And so he went

Strictly speaking this piece is a collaboration with my 5 year old son (now 27). My husband and I were clearing the attic and found this paper lantern our son made, all torn and discoloured. I still recognised the love he put into it and remembered how proud he was, coming home from school with his lantern.

I decided to use the thin paper part that was not torn in a piece on his leaving home.

I glued the paper on a piece of fabric and added stitching, drawing in pencil, a poem (unreadable, which is as intended), and muted or highlighted some parts of the coloured pieces. I also added the suitcase, falling as it were out of the picure.

It has become a meaningful and emotional work to me, in which his childhood and the present time, his art and mine, his energy and my feelings all come together. A bittersweet, but mostly sweet and actually very happy piece, hanging in our living room.

The nature of the material makes it hard to take good pictures, nevertheless, here are some details:

My widened blouse

There was this blouse in my closet too narrow to be comfortable, but I liked the fabric, the pattern, colours and length, so I decided to try to widen it using the good parts of a worn shirt of my husband, which had a nice colour. I  thought the two fabrics would match well.
First I loosened the side hems of the blouse. Then I cut two pieces of fabric off the shirt : right and left with the side hem and a piece of the sleeve. These pieces of fabric I sewed between the opened sides.
Now the blouse is much more comfortable and I got a lovely combination of fabrics.

A sun flower

Just a sun, or a flower, or a sunflower. No story behind it this time, just trying to make something nice. I used fabric scraps, all in the same colour tone, sewn in the centre. The petals are made from felt and fabric on which I made prints of leaves. 

Prints of (real) leaves:

The menopausal woman

Here's a force to be reckoned with : the menopausal woman, full of plans, energy and wisdom! There, I said it and that's what this piece is all about!

I knit the background from Rowan wool and felted the fabric in the washing machine. This way it feels sturdy and slighlty carpet-like.

The powerful woman and the ladder are embroidered onto the background, and I added fairy lights (off course!). It is quite a big wall hanging which I installed in our hallway: very happy with it!

Ampersand

I love the ampersand symbol. This one is made from scrap fabric, mostly from old clothes. The technique of fabric manipulation I learned from Jenny McIlhatton through her workshop via textilartist.org.

You can create so many textures and layers with this technique, I will definitely use this in future work!

I love gnomes!

Inspired by the knitted figures and animals I keep seeing on Pinterest, I decided to knit a couple of gnomes myself. They are my own design and are a fairly straightforward knit. I gave them a hat made of an old sock with a funny charm.

It's another good way to use up those yarn scraps.

My new gnomes played their part in our Christmas decor last year 😊

 

3 Circles

This is my response to the second workshop I did with Hanny Newton : an abstract piece of 3 circles with thread and beads. 

Lucebert collage

This collage is made from paper, textiles, paint and stitching. I also added a leaf I made using machine stitching.

I added a quote from the Dutch poet Lucebert, "Alles van waarde is weerloos" [All worthwile things are vulnerable], in stitching.

Using a more graffiti-like style, which contrasts with the quote, I wanted the piece to become more of an interrogation of the truth of Lucebert's phrase.

Just Jump!

This is one of my small, more surreal, cartoonish pieces. Just a bit of fun!

A tiny map

This is a tiny map of Cambridge, where my son lives. I stitched it partly from memory and partly with the help of Google Maps. Memorable spots and those important to me personally are marked on the map. 

It's my response to the workshop I did with Vanessa Rolf. Stitching a map is a great way to remember and think about stuff. And you end up with a lovely souvenir!