BANKFIELD MUSEUM, HALIFAX

BANKFIELD MUSEUM, HALIFAX

The second piece of art that I really enjoyed was an embroidery collage by Claire Hey entitled AKROYDON REMEMBERED 1995. It was commissioned by The Friends of Akroydon and is hanging in one of the corridors upstairs in the museum. It measures about 1.2m square. It is a huge piece of fabric made up of photographs printed on fabric, beads, dried flowers and sequins and to me it was very expressive of the history of Akroydon and I have to say that I LOVED it!!!!

The third image was in the costume department under the India section. It is a childs coat and is about 14" long. India has produced a culture that produces elaborate decoration. Each group has its own distinct style of decoration, embroidery, colour and material. Merchants work in silk and peasants/farmers work in cotton or wool. The images are of figures and animals which tell Indian Folk traditions.

What have I Achieved??

I have dabbled when at Art college drawing like this but not getting it like I am now! I found it hard at first to be inventive with the range of marks I made but once I got into it, it seemed to flow along and before I knew it I had created alot of marks I have not achieved before. I was reluctant to explore different media at first but like I said before, once I was into it then more exploration was necessary and I enjoyed making marks with different things.

Overall I am very pleased with the work I have done so far. I feel that I am still hesitant to make a start on drawing but once I am doing it I am fine. The key to remember is that I am not trying to reproduce an object but to interpret the object into something that can be textile.

I enjoy making marks in response to an image. I can make marks in relation to words if I am in a certain mood and I find that music helps as the emotions encouraged when listening to different types of music is very good to let your imagination run. I find it still quite hard to make marks in relation to real objects unless they are really tactile but I am sure that the more I work on this the easier it will become.

At the moment I enjoy working with watercolour pencils. I like the fact that you can sketch away in coloured pencil while out and about and then add colour at home and transform the work into something completely different. I have not done much work in watercolour before so I would like to study into this further at some point.

I am absolutely convinced that I have not exlored all the possibilites of mark-making as I feel I am just at the tip of the iceburg but I will read and observe more so that I can continue trying different tecniques.

I have already got lots of ideas for making my marks into textile work and am now really looking forward to doing more towards this goal.

BANKFIELD MUSEUM, HALIFAX

Went to Bankfield Museum in Halifax today and had a lovely time. When we approached the place I was slightly sceptical but as soon as we entered the building you were transported into textile heaven!! The exhibits were seperated into different rooms with a private exhibition for Dionne Swift in the entrance which was next to the World of Textiles which was very exciting. Upstaires there was costumes and textiles from around the world.

The overall feel was that the exhibits were well displayed and the lighting was adequate but not great but I presume that strong light is not advised as the fabrics are fragile and will fade. I struggled to find explanations of the exhibits and some of the things that I was interested in had no information at all. What was even more frustrating was that when I asked a member of staff about it they just said that they didn't know and left it at that.....not very good.

Having said all that I found the pieces on show visially stimulating and interesting and I am sure that I will return to this museum again as they had a very good library concentrating on textiles which was very useful to know.

The three exhibits that I chose to look at in detail where Beadwork in World of Textiles, Claire Hey Collage embroidery and Embroidered Robe from India in the Costumes and Textiles from Around the World.

bEaDwOrK - wOrLd of tExTiLeS

The exhibit was a boy's hat with a pointed crown that was machined and stiffened with cane. From India and made in the 20th century. The information was very limited about this piece unfortunately so I dont know who made it and couldn't really tell what it was made of. It was aproximately a foot long and 5" wide. It appeared to be made from cotton and was decorated with embroidery, buttons and beads. It is decorative and functional and is obviously from another culture.

Embroidery is the art of stitching and design on cloth using needle and coloured thread. The use of colours, materials and stiching varies between countries.

bReTtOn sCuLpTuRe pArK

I have been there again today, not just to shop, but to eat and to look at an exhibition. I walked around the Peter Randall-page exhibition which made me say "WOW!" This exhibition of sculpture is very simple in form but makes you look and look and look and want to touch.....the touch part is very important to me and I found it very hard not to just reach out and touch the pieces! Outside you can satisfy your need as you are allowed to run your hands over the different textures. I could just imagine transforming the different textures into textiles and I really enjoyed looking at this work in a completely different way than I would have before.

A dAy OuT iN yOrK

I have had a great day today in York, I visited an amazing arts and craft shop and bought lots of things and then walked around the Minster taking lots of photographs! I seem to have slipped back into the girl I was when at college studying photography and film as in the fact that my camera was never out of my hand and I was completely in my element. I haven't been like that since college and as I contemplate it now I realise that I now have a purpose, a reason to look at the world in a different way - a textiles way!

I have just been on www.craftscouncil.org.uk to look at Crafts magazine and I am now going to use it as a excuse to go toYorkshire Sculpture Park
Bretton to buy a copy and to see if I like it! Just read a back article about Zandra Rhodes who I love and would like to study about in more detail at some point

The beginning

I am now starting my first course in textiles and I have to admit that I am very excited about it!! I have got my sketch book ready and have been looking at my old sketch books this morning and now I can't wait to start. My hopes for this course are that I can do it.....?!, that I enjoy it and that I can continue with it until I have completely achieved a BA Hons! I plan to work when little T is at nursery twice a week with additional time being found in the evening and at weekends, but I will have to see how it goes and maybe juggle it about abit it, we will have to wait and see....

I want to gain from this course a greater understanding of textiles in all its forms, my only real hands on experience of textiles so far is knitting and I am just learning to crochet so I am looking forward to learning more ways to create textiles. I am also looking forward to learning how to look at the world differently, how to interpret objects I see every day into textile art and to develop my drawing, which, I have to admit, I haven't done much of since my days at art college in the 80's, gosh, when that is put into writing it makes me feel really old!