Textile Study Group blog

Looking back to the past for inspiration can be a way to move your  work in a different direction. Researching techniques from the past, a  collection of  old textiles could provide the stimulus for new work. Working with these ideas to celebrate tradition, yet create a new relevant dialogue for modern times. Ann  shares how finding an old school exercise book of hers started a  new narrative.

Ann Wheeler
During this project have you looked at a new way of working?
Previously much of my work has been exploring traditional bobbin lacemaking techniques, to be used in a larger scale contemporary context.  I researched the history of lacemaking and the lives of the women who made the lace and found this was a story I wanted to tell. This project came about in a different way as the research was closer to home. However, the techniques I have used are completely different to my usual way of working.

On finding my old school needlework exercise book and also tray cloths worked by my mother just after the war, I again had a story to tell. The difference was it was the tactile feeling of the cloths and remembering those school days and how they are not always ‘the best days of our life’ that influenced me.

The embroidery on the tray cloths was often from the between the wars period, lots of crinoline ladies and ‘lazy daisy’ stitch. The school text book and my work in in school were all still looking back to the thirties, by being taught very defined needlework techniques. At the time this didn’t seem strange, but now thinking it through, so few books were produced during the war years that the fashions and styles illustrated tended to be pre war.

I cut up the cloths and pieced them together, not something I usually do. The joined pieces were then further enhanced with more hand stitching using stitches that were used at that time. To this I added ‘how to’ descriptions and images from advertising from the same period.

I enjoy integrating lettering in to my work and in this case chose to add some of the varied comments, not always very complimentary, made in my notebook by the needlework teacher.

What is your favourite part of the creative progress?
From the first idea or brief I find the research particularly interesting. As well as looking at visual images I find the interest is studying the subject and finding a story to tell in my way. Looking at art, poetry and particularly  social history. I always hope this is seen by the viewer but the important thing is that I have the background to the piece and this in turn will lead to more work on the same subject.

The next step is the sampling process, both as sketches and materials that will help me make the choices for the final piece. I try not to have preconceived ideas of the materials or techniques I will use and hope that the variety of samples and sketch book ideas will eventually show me a way though.

These sketches and ideas, as well as influencing the final piece give me pleasure in the working. This in turn gives time for thought before rushing into working the first idea that comes into your head.

What stops you finding a solution to that creative problem you have?  Is it fear of failure, lack of time, or you maybe you don’t know were to start?  Sometimes revisiting ideas that you began to explore  but never fully resolved , gives you a gentle nudge in the right direction. Even if the incubation period was fifteen years ago as Kay shares in her interview.

Kay Greenlees
Are the ideas /themes for this project ongoing or are they new?
Since finishing my work for Dis/rupt I had been looking forward to revisiting my sketchbooks and notebooks for some ‘old’ ideas that I had not had the time to make. There are several of these.  In particular I was looking forward to a specific idea that had been around for a long time and I started to think about this as we moved into the INSIGHTS project. I suppose that the idea could be considered both ongoing (the underpinning interests can be seen in all my work) and new, (I have never made anything like this before). It also rather depends on your definition of ‘ongoing’ and ‘new’. This work is new in that I have used a lot of stitch which I rarely do.

The idea sprang from a thought and some photography that I recorded in a notebook, which eventually I was able to date to 2005. This was a much longer time span than I realised but the idea was always with me and so I used it anyway. It is what I was going to try next, with or without INSIGHTS. Also, of use were the Oblique Strategies cards produced by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt. By chance the card I drew endorsed the thought, although it could easily have challenged the idea or working method. I enjoy using these cards when I am in a playful mood and on this occasion my randomly drawn card read ‘use an old idea’.

Incubating an idea for some fifteen years may seem extreme. The textile work plays with the idea of stolen identity which I felt was still relevant to today. The topic hasn’t quite followed the route I thought it would take so there may be other pieces still to be discovered within the overall idea.

As a visual artist was it a challenge to write about your practice?
Writing is not unusual for me; I write quite a lot in my sketchbooks anyway. This is a private form of writing. It is usually reflective, personal and highly critical of what I have done as well as noting action plans and achievements (or not). In my sketchbooks I am writing for myself, trying to pin down thoughts and ideas but not sharing them. There are over twenty pages of sketchbook writing for the INSIGHTS project.

Nevertheless, writing for INSIGHTS was a challenge. I find all shared writing a challenge, but it is the challenge that makes it a worthwhile and enjoyable experience. I also find it a creative process, an alternative way of working on the same project. But writing for INSIGHTS is a public form of writing and a lot of thought has to go into describing the process of working from the idea(s) stage, through to transition and beginning to bring the work to fruition. It’s difficult to do because writing is temporal and in explaining a process it tends to make it flow in a linear manner, whereas the artistic experience may be much more of a stop/start, re-visit, re-view, start again process. Creativity can be elusive.

As artists we spend quite a bit of time observing the world around us and responding to these events.  We have to look no further than the current situations we are faced with ; racial injustice, a pandemic and climate change just to mention a few.  What ever your subject, it is an opportunity  to engage with creative solutions to raise awareness, create change and even trigger action.  This week  Shelley talks about her continued  investigation and response to problems encountered  by the world’s coral reefs.

Shelley Rhodes
Are the ideas/themes for this project ongoing or are they new?
Having previously made work in response to coral bleaching due to rising sea temperatures, I have continued to investigate and respond to problems encountered with by the world’s coral reefs. Having been overwhelmed by the amount of discarded plastic I came across while beach combing, I began to wonder if it affects coral and of course it does.  It contributes to disease and it can become entangled around the delicate coral fingers causing them to break off. I gathered the discarded beach plastic and laid out my new collection. Some of the plastic resembled little sea creatures or vessels to contain tiny pieces of broken coral. As I arranged the fragments, they reminded me of extinct exhibits in a museum. How sad if our coral reefs become extinct and the only way to see coral in the future is displayed in boxes in a museum.

What is your favourite part of the creative process?
I love sampling, testing, trying things out and experimenting. I like to mix different media – asking myself ‘what would happen if…?’  In fact, once I have figured it all out and know where I am going, I quite often lose interest in completing the finished piece. This is why increasingly I work in small units – almost little test pieces, which I build together to create a new piece of work.

Generally, my work tends to be two dimensional but this new body of work involves little three-dimensional assemblages, so I am very much learning as I go along.  I have been using porcelain, paper clay, slip, plaster, paint, wax, varnish and wire. As I discover some things that work and some that don’t, I am reminded of a favourite quote of mine,

‘Creativity is about play and a kind of willingness to go with your intuition. It’s crucial to an artist. If you know where you are going and what you are going to do, why do it?’  Frank Gehry

In this weeks artist interview we share  Jan Millers thought provoking response to the questions.   

Jan Miller
Are the ideas  for this project ongoing or are they new ?
Making new work for a group project and exhibition with an agreed title or given brief  is not the same as following my own interests and ways of thinking and working. I make notes  (selecting  a suitable sketchbook is the first challenge, as if that matters to the outcome, yet somehow it does) to record lines of development … words, layouts, sequences, quotes … gathering information … a game of consequences.

In the case of Insights, TSG started the thought processes with a suggestion to look back at our individual previous work. This was invaluable to prompt a personal dialogue for me and start to recognise my own practice . There are many recurring themes and passions in my process. Do we always make the same piece of work? I don’t think so … but there is an identity unique to each individual maker, which may be more important to them than to the observer

What is your favourite part of the creative process ?
I really enjoy the sampling process: working new textile sketches with freedom without worrying about an end-product or to satisfy a brief. Spontaneity is important to me.

I have always enjoyed handling materials: I enjoy the touch, the feel, even the smell … I remember the fabric shop in Altrincham, its location in George Street opposite Woolworths, the few steps down and then the formaldehyde, burning our eyes, tickling our throats … I am not sure what part that played in the manufacture nor if it is even allowed today. For me cloth still reaches all the senses, but I do know the feel/handle gets better over time and use.

We each have our own ‘handwriting’ even in cloth and thread … though it may take someone else to recognise that individuality  –  read it and identify it. I enjoy the memory and story–telling held in each piece,  a hidden history that is personal and individual to each maker.

On my studio wall there are a few postcards that have retained their position … others come and go … I think these will always be markers of the most beautiful and influential images of textile process (wrapping, physicality of process, perfect folding) for me:

Bellini,  Presentazione di Gesu al tempio

Pablo Picasso, Woman Ironing

Robert Campin, A Woman

And that is not to ignore paintings of the Last Supper and the attention to the crisp folds of the  tablecloth.

If you have time, I would love to see your cards!