I do love a dyeing day............

 

Natural dyes work well on wool and silk but for really vibrant colours acid dyes work really well. Quick too with only 5 minutes in the microwave!

Lots of wool fabrics including old blankets 'rescued' from my mother's airing cupboard and still smelling of mothball, dyed to give a good range of colours.

Some silks too as acid dyes work well on all protein fabrics (but not cotton or other cellulose fabrics)

These will be used to create work for my forthcoming 'Wool - Cotton - Silk' exhibition at Snape Maltings from 21st - 26th October 2022

https://brittenpearsarts.org/visit-us/snape-maltings/art-exhibitions/mary-mcintosh

Wool - Cotton - Silk solo exhibition

 

Just five weeks to go until I will be hanging this exhibition at The Quay Gallery, Snape Maltings.

Whilst I have exhibited many times as part of a group it feels quite daunting to make enough work to fill a whole gallery.

The inspiration is my research into the weaving and textile industry. I was born in the Scottish Borders, where wool weaving and especially tweed, was important to the agricultural trade. My father was a hill shepherd.

I lived for many years in the Pennines, where the cotton trade was the dominant industry for a century.

Now I am lucky to live near Sudbury, Suffolk where 95% of all the woven silk is made in the country. 

https://brittenpearsarts.org/visit-us/snape-maltings/art-exhibitions/mary-mcintosh

I have a notion.......................

 

A visit to the notions department has inspired a new piece of work

Really enjoying playing with a range of clasps, fastenings and embellishments

This new piece will be exhibited at my forthcoming solo exhibition at the Quay Gallery, Snape Maltings, Suffolk IP17 1SP from 21st - 26th October 2022

https://brittenpearsarts.org/visit-us/snape-maltings/art-exhibitions/mary-mcintosh

To have and to hold

 

One of the 'treasures' I discovered when clearing out my mother's house as she moved into residential care was this Simplicity dress pattern. It was not used for my mother' wedding gown but I think for the bridesmaids.  The pattern pieces for view 2 had been cut out. I wanted to use the pattern tissue as one of the materials for my piece.

This formed my inspiration for the 'Monochrome' theme for the Out of the Fold exhibition in September 2022

Married in 1962 my parents had a wonderfully happy marriage which only ended after 47 years on the death of my beloved father in 2009

The words of the marriage ceremony really does reflect their life together through the many up and downs of life. 

At a three day workshop with Amanda Clayton earlier this year I discovered silk crepeline fabric for the first time - the lightest sheerest silk I have used. This has been combined with the paper pattern tissue, silk organza, cotton organdie and nylon tulle as the materials. All stitched with white cotton thread. 

Experiments with paper lamination also played a part as did pojagi piecing  techniques and the Amanda Clayton method of joining sheer fabrics (but by machine and not by hand)

Stitching onto such lightweight silk fabrics and net was a new challenge for me. Using soluble fabric and a washaway pen proved useful.  

The piece changed many times during the making; emerging from the planned wall hanging into a full sized three dimensional mixed media piece of work. 

'To Have and to hold' will be exhibited as part of the Out of the Fold exhibition at the Pond Gallery, Snape Maltings, Suffolk IP17 1SP from 30th September until 5th October 2022

No Festival of Quilts for me this year

 

Metallic Magic 

Well this was the workshop I was planning to teach at the Festival of Quilts this year but I am very sorry to announce that I am going to have to miss the entire event. 

I regret that I am completely out of action for the whole of  August and September 2022. Nothing to worry about but I just need to take some time to recover from a recent procedure.

A big thankyou to Helen Moyes who is taking over my workshop and will put her own interpretation on the theme of 'Metallic Magic'

Also thanks to Pat Archibald for filling my 'By accident or design' talk spot with her own talk on design tips and techniques.

Most of all a big sorry not to have my Quilting in Action stand on QIA10 next to my lovely friend Mel from Mellymade Designs. I will miss seeing so many old friends and past students from all around the UK.

I will be back in 2023!

Stitch21 'Legacy' exhibition

 As part of the Creative Stitch Graduate Show 2022 new exhibiting group Stitch 21 (made up of students who completed the Advanced Stitched Textiles course in 2021 - hence the name) had a small exhibition with the theme of 'Legacy'

My 'Legacy' pieces are inspired by the weaving industry. 

I was born in the Scottish Borders in the heart of the wool weaving industry. Each one of my 'Legacy' pieces includes a piece of wool blanket woven in Hawick and given to my parents as a wedding present in 1962

The wool blankets were used for many years on beds to keep my family warm during the very cold Northumbrian winters until the arrival of duvets in the 1980s. 

The blanket, liberated from my mothers' airing cupboard, has been dyed using natural dyes. Logwood, Madder and Weld.

Each piece also contains a piece of silk woven in Sudbury where I have lived for the last twenty years.  

'Logwood Legacy' shown here was first made for the STARS Challenge in 2021

'Madder legacy' was made in the same way using a variety of dyed wools, cottons and silk fabrics which are embellished to the blanket base.

With the very hard water in East Anglia it if difficult to get a natural madder dye to be truly red - mine have an orangey tone. You can see how the different wool, cotton and silk fabrics take up the dye differently with the silk viscose velvet being the richest colour

Hand stitching and beading is added for additional texture - I really enjoy this part of the process

'Weld Legacy' is my least favourite of the three. Weld gathered from the  hedgerows near my home dyes the most vibrant yellow. This was combined with another piece of Sudbury woven silk but needed the addition of another colour to make it work - hence the blue indigo dyed fabrics. 

These 'Legacy' pieces will form part of a large exhibition on work on the theme of Wool - Cotton - Silk at my solo exhibition at Snape Maltings in October 2022

Creative Stitch Graduate Show 2022

 I was very proud of all the Creative Stitch students who completed their course and exhibited work at the Graduate Show 2022. Here is just a sample of a few of the exhibits by my Advanced Stitched Textiles students.

Final piece by Heather Evans. Inspired by a flint stone.

A nuno-felted caplet as part of a fantasy costume by Irmgard MacAskill

Final piece by Phillip Rees. Inspired by the pneumatic bone structure of bird skeletons. Wax resist and multiple layers.

Fantasy costume by Penny Evans inspired by the Eri silk moth. This piece is featured on Fibre Art Now magazine summer issue 2022

The next Advanced Stitched Textiles course with Creative Stitch starts at the beginning of October 2022 in Nowton near Bury St Edmunds. More information at www.sefwi.org.uk/creative_stitch or from me by email maryelmcintosh@gmail.com