Times change, projects change. And this blog has been neglected ... and it's moving! More on that in a few. This past year has been a doozy. I'm honestly glad it's over, too much illness and shake ups (literally too with the Napa earthquake)! However, I've done a lot of great things over the past year, mostly a lot of thinking, pondering and exploring. And it's finally all come together this past January. I have several big projects going on at once right now, all excellent!
Washington DC Foreclosure Quilt top, 2015 by Kathryn Clark.
My biggest piece is my latest foreclosure quilt of the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Washington DC. It's definitely been the most challenging research and piecing I've ever dealt with. As charming as Pierre L'Enfant's angled streets may be, translating a scaled road plan to pieced fabric has been a nightmare. Let's just say I have mastered measuring and assembling angled quilt pieces.
Correlated Inhibition, 2014. 18" x 24" by Kathryn Clark
Next up was a piece I completed in December for a show at Rare Device in San Francisco entitled Dead of Winter. It was curated by my friend Tiffanie Turner and included some great work including beautiful pieces by my friend Sonya Philip. The piece addresses the chemical transfiguration that occurs within a plant's cell structure. I plan to make more of these soft sculptures this year. It sort of keeps my toes dipped in the fine art world and I love the freedom the medium brings me.
And finally, my biggest project has been the development of BlockLab Studio. I'm in the process of building a new website (and blog!) to house the whole idea. Head over to see what that's all about. I'll also be teaching workshops in conjunction throughout this year, including a quilt block design class at Arrowmont school of arts & crafts in Tennessee.
If you want to see what I'm up to these days, head over to my Instagram feed to see my process and check out my new blog for BlockLab Studio. My website is still going full swing with lots of updates on shows. And I'm still sending newsletters with the latest info. Email me at kathrynatkathrynclarkdotcom to be added to the newsletter list. It's been a long great ride on the blog and it's not over, it's just in a different place with a bit of a different direction!
It's been much too long since I posted here! Who knows if anyone is still paying attention to this blog! I have lots of great news to share soon that is in the works, including a new website that will feature a line of quilt blocks I'm currently designing. And I will have exciting news to share around January, HUGE awesome news about my Foreclosure Quilt series. In the meantime, I will have four little postcard sized textiles on exhibit at Artstream Studios and Gallery in New Hampshire in a show called "Good Mail Day". It's curated by my friend Lisa Solomon and Susan Schwake. It features 60 artists and the work will be available for purchase online here.
Ogallala Aquifer Depletion, 2014. Four 4" x 6" indigo dyed linen textiles with embroidery and ink.
Here are some pictures of the pieces I made using linen that I indigo dyed over the summer. I designed a quilt block about water resources and this idea grew out of that design.
Ogallala Aquifer Depletion, 2014. Four 4" x 6" indigo dyed linen textiles with embroidery and ink.
The Ogallala Aquifer spanning eight mid-Western states is rapidly being depleted due to overuse of farming irrigation, specifically, the Center Pivot Irrigation system. This form of irrigation has become so efficient that farmers have really pushed the water use to the extreme.
Ogallala Aquifer Depletion detail, 2014. One of four 4" x 6" indigo dyed linen textiles with embroidery and ink. Upper left piece.
And now scientists say there will be no more usable water in the aquifer by 2030. That's right, 2030! It's just around the corner! This is the major water source for a huge majority of our US crops. Be sure to check out all of the amazing work in the exhibition that starts November 7th and runs through December. See my four here.
Oh my how time flies. For eight hours each weekend this month, I've been sewing continuously among new friends at the Kimono Workshop at The Workshop Residence. It's been a drastic change from my usual weekends in Sonoma tending the garden. It felt strange to be in San Francisco on the weekends again.
The Saturday before last was the final session and unfortunately, I wasn't able to stay for the kimono dressing ceremony that evening but hopefully I can link everyone to some pictures soon. However, I will have my very own kimono dressing as I learned that Maki, one of the teachers, happens to live two blocks from me in Sonoma. Very small world indeed!
I can only imagine how much more labor intensive (though gratifying) it is to make a traditional kimono as opposed to our casual yukata we made this month. I have learned so much in this class from ironing to sewing that I never dreamed I could learn. Opening yourself to new ideas can make a world of difference in your creative life. I will never approach sewing the same way again.
And oh my, the tools. The tools are so beautiful. I've become a convert to those japanese sewing shears. They're so much more quick to grab and snip than western style scissors. And the needles we used, all handmade and incredibly sharp, sharp, sharp.
The end of the class was spent learning how to properly iron and fold our yukata for storage. The way it is folded keeps it nice and neat so no need for ironing when you want to wear it.
The folding made a lot of sense as the folds run along the main seams, of which there are six.
Here is what the yukata looks like completed with obi. Gorgeous, no?
Below is a scarf Maki and Tsuyo made for sale The Workshop Residence. It's made with silk and linen and the pattern is by Maki from the last kimono workshop in the spring. I loved this one!
And she made some using a natural linen and silk with the new patterns that were used on our yukata. I think these could be hung as wall art when not worn they're so beautiful! They're $200.00 each and available while they last at The Workshop Residence.
And here is last spring's yukata (men's version) using a cotton naturally dyed with persimmon.
Now back to my regular life again. I'm curious to see how I sew when I pick my 'dress' back up next week.
I just finished my first of three weekends at The Workshop Residence in a Kimono Workshop handstitching a summer yukata. I've written about The Workshop Residence over at Handful of Salt, here. Our hosts are master kimono maker Tsuyo Onodera and her daughter Maki Aizawa. Here was our tool set below. Beautiful, no? The needles are handmade with the tiniest eye holes I've ever encountered and incredibly sharp. Quite a few people broke needles the first day trying to sew. We each had our thimble finger measured and handmade leather thimbles made for us before the class began. I eventually switched back to my old standby which I bought in Japan, it's hard to break a habit!
I knew I would be in for a treat as I'd peeked in on the previous kimono workshop that took place earlier this year. And I knew I would be learning some new techniques but I had no idea how different those techniques would be. It's a whole other way of sewing and approaching pattern making. Below, Tsuyo demonstrates how you measure out the panels for each individual yukata. We worked on four pasic panels this weekend: two front and two back. There were the tiniest measurement variations in all of them to fit our bodies perfectly. A lot of it didn't make sense at first but once the panels started to come together, we had a lot of 'ah ha' moments among us.
Since there are only nineteen hours in the workshop, we're just making a simple yukata which is what you would wear if you stayed in a ryokan or are visiting an onsen. It's a more casual kind of kimono. The colorful summer patterns were designed by Maki and printed by Zoo, Inc. who prints a of lot of fabric for The Workshop Residence. It was hard to choose a colorwave! One of the more exciting discoveries for me was the use of a tiny iron to make markings in the fabric. No tailor's chalk, no fading ink, just lines pressed with a sharp, hot iron point. I have to find one of these! The lines last for days and go through four layers of fabric. All measurements are in metric so we had to brush off our school brains and remember how much easier it is then the imperial system. The fabric in the foreground below is my colorwave choice, yellow and grey.
Day one of the workshop had us sewing the four main panels together, along with the okumi that attach to the front panels. A lot of us had a little homework that night to catch up. Tsuyo demonstrated her sewing technique to us before we started and I was completely floored. Just watch this video and you'll see what I mean. I can't even come close to mastering this.
Day two consisted of Tsuyo checking our work, including finishing off our main panels and okumi before moving onto sewing the sleeves. It was quiet at times while we furiously sewed but the mood was casual and fun. Some students had never sewed before and some had some experience. We were all on the same level in this class, learning such a new technique.
At the end of the second day, we started in on the sleeves. The basic sleeves are below and what looked like a simple sewing job was a challenge at first. All of the lengths of stitching is done with a single piece of thread, no knots and start overs halfway through so you had to make sure you had enough thread before you started. The sleeves had a single thread that turned 90 degrees with backstitching halfway so you had to remember to push your fabric to the end to avoid bunching before you backstitched or you had to start over.
There was a lot of millimeter and centermeter measurements that made sense once we started. Tyuyo demonstrates the final stitching below for a sleeve: at 21 cm from the top of the sleeve, 3 backstitches at 8mm, 3 backstitches at 9mm and then three backstitches at 1 cm to secure the sleeve opening. Such detail!
We sewed all of the hidden stitches for the first two days to give us some practice for what was to come next: the top stitching to be done at home during the week, eek! I snapped a few photos of the finished yukata example to help me figure it all out!
This is where you can really be creative, choosing a topstitch thread color. Look at those stitches, perfect! I know I can make a pretty top stitch when I'm working from the top but on some of these stitches, we'll be working from the back, in reverse, so I better up the quality on the backside of my stitches fast or this is going to look bad!
I choose a dark blue/turqoise thread as a top stitch, very high contrast with the white, grey and yellow. Wish me luck! Next weekend we will attach the sleeves, add more top stitching, finish the waistband or obi and make a collar. A lot more to do! In the meantime, if you're in the San Francisco Bay Area, stop by Thursday night, November 14th from 6 to 7:30 at The Workshop Residence to hear Tsuyo speak about her experience as a kimono teacher for the past fifty years in Sendai. Yes, that's right, Sendai. Go here for more information. Learn more about The Senninbari Project that Maki started with her mother here. It is a sewing collective of women in Tohoku, Japan who lost their homes and livelihoods to the tsunami of 2011.
Over the past month I've been processing all of the sewing I did over the summer into a new piece. I'm working on a dress, but not an ordinary dress. This one is made up of sixty four pieces of clothing. These sixty four castoffs (from my and my friend's closests) represent the amount of clothing that the average American purchases every year. I learned this little fact from reading Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth Cline. Ponder this for a moment. That's over one new article of clothing a week. Really? It's hard to visualize, no? Hopefully, this dress will help us see it for what it is.
The images show only twelve pieces of clothing at this stage, a far cry from sixty four. And yes, that will be some train coming off the back.
Most of us are guilty of buying a lot clothes these days, myself included. It took me an entire year to figure out why I wasn't wearing half the clothes in my closet. It's because after one wash, they never look as good as they did on the rack. In fact, they look terrible. Oh yeah, it's because they're cheaply made! So the clothing languishes in my closet, unworn.
This dress also won't be worn, unless I want to break my back wearing it. But, hopefully, it will make a statement about how much we're wasting with the 'fast fashion' movement. We will be able to see it with our own eyes.
And now I need to come up with a name for the dress or, perhaps the project, if it turns into one. I ponder that as I sew it together. Yes, I'm handsewing it. With a visible, bright red thread, of course.
Perhaps Daniela Gregis is more of a fashion designer than an artist but as you can see, her clothing designs are pure A R T!
Image from www.firstVIEW.com
A love of natural fabrics, linens and such and a love of color and pattern play drew me in immediately when I came across her work on Pinterest.
Image from www.fasionising.com
For the Spring/Summer 2013 collection, Daniela Gregis writes this. Perfectly written.
Simply mint and lemon ... or the opposite, many times together ... as a meadow
under the sun where you look around,dreams , and you get lost,
look down and start counting: primrose, buttercup, poppy, rosemary, forget-me, sage, ...
Once I started to delve deeper into her work, I discovered just how conceptual the clothing can be. In an interview I came across online, Gregis said "My deepest desire was to recover the lost
arts as crochet or embroidery. I dreamed of reviving them in a modern way,
mixing ancient tradition to contemporary shapes and patterns."
Image from www.firstVIEW.com
Often, the clothing can be transformed into something like a tablecloth. She mentions how she saves every scrap of cloth from previous cuttings. "Even a square centimeter can be the starting
point of a new dress."
Needless to say her clothing has inspired me like crazy this summer. It reminds me to play and have some fun with fabric. I mean it's only fabric, right?!
Image from www.firstVIEW.com
Be sure to browse Daniela Gregis's website. And Kristina Bergman has two amazing Pinterest boards here and here about the clothing. And see my little Pinterest inspiration board here. Enjoy!
It has been SO long since I featured an artist on my blog so it's time to rectify that! I'm sharing the work of Batia Sofer today, an artist who lives in Motza Illit near Jerusalem.
Cloak. Acrylic, Gold Leaf, Gauze Pad on greenhouse netting Embroidery Thread. 155x130 cm, 2013
Incredible, beautiful work, isn't it? She utilizes natural materials that have a wonderful texture and earthiness to them. Found pieces come together to tell a myriad of stories.
Three Figures. Acrylic, Mineral Plaster, Masking Tape , Gold Leaf on Jute Embroidery Thread. 104x184 cm, 2012
These pieces are from her Ancient Dreams series which she has been making since 2009.
Cactus - Bird. Acrylic , Masking Tape , Gold Leaf on greenhouse netting,Embroidery Thread. 88x128 cm, 2013
Her artist statement about the series:
"For as long as I can remember, I have always been attracted to primitive tribe culture, the significance of the tribal ceremonies and their visual expression.
These cultures are characterized with special colors, various textures, with strong elements, and simple unsophisticated techniques. In my initial works in the studio I sought out material whose texture was grainy and coarse; material which resembled earth and reverberated the materials which were used by the ancient tribal cultures."
Batia Sofer
Two Headed Animal. Acrylic, Mineral Plaster , Masking Tape, Gold Leaf and
Palm Fronds on Jute, Embroidery Thread. 103x120 cm, 2012
See more of her work on her website. Be sure to look through her earlier series entitled Childhood Landscape that reflects her life growing up on a kibbutz. Fascinating images.
I finished the Flint Foreclosure Quilt a few weeks ago and shipped it off to it's new owner, the Michigan State University Museum. They commissioned the quilt for their permanent collection. They have a growing collection of quilts connected to human rights issues and thought one of the foreclosure quilts would be a wonderful addition. It was such an honor to make this for them. It will also be a part of the Quilt Index, which is a fabulous resource for any artist. It was a challenge determining just which neighborhood in Flint should be represented. Ultimately, the museum chose a neighborhood right in between two vacant GM plants. But really, there are so many other blighted neighborhoods in Flint that are suffering as well.
Flint Foreclosure Quilt, 2013. Cheesecloth, linen, cotton and quilting thread, 26" x 46"
What really inspired me while making this quilt was reading so many stories about residents who have gone through so much and are doing everything to rebuild their communities. It seems there has been outreach from the national and local governments, but I see so much more that could be done. The question is how and who? It's an overwhelming issue and there are so many other factors that come into play, economic, social, etc.
Flint Foreclosure Quilt detail, 2013. Cheesecloth, linen, cotton and quilting thread, 26" x 46"
The sad fact is even though foreclosure rates have fallen in the past year, there's a hidden story behind the lower numbers. In a lot of these neighborhoods where you look at a mapped list and see few listings, it's not because the neighborhood is bouncing back, it's often because the homes are just abandoned, or worse yet, demolished. That is the case with much of Flint.
Flint Foreclosure Quilt detail, 2013. Cheesecloth, linen, cotton and quilting thread, 26" x 46"
And I'm now discovering as I do more research using aerial imagery, there are plenty of these demolished homes all across the US. Some cities openly discuss it, like Cleveland and Detroit, but there are others where I can't find any written data to back up what I see from the air. I keep digging in the hopes I can share the next chapter with you. I plan two more quilts and I hope these will express the new reality. What a can of worms I've opened ...
Part two of the work table involves the foreclosure quilts. At some point, I thought I was finished with the quilts. The fact is, the crisis continues. But there's something new in the equation. What happens to the neighborhoods after the storm has passed over? It seems most cities are still grappling with this problem.
The research I've uncovered makes me realize that there needs to be more help at the federal level provided to these areas. Sure, the HUD Neighborhood Stabilization Program Grants have helped. But there needs be more bigger picture thinking. Each city is certainly different and requires different solutions but I'm not seeing much communication happening between cities and states about next steps. We can learn from each other, we can share our mistakes to ensure other cities don't make the same ones.
I starting thinking about this when I started working on a museum commission of a Flint, MI neighborhood. An hour away, Detroit is rapidly encouraging urban gardening on abandoned lots to ensure good quality vegetables and fruits to local residents. Urban gardens encourage community building while decreasing crime as more eyes are on the street. It can bring income into communities as well. It seems in Flint, people are having to go to battle with the City to farm the vacant land. Flint River Farm's process was documented last year in this video. Here's a little clip below.
So I continue to make the quilts, hoping that I can make at least one that shows new thinking over the old abandoned lots. If you know of an area that has bounced back, I'd love to share it. The quilts will be shown all together this June at Gallery Nord in San Antonio, TX in conjunction with the Surface Design Conference, Interface.
In the meantime, the article in Surface Design Journal can be read in its' entirety here. It's always a great magazine, but everyone seems to agree this issue is particularly good so I'm excited to be a part of it.
Recently, I received a lovely email from artist Tracy Potts. I immediately recognized her name from following her on Flikr over the years, and always loving her art. It had been awhile since I had been on Flikr so I was blown away by the images of her new work that I'd somehow missed.
Something Told Me It Was Over, 2012. Mixed media on canvas, 94 cm x 64 cm.
Tracy was so kind to tell me my work and the blog had inspired her. By seeing other people use craft in their work, she gained the confidence to jump in and explore the medium. She clearly nails it, don't you think? Yes ...
I Want to Be Your Everything, 2012. Mixed media on canvas, 94 cm x 64 cm.
Her work is intensely personal and highly charged. I think it's that rare ability to incorporate craft with painting that works so well here.
74 Brilliant Suggestions, 2012. Mixed media on canvas, 94 cm x 64 cm.
And also that subtle hint, just a hint, of representational that grounds the highly charged crochet, knitting and sewing that she overlays onto canvas.
The Soft Wall, 2012. Mixed media on canvas, 94 cm x 64 cm.
Her email couldn't have come at a better time. You know how all of us artists go through those highs and lows in our work. I was at a dull thud that week, feeling a little helpless and wishing I could do more for artists to share their work. Thinking about reaching out more: curating, writing more articles, pushing craft further into the mainstream art world.
I Am Your Exotic Bird, 2012. Mixed media on canvas, 147 cm x 128 cm.
Well, this work truly would fit into the gallery scene and it does. She is represented by a wonderful gallery in Australia, Anita Traverso Gallery, in Melbourne. Her work inspires me and I hope it does you too.
I can think of no better teachers than Lisa and Katrina. Lisa has years of experience teaching at university and is one of the most talented stitchers I know, not to mention she has a fantastic book, Knot Thread Stitch, that is a must for anyone's craft library.
Lisa hiding
Katrina is a sewing extraordinaire with years of crafting under her belt (I mean that literally as she makes her own clothing among a million other things she creates).
Katrina in her studio
The class covers four techniques over four weeks: crochet, soft sculpture, embroidery and mini quilting. They've pretty much got you covered on all fiber related art and craft. The class is geared for novices as well as experienced crafters and artists. Each project features step by step tutorials, examples and ideas for further exploration. They will also feature interviews with professional artists who use the technique being studied (guess who's being interviewed for quilting!)
The class runs from February 4th through March 8th. There's a discount if you sign up before December 15th so head over to the INTERWOVEN website for lots more details and a wonderful video. I HIGHLY recommend it!
