‘In Our Space’ – Newcastle Carers Artist Residency final exhibition.

From October 18 to March 19, I worked as Artist in Residence at Newcastle Carers as part of Newcastle City Council’s Arts Team’s residency program. I have blogged a few times about this residency – which I have really enjoyed. It has been a privilege to have worked with such a great and supportive organisation and the people who took part in the creative workshops and who, as you’ll be able to see below, produced some amazing artworks which are now on display at Shields Road in Byker.

It was also a lovely surprise to find out that I had been nominated for an award as part of the work I had done with Newcastle Carers during the residency. What made it even more special was the lovely nomination letter I received stating the reasons why:

“Having Louise in the Café really helped us to relax and take our minds off our caring roles for a couple of hours. We always had a lot of fun and constantly laughing. We loved learning new skills that we can share with our family/friends. It helped us to open up and strengthen our friendships with each other. She also made all of us believe in our selves more and that we can try new things. We are extremely proud of all of our work we created with Louise, thank you for everything.”

Three of the artworks on display at Newcastle Carers.

Over six months, I worked with four groups who meet regularly at one of the ‘cafes’ which are available to carers within the city to meet peers, talk to volunteers who are able to offer advice and support, as well as support workers who are able to provide further help. The individual cafes normally meet once a month, so we decided to add in extra sessions so that we were able to meet each group at least once a fortnight – as members of the café were really enjoying the creative project work they were doing within the cafes. Below, you can see the fabulous finished artworks and quotes that came out of the project, which are now on display in one of the rooms that is regularly used by these groups.

‘A comfy pair of slippers’ made by Byker Carer Café.

“When I first started coming to Newcastle Carers, it was like putting on a comfy pair of slippers or a blanket on.”

Many of the group at Newcastle Carers either already enjoyed knitting and crochet, or were keen to learn. This project has given the group a chance to learn and share skills with each other, from the simple, colourful squares to the flowers around the edge. Traditionally such techniques would have been used to make pieces for loved ones or for practical purposes. The heart shape has been inspired by tattoo designs.

‘Laughing, Caring, Sharing’ made by Gosforth Carers.

The imagery of the jigsaw puzzle reflects both a relaxing activity we might do but also the interlocking pieces symbolise the support given to members or visitors to the group by the volunteers and carers. Some of the pieces have been decorated with images of special places we visit in our minds and others the results of opportunities of experimentation with colour and form. Others have been made to represent important things the carers would like to say: the crocheted flowers say ‘Thank you’ to the people who originally set up the group and the knitted cakes represent having a cuppa with understanding friends.

During the workshops at Gosforth Carers, we have been using inks and fabric paints to decorate the jigsaw pieces, then using beading, knitting and crochet to further embellish the surface.

‘Life has layers’ by Young Adult Carers Café at Byker.

“We can be who we are.”

During the workshops at Newcastle Young Adult Carers, the young people have been learning a number of different creative techniques. These included lino printing, batik, weaving and fabric painting. This piece reflects many of the different aspects of a young carer’s life: school/college/work, friends and socialising, family and caring. The cogs of time continue turning in the background, with the occasional spanner in the works that might slow things down. However, the ‘Tree of Life’ keeps growing, providing new opportunities and experiences – including being part of the group.

A big part of the weekly sessions, besides the creative activities, has been the banter that flows, talking with friends about films and music (listening to Rag’n’Bone Man quoted here); this has fed into the piece that has been created.

“I am giant.”

B.M.E. Carers Group – ‘Time for Me’

Self-care is essential for all of us, but particularly for people who care for others. This piece reflects upon some of the simple things that we could do every day that make us feel happier and more relaxed. These things may not even take long like being creative. The group made these hand pictures and wrote things they enjoyed within them which gave them time to switch off and stop thinking about other things for a while.

Textile books made by Newcastle Young Adult Carers and Newcastle Carer Café.

‘In Our Space’ – Newcastle City Artist in Residency exhibition logo.

The Shipley Art Gallery Centenary Quilt, finished.

In 2016, I was asked to work on a lovely, large community project to help the Shipley Art Gallery celebrate their 100th Anniversary in 2017. The Shipley Art Gallery has a fabulous collection of the decorative arts and a very long, established link with the traditional technique of patchwork and quilting. Within their collection they have hundreds of hand quilted pieces, which have either been wholecloth designs or made using English Paper Piecing.

The project took over 9 months and was ready for the anniversary celebrations in November, 2017. We had over 100 patchworked squares made by members of the community, some local and few were posted from different part of the UK. The pieces which didn’t form part of the finished quilt (not because of quality as the standard of the finished, hand paper pieced squares was fantastic), have been made into pieces which can be used with schools, community groups and general visitors to help explain the process of hand paper piecing.

Planning the final position of the patchwork squares for the centenary quilt.

Once all the squares were collected in and registered. A small group of people who had worked closely with the quilt over the last nine months, came together to help with the very tricky job of deciding where to place all the finished pieces. At this point, the paper templates were still in the back of the squares. Members of the group took a couple of rows away to join the individual squares together, then two rows together.

Reverse of the centre panel for embroidering, with it’s paper templates still intact.

During this time, I worked on the centre panel, which was made up of cream and white self patterned ‘Grandmother’s garden’ hexagons, which would become the area to embroider the text upon. This section was then sewn into the middle of three rows of squares.

Detail of the embroidery onto the central panel. The silk was hand dyed and hand spin by one of the members of the group.

Once all the rows and the central panel of the patchwork were sewn together, it was then placed, pinned and quilted to an organic cotton wadding centre and cotton backing. It took a long time to just pin the three layers together, accurately, as the quilt by this point was 200 cm by 220 cm.

The finished patchwork ‘top’ being pinned to the organic cotton wadding and cotton backing, in preparation for hand quilting.

I decided to use a new tool, called a basting gun, which I bought from Cottonpatch to ‘pin/tack’ the three layers of the quilt together. A bit like the tools used in clothes shops to attach price labels to clothes, which can delicately keep the layers together but also quick and easy to remove. It made things much quicker and cut out the damage pins could do. It also allowed me to use a large hoop to quilt with, as it was too large for my frames.

Binding the edge of the quilt.

The quilt needed to be finished a couple of weeks before the centenary celebrations, as it had to go in the large freezer at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle. This is something which the museum and gallery service will regularly do with new items to their collection to ensure that no new contaminates are brought into their collection.

Throughout November 2017, there were lots of different events at the Shipley Art Gallery to celebrate it’s centenary and the quilt was at the centre of this. People from the local community including the women of the Jewish community, women from the local Syrian community, plus local craft groups, the Shipley Quilters and all those who had individually made a square, were invited to a lovely afternoon of celebrations at the Shipley.

Some of the women from the local Syrian community who worked on the quilt.

Finished Shipley Art Gallery Centenary Quilt on display.

The Shipley Art Gallery Centenary Quilt, 2017.

The Shipley Art Gallery Centenary Quilt update

100 finished hand patchworked squares positioned for sewing together.

Over the last five months I have worked with and meet with people from all over Gateshead, the North East and the UK to encourage people to be part of the Shipley Art Gallery Centenary Quilt. We have now received over 130 squares which have been made using traditional hand sewn,  hand paper piecing technique known as English Paper Piecing.

Designing and making individual squares.

As part of the programme to make the quilt, there has been a weekly class held at the Shipley Art Gallery in Gateshead. Attending were a mixture of people who had patchworked before and people who hadn’t stitched.  This was a really vibrant and supportive group of people, who within a couple of weeks were advancing very quickly in their skill development and very confident in using the new technique they had learnt to create their own designs. There was also a great opportunity for skills sharing and even the embroidery silk which will be used to stitch the lettering was hand spun during a skills sharing moment by one of our very talented group.

The Shipley Art Gallery proved to be a great inspiration for our designs.

I have also worked with local craft groups, visitors the the Radio 3 Free Thinking Festival, members of the local Jewish Community and a Syrian Women’s support group. This has been a lovely opportunity to talk to people about how sewing,  making and craft has played an important part in their family, community and culture.

Just a few of the 130 squares made!

Members of the patchwork class have been helping me over the last couple of weeks to sew the 100 squares together into rows and then the rows together.  This has been a fantastic help, as I am working on the central panel which is white and cream hexagons sewn in the ‘Grandmother’s Garden’design. This will then be embroidered with hand spun silk to create the lettering. Next month, October, I will then start to quilt the piece ready to be hung in the Shipley Art Gallery for the 22nd November, 2017.

 

 

How to: English Paper Pieced Patchwork

Patchwork has a long tradition of using precisely cut, paper pieces to ensure that the complex geometric designs fit neatly into place, ensuring fewer mistakes and more economical use of fabric – which was and can be expensive.

Finished, hand stitched Pinwheel design.

Follow these simple instructions below to help you with your own English Paper Pieced patchwork.

Stage 1

• Pin the backing paper to the ‘wrong’ side of every fabric patch.
• Fold over the seam allowance and pin it so that the paper and fabric are the same size.

Stage 2

• Tack around this edge – contrast cotton works well as it can be easily removed later.

TIP: When sewing the corners, use your nails to ensure you have folded the fabric neatly to the points, then create ‘wings’ in the excess fabric, which will remain on the underside of your patchwork piece – giving you a neat sewing edge on top.

Stage 3

• Place two patches, ‘right’ sides together, line them up carefully so that each corner you are going to sew from matches.
• Pin along this line.

Stage 4

• Then sew a very small whipstitch/over stitch, sewing this edge together – try not to sew through the backing paper.

Stage 5

• Continue placing new pieces together.

Right side of English paper Piecing.

• Looking at the ‘right’ side of the fabric, you should be able to still see the hand sewn whipstitch you used to sew the two pieces together. This gives it it’s authenticity and adds beauty to the piece.
• The tacking stitches you can see around the edge (and the paper inside) will eventually be take out, once all of the patchwork/quilt has been pieced together, before the backing fabric is placed on.

Finished, hand stitched Pinwheel design.

 

Get involved! The Shipley Centenary Quilt Project

The Shipley Art Gallery in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear will this year be celebrating its 100th Anniversary, after being founded following a bequest by local solicitor Joseph Shipley (1822-1909). The gallery holds a beautiful collection of European Old Masters, to Victorian and more modern paintings. It now is also extremely well know and highly considered for its collection of decorative art including ceramics, textiles, wood, metal and glass by local and national makers. The Shipley Art Gallery has an amazing collection of whole cloth and patchwork quilts, which the North East has a long and strong tradition in making, either for private use or as a way of making money.

As part of the celebrations, I have been asked to work with and encourage creative people to work together to make a new patchwork quilt. As traditionally, patchwork would have been made using English Paper Piecing, this quilt will also follow in the tradition. To make this quilt, we need 100, 20 cm square (plus seam allowance) hand pieced panels.

 

One finished 20 cm square patchwork panel for the Shipley Centenary Quilt.

 

If you would like to get involved, the individual patchwork panels need to be returned by the end of August, either to myself or the Shipley Art Gallery. The finished patchwork quilt will be on display for the centenary celebrations towards the end of November. So, this allows a couple of months to piece all of the panels together and to quilt it.

Residency Day 9 -new ‘Green Pledges’.

Before I came out to Bergby Konstcenter in Sweden, I had asked people who had visited my studio in Newcastle if they would like to make a ‘Green Pledge’ and I would make them to hang with the others in the exhibition in Sweden.

Here are some new pledges which have been made:

‘I will encourage bees into my backyard’.

These new pledges have been made using resources I had at hand in Sweden including plastic bread bags (the tassels above) to milk cartons ( the patchwork below).

I will stop eating beef.

I will grow my own fruit and vegetables.

I will turn off the lights.

This one contains a quote from Mahatma Gandhi: ‘Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.’

All of the ‘ Green Pledges’ are now up in the exhibition, already more new pledges are being made. I hope to go and hang them all up in the woods this weekend! Then I shall send photos to all the people who have been involved in the project so far…

Residency days 7 & 8, at Bergby Konstcenter.

Sunday and Monday have been very intensive sewing days, like all my pieces for my residency, the ‘Sea Juggernaut’ has been very heavily worked.

Reverse side of ‘Sea Juggernaut’ – a sperm whale.

This piece represents the issues facing creatures living in our seas: pollution (chemical and waste), sound pollution, over fishing, climate change etc. Over the years many whales have died on beaches across the world due to these environmental issues and this year, 18 sperm whales washed up on beaches in Germany. When they were autopsied, they were found to have in their stomachs: 43 foot of shrimp nets, plastic parts from car engines, even buckets inside them, as well as many other unusual objects. They were young whales who had died from heart failure.

‘ Sea Juggernaut’, beaded, machine and hand embroidered textile hanging at Bergby Konstcenter, Sweden.

The textile piece I have been making whilst at Bergby Konstcenter is heavily beaded and embroidered. It also has lots of ‘found’ objects seen into it, to highlight the disposal of waste from our over consumption. In the textile piece I have sewn in items such as plastic nets used for packaging fruit, items found on the floor such as a tiny ships wheels and anchor buttons!

Mini ship’s wheel found on the floor outside a local ‘Loppis’.

Within the piece I have embroidered and beaded creatures of the deep, plus also loosely beaded the sea, these are both to represent real and synthetic things found in the sea (like microbeads used in cosmetics).

Detail showing beaded and embroidered sea creatures as well as stiched poetry.

Each sea creature is unique and took many hours of sewing. One, I have also linked to flowers found in Carl Linnaeus’s garden, as I was keen to make links to this great Swedish scientist who was the first to use the Latin classification system for plants and animals. Within each of these pieces, the animals latin name is also stiched into the picture.

Detail of beaded sea creature.

Each of the pieces made as part of the ‘Häxors Trosor’ (witches knickers) residency, work on many levels and as part of this piece ( and the others) a poem is stitched through:

Sea Juggernaut 

 

Dive down deep, deep down

Where the nocturnal day or night light

Eclipses the sea juggernaut.

Though, the salty sea stars

Still shine spiral bright.

 

Dive down deep, deep down

In search of balloon bursting, rich tasting

Stringy limbed squid

Sea Juggernaut penetrates past

To wrestling octopus hid .

 

Dive down deep, deep down

To find a pea souper, stomach filler

Of man’s eternal waste,

An all you can eat sea buffet,

Of gut corroding, life stealing bait.

 

July 2016

 

Residency Day 5 – The Loppis

I’ve already mentioned how great the Swedish ‘ Loppis’ is – a second hand shop which you find on the side of the road. But Helen and John had told me about a really big one which is about 10 minutes away from Bergby Konstcenter. As I am now at the point of thinking about how to ‘ back’ my sea juggernaut picture – and there was only so much fabric I could bring – a place where I could pick up recycled fabric would be great!

A homage to the Loppis.

The Loppis we visited was inside a large barn – wish I had taken more photos – and an absolute treasure trove. For me, I got excited by the colourful fabrics, handmade lace, embroidered and crochet work. But if you needed any kind of household equipment, toys, clothes, furniture, books, etc, you were sorted and they were all good quality.

Today’s purchases from the Loppis.

Some of my finds are beginning to make their way into my work.

Tiny ship’s wheel that I found on the floor outside the Loppis in Bergby.

Anchor button bought as part of a collection of blue buttons. The anchor is the symbol of this area.

This idea of sensible thrift really works with the whole feel of my ‘Häxors Trosor’ project. Humanity generates so much waste. I found an interesting quote a couple of days ago when making a new ‘ Green Pledge’:

“Earth provides enough to satisfy everyman’s need, but not every man’s greed.”

Mahatma Gandhi.

Day 1 of my Haxors Trosor Artist’s Residency at Bergby Konstcenter, Sweden.

After leaving Suffolk at 1 am, yesterday morning, we were all happy and excited to arrive at Bergby Konstcenter, where we shall be spending two weeks creating, making, demonstrating and displaying artwork produced during that time.

Bergby Konstcenter

As part of the residency, there is lovely on-site accomodation provides by Helen and John who run the arts centre and gallery.

After arriving yesterday, I set up the studio and gallery space, hanging up the ‘Green Pledges’ and the pennants made in preparation, plus emptying the two suitcases of art and textiles equipment I had brought.

Environmental art pennants.

‘ Green Pledges’

Already, my three girls are also getting into the digital detox, creative spirit and have started using the art materials that have brought. This is a piece below by Kitty, age 11 who has used pastels to draw this lovely picture.

Pastel picture made by Kitty, age 11.

 

 

 

 

Green Pledges

As part of my artists redidency at Bergby Konstcenter in Sweden, I am taking ‘green pledges’ which have been made by friends, family, other artists and contributors. These will be hung as part of the exhibition.

Here is a selection of new ones and further information can also be found on my instagram. So far about 25 green pledges have been made!