I have come to Textile Art rather late
in life having stumbled upon the Experimental Textiles course nearly three
years ago.
The course has opened up a whole new world to me. It has taught me new
skills and the confidence to experiment. It has also been therapy when
life has become stressful. I have always loved colour and the texture
of fabrics and have become particularly interested in the construction
of different surfaces for decoration. I have put together some of these
skills in the pieces I am exhibiting.
I had decided to make burial masks loosely representative of ancient
customs and ceremony and to include tokens of what would be buried alongside
to assist in the afterlife. It got me thinking about what I would want
to take with me when the time came. It has been an interesting exercise.
Both masks have been constructed over a model of my face.
The gold mask was influenced by Ancient Egyptian ceremony. It is made
of papier-mache overlaid with manipulated plastic net and ‘Tyvek’
and stitched fabrics which have been stiffened. It was then covered with
gold leaf. The ‘enamelling’ effect was achieved by using paint
and embossing powder.
The tokens on the pillow represent food, clothing and riches which would
be needed in the after life.
The Mauve piece is made of hand dyed silk paper and scraps of silk fabric
from old garments that I couldn’t bear to throw away! The colours
chosen are ones I particularly like. I took great pleasure in selecting
the tokens to take with me. The buttons collected over many years, come
from old and worn-out clothes, which belonged to my husband, daughter
and son and myself. There are photographs of them and other family members
and also photographs taken of places that are special to me. I love the
outdoors so flowers would play a major part and I only have to smell the
thyme and I am transported back to a hot and dusty hillside on Crete.
There other bits and pieces collected from various places over the years
that will remind me of other times in my life.
You may be wondering how on earth this exhibition came about.
It all started last year during one of our Ex Tex classes in Worthing.
I had missed the class the week before as I had been visiting my mother.
Somehow or other during the visit we got onto the subject of funerals
and I said to my mother that I was going to have a cardboard coffin when
the time came. She was absolutely horrified by this. Almost speechless.
She believed that this was what I had chosen because I felt that I was
unworthy of anything better. She obviously doesn’t know me very
well! No amount of reassurance and arguing green issues would appease
her and the subject was well and truly closed. A few days later however,
she phoned to tell me that that she had made her own funeral arrangements.
I didn’t ask to be enlightened, I will find out in due course which
coffin befits a sedate Edinburgh lady!
So the story was told to the class and sisters Sarah and Mandy continued
the theme telling us that after some difficult encounter with their mother
they went round her house putting post-it notes as to which items Sarah
was having and which ones Mandy wanted after their mother’s demise.
Our tutor, The Lovely Kim, said in passing that the subject would be a
great idea for an exhibition and so the seed was sown. Hazel thought up
the title (she’s good with words) and our tutor, The Lovely Kim,
convinced her Brighton group that this was a good idea and so here we
are.
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