nine

I treated myself to Spell Book of the Good Witch of Pendle by Joyce Froome recently, purchasing a signed copy from The Museum of Witchcraft and Magic in Boscastle, North Cornwall.

The book is a fascinating imagining and I particularly noted it's mention of nine as a number used in magic: nine nails, nine pins etc, and I began to ponder the number nine.

On the bus last week (aptly at Artists Corner) this orange nine leapt out at me! I'm assuming this tree is due for removal along this stretch of the River Derwent. It's days are numbered. 

This fluorescent sign is keeping nine in my thoughts as I travel to the studio.

button sheet - october

I stitch into the evening/night, crossed legged on bed, stretching numb muscles at intervals. Sitting like this hurts a bit now, the ageing process giving me a nudge, my right knee complains especially. Hours of work looks like nothing (but is something).

The sheet becomes increasingly cumbersome, buttons weighty, creating tension in the cloth. The tension makes placing buttons not too close/not too far from each other a challenge. 

The sheet drapes across my arm, hugging, buttons clack and shimmer. 

The precious Lenor scent fades as I work, a loss.

Progress traced in grey zigzags.

button sheet - september

I've been thinking about this work for a year or so, it's a daunting thing to begin. I'm hand stitching buttons onto a single sheet that was my mum's. It retains the scent of her favourite fabric conditioner 3 years 4 months after her death.

holly, ash and beech

Hand stitched dress forms suspended from trees

Daughters of daughters

August 2020

Matlock

Holly grove

Ash, beech and field

daughters of daughters

Second experiments with staging and photographing this piece, playing, seeing where/how it makes sense to me. Daughters of daughters comes into my head when thinking about it, so that may be the title. Tomorrow I'm taking the dresses into the Derbyshire landscape to see how it/they sits there.  

eight dresses

First experiments in hanging this (as yet untitled) work and beginning to understand what it does. Enjoyed its weight and the tension between each dress form. Plan to play further by taking this piece into the Derbyshire landscape. It's an unwieldy, slippery thing!

dress forms

All eight dress forms are finished in my current project to make a sculptural piece in organza. Each hand stitched and cut from a 1970's pattern. I'm unsure how I'll join them and intrigued to discover the process that will reveal itself as I make... More stitching, more ironing needed to complete this piece...