Sorrow of the Dendari Warriors

When she was in Ghana in January, Magie introduced me to the man in the art market who does the repairs for all the antique textile buyers. He has bags of old bits of kente, indigo strips and other bits. It is like a treasure trove of pieces and was one of the treats I gave myself before leaving Ghana was to buy a bunch to tide me over in cold Canada.

So, having these glorious bits hanging around,  one Saturday morning I woke up early with an idea. I got all the blues out and started playing with them. I also wanted to incorporate some of the wooden masks I got from the Mali trader, and then the cowry shells and the porcupine quills just seemed to fit. By the end of the day, the piece was complete. I was starving but feeling VERY satisfied. 

 As to the name, the cowry shells made me think of tears, maybe because I was leaving, the Dendari are not an African tribe, though there is a Dendi tribe in Mali, and the warriors are the masks of course.

I have never had a piece go together so quickly. It was a joy to do, and probably my farewell to Africa piece. Now it is on to another journey.

India again!
I have enough inspirational photos from my holiday in India to make many quilts. In fact I had so many ideas I didnt really know which way to go next.
I really want to have a good display of work at the FOQ to go with my Flower kits (printed by Fiona's block printer and made up by the men in the workshop) and i really want to show a variety of different techniques

I wanted to experiment with new ways of working so started by selecting some of my photos and doing some drawings.
Several samples later I put together my 3rd Voyage

The shapes on the left are the fruit and vegetables on display, the next a vase in a museum in Bhuj, the next shows the circles of pigment for sale in the market, underneath the untensils in a house in the Kutch and the last one a door in Pushkar. 

I really love the size of the quilts. It was Magie who persuaded me to agree to go for the bigger size and I just love it. 

I am off to israel in July so I am hoping that the next couple of quilts may be based on things that I see when i am there.

Voyager No.3

"Taming Bridget Riley"

I am very pleased with this piece because it evolved very naturally. I was playing with my black and white fabrics and pieced the background. The checks and zig zags created such optical chaos, reminding me of Bridget Riley the 'Pop' artist of the 60's & 70's! Using a beautiful piece of purple and pink fabric I cut out the shapes and 'nailed' them down to try and tame the optical movement.

Quilt nr. 3

I am taking serious liberties with the theme of our first year. Who am I, where am I....well, quite frankly all over the place! For my third quilt I made a huge jump from Johannesburg (the previous quilt) to Australia (where Dijanne lives )via Veldhoven in Holland (where I bought this lino-print from Dijanne)

As you all know, Dijanne has been wokring on her Sentinelles for quite a while. In her book she says she wants them all over the world. Well, this green Sentinel has found a home in Belgium. I started by painting the image with fabric paints to try and make it more my own. I found it quite a challenge and quite difficult to work with someone else's image, especially because I know and admire Dijanne's work. I absolutely did not want to copy her in any way and deliberately did not look at her sentinelles while I was doing this piece.

In the end, I am happy with the result. My idea was to use this quilt as a symbol of women reaching out to one another.

Thoughts.

Thoughts. Who am I ?

I am made of all the relationships and experiences of my life. So this little quilt is made from 200 squares of different fabrics. Thoughts, memories and ideas in circles, lines and beads, embellish the surface.Everything in the quilt is left over from another project. Framed within the 20inch by 10 inch guidelines of this journey. Then quilted with brand new thread, connecting me with new friends and ideas.

The binding fabric has white spots....... Moving beyond the boundaries? Actually not chosen for that reason I just noticed when I stepped back afterwards! There are two pictures. One of the quilt and one of the detail. Alison

EXPERIENCE

I was inspired by the saying, "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." This is a concept that struck a very deep chord with me and I knew it wanted to be a quilt for Voyage. It took a while to come up with the technique for expressing such an ethereal concept but it finally came together.  I chose a rather non-descript woman (no facial features, etc) because I didn't want that part to be the focal point. I chose a slightly shiny bronze tulle to express the lightness of a spiritual being. I placed the "spiritual being" just inside the "human being" to give the feeling of the spiritual  living through the human.

The piece is raw edge applique using commercial batiks and bronze tulle.

EXPERIENCE

Series 2 - Kelly Hendrickson

EXPERIENCE - detail



Pushkar...

 The heat here has built up to intense here and some days it is hard to keep moving...I was recently in Australia and came home expecting to make another small quilt referencing that experience but between workshop catch ups and I don't know what- nothing came to mind.

 Last week we were re-cycling offcuts, packing and cleaning for the next round in the workshop [seems to happen like that most days, actually] when I got a real itch to play with some of the sari borders I am packing.....and then all of a sudden the juices started to flow. I really did just want to climb out from under the pile and cram them onto something, dive into their sparkly lusciousness.
I  appreciate the size of the format, I am used to working very large, this is so intimate and attainable. The size feels like a journal page to me, which is great because I have wanted to explore ideas of story cloths for sometime and here is a chance.
If I had to name this piece I am tippy back and forth between "Not drowning, waving" and "Hopefully". Reading from bottom to top you might get what I am hoping for.

Two birds

I didn't think I'd get this done before setting off to Kenya but here we are Voyage number 2.  I have to say I am very proud of having achieved this as it's been a very,very busy couple of months here and I was sure I wasn't going to be able to come up with the goods.  I did struggle to come up with an idea - but then the light went on!  I had someone come to see me - to see and buy some of my Shwe-shwe skirt panels.  Looking at them and at the same time thinking of samples that I wanted to make for an upcoming workshop the idea started to form.  I've cut out 'broderie perse' style designs from a skirt panel and applied them to a lovely batik from Ghana.  One of Gillian's favourite methods!!! Once again I've managed to add a little bit of hand stitching (this bit's not finished!) Two Birds - well it had to  be called that didn't it! Phew - did it!
Magie

Hi guys - just wanted to let you know that I'm alive and kicking here - if a little slow with April's piece!
I had to wait until I could get a day off while visiting Laura to start on it - and it may well be when I get to Gretchen's that I finish it!  So - not long now... The other pieces that are already up all look great.  I've been lucky enough to see Laura's Egoli in the flesh - it is a lovely piece - you don't really see the gold properly in the picture.
More soon...
Magie

TALEK TANGENT

The inspiration for my second Voyager quilt came from a photograph taken in Talek, a town near our camp in the Masai Mara. Talek is a dirty, dusty place teeming with people, donkeys, cows and goats. There are many small shops, bars and lodging houses. This colourful, strip pieced building caught my eye- a quilt!

As I finished piecing the building it looked rather flat. Very unlike me, I decided to let it take me off on a tangent- hence the floating squares. I added more depth with a 'trapunto' effect on the door and windows. Masai bead discs added balance to the squares.