Diversity Fibre Art Exhibition

Diversity Fibre Art Exhibition is currently on show at the Theresa Hardman Art and Design Studio in Port Elizabeth.   29 exhibits created by eleven fibre artists living and working in the Eastern Cape Province, are on show.   We believe this is the first fibre art exhibition in Port Elizabeth and well worth a visit, whether you can do so personally or on the Facebook page.

Diversity Fibre Art Exhibition 
Theresa Hardman Art and Design Studio, 59 Main Road, Walmer, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
17 March - 17 April 2015

The image above was taken at the end of the opening night and shows a few of the exhibits. Personally I have three new pieces on this exhibition which I will share in due course.

Please visit the Diversity Fibre Art Exhibition page on Facebook and "like" the page.     Click on "photo's" to view images of all the exhibits.  All work is for sale.

It will be great to receive feedback.

xxMarilyn

Playing with Mandalas

Creatively I've had a very busy year so far and I will soon spill the beans...

I started playing with Mandalas last year and decided to make two cushions for our living room which can also be used as teaching samples.   I'm scheduled to teach another Design a Mandala workshop in May in Port Elizabeth and really need samples.

I love the pencil and paper aspect of mandalas, somehow I find it comforting to see how a design develops on paper before I actually start cutting and stitching.  Maybe it is a control thing as I can navigate balance, scale and proportions better...!

I made the two cushions to lie on the seats of two cane chairs to add some colour in the room.   As the rest of the furniture is upholstered in beige, it screamed for colour, so I used the colours in the floral curtains as my palette.

Untitled Mandala Cushion #1 - 2015

I taught a Design a Mandala workshop at the 2014 Dias Quilters's Guild Spring Show and while the students were merrily busy designing, I got this overwhelming urge to join in the fun and started this design.   As I was so busy with other obligations, it was put on the back burner for later...!   The interesting thing was that I used the size of the seat of the chair as the size of the cushion. However, once I finished the cushion and put the inner in, the cushion was too small!  Never thought of that!   So I added a small border around the cushions which actually added to the design.   These cushions amount to a lot of work and one cannot really put a price tag to it.

The second mandala cushion...

Untitled Mandala Cushion #2 - 2015

Every small motif was fused into position and stitched using the raw edge applique technique. Some raw edges were sealed with cords made from cotton yarns.   Additional detail was stitched into the designs.

Next time I'll share En-twine-d...

25

A bit late, but a happy 2015 to all the readers of this blog.   Yes, I took time off to rest as this year promises to be very busy with exciting events for me.   More about that at a later stage.

In 2011, our local Dias Quilters' Guild celebrated their 25th birthday.   To celebrate this, there was a Guild challenge to make a piece depicting "25"!   When I first heard about this challenge, I wondered what on earth to create...   As I was sitting at the Guild meeting listening to the speaker, my eyes caught my bangle and immediately I got excited, all within minutes.   Willem gave me this bangle on our 25th wedding anniversary in 2006 and as it was our 34th wedding anniversary yesterday, I thought it a good time to share...

Silver, freshwater pearl and gemstone bangle, inspiration for my interpretation of 25.

Back to the bangle.    At the time I was so caught up with other projects that I did not have time to transform my idea into a project.   I normally make rough sketches of ideas, some ideas are good, others not.   Somehow this sketch kept popping up in my mind and begged to be made.

Rough sketch for 25

I loved the concept and decided to make a cushion cover instead of a quilt as I needed new scatter cushions.  A background of fused horizontal strips in neutral shades was prepared, grading the fabrics from light to medium shades.    I selected a variety of rusty browns and greys for the diagonal shapes (the pearls) and fused it onto the background.  A variety of colours in silk was used for the round shapes (gemstones) and fused into position.   Only the strips were carefully cut as the base fabric had to be covered.   The rectangular and round shapes were cut freehand as I wanted it to look a bit uneven like the silver casings moulded around the pearls and gemstones of the bangle.

I used a feather stitch on the sewing machine to join the strips and the shapes were stitched using the free motion raw edge applique technique in a variety of variegated threads.

25 completed in 2014

Close-up of the stitching of 25

At the moment I'm working on a very special exhibition, more about that at a later stage....   Until then, happy stitching!

The Core

October is almost halfway and hopefully I can now come up for some air.   I've been extremely busy with teaching and other quilting related commitments and in the process, the blog gets put on the "don't have time now"...

The past week we had our annual Spring Show at the Dias Quilters' Guild in Port Elizabeth and as always, the Committee did a sterling job with setting up a lovely display.   Lots of people came to see the lovely quilts etc made by our members and there was a lovey buzz of excitement.

My friend Yolande Bowman of the Pied Piper Quilt Shop in Port Elizabeth and myself had a wonderful idea in 2011 to spice up our annual Shows by challenging quilters to be more creative.   We formulate an invitational creative challenge and these pieces are then displayed as a satellite exhibition at the annual Spring Show of our Guild.   It is amazing to see the progress, creative energy and flair of these exhibitions.

This year we had the third challenge, Shape It!   The concept was to choose a shape as primary design element e.g. square, rectangle, circle, triangle, hexagon, diamond, trapezium, octagon etc.   Other shapes could be incorporated as secondary design elements but the overall impression had to reflect the primary shape.   There was also size restrictions and the format would be of a skinny quilt.

I plan to make a scrap quilt of Willem's old ties as he retires from work at the end of the year and as I was unpicking these, I was fascinated by the different textures of the inners.  I decided not to discard it as I could use it at some stage...    When I planned my Shape It piece, I decided to use these inners to prepare a foundation for the shapes.   I chose a ring as my primary design element and chose a rust and purple palette.    As I started cutting rings in various sizes, I realized that one of my favourite pieces of Bali prints also had a strong tinge of magenta in it and decided that it really was the zinger the piece needed.

I roughly stitched the inners to the base fabric to keep it in position, but it was rather puffy and I had to make a plan.   I started free motion stitching to get the feel of the piece and loved it from the first stitch.   In the process, I found recycled silk strips in the same natural hues as the tie inners in my cupboards...  Some pieces had little bits of black designs printed on it and I stitched these down onto the inners - the silk was very delicate and perfect for the effect I wanted.   The next step was to fuse the rings down onto the background - the various sizes and colours were scattered randomly to ensure that balance was created and was then stitched using free motion stitching.    As I have a punching tool for my Bernina sewing machine, I filled the insides (cores) of the rings by needlepunching all sorts of wools, yarns and commercial felt into the insides of the rings.   It created beautiful texture.    As the background for the rings were all natural shades, it looked rather light and needed a border to contain it.   As I have various pieces of fabric which I previously discharged, I used some of it for the side borders as the colours were perfect for the project. The recycled silk strips also had pieces of rust, magenta and black and I prepared a strippy top and bottom section using these.   I also added snippets of these to hide joins in the side sections.    

The Core 2014 - detail of the rings, stitching on the tie inners and border sections.

As I used the pointed sections of the tie inners, the bottom section of the foundation section was irregular which provided an interesting line.   I made loose rings which I hung from the bottom section, resting on the lower silk panel like beads.   That way I used the design shape throughout the piece and filled the otherwise unused space on the bottom section which provided the necessary balance.

Bottom section of The Core

          

The Core 2014

It is amazing how easy some pieces fall into place, with others one have to do major battle...   With The Core, everything just worked and I loved the process... The more I look at it, the more I like it...

Artist Statement for The Core:

Exteriors can be deceiving as it does not show what is inside...    These unseen inner elements give us shape, structure, foundation and stability.  It defines and contains us - gives us shape and direction, the core of our existence as it defines all aspects of our lives..!