Secret Cemeteries

Secret Cemeteries Expanded

2011-02-17T04:52:00.000-08:00


Members of the group have been doing some individual work on our theme Kensal Green cemetery. The Hanging and the work will be in an Exhibition called Tension Between Man and Nature at Kensal Green Cemetery in the Dissenters Chapel, W10 4RA on April 9th/10th & 16th/17th 10.30-4

How the Graduate show went

2010-07-25T03:44:00.000-07:00

Its been rather a long time since the show, I wanted to show you some photo's but its taken some time to get back to normal.

The setting up went pretty well, we were all fairly nervous and there were unexpected things to do but I think that is inevitable. I had Diana a student from year H to help most people had their husbands to help.

This is my area, I was pleased with it as I felt it did give an intimate impression that evoked the sense of people working together.

The picture above on the right is of Julie from Bolton work, the first picture was of Julie from the Isle of Man and the second of Rebecca's work, she lives in Switzerland. Sorry I haven't got pictures of everyone's work.

This is a friend of Anita's at the private viewing, she had made this lovely hat her self.

The private viewing went very well, there were lots of people and it was very hot. I did find standing up for a long time difficult, my back has only recently recovered.

It was a bit quiet on the Sunday, it was when England were playing Germany [football!!] so I went for a walk around Shoreditch. Its a very interesting area, with an extensive street market.

This will be my last post for Secret Cemeteries, thank you all for following it, its been a very good experience.

The Hanging will be making an appearance at the Festival of
Quilts in Birmingham and we have been invited to have an exhibition at Kensal Green Cemetery in April 2012. This will be of our individual work as well as the Hanging.
I've enjoyed doing the blog I hope to organise another community project and I will do another blog for that.
Thanks Jenny

Final plans for a display for the Graduate Show

2010-06-13T06:45:00.000-07:00

This really is the final version. You have probably noticed by now that I've been having trouble with decideding how to do a display. As the Graduate Show is only a week away I thought I'd better make a decision and stick to it. So here it is. It is quite large so you will be able to see the photographs and read the writing.

The Hanging will be there of course and another large poster of the Hanging in St Nicholas Church Yard. I hope to see you at the Show.

Prism

2010-06-06T04:24:00.000-07:00

You might remember how in January I put photo's of two hangings on the blog, that I had made for Prism. So here they are at the Prism Exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London.
They are called Green Angel and Peeling Angel, made with a flour paste resist and natural dyeing.
I was a bit disappointed about where they were positioned in the gallery, as they are thoughtful pieces rather than decorative and so I think they would have been better in one of the gallery rooms rather than very near the door. However I did have a word with one of the people who set up the exhibition and my thoughts were sympathetically received.

St Nicholas Church yard

2010-05-31T01:20:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely sunny day, not like this weekend. The sun made very interesting patterns on one of the grave stones.

The patterns reminded me of the flour paste resist fabrics we have been making. This is a close up. I love the fine lines, I think they are to do with the sun shinning through a yew tree.

This is some peeling stone on another grave stone. Some of it is crumbly and some is really hard and thick.

Here is carved stone angel I used to make the poster. She is now completely surrounded by greenery, you can't see her at all from the main part of the Church yard.

The Exhbition at St Nicholas Church Yard

2010-05-29T04:22:00.000-07:00

We were very lucky with the weather, what a glorious couple of days. St Nicholas Church Yard is a very tranquil spot, and we had a lot of visitors. The photo above is Suzanne with someone from one of her lace classes.

We were quite comfortable. Most people signed our comments book.

This was my favorite view of the hanging, it was good to see it in the setting that it has arisen from, a Victorian Church yard.

Marian, Catherina and Suzanne helped to steward and we were very pleased that Jackie came to see us, she has had a lot of pain with her back recently.

While we were there we saw some more lovely things I will post some photo's soon.

More developments for the exhibition

2010-05-15T01:56:00.000-07:00

I now have postcards of the Hanging and also some details as well as some hands!! As you can see the details feature different peoples work. My fellow workers on the project have contributed to the cost so I was able to get five different post cards printed. They will be available next weekend when we have our weekend exhibition in St Nicholas Church yard Elstree.

New plans for Secret Cemeteries at Jenny's Graduate Exhbition

2010-05-02T04:14:00.000-07:00

I've been having further thoughts about how to show that the project has been a community project. So now instead of posters which were rather compact I'm planning on having photographs with titles and anonymous quotes from members.
Here's a mock up on my bedroom wall.

Don't worry if you can't see yourself, I've used pictures out of my gardening magazine. This is a try out to see how I can fit pictures and text together and make a pleasing shape.

Exhibition

2010-04-22T03:59:00.000-07:00

The Hanging we have made will be on display at St Nicholas Church Yard Elstree WD6 3EW, you can see the Church from the main rd, on the weekend of 22nd and 23rd of May from 10-4. There will be parking available in the school car park. This is up a turning just by the Church.
I do hope you can come.

This angel lives in the Church yard. In January I put some of the fabrics we dyed in our natural dyeing workshops round her.

Marian has stitched this lovely piece with all our names on it, it seems rather a pity to put it on the back.

Everyone has worked so hard and done such beautiful work, I am very pleased.

Matt's photo's

2010-04-12T07:28:00.000-07:00

I'm really pleased with the photo's Matt took.

The above is of the hanging on the ground, I was surprised how dark the grass looks.

This one is against the sky, The area with the lace angel doesn't have any wadding in it and you can see the light through it to some extent.

.This is may favorite, I like the cross to the right and the tomb stone on the left as well as the golden privet, above and to the side.

The graduate show

2010-04-03T08:06:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of my space at the graduate show, as you can see its an alcove. The plan is to show how the project has been a community project. So I am going to have a table with the hanging on it.. as though we are still making it!! I thought I might bring a long my old hand sewing machine as well, that Lana gave me sometime ago.

I am planning, at the moment some posters to show the development of the project, if all goes well these will be on the wall to the left: you can see this wall here with the three pictures on it, and on the inside wall and also on the back wall.

I've found some soft ware that shows you how to make posters and then prints them. All I have to do now is learn how to use it!! Wish me luck.

Taking photographs

2010-03-28T07:33:00.000-07:00

Matt, our nephew in law does professional photography. I can't show you the results yet but here he is taking photo's of the hanging in St Nicholas Church yard.

He took some of the hanging on the ground, it was rather muddy, so I took a sheet of plastic.

And some of it standing up, on Tessa's copper pipe stand.

The weather wasn't too unkind to us, we managed to avoid the showers.

This is my favorite view. You can just see the section with our names on it that Marian has stitched. I will sew it on to the back soon.

The sewing is finished

2010-03-21T09:46:00.000-07:00

There is quite a lot of sewing involved in the hanging, so we have put in extra time on this part. In some ways it has been the most enjoyable. One person said 'very peaceful, meditative'

I am doing some machine quilting now, it nearly finished. I have a nephew who is a professional photographer coming next Saturday to take photo's in a local Victorian Church yard. I hope it doesn't rain like it did yesterday.

Some details

2010-03-14T05:42:00.000-07:00

Members of the group project have done some lovely work.

Above is Suzanne's lace angel, she has designed and worked this, over many hours, she is very special.

The photo above left shows my dyeing, [actually the green is better than it looks] and Judith's photo shop print of stone passions flowers. Catherina has done some stitching on the flowers and done some lovely stitched lichen. This detail is truly collaborative.

This is Marian's version of the angel, she has used the design Suzanne developed. It is machine stitched chiffon over a flour paste resist fabric. Then Marian has cut most of the chiffon away.

I have just been on a review day with my course. I am very near the end of the course and I am preparing for the Graduate Exhibition. My task is now how to show that the Secret Cemetery project has been a community project. So the emphasis is on the experience of working together as well as the end product. Any suggestions?

Its really coming together now.

2010-03-08T10:36:00.000-08:00

We met on Saturday to begin to put all the different parts together. Suzanne has finished the wonderful lace angel. In the photo above Marian and Suzanne are placing it on the wadding, it is the focal point so it has to go on first.

Marian is placing the next piece of fabric.

Marian and Suzanne are starting to hand stitch all the pieces together, they are using double cotton and varying the colour to pick up on all the different colours in the hanging.

This is the stage we reached by the end of the day, you can't see all the details so I'll do another post soon to show you some of them.

Nearly there

2010-03-01T06:57:00.000-08:00

We have our last making workshop next Saturday, by then our hanging will be nearly finished.

Meanwhile I have been doing some more stitching with silk and scrim. The top photo
is scrim, and silk organza over cotton. They are all dyed by Lana with indigo and cochineal. I really enjoy this simple sewing.
The picture below is some of Judith's photo shop prints, you can clearly see the angel and the stone passion flower in the bottom image. I have stitched the top image, its rather fainter as its printed on to organza.

This is the same image only larger and printed on to cotton, I have frayed it, I like the mossy bits.

Scrim and silk

2010-02-23T03:23:00.000-08:00

The photograph that we have used as a design source for our hanging has two blue pipes running down at the sides. The colour of these is a good contrast with the greys and greens of the stone.

I have been working on the texture of the peeling paint on these pipes. We decided to put indigo dyed scrim over indigo dyed silk. The photo above is for the left hand side, this is a narrow pipe.

This one opposite is supposed to be wider, at the bottom you can just see where I am doing my version of drawn thread work!! Mostly I'm using simple running stitch.

More sewing

2010-02-14T08:31:00.000-08:00

This fabric is for the left hand side of the hanging, running from top to bottom. I made a very light grey flour paste resist piece but when we pinned it up with the rest of the fabrics at the workshop last week we could see it was too light. These fabrics are a darker grey, but they have had to be divided up to fit.

However we thought we could make use of this and make a feature of the seams by making them look like mortar between large stones, like you would find in the columns of a colonnade. I have been couching down some chenille to try to achieve this.

Marian is going to sew a lager version of the lace angel on to the grey flour paste resist so the angel is gesturing inwards. I think its going to look very good, but you will have to wait and see.

I've just dyed this piece of cotton for the back of the hanging, its dyed in a jam jar, well a bucket, then I tied and capped some areas and dyed it with indigo and finally it was dyed with weld. Its quite large, it just fits on my spare double bed.

We have started sewing.

2010-02-08T07:07:00.000-08:00

We have started sewing, but first we did look at our design again and all the fabrics and made some adjustments. The photo above is the slightly more refined version. Suzanne is getting on really well with the lace angel as you can see by the next photo.

Here Lana is considering what threads to use.

Different people are taking different parts home to work on. We shall be meeting again in just under four weeks to put all the separate pieces together .

Designing Workshop

2010-01-25T07:47:00.000-08:00

We had a very good day on Saturday. People brought some very strong ideas of their own and then we were able to work together to come up with a design for a hanging/quilt.

Suzanne has developed a design for a lace angel which she is now working. She saw the angel when we went for our walk to Kensal Green Cemetery and took a photo.

We are very lucky to have such a beautiful design there is a lot of movement in her, she looks really lively. We used the lace angel as a focal point for the design.

I was very taken with another photo that Catherina took on the walk of a view through the colonnade. We used this photo as a guide and then Designed by audition. We tried a number of different natural dyed fabrics together by pinning them up to a large cork board. The photo above shows our first efforts. As you can see we all gave our opinions. Between us we had lots ideas and the discussions were passionate but not heated, I really enjoyed it.

Marian and Catherina are trying out some more ideas.

This is the final piece. Its about 5 feet high by four feet wide, you can't see the details but it has some of the flowers that Marian found on it and also some photoshop images of stone passion flowers that Judith has composed. These add texture and interest when you get close. Its only pinned to a board at the moment and I will be doing a little more dyeing as some pieces of cloth were not big enough. The pale grey section on the left hand side will run from top to bottom.

The next workshop will be putting the pieces together, and stitching them.

In the Churchyard

2010-01-20T08:34:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I took some of our dyed fabrics to my nearest Victorian Churchyard. I am particularly fond of the angel above, she has on Jackie's fabric dyed in a jam jar and some of my four paste resist.
The colours and textures in the grave stone below are also very interesting.

Ice and snow disrupts everything

2010-01-10T04:52:00.000-08:00

I thought it best to postpone our designing workshop yesterday, the minor roads were very snowy and icy and some people were coming a distance. During the morning I put some hot water out for the birds, by lunch time it was frozen.

Its is the ice and snow that causes stone to crack and break up, disrupting it.

Here is a recent flour paste resist piece, it does look like cracking stone, its on my patio, I hope the patio isn't beginning to crumble, some of the roads are around here are.

For the last dyeing workshop I bought some flour for the flour paste resist from the Co-op, the results were not very good, the paste was slimy and difficult to spread. This fabric had a flour paste resist made with Sainsbury's, flour, they do two own brands, this is the more expensive. Jo Budd had the same trouble with flour from the Happy Shoper!! on the work shop I went on with her in the summer.

Happy New Year

2010-01-05T04:15:00.000-08:00

I couldn't resist, in more ways than one, doing some more dyeing over the break. So I have been working on these three pieces for the next Prism Exhibition.

The work above is the first piece, its quite small, its flour paste resist. I have capped a few areas, these show as white, then I dyed it with indigo followed by weld, this produced a green in some areas and yellow in others. I capped some of the these patches and then dyed it all again with tannic acid and ferrous sulphate. I have added some silk carrier rods to try to evoke the peeling nature of the stone.

This one above on the right is flour paste resist again with some areas capped, its based on a green stone angel that had lichen growing on it.

The one on the left is the largest about 3 feet by 18 inches. Its based on the peeling marble angel at Kensal Green Cemetery.
Its a flour paste resist like the others.
I really seem to be addicted to flour paste resist, it gives such a textural finish.

Now I have got to think of a way of linking these pieces with the theme of the Exhibition, Evolve, Evoke, Expand. I'm thinking about saying in my artists statemment how disintegration is part of the process of evolution. Things need to break down in order to reform into something new and then to expand. Any ideas?

Happy Christmas

2009-12-23T11:21:00.000-08:00

Happy Christmas, I took this photo in the autumn, I thought it looked Christmassy with the holly and I really liked the carving on the grave stone.

I have just got to the end of the module for my degree course, we just get feed back on our work at this stage, I'm very pleased with mine.

I will be back in blogging and dyeing in the New Year.

Moving towards designing.

2009-12-15T03:51:00.000-08:00

I have been working on my contribution of dyed fabric for our collaborative piece. Here is a picture.
They are both cotton sateen, the one on the left, has been dyed with a very pale indigo blue and then tied with cocktail sticks, starting with a large one and gradually working down.
The one on the right has a flour paste resist pattern, that has been dyed with ferrous sulphate and then tannic acid, the left hand side has been dyed with indigo followed by weld to give the green colour. Finally I painted some ferrous sulphate and then taanic acid down both sides.
They are both about 3 feet long.

The others who have come to the dyeing days have some lovely fabrics, I can't wait to see them all together in January. I have started to get some ideas about designs, I hope the others have too.

There is a very interesting exhibition at the RA at the moment, EARTH Art of Climate Change, it has work by a number of well known artists, Anthony Gormley, Mona Hatoum as well as some new artists. Tracey Emin has some embroidered textiles. Some are very beautiful and when you look more closely disturbing. Like Yao Lu's work. At first sight it looks like a classical Chinese ink painting, but when you look more closely you can see that the mountains are actually mounds of rubbish covered with green protective nets. His work is very clever and speaks of the radical changes affecting modern China.

Our second workshop

2009-12-11T09:29:00.000-08:00

We did some over dyeing cochineal over weld and indigo over weld. Here are our samples in the cochineal vat.

The photo below is the yellow sample with bits of plastic sticking out of it.

It is silk satin organza that was stitched and tied with string. Silk takes the dye particularly well.

This sample is cotton dyed with weld, in the same vat as the sample above, it had split lentils tied into before it was over dyed with indigo. You don't have to heat indigo to get the colour, split lentils wouldn't have worked so well in the cochineal as it does have to be heated. We could have had cochineal and lentil soup for lunch!!

This sample is Cotton, dyed partly with weld, with some tying with plastic and some without and also some bleaching back, it does look like various sorts of lichen, well done Catherina.

We have got lots of lovely fabrics to go on to the next stage, designing the collaborative piece or pieces. Seeing all the fabrics and looking at the photographs again has given me some exciting ideas. I'm looking forward to January.

Our next Natural Dyeing workshop

2009-12-01T02:35:00.000-08:00

Next Saturday we will have our next workshop we will be using new colours, yellow, green and red and doing some over dyeing and bleaching back.

I did a demonstration of this piece of fabric at the last workshop. I dyed it with indigo, leaving the top right hand area white and then dyed it in a jam jar with iron and tannin. Recently I have dyed it with weld to give the yellow and green where the weld has over dyed the indigo. I then tied off small circles [around buttons] and covered them with plastic before dyeing with iron and tannin again. I hoped it would look like lichen on stone.

Lichen and samples

2009-11-25T08:38:00.000-08:00

Lana brought a stick with different sorts of lichen on it to the natural dyeing workshop. The colours on the lichen were very similar to the colours on one of the samples. This sample is two layers of fabric cotton and silk organza, layered, dyed with a quick dip of indigo, a quick steep in weld and then over dyed with with iron and tannin. Then I bleached it back with lemon juice.

We will be trying some of these techniques at the next workshop.

Our first natural Dyeing workshop

2009-11-16T07:25:00.000-08:00

I was very pleased with how our first natural dyeing workshop went. As you can see we did indigo dyeing and also ferrous sulphate with tannin.
We did some tray dyeing, tying round a core and jam jar dyeing. This lovely piece was folded and tyed, that gives the lovely repeat pattern and then it was indigo dyed.
This piece is silk that has been dyed in a jam jar with iron and tannin. It has beautiful patterns on it.
Another person has dyed this piece of silk organza to go with some of the artificial flowers that had blown off some of the graves in Kensal Green. An imaginative and delightful idea.

Peeling angels

2009-11-16T02:04:00.000-08:00

My favorite at Kensal Green was a large marble angel. Above is a photo of her. Marble doesn't stand up to the English weather well and so the stone has begun to peel off in places. Its also got polluted by the near by gas works and in some places has turned black. The second picture is a sketch of part of her where the marble is polluted and peeling.

This sample is made by flour paste resist on cotton. First of all I dyed part of it with a quick dip of indigo. Then I painted iron and tannin natural dyes on to the flour paste to make the crackle effect. The very dark areas are silk carrier rods dyed with tannin and iron.

A close up on lichen.

2009-11-05T04:03:00.000-08:00

Suzanne has been looking at lichen under her digital microscope, it is amazing how modern technology can help us to see the beatiful intrictae world of nature much more easily. Here is one of her photo's it looks like coral.
Lichens are are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic relationship between fungus and usually greem alga. they are very successful and very widespread because of this usual partner ship.

More views of Kensal Green

2009-11-03T04:30:00.000-08:00

It is very interesting to get different peoples views, sometimes I just miss something really special. Suzanne has shown me some of the aspects she took note of on the walk in October.
On the right is a detail of a grave stone with the marks left from where the ivy has been removed. This reminds me of Susan Jarmain's work that I saw at the Knitting and Stitch Show. It was called Worm Words and was about the marks left by worms on wood. the photo could be called Ivy Words.
This is an unusual grave on the left, it is very white. The shapes on it are also very unusual, the are fish that are swimming up towards the top of the grave.

Natural Dyeing Demonstration

2009-11-01T07:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I did a natural dyeing demonstration for the the Hertfordshire members of ERTF. We looked at flour paste resist, crumple dyeing and bleaching back indigo with potassium permanganate followed by citric acid.

This photo on the right is the indigo fabric tied, I have just applied the potassium permanganate and the fabric is changing colour. When is is rinsed in citric acid it will turn white or pale blue.

Thanks very much Barbara for the photo's. I thought it went well and it was good practice for the natural dyeing workshops in two weeks.

Autumn Watch at Abney Park Cemetery

2009-11-01T05:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterdays Autumn Watch was partly shot in Abney Park Cemetery. I visited Abney Park earlier in the year, it is certainly wild and wonderful.

There is lots of undergrowth for wildlife.

Unfortunately it is quite a long journey from where I live.
I liked this little snail curled into the stone ivy in this photo above.

This photo on the right is what I used for the sketch for the flier for Secret cemeteries. I very much like the idea of the stone ivy on one side and the real ivy on the other side of the grave stone.

There are lots of things in the media about cemeteries, I've just started reading Audrey Niffengger's book 'Her Fearful Symmetry'. It is set in Highgate Cemetery. Its very atmospheric and really gives an impression of the Cemetery and what it is like to be there.
Kensal Green, Abney park and Highgate are all part of the Magnificent Seven Cemeteries that were built around London in the 1830 and 40's. Kensal Green was the first to be opened.

Man made patterns and made man lichen

2009-10-27T02:15:00.000-07:00

This fabric isn't actually my trousers, its photocopy, unfortunately the colour's aren't so good. I have crochet some lichen into the fabric. The variegated threads seem to work best. I love using Oliver Twists threads.

Patterns in my trousers

2009-10-22T06:29:00.000-07:00

I have been working on ideas from the walk, here is a sketch of the lichen like patterns in my trousers.

I went on to interpret these using natural dyed fabric and stitch. The top picture is silk satin organza, dyed with weld. I've tied and capped it and then dyed it with chlorophylum. The pieces that are appliqued on are silk organza, dyed with indigo. I have machine stitched it.
The one below is silk velvet crumple dyed with weld, chlorophylum and tannin. I have used cable machine stitch on it.
I'm thinking of crocheting some lichen into my trousers!!

My walk in kensal Green Cemetery

2009-10-14T07:33:00.000-07:00

This is a view that Jo photographed in the Cemetery. I think she liked my trousers rather than my feet!! I am very fond of these trousers, I especially like the colour and the patterns but I hadn't consciously linked them with weathered stone work and lichen. I think the photo shows an interesting view of the relationship between man made things and nature. I shall try some experiments between made man patterns and naturally dyed fabrics.

Thanks Jo.

Some more dyeing

2009-10-13T02:16:00.000-07:00

Someone on the walk commented on the link between dyeing and cemeteries. I was a bit surprised to see a demonstration I am doing for ERFT advertised as Jenny's dying demonstration, that wasn't quite what I had in mind. Anyway the sample below is my interpretation of how new life can come out of ruin. It is iron and tannin flour paste resist dyed with an area of indigo and weld.

This next sample is based on a grave I saw at St Nicolas Church yard, the one where the grave has a little metal roof all of its own. The metal had become weathered and verdigris has occurred. This sample is made cotton and indigo and weld that has been tray dyed with iron and tannin.

I thought I would be very disciplined and finish ideas from before the 'Walk' I am really excited about all the photo's and ideas that people have given me from the walk, now I can get on with those.

A walk in kensal Green cemetery

2009-10-05T02:43:00.000-07:00

This is the real start of the project, a group walk around Kensal Green Cemetery. I was very pleased with how it went. We were lucky with the weather; it did rain later. Here are some of us on the steps of the Anglican Chapel. My planning went well on the whole, but I did make one mistake and gave everyone my husbands mobile tel. no instead of mine, fortunately that didn't have too serious an impact. This grave below was really colourful, Marian especially liked this.

We saw some lovely autumn colouring.

and this very peaceful lion.

We had tea in the Dissenters Chapel at the end of the walk. I put my sketches and samples of natural dyeing based on Cemeteries on display. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the afternoon. We have a lot of ideas to take forward in the natural dyeing workshops.

Thank you so much everyone for coming.

Kensal Green Cemtery

2009-09-28T06:24:00.000-07:00

Kensal Green Cemetery is just right for the real start of the project next Saturday. I went and had a walk round yesterday with one of the friends of the Cemetery. It is well tended but it also has wild areas where birds can nest and insects thrive. We saw one monument which has been colonized by bees. The trees are loosing there leaves and the sunlight filtered through there branches leaving dappled shadows.

Glen showed me his favorite graves. This one is soldiers grave it has a cannon on one side.

This one is rather more unusual as it has rather a large snake around it.

This one is one of the most beautiful man made things there. It has lovely lichens growing on it yellow and white.

I do hope the sun is out when we make our visit on Saturday, the autumn colours of leaves could make it very special.

Black Natural dyeing

2009-09-21T08:10:00.000-07:00

In the summer I went on a summer school with Jo Budd, we did flour paste resist. Its a resist that I really like but I haven't been able to get fine lines. This is a new sample, with ferrous sulphate and tannic acid. I'm very pleased with the fine lines, it really gives a sense of texture. Its almost as though the fabric was peeling and it looks multi layered. The fabric is cotton sateen which does give a lovely finish.

A few weeks ago I couldn't make a black on cotton so I've done a bit of research and this is the result. I'm really pleased. It is a very old recipe. I have used the same ingredients but instead of just mixing them together the fabric was steeped in ferrous sulphate for 6 hours and then in washing soda for 10 mins and tannic acid for half an hour. It was tied round a cocktail stick and then over dyed with indigo.

St Nicolas Churchyard

2009-09-20T10:41:00.000-07:00

I visited a Church yard near me this afternoon, it has grave stones from the century before last. There were lots of signs of nature at work. As well as yellow lichen and marks made by ivy that is long gone, there was this rather unusual one, its made of wood and has a metal canopy. The metal has been weathered, I think the stains and graduations of colour are fascinating.

I like the curved shape of this stone and the different textures, moss, this is rather fluffy, lichen, little and crisp and the hard stone. This area has had a lot of human attention and the grass was well manicured.

The Church yard also has some areas where nature is allowed full reign. I found this angel really hidden away, surrounded by greenery and bird song. She has lovely subtle colouring.

Tiny Things

2009-09-14T06:32:00.000-07:00

Lichen are very small, they are one of the first things that begin to grow on stone. They often have a bright colour and a very interesting shape.
These white and yellow lichen are growing on a grave stone in Kensal Green Cemetery.

This is my interpretation of lichen highly magnified. It is silk organza that I have stitched to make shibori shapes, it is dyed with weld. It is on a background of crumple dyed silk organza over cotton dyed with iron and tannin.

Small is Beautifull

2009-09-11T03:54:00.001-07:00

Images don't have to be large to be special, Things that might seem insignificant might be very beautiful.This photograph from a grave in Highgate is one of my favorites. It is bit eerie, but there is something almost ethereal and rather fragile about it. Everyone has different views about what is beautiful.

Taking a walk

2009-09-10T04:46:00.000-07:00

Last year I went on an Eco Retreat in Knoydart in Scotland, one of the last wild places in the UK, it a beautiful special place. I met Karen there, Karen shares my passion for nature and Eco things. For Secret Cemeteries I am having a walk in a Victorian Cemetery. Karen and I took a walk in Highgate Cemetery in August. This is one of the parts of Highgate that Karen really liked. It really shows how nature can effect what man has made.
I hope that on my walk people will have all sorts of different things that inspire them, maybe poems or memories as well. Later we can use these images when we do dyeing with natural dyes.
I am planning the walk at the moment its to be on October the 3rd at Kensal Green Cemetery.

starting on the second part

2009-09-09T12:42:00.000-07:00

I've got some news today about finishing the the first module for Secret Cemeteries. I was very pleased with the comments. Quite a lot of my time has been spent experimenting with natural dyes. I think they give a much more subtle effect than synthetic dyes but they can be more variable.
This is a close of one of my experiments, its indigo and iron with tannin on a silk fabric.
A bit later I tried another version on cotton, it wasn't so successful. I will have to do some more experiments.
This sample was based on cobwebs in a cemetery, I think the idea of nature, in this case spiders starting off new life is rather exciting. Now I have to start on the next part, setting up the community project and more experiments with dyeing.

Starting the Project

2009-09-07T07:59:00.000-07:00

Secret cemeteries is Jenny May's project for a BA in Embroidered Textiles with the Julia Caprara School of Textile Arts.
For my final year I wanted to do something that I am really passionate about. Recently I've got really excited about art community projects because they can combine my triple passions, textiles, nature and engaging people in something exciting and personally transforming.
For the last 3 months I have been visiting Victorian Cemeteries in north London, taking photo's and drawing, this is one of the left.
Cemeteries can be beautiful, tranquil places that have an amazing amount of wildlife small and large.
They offer an ideal opportunity to see the tension between man and nature. You can see clearly the effect that nature is having on what man has constructed.
I would love to have peoples ideas on these theme, as diverse as possible please.