.

 A Wedding gift

Detail of the bottom left corner;
this couple are older newlyweds, and both have converted to Judaism prior to their wedding.  Their gift givers wanted to honour their love of their new faith as well as celebrate their love of each other.

 Detail of central motif:

 Detail of top border;  the chai was hand embroidered with a stitch from the medieval times celebrated in the Bayeux tapestry.  Recently I visited a Canadian Oeuvre in Newfoundland, the "Conch Tapestry". The women of Conch who created this amazing work learnt the stitch of the Bayeux tapestry to use in theirs. Totally worth visiting this out of the way spot to view this remarkable work.

The details around the border were all embroidered by hand. All the fabrics are hand dyed except for a few in the braided border.

Some of you may remember that I was a bit disappointed with my dying results of the summer, finding the colours less vibrant than I would have liked.  How lucky for me that this bride's favorite colour is mauve so my dye work perfectly into her colour scheme.

I have just been informed by Martha Sielman of SAQA that the piece I submitted for the silent auction SOLD!!  I am so pleased.  This is the first time I have donated to SAQA and I am a new member so was unsure that my work would meet the bar.  (I am sure I am not the first to feel this way)  so I thought I would share this news.  Once again, the message is put yourself out there, take a risk, you never know how things might work out.