#Why I Make

From time to time I get asked why I make what I make and how I came about it all.
This time I'm being asked by Love Crafts.

I have been surrounded with expressions of embroidery as I grew up. The sampler above was embroidered by my great great grandmother - Sarah K. in 1879. In fact my name is also Sara and the name has been handed down thorough successive generation to my paternal grandmother and then to me.
Therefore I feel a great connection to these pieces of embroidery.
They have inspired me to create my own sampler.

 For Sarah K. motifs of her religion and the tree of life motif dominate the sampler.

The altar, the tabernacle and the host for holy communion. She probably loved plants and flowers and embroidered the floral motifs.
Red must have been her favourite colour I'd like to believe because it dominates the sampler. So when I began my alphabet sampler I decided to limit my palette to red and two blues. It so happens that red is my favourite colour.
I almost feel it's a genetic compulsion because the women on both my paternal and maternal sides of the family have done a lot of handwork. Sewing and dress making, tatting, crochet, knitting and different forms of embroidery. Clothes were monogrammed and embellished with embroidery. Cushion covers, table linen and tea cosies to tray cloths and bed covers were all embroidered.
I learnt from my mother who is extremely creative.
Blogging opened up a whole new world of creativity and connections with other creative people around the globe.

 Inspired by the natural dyeing and rust dyeing I have created garments and scarves.

Currently Instagram has also helped to keep me connected with the creative world of fiber arts. It has got me involved in projects like the #25 Million Stitches public art installation. Sitting in a small town high up in the Western Ghats of India the internet and social media keeps me connected and helps me participate in such events. 

 My blogging has brought me commissions such as this piece. A favourite poem entitled Anyway which was for a retirement gift. Read more about it here.

 Blogging has got me involved in quite a few challenges such as the Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge run by Sharon Boggon at Pintangle. Which  in turn got me making fiber books such the one above - Monsoon - A Fiber Book. 
Doing the Take A Stitch Tuesday challenge I created two fiber books which I use as teaching aids 
when I teach embroidery and Traditional Indian Textiles to students in design schools.

Blogging and blog friends presented me with the opportunity to have my work published in the book Textileart Around the World.
People around the world are generous with their and knowledge and happy to collaborate.
I have many a fiber book created through  fiber book page swaps.

My blog is my online journal of my journaling on paper and fabric. It's been a joy sharing my work and getting acknowledged with comments, collaborations and commissions, all of this goes a long to way in keeping me motivated to do what I do. That's why I make.

Making the Monsoon fiber book.

I'd promised to make a tutorial to explain how I went about making the Monsoon inspired fiber book.

As promised here it is after delays of not being able to transfer pictures from my camera etc.   

So I began by choosing a size for my pages. I chose 4 inches x 6inches for each page. I also chose the fabric for the pages some were silks others were dyed with rust and tea. 

 I cut fabric fusing into pieces measuring 8 inches x 12 inches and ironed them onto the back. Ironing fusing onto the back of the fabric one is going to do embroidery or applique on, stops the base fabric from puckering.Especially if you are embroidering text. 

Then I embellished the pages with embroidery and applique. There was fabric and paper which I appliqued onto some pages.  

Once the embroidery and applique was done I put the pages together, just to see I had the sequence right. 

Next each double spread was turned over and the excess fabric was folded over and tacked down.

 Next two double spreads were placed with backs together and the edges were stitched together with an overcast stitch. Once all four sides had been sewn up the tacking was removed.

  Then I put the pages together and since there are just three or four pages, I took some sturdy thread and stitched through the center of the pages to secure them and hold them together.

 So this is the little fiber book.

Somewhere along the way I felt a small shibori frill attached to the edge of the cover would complete the whole thing, and that's just what I did.

 The Monsoon fiber book.
I hope the method I used is sufficiently clear for you to try and make a little fiber book of your own. It isn't rocket science so I'm sure you'll improvise any steps you couldn't understand and create something quite special.
Do let me know I'd love to see what you create.

Redwork Sampler

I'm taken with cross-stitch red work and I thought I'd share one I made and got framed.    

 The framed sampler adorns our new home. It's a wedding, alphabet and Quaker motifs all rolled into one sampler.

 Detail of some of the motifs in the sampler.

I'm sorry if the pictures are hazy and bit distorted because it's behind glass and I had to try and avoid reflections besides I had only the use of my cellphone camera. The cord to transfer photographs from my camera to my laptop seems to have developed a problem so I'm unable to share any of the pictures on my camera. What a bummer. I have all the pictures for a tutorial on how I made the Monsoon fiber book but it's going to have to wait. Oh well, it's not the end of the world.

Hope you're having a wonderful creative week.

Monsoon - A Fiber Book

The fiber book - Monsoon 

It's taken longer than expected what with moving house and settling down but I finally got to photograph the little book on my deck this morning. The book is about things I associate with the monsoon season.

The plaintive call of the Koel or the cuckoo. It's a call one welcomes in India because one knows there will relief from the relentless summer heat. I read somewhere that the Koel a migratory bird flies to the Indian peninsula from Africa on the monsoon winds.  

Monsoon landscape dominated by dark  moisture laden nimbus clouds.

The rain brings an exuberance to the land. The parched land turns green and one of the most beautiful sights is a peacock dancing with its magnificent tail spread out. I have memories of this wondrous sight on the lawns of my alma mater The National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad.    

I choose to eat other meats during the monsoons, it's me doing my bit to give fish stocks a chance to be replenished.    

Hot tea or cutting chai as it's known in India is what every Indian loves to sip when it's pouring and I'm no different. That's the recipe for the masala tea I make and if there are no bhajjiyas I settle for marie biscuits which I dunk in the tea and eat. One of my favourite rituals. 

The back cover of the book.

The prediction for the monsoon this year is that it will be early, probably the last week of May. Usually the Monsoon hits the West coast of India in the first week of June.
I must stock up on Marie biscuits and get tea leaves and spices in place to welcome the Monsoon.

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Have a great weekend.