...Beyond the Border...and the dyepot!

It's been another busy week...

...more out than in..

..but I did manage to get somethings done :-)

Threads and fabrics that had been languishing in plastic food bags were an absolute delight when removed and dealt with!






..and I started some more stitched pieces....

This one's going to sit across the top of a large-ish cushion...



..and these cut-out Kuba shapes...



..will be used on the cushion, and on some brooches...




Saturday was gorgeous!!!...so the opportunity was grasped with both hands...

...and we went to St Donat's for 2010's Beyond The Border International Storytelling Festival.

It was an absolute delight, with entertainers from all around the globe, but, it seemed, especially from Armenia this year!

The group called "Bro Ar Men" are, actually from Bretagne, but one of them is Armenian...and to my delight, they had a guest artist with them...

..a superb harp player called "Myrdhin" that I last saw in 2002 when we were living on the edge of the Forest of Broceliande (where he and his wife run a Harp Summer School each year). It was great to chat to him again!





The next act was a brilliant Armenian "ashik" called Seref Tasliova, who performed a story entitled "The Stone Brides".



After lunch, we went to the Bradenstoke Hall...



... to hear Ben Haggarty telling the story of Gilgamesh...

...and then to hear another Armenian, Vergine Gulbenkian, telling "The Sound Beneath the Waves", a story well-loved by both Armenians and Turks.

The setting of the festival is beautiful......




..and besides the storytelling and music...



..there are many other sights to see....



..including ladies with hair extensions that I would love to have had for spinning!!!

..just a quickie...

..to show you the finished piece from the last post...




As I said...this will be made into a bag front (when I get around to it!!)

You may have noticed the coloured background in the top picture....

..this is a piece of Procion-dyed "leather paper"...

...for some special up-coming projects. :-)

And while I was dyeing that....

...I was also dyeing these...




..loads of pieces of pillow cotton...

..in these kinds of colours...




..to do some brighter Kuba-inspired pieces.

..one finished...and another on the way...

The piece I showed in the last post has now been finished..





This will soon be inhabiting the front face of a small shoulder bag :-)

Another panel has also been started..




This, too, will be the front pocket of a bag.

Other, smaller bits are coming along nicely....

...brooches, necklaces ....and, maybe...earrings...

It'll be a challenge to translate into "small" for this theme, but I'll enjoy the process....

..especially as I'll be incorporating some sterling silver and copper bits into things....

I'm sorry if I haven't been around blogs and keeping up with e-mails much, but a lot of time has been spent elsewhere lately.

At least hand-stitching is portable, and I've always got my basket with me :-)))

...dyeing to stitch.....

Don't these threads just make you want to pick them up and hug them?!!




..... a lovely ball of hand-dyed mixed yarns....

...cotton and silk in yellow/pale brown shades....

...and a bundle of yummy other stuff on top!

Stitching has commenced on a piece of linen dipped in potassium permangonate...




...just running stitch in a pale silk thread that hardly shows but creates a texture.

Pieces of cotton have been dyed in red/brown shades...



...and Kuba shapes cut out ready to put onto the background cloth when the running stitch is done...



It feels nice to have a needle in my hand again :-)

Kuba galore!!

These are the latest sketchbook pages.....

...more and more Kuba designs/patterns/symbols....

...with my own twist, of course :-)










They really do lend themselves to the kind of stitching I want to be doing at the minute...

...strong shapes that will work nicely with a hand-stitched background.

"Real" Kuba textiles don't have this, but then these are mine....and I will, as usual, do my own thing with them.

The pages in this book are just the right size for small panels that can be used for wall display, bag fronts/pockets. or book covers. These are what I'll be working on over the next few months.

In addition, I'm also preparing a range of hand-dyed threads in cotton and pure silk, cotton fabrics, and wool/viscose felt. These will be continuing with my "Tribal" theme, inspired by the textiles that I love so much.

Whilst doing the pages, I cut out a load of card shapes to use...




...these will now be used as templates for applique pieces...

..and the needle will be whizzing this weekend :-)))))

Have a good one everybody!

...gone south....

...well, south-east actually....

...and about 3,000 miles!

From Morocco to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

From Berber to Kuba.

Yes! I know!...I'm jumping around all over the place at the minute...

...but things here are SO crazy that I'm doing whatever feels right/good/nice/exciting!

Also, I really want to get back to doing some hand-stitching. I find it comforting....and I haven't done any for ages now...too much to deal with.

Machine stitching is fine for daytime, but evenings are for hand-stitching, and the Moroccan stuff is (to my mind) a machine stitch project.

Kuba textiles, on the other hand, are definitely hand-stitch...applique and stitch.

The colours employed by the Kuba are those of the earth....

...mine are a lot brighter....

..I NEED them to be.






So...

..here are the efforts of the last few days....








...and I've loved every minute spent on them :-)

...and even more...

The last week has been quite hectic, with a number of things to attend to.

However, I've still managed to get even more pages done.


Some close-ups first....





..and the full pages...






Now, for the next phase....

..a little while ago Robyn did a blog-post that featured this... (her original post is here)

The Hamill Gallery have now got their new site up and running...

HAMILL TRIBAL TEXTILES is a veritable treasure trove for textile lovers!






So many shapes and colours to inspire....

...hmmmmmmm..........




...and I'm itchin' to do some stitchin'.... :-)