Slow stitching - and measuring, and marking, and piercing...

 My work is slow and sometimes some work is slower than others.

I am preparing the final piece of my pegs. My pegs, which I have carried around with me since at leat 2019. That I have wrapped and unwrapped, tidied up, switched over the style of peg, played with as an art installation and finally worked out what they are meant to be.

I have loved these pegs at every stage of our relationship and am thrilled, and scared to be finally committing to their artwork.

It involves attaching them to a large sheet of paper, and adding stitching around them. 

I have spent hours considering which threads to use. I have spent time trying to work out their layout and sequence. I have spent ages determining their placement and measuring the distance between them. I have spent many mouton working out what colour threads and combination might support them. I have done so much thinking and preparing, and now the time has come.

I committed to the paper and started a trial piece.  This nevertheless involved all the measuring and marking that the final will need.

I was trying for a vertical central line to stitch to; vertical lines to line up the heads of the pegs with; and horizontal lines for the running stitches. The running stitch lines then had to be marked out at 5mm distances, then holes pierced. One always pierces the holes in paper before stitching, rather than try to rely on the needle to pierce the papers we do with most fabrics.

I was trying to workout here as well, whether or not, and how to, include the labels I had been using.

I had to determine how long to make the stitching lines, and whether I wanted this little bit of meeting in the middle and overlap or not. I did.

Working out the next pairings.

Coming together. After piercing I worked out from this trial that I needed to rub out the line; other than try to do it after the stitching had happened. All good learning. I also learnt that after each row of stitching I would use the bone folder (above) to smooth down the top of the paper so that the pierced holes sit flat. The needle movement from below pushes some of the paper up and out and that is the part that needs smoothing.

Progress on the final piece. Rubbing out as I go.

I had to turn the paper around to keep stitching - otherwiseI was leaning over way too far.

In with one hand, 

Underneath, the bobbles of the pierced holes.

All the stitching rows complete! The dangling threads are quite long and whilst I like the loose look I am not sure if they will distract from the pegs or not. We shall see, and decide later.

Onwards.

Finishing, Tidying and ...

It has been a relatively busy start to 2022; with two books due and another book to stitch.  And another commission for the angel pegs!

This one needed 7 angels; and we decided to go with an additional angel in orange, so before Christmas I checked that I had enough leftover thread and found I was able to use a couple of new ones as well. I need 15m for each peg, so its not like I always have that much left on a roll, so always best to check.  I ordered more easels, after the dramas of the last ones, I checked I had enough pegs and all was well, as I had until the second week in January to deliver. Until I didn't.

On Friday morning I learnt that the pegs had to be done by yesterday (Saturday) morning due to a re-jigged flight schedule. Luckily I had planned to work on them on Friday and I sent this image off halfway through Friday to show we were on track.

And they were delivered on Friday afternoon at 4pm. Phew. I am so grateful I keep good notes and document the process so I could check if I was doing this one the same as the others.

So today in the studio was about getting things back to normal; tidying, cleaning, putting back etc after a busy time where things just get dumped or moved.

I was moving some of my scrolls around and putting the cement pieces back (all had been cleared away for a some photos last week) and I thought - what if I tried to combine them?  I like the look of this now.

Then it was off to tidy my desk - quite the challenge.  I slowly worked my way through it and of course got distracted at different points along the way. As I was tidying up scraps and offcuts of paper I thought I should make some notelets to write on and include when we pack up and post out internet sales.  So that was fun!

And I started my reading pile - some of it more focused than others. That Sketchbook Exploration book could well guide my play and experimenting this year...

I emptied boxes and put things away!

Having found a beautiful piece of waxed goyu paper underneath something else, I pondered what to do with it and wondered what if I tried to put Letraset on the beeswax paper? So yet another distraction.

Only to be further distracted as I pulled apart a trial binding for the cover and first page of Hear Me Roar.

This is the proper first page, but on the practice piece the print had not worked well at all. The letters were very light in places.

I started stippling with a black pen; then thought why not try out a time-lapse video of me fixing up this poster??? 

Why not indeed! and oh my goodness I had the fun of Cork as they say and love what it did.  Heaven help us all now - I have a lovely magnetic tripod, and this app so my slow, slow work might now all be recorded! Laugh.

I had one of those delightful days where the chores of cleaning, tidying, sorting and putting away were made so much more enjoyable by the distractions and play.

Completing the pegs

 And here we are, with the work completed.

I had done so much to get this work this far, but there were still plenty of moments that needed to be worked through in order to get it done. I had managed to do the stitching lines, and to attach the pegs with wire. But now the challenge was to attach the paper to the canvas.

As Barry had looked at my design earlier, he had said - maybe the  Xs could be how you attach the paper to the canvas. And I was so excited as it sure beat trying to line up the pegs and poke holes in the canvas and tie the wire through the canvas!

First up I wanted to secure the paper to the canvas so it didn't slip and slide - I had cut it to fit perfectly so there was not a lot of margin for error. Bull dog clips and some grey board to protect the paper did the job. It felt really secure.

And then the funniest stitching team work began. I sat on the floor, we extended the canvas beyond the edge of the table, I would begin underneath the canvas; B would take the needle through the canvas from the top; together he would then help me find the next hole to pierce from below; and then he would send the needle back through from the top.

My abs got a minor workout as well!

Me finishing one of the Xs off underneath.

B about to pass the needle back through from the top.

Then we had to line up the canvas within the frame and secure it in there. It came with some spacers os that really helped.

And then we screwed the canvas and its boards into the frame and ta- da it was done!

I oftentimes include a little X somewhere in my work - to place me within it, help me find my place, connect me to the work, and so on.  Here they do the same thing, but also often an excellent anchoring option!

And so it is done, This labour of love and pondering over years. It will head to Scotland to be shown in my exhibition "Hame" in September. It explores how I feel about having two homes, both beautiful, and how somehow, across the many miles, they connect and are one in my heart. Beautiful threads from here, and from there, connect.

I am still deciding on a title, but it is somehow about threads connecting...

Hame the exhibition, is open.

 After setting up throughout the week, we had the official launch of the Hame exhibition at Strathnaver Museum on Friday night. It was a lovely night and so good to tell and share these stories in and around where they began.

Here are some photos from the opening...

Me being expressive, again...

Fiona and Fiona from the Museum who facilitated the exhibition and does a grand job of promoting the history of the area.

Chatting about the dyeing of threads with Laura.

Lots of support from friends, including Brian!

And here are some of the works on display. 

The main piece is All That was Lost - representing the story of the seven families of Achanlochy who were cleared forcefully, in 1819. I have imagined an inventory of their household items and all that they had; and what remains in the rusty tin is all they could take - a few pieces of this and that which could be grabbed as they fled.

The second piece about the Strathnaver Clearances is Bundled and Burnt. I wrote about it here.  It is now displayed, suspended in a perspex frame, with scattered charred remains below. Quiet, small, powerful.

Two pieces, inspired by the Clearances around the Strath of Kildonan near Helmsdale, are based on the statue The Emigrants. 

The Emigrants is now displayed open, with all fourteen postcards available for viewing and protected under a perspex cover. I have posted about it previously here.

The second piece called Roll The Dice is also displayed under a perspex cover, on a black perspex based. I am not sure I ever fully blogged about this piece; but it tells the story of the family in the Emgirants statue who took a very long nd dangerous sea voyage to Canada, and the hardship of arriving there in deep deep winter, after many turns of bad luck.

The final pairing in the exhibition is about moving between two homes - perhaps where we are born; and where we live. Perhaps for students gone away to study. Perhaps like me in two different countries. Perhaps for children moving between two parents...personal and universal.

Travelling Home has threads wrapped around pegs. The left hand ones were solar dyed from the garden and roadside here in Scotland; whilst the threads on the right were dyed using the garden and kitchen in Maleny. They are wrapped around pegs which for me, symbolise the movement between places. The Summer Walkers and Travellers, often moved between villages and towns and would whittle birch pegs, wrapped with tin, and sell them from door to door. The threads are all about the connections between two homes, two places of the heart.

And Postcards Home also uses threads from two homes and the idea of postcards being sent between two places...

And finally, here is the happy, thrilled, and tired artist...

It is a marvellous thing to have the exhibition open and ready for sharing. Such a lot of work, but oh so worth it.  

Attaching pegs and other bits

 The moment of truth arrived and I had to attach the pegs to the paper.  I had fiddled with some different wires,  and found that some of them cut and sliced my finger tips quite a bit and the risk of blood on the work was too great.

In then end I went with some wire with a beautiful history. I received from a friend in the village where we live, some fine wire used in her husband's musical instrument making business. He had died last year, and it is just so lovely to be able to include little bit of him in this piece.

It didn't cut my fingertips, but they were very tender for a day or two afterwards.

Each peg needed six holes pierced and three lengths of wire cut. I worked out the best way to attach the pegs was to place them, then pierce the holes. Remove the peg, pop the two leg wires in, then slip the legs of the peg through, hold it tight in place and turn the paper over. Then tighten and twist the wire.

What it looks like underneath.

I need to attach the paper to the canvas and the long lengths of excess wire made a snug fit impossible, so I snipped them all back to about 1cm in length.

And created a lovely shimmery pile of off cuts.

All in all, the attachment went pretty well, with just a few minor adjusmtents needed here and there.

It was very focussed and intense work so I had a bit of a break and went playing with what if?

I had blind embossed these pebble forms and I was wondering if stitching might add to them, make them more interesting?

I did some practice stitching around them and inside them. I think the wider border for stitching made them more interesting; the closer to the edge of them didn't add anything it seemed to me.

So I drew up a couple of test/trial outlines and will give them a go.

So much to do, but its good to also find time to play.