For centuries women have used cloth as a tool of comfort and as an expression of beauty within their homes. Creating cloth for warmth, cloth for shelter, our female predecessors embellished these linens with hand stitch using laborious and time consuming techniques thereby enhancing the functional beauty of objects which enveloped and protected their families. Inspired by these women I hope my creations pay tribute to and recognise the devotion expressed in cloth by our female ancestors .







''the use of traditional often time consuming process alludes to the devotion of a mother''. c K. A. Ruane 2007







Friday, May 25, 2012

playing with cloth


I had a yearning to play with cloth. I used vintage cloth, printed cloth and surfaces that I created myself for extending embellishment. I pinned them together in full view, sharing the process and then took photographs.
Last night I embellished part of this fragment and I will show you that later.....








11 comments:

Jane said...

A beautiful piece, and I really love listening to you as you put it together, your love of the cloth is infectious

deanna7trees said...

after watching you, i think i might have to play with some of my bits and pieces today. i enjoyed that so much...seeing and hearing your thought process. glad to see you back.

henrietta (aka ani aka zani) said...

in agreement with the ladies - i so enjoy listening to your creative flow and seeing the end product. it is a kind of meditation, isn't it, the touching and feeling of the cloth and pins. joy.

Elizabeth said...

So much fun to watch you doing your thing. At one point you say: Oh here needs a bit of thicker piece to hide away the parts of the flowers I don't like. Immediately I'm looking around your table and pick one for you. A few seconds later you pick that piece! :))) (I thought this was very funny.)

Enjoy your weekend filled with sunshine and your lovely work.

Gayle said...

Loved your video post today and mentioned it on my blog.

fabriquefantastique said...

Karen, what a great video...I am reading your blog in an entirely new light. Lovely to hear your voice also.

Flaming Nora said...

"this little strip may never amount to anything else, but I think it worthy of existence in its own right."
never ever a truer word said.

stitchinglife said...

Lovely video, thank you for such a relaxing start to my Sunday morning.

Rachel said...

Lovely textures and effects - always good to see what you've been up to!

Janice / Dancing with Sunflowers said...

So lovely to see you 'at play' with the cloth, Karen. Your love of what you do comes across so clearly. A huge difference between you and me is that I have to have a project in mind. You just do it for the love of doing it.

Anneli/Bockfilz said...

Dear Karen, I enjoyed your video very much - it's inspiring in a calm and natural way - what a lovely way to share your love for cloth!