Category: The Work of My Hands

Commisison – I love you, I know (The Golden Years)

14 March, 2014 / Katy / 0 Comments

I pride myself on being able to offer products that are unique – partially because there’s quite enough mass production in the world already and partially because I’m not sure I could make the same thing over and over even if I wanted to. (This is part of the reason I make art rather than repeatable things like bags or clothes or jewellery.)

But then I got a request for an ‘I love you, I know’ after someone had seen a post on my Facebook page saying it had sold. So I had to consider my policy…could I still offer unique pieces and give people the chance to say ‘I love that one, can I have one too?’

Luckily, the answer is a resounding yes!

There is always another way to approach words – in this case we’ve got three whole films (I refuse to acknowledge any others) and quite an array of costume possibilities, not to mention fonts, frames and stitches.

I was informed by the commissioner that the pieces were a birthday present for her husband and that she wanted to hang them over the bed. So I went for that gold bikini (and discovered along the way that it is mostly green).

It tickles me to imagine family life in the Skywalker-Solo household, I hope the bikini makes a reappearance, even if only for special occasions.

Here We Are at Little Ox and Giveaway

11 March, 2014 / Katy / 0 Comments

The Here We Are show opened at Little Ox Gallery on Friday, 28th February and I thought you would like a little peek!

Due to a technical hitch, my piece didn’t make up for the opening, so I popped in on Saturday for a look around and a chance to take some photos.

Derek, the owner of the gallery, said that he had expected about half of the people who had collected maps to bring back finished pieces, but in the end everyone who took a map made a piece!

There was a definite split between pieces that interacted directly with the map and those that were more obliquely connected. Overall, I prefer art with a meaning I can parse with the information I have to hand, so I was drawn to those which seemed the most map-y. I haven’t photographed everything or even all of my favourites, so if you’re nearby do pop in for a look!

My piece, ‘Blue Plaques – 297 unremarkable lives’ drew heavily on the Malcolm Bull’s Calderdale Companion; an amazing website which catalogues a vast quanitity of historical data from a variety of sources. I literally worked my way down one street and up the next, finding births, marriages, scandals, bankruptcies and murders along the way.

I traced the removals of families, businesses and schools and kept track of the number of people directly affected (as best I could guess if there wasn’t concrete information). The text mimics the Blue Plaques erected in London and other British cities to commemorate famous residents and their deeds. In a further nod to the industries of the area, 297 steel beads were stitched into the distance markings around the edge of the map. You can see more detailed photos of the work in progress in this post and this one.

I have two unused maps which I’d like to send out into the world and see what you can create. If you’d like to have a chance to win one, leave me a comment with your very first idea about what you’d like to use them for (painting, origami, headgear, anything) and I’ll draw two winners at random on Monday 17th March. When you’ve finished your project (even if it bears no resemblance to what you originally thought you would do), I’d love to post a photo of it.

Good luck!

Commission – Ellen

7 March, 2014 / Katy / 0 Comments

I made this piece for my gran’s 90th birthday at the end of February. It’s one of the first pieces I’ve made about someone I know and I really struggled with it!

The first thing I knew was that it had to be bright. From purple hair and turquoise eyeliner to Indian fabrics and sequins for all occasions, there is always lots of colour around Ellen.

I also wanted to capture her sort of energy; curious, enthusiastic and irrepressibly sunny. (Does anyone else get letters from their grandparents about roadtrips across the States, politics in the Middle East and art – all within the same paragraph?)

In common with many people who stride easily past their four score years and ten, Ellen is an irrepressible optimist. She got a tattoo at 80, and can be counted on to denote her approval with an ‘aw, isn’t that darling!’

I’m not sure I’m ever going to adequately compress the essence of the person who helped me make my first quilt, showed me that more is more when hanging pictures in your house and let me try on every bright and beaded item in her wardrobe at the same time into an embroidery, but here’s hoping I get another chance to try in 10 years!

At Sixes and Sevens

27 February, 2014 / Katy / 2 Comments

I’m feeling a wee bit fuddled this week and I can’t seem to focus on anything much. Among other things, we have a flat-pack kitchen and appliances in boxes in our dining room in preparation for what I’m calling Takeaway Week.

I spent the end of last week and the weekend desperately embroidering my piece for the ‘Here We Are’ show at Little Ox Gallery. It was a proper BBC costume drama box set, internet-free marathon with breaks only for the taking on and jettisoning of cups of tea and Pilates breaks in order to counteract chronic embroidery flexion*.

Monday morning I sprang out of bed (…ok, more like a slow motion tumble) and prepared to face the week getting organised for Saturday’s Morningside Maker’s Market. But the Pilates batphone rang and I raced off to teach an extra class.

My conscientious side said ‘Never mind, I can always write a blog post this evening.’ But the rest of my brain apparently over-ruled that in favour of reading a Victorian novel** cover-to-cover. (I try not to read, especially when I have other things to do – like brushing my teeth or sleeping).

But I’m back on track now (I’ve finished the book and resisted the temptation to start it again) so if you’re in Edinburgh I’d love to see you on Friday evening at the Little Ox Gallery in Candlemaker Row and Saturday at the Columcille Centre! All details in this handy calendar.

*neckache

**Oh dear, I’m slipping. I couldn’t work out what sparked my great urge to watch and read North and South. Until I wrote this post and realised that when embroidering the comings and goings in a Northern mill town you pretty much can’t read anything else.

Paper and Stitch

21 February, 2014 / Katy / 1 Comment

Remind me, when I next ask you, that detailed embroidery on paper is a bit of a pain.

There’s one week until the opening of Here We Are at the Little Ox Gallery and so I’m stitching as fast as my hands can go.

Luckily, I’ve got some company (as long as I’m not blocking the sunshine.)

Here we are – Exhibition

11 February, 2014 / Katy / 2 Comments

I’m going to be taking part in an exhibition on the 28th February at the Little Ox Gallery in Candlemaker Row.

There will be a group of us who have all received old survey maps which were found in a plan chest when it arrived at the gallery.

I’m quite excited about the opportunity to get involved in a group show, although I’m a little behind where I wanted to be at this point!

Updates will appear as they occur…

U+273F

31 January, 2014 / Katy / 1 Comment

Here’s a first for me, a commission in Unicode!

The Lovely Young Man is a computer scientist and introduces me to all sorts of charming people who solve problems about information and toil down the data mines. When they’re not pushing back the boundaries of human knowledge, they come and commission embroideries…

I always love to play with the distinction between the digital and the handmade, so I’m particularly pleased at how this one turned out.

Apparently I have a very consistent way of making my stitches, it wasn’t until I turned one of the canvases over that I realised that the back was almost as pleasing as the front!

Misericordia and Morningside Makers Markets

10 January, 2014 / Katy / 0 Comments

Right, Resolution #1 out of the way!

I’ve just booked myself in for five craft fairs at the lovely Morningside Makers Market at the Columcille Centre in Edinburgh!

(My ginger assistant will not be joining me, alas!)

The fairs are on:

1 March, 2014
3 May, 2014
6 September, 2014
1 November, 2014
15 November, 2014

I’ll have work for sale and will be taking commissions for custom pieces!

You can see my Misericordia appearances on a calendar here.

A Little Light Relief

3 January, 2014 / Katy / 1 Comment

I have a bit of a starting problem when it comes to craft projects, I love planning – I’m pretty good at starting and I’m dreadful at finishing things!

I’ve found that the embroideries have helped a lot, they give me the thrill of planning and starting and have conveniently strict deadlines for finishing.

The only other problem is that it’s hard to feel like I’m relaxing from embroidery by doing hand sewing. So Dragon’s quilt isn’t going very quickly, but I’ve been doing some knitting instead.

The first two were blankets for twins which took me about nine months to make (quite a nice symmetry to that), and were rather bigger than I expected (see previous parenthetical statement).

I started another, rather bigger knitting project recently, but I’ll tell you more about that soon!