Nearing the end of this term's textile course on "Lines of Communication". My piece is based on postcards sent at the turn of the 20th century between sisters living in Constantinople and Leeds. I'm showing a close up of part of the piece as the whole of it would look too indistinct. I used a firm water soluble base to place small bits of hand dyed silk in colours I felt were rich and, hopefully, resonant of Ottoman mosaic tiles. This was then free motion stitched over with a mosaic, web pattern and text representing postmarks stamped onto the original cards which, when the water soluble is washed away will hold all the pieces in place. It was a challenging piece and I am not really satisfied with it as an end result but it would be a useful sample to explore different approaches.
This is part of the text that says Carte Postale and I stitched the text after drawing the letters on with a fine, black marker. The circular pattern was made with my circular sewing attachment which helps to make perfect circles and perfect representations of post marks. The text in the perimeter of the circle says Constantinople, Leeds, Post Office, Depart.
Having finished my earlier piece I thought I would do further practice on the soluble fabric and so sandwiched small pieces of organza between two sheets of the water soluble and then stitched lace like patterns all over within the confines of a wooden hoop with red rayon and then metallic thread. Apparently there were nuns in Constantinople who made lace and my friend Luise's grandmother had her wedding dress made out of some of their lace. Thus the practise lace session...
See you soon!
