Indian delights from Melanie Missin

 

On Saturday 7th October I attended the region 8 Quilters' Guild regional day where the speaker was the lovely Melanie Missin giving a talk about her trips to India with Aahilya Holidays

Mel brought along some of the beautiful textiles she had purchased on her trips as well as examples of pieces made on the workshops attended as part of the holidays

This included pieces from the Gujarat region where I will be leading an Aailya Holiday in October 2024. 

This is an example of work by the Rabari people in a remote rural area near Bhuj

One of the many textile technique workshops on the trip will be mirror work taught by Rabari embroiderers.

This is a Toran door hanging using mirror work bought by Mel in Bhuj

Look how tiny these mirrors are on a girls bodice - all done by hand

I suspect my attempts on the mirror workshop will be amateur in comparison  ut really looking forward to giving it a go!

Melanie also described another workshop technique of painting with a stick onto silk. Again this will be on the trip I am leading to India too

This fine bird was purchased in Ahmedabab

Tie dyeing using the tiniest of ties on silk to create gorgeous texture

The tie dye workshop is also covered on the Indian Embroidery Holiday.

Plus we will be experiencing workshops in Phulkari embroidery, Suzani embroidery and Kantha as well as block printing.

There are still places available. If you are interested please visit www.aahilyaholidays.com

Or email me on maryelmcintosh@gmail.com amd I can send you more details.

The cost is £2990 per person if sharing a twin room or £3890 for a single

Melanie's enthusiam and the knowledge she has gained from her tours with Aailya was so inspiring.

Thank you Melanie, and for your permission to show images of your textiles. 

 

Ice Cubes

 

My exhibiting group Out of the Fold have a group challenge for our new series of work each year. The 2024 challenge is to make CUBES.

Following on from the word play of 'Moth Balls' I thought of different sorts of cubes and their associations.  Sugar Cubes and Rubik cubes were considered and rejected. 

It was whilst enjoying a gin and tonic when the clink of ice against glass brought an Eureka moment. Ice cubes! 

Ghost Nets

 Inspiration came too from a piece of work made earlier in the year for the Norfolk Makers challenge 'Under the surface'

Ghost Nets was not selected for the Norwich exhibition but I liked the technique of using recycled plastics encapsulated in laminated plastic

I experimented to get the look I wanted to represent the look, texture and reflective qualitites of ice

The multi layered plastics and cut up and reassembled using my trusty soldering iron

The simple machine stitching  using free motion zigzag is to suggest ice cracks

A pale and cool colour palette with glitzy glints to pick up the light

The cube construction was not without it's challenges. The six sides could partially be stitched together by machine but the final joins by hand were quite tough on the fingers

The challenge was to make cubes at 4", 8" and 12".

I have actually made five cubes with a 2" and 6" added into the collection

The 12" required going up to A3 laminated sheets. I would quite like to go bigger - could I make a 16"? 

You wil be able to see all the finished cubes, plus those of the eleven other members of Out of The Fold at our exhibition coming up at The Quay Gallery, Snape Maltings from 18th - 23rd October 2024