M4 CHAPTER 12: STUDY THREE ARTISTS

1. CAS HOLMES

Cas Holmes works with textiles, paper and mark-making materials to produce mixed media collages embellished with stitch. She is well known for using "found objects" - discarded items or waste materials considered no longer useful and transforming them into meaningful artworks. She states that: "Using recycled and vintage fabrics and found materials creates a sense of age or atmosphere conveying a past history." Her themes mainly relate to elements of the natural and built world. Drawing and the use of colour are the foundation of her work, using her sketch book like a diary. She has described her stitching as often being "stitch sketching" with a narrative quality. Cas studies the links between nature and the urban environment and by re-cycling objects, her work encourages sustainable living. She often layers papers and fabrics in her pieces, some translucent, but then may cut away some layers to reveal what is underneath.

Cas is about to visit Australia for a series of workshops. The images below from the Australian FibreArts website (http://fibrearts.jigsy.com/holmes) advertising these classes illustrate her style and approach.

Relevance to my work: The layering of items and combinations of paper and textiles appeal to me. The piece on the right has an interesting combination of items, including some paper with writing on it, but it is the band of red colour, rather than the writing itself which draws the eye to the work. The stitching is very integrated into the work, rather than being a feature. Cas introduced me to the technique of Momigami at the Distant Stitch Summer School in 2008. This was the first time I had considered using paper and fabric in combination. I was able to utilise the crushed paper technique in my final piece for Module 1 and was delighted with the result.

References

Cas Holmes' website: http://www.casholmes.textilearts.net

Cas Holmes: "The Found Object in Textile Art", 2010.

Jenny Whisker, Interview with Cas Holmes at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Harrowgate: http://vimeo.com/54353849

Axis on-line resource for contemporary art, artist profile Cas Holmes: http://www.axisweb.org/seCVPG.aspx?ARTISTID=6037

2. LOIS WALPOLE

Lois Walpole began making baskets at Art School in the 1970s where she trained in both sculpture and basket making. Her work has evolved since then into designing and making functional objects and art works using the techniques and the forms traditionally associated with baskets. She likes to take colourful every day waste and sustainable materials and transform them into something new, drawing attention to the unexploited potential of the materials. Many of her pieces feature recycled juice cartons, bottle tops, corks, old rope, plastic bottles, wire or packing tape. Some of her designs are quite witty or quirky (for example the ball made from cast off fax parts), encouraging the viewer to see things from a different perspective. For example, the item in the photo on the top left was made from strapping and jar lids, the item in the centre from fruit nets and the one on the right from juice cartons and willow.

Lois believes that basket-making techniques can be relevant to other activities (whether artistic or functional) where the final outcome is a 3-dimensional structure. She encourages people to look for techniques which suit every available natural and found material. She sees value in producing objects that are "sustainable and versatile or use little equipment and free material". Her materials, methods and forms have been described as "imaginative, original and technically innovative". She finds innovative construction solutions through play and making lots of ‘samples’ to learn what the material can do, how to work with it and what can be made from it. As her work has become more well known, people bring her more and more items to recycle - somewhat of a challenge to manage!

Relevance to my work: Whilst I have never done basket-making, I love looking at woven work, including pictures and paintings of woven items, so maybe it is something I will try one day. For the moment, I think that Lois teaches me two things. The first is to try to look at materials around me in a different way, thinking of uses beyond their traditional areas. The second is to do more samples in order to get the best out of my chosen topic or medium, and to keep pushing the boundaries to explore what may be possible.

References

Lois Walpole's website: http://www.loiswalpole.com

Sandy Brown, Resurgence & Ecologist, March/April 2007: "VISUAL JAZZ. Lois Walpole takes innovation to extremes in basket-making." http://www.resurgence.org/magazine/article218-visual-jazz.html

3. INGA HUNTER

Inga Hunter is a mixed media artist working in the Blue Mountains, a few hours' drive west of Sydney. She began her artistic journey in the 1960s, first with weaving and then batik and shibori dyeing. After that she added quilting and embroidery to her skills, then during the 1980s she began making paper and combining it with textiles. About 1974 she began an organisation then called the Batik Association, which has now evolved into the Australian Textile Arts and Surface Design Association (ATASDA). Her work tends to be done in series, depending on the techniques and themes that she is exploring at the time. These have included series of artists books, miniature paper robes and pieces relating to her heritage.

These pictures show two examples of her books. The one on the left entitled "Gridded Book" combines handmade paper, collage, sticks, copper nails, waxed thread, plastic, metal mesh, wire, paint and coptic binding. On the right is "Boat Box" - featuring three books and two baskets. Her most audacious book, not shown here, was a 1-year collaboration with garden snails "Collaborata Mollusca", where she put manilla folders soaked in beer outside and then brought them in the next morning to see what holes and trails the snails had contributed, ultimately making the pages into a book.

Below are a couple of other examples of Inga's work, to show the broad range of items that that she has produced with paper.

On the left is a miniature paper robe from her wonderful series entitled "Robes of the Imperium", an invented world. Each robe, about 30 to 40 cm long, is accompanied by a story about the wearer - this one is the robe of the Head Inquisitor. The techniques used to produce the effects for these robes include rusting, applying wax (encaustic) and use of unusual materials such as sausage skins. On the right is a mixed media work "Structures with Print", comprising a woodblock print with collaged structures made from bamboo and fine paper, gessoed.

Relevance to my work: What I like about Inga Hunter is that she has not constrained herself to work with one or two materials or techniques. She combines whatever is required to get the effect she wants for a particular piece: paper, textiles, printing, dyeing, waxing, etching, drawing, painting, beading. She has taught herself many of these techniques, through experimentation, and selected courses. She didn't do a drawing class till she was 50, when she decided that she needed to learn how to do it properly. She has tried, and now promotes, the idea of drawing regularly, keeping a small sketchbook with her on her travels, but like me, struggles to make it a daily habit.

Inga draws on all of her experiences and combines her chosen techniques in new ways to express her ideas in an imaginative manner. I think this philosophy fits well with the type of work that I am trying to produce in my City & Guilds course - minimal boundaries, just draw on your tool box and experiment! She has opened my eyes to a much wider range of possibilities for working with paper than I had ever imagined.

Inga Hunter's website: http://www.ingahunter.com.au/

Robb Street Gallery: http://www.thersg.com.au/rsg_touring/hbascatalog.php, Inga Hunter's Kite Book

Inga Hunter: " Something Different - A Drawing a Day .... Revisited." Textile Fibre Forum 28: Issue 4, 8 (2009).

Inga Hunter: " How I Did It: On Rusting and Encaustics - Making Two New Works of the Imperium." Textile Fibre Forum 29: Issue 1, 14 (2010).

Inga Hunter: " Something Different - How I Did It: Using Gut and the Robes of the Imperium." Textile Fibre Forum 29: Issue 2, 17 (2009).

M4 CHAPTER 10 : BOOK-TYPE STRUCTURES

In this section I have experimented with several methods for constructing books, ranging from simple folded items, to more elaborate stitched covers. I started working with ink-washed cartridge paper, and then moved on to some constructions using hand made silk paper.

I really enjoyed this section and had to consciously decide to move on or else I would still be making books for months!

10.1 Pamphlet-style Books

These books are constructed by nesting pages inside each other then stitching/lacing the whole bundle together. The most basic form uses 3 holes, but 5 or 7 holes may be used for larger items. Each group of nested pages is called a signature.

Sample 1 shows a very simple notebook, where the ends of the thread have been tied to form a small tassel decorated with a long rolled paper bead I bought in South Africa.

Three lots of nested paper were used in Sample 2, with a different paper cover on the outside. The centre of the cover was pleated and one signature was placed into each fold. Each group was sewn in place with two strands of cotton thread, then all of the tails were gathered up and tied into a bow at the back to finish off the book.

Sample 3 was constructed similarly to Sample 1. However the pages were cut from a collaged A3  page of paper that I had made some time ago. These pages were cut, folded and assembled to give an interesting effect, with the back and front pages appearing to merge because of the folding. The pamphlet was stitched with 3 different coloured threads, then these were plaited and twisted to produce the decorative loop on the spine.

10.2 Stitched Books

These pictures show two approaches to holding the signatures together and attaching them to a cover.

In Sample 4, a Japanese Stab Binding  technique was used. The covers are entirely separate and a similar size to the interior pages.  The cover shape was cut from mount board; the back side is a single piece of board and the front cover is cut into 2 pieces to create a hinge so the book can be opened. The book is assembled and held firmly together with clamps or large bulldog clips. Holes are poked through all layers and then the thread is passed through all layers making the selected pattern. I used an awl to poke the holes, but later found a set of graduated nails which might be useful in future.

Sample 5 uses stitching with a ribbon  tape to hold everything together. I only used 3  signatures in my sample, but you can join many more to give a much thicker book. Each signature is held together using pamphlet stitch, and then the 3 have been stitched together top and bottom with the thicker green thread over the red ribbon. The ribbon is then attached to the covers. The covers,  made with mount board, are a few mm larger than the inside pages. In this case I chose to carry the ribbon right across the from the front cover to the back cover and glue it on the inside, but you can also  finish the tape part way across each cover to give a different decorative effect. The front page of the first signature and the back page of the last signature are glued to the inside of each cover to finish the book.

10.3 Folded Books

There are many ways of folding pages to create books. I experimented with 3 styles here.

Sample 6 is the simplest – made from an A4 sheet by simply cutting and folding the paper so that the centre panels bulge out. The final shape could make a good display item, depending on the content.

Sample 7 began as a 24cm X 24 cm square, folded and cut as shown below. Mount board covers and ribbons were added to back of the middle squares of rows 2 & 3, so that when all the sides were folded in, the book covers emerged on the outside.

 

Sample 8 began as a long rectangular strip of paper which was folded to give a concertina of triangles. The covers were made of foam core board covered with fabric. Ribbon was attached in such a way that it could be wound around in a figure of 8 and tied to hold the book in place.

10.4 Silk Paper Books

The silk paper has an elegant but informal appearance and is better suited to less formal book styles.  I tried out a few different options to get the feel of working with silk paper and to start the thought process for my assessment piece.

Sample 13, “book in a sack”,  combines cartridge paper and silk paper. The folded book was made by folding and cutting an A4 sheet of cartridge paper  so that there were 4 rows of panels, with cuts across 3 squares on alternating sides.  This allowed the panels to bend back on each other, giving the pages a tumbling appearance when the book was removed from the sack. Folding and cutting the silk paper would have been less effective because it is not stiff enough. However I made a little silk paper bag to slide the folded book inside and keep it together. The edges of the sack and the joins were sewn with a loopy buttonhole stitch.  I thought this concept worked quite well and I liked it as a finished item.

For the next sample (14), I experimented with a wallet type of structure , where the pamphlet cover  had a section folded up at the bottom to form a pocket that items could be slid into for storage. Then I stitched some pages, pamphlet style, into the fold on the right. When the wallet is folded over, as in the top photo, it has an attractive envelope style appearance. The edges were decorated with a row of random free-machine stitching. This had the added benefit of holding the folded section in place at the sides.  I added a bead and embroidered loop to finish off the front. Overall I was pleased with this sample and think it has possibilities for development for my assessment piece. However it may be unnecessary to sew in the pages. Another alternative, which could be interesting, would be to slide them into the pocket as loose leaves.

 

In sample 15, I joined the pages of the book together with Japanese stab stitching, this time using tortoise-shell stitch. The covers were made with 2 layers of silk paper, stiffened with pelmet Vilene in the middle. The white Vilene was washed with green ink to that it blended with the silk paper. I thought this worked only moderately well, and this style of book is probably better suited to standard paper with cardboard covers.

For sample 16 I experimented with a concertina-style construction. First three separate panels (pages) were made  by gluing two layers of silk paper to a pelmet Vilene insert (with a red ink wash). These panels were then laced together over a twig found in my neighbourhood. The holes were made first with a needle before stitching.  I decorated the edges of one panel with a loopy chain stitch. I thought this structure also worked well with the silk paper and could definitely be developed for a more elaborate piece.

The big decision now is which way to go for my assessment piece. I think something based on samples 14 or 16 would work best.  At the moment I am leaning towards the wallet with a pocket and some loose leaf pages.

Reference Shereen La Plantz "Cover to Cover", Lark Books, New York, 1998. Acknowledgement Thanks to my good friend Judy Muller who inspired me by sharing her experiments in book-making with me.

ADDENDUM TO CHAPTER 9

More Stitched Edges on Silk Paper

Sian suggested that I try to work more imaginatively with the edges of the silk paper, trying to reflect the wispiness and swirling character of the fibres. The following photos show 4 additional samples. These were worked on the edges of some of the book structures which will be dealt with in Chapter 10. The focus here is just on the edge treatments.

Overall I feel that these samples are more successful than the first ones that I did. This was partly because I didn’t fully understand the intent first time round, but this is much clearer now.

Sample W was worked in a very loose buttonhole stitch in two colours, allowing the ragged edges of the  paper to show through.

Sample X shows a loopy version of chain stitch worked in two colours. The stitches were worked on alternating sides of the paper, so that loops appeared on the “front” and “back” of the page.

Sample Y shows a row of pink free machine embroidery wandering randomly along the folded page, a little inside the edge of the paper. The irregular jagged line echoes the irregular edge of the silk paper but blends in nicely with the overall effect.

In Sample Z I experimented with irregularly placed beads and stitches, forming an uneven border around the unbound sides of the page.