Black work and Patchwork

The beginnings of a garment. Kitchen experiments with rust dyeing and natural dyes are being patched together.

I'm no apparel designer so with this garment I'm just winging it, making a large T shape, one size fits all.Square neckline.Its going to be all handmade and hand stitched.

 I'm adding small black work embroidery bits here and there. Adding to the patchwork appearance.
The kitchen experiments of making marking on cloth have been resumed because more fabric is required for this garment. I'm inspired by stuff, steep + store.

Orange - Roy G Biv 2014

This was dessert at a Dim Sum lunch in Hong Kong. The orange bits are some flower suspended in a jelly like substance. The Indian palette likes sugar and all Indians love their syrupy sugar rich sweets, so in comparison this pretty Chinese dessert didn't qualify as dessert, just eye candy I guess.

Oranges. So many different types for sale in a stall in Hong Kong. The Marumi kumquat plant symbolises good luck and it's given as a gift during the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Nastertiums.

Someone's dream house. On the highway from Coimbatore to Bangalore.

Julie and Jennifer will point you to what everybody else has discovered  that's orange.

In 2013 here's what I found looking for Orange. 

A Letter A Week - ALAW 2014

You must be aware of A Letter A Week. No?

Well it was started in 2010 by calligraphic and book artist Fiona Dempster as a small project to focus on each week.

Fiona explains the project.

'The aim is simply to:

Write/create a letter a week

Creating 52 letters

Which must form 2 x alphabets (that is not 52 x the letter ‘A’)

By the end of 2014

The main rule is that the letter must be presented on a piece of material measuring 7cm x 7cm 

– this helps keep a sense of uniformity amongst the pieces which helps with exhibition 

coherence.

The other criterion for 2014 is that ONE alphabet has to meet the criteria of "Place”

- that means the alphabet references place in some in way, but is still presented on the square. 

It could mean the alphabet describes a place; is photographed in a place, reflects a place, tells a 

story of a place. It could be a special place or the place where you live or work, a place that calls 

you or that you call home…

Each alphabet must be turned into a final piece which could be used for possible publication or 

exhibition.

- that is, you must put all the letters together into a final piece of art.

you can use any medium, on any surface.

you can use any hand or representation of a letter.

The presentation of the final product is up to each of us – we could mat and frame 

the pieces as a work of art; we could make a stack of cards; we could bind them 

individually; we could bind them in a book; we could cover a box with them....'

I'm starting with the Place alphabet. I'm going to be using maps to cut out the alphabet of places where I've lived, visited and which I would love to visit. Places I've lived in or visited I'll be mounting on red paper and places I wish to visit will be mounted on purple paper.

Airline magazines are great for maps and that's where I started.

 A - Ahmedabad. City in Western India, capital of Gujarat, where I went to design school, got married and a treasure trove for all textile enthusiasts.

B - Bengaluru. Capital of the state of Karnataka. The Garden City which is today known as The Silicon valley of India. The city I reside in currently.

G - Goa. Union territory on the west coast of India a former Portuguese colony.  Feni, fish curry and susegad , wonderful holiday destination.

H - Hong Kong. I was there recently visiting family.

Check out what the other participants are creating by clicking on this link.

Happy valentine's day and have a great weekend. I'm thinking of doing some birding this weekend.

Shop update:

Some cross stitched heart motifs, perfect to embellish a crazy quilt, garment or to decorate a scrap book page have been added to my Etsy Shop.  

The Geylang Commission

For the show at Madder Moon, Singapore in September/ October last year I had created a series of proverbs drawn from the rich ethnic diversity of Singapore. Geylang as I had named the piece in the picture above sold along with a few others.
The gallery had displayed what remained of my work until the end of the year. One fine day in November a visitor to the gallery took a liking to my work. He bought a piece called Rice, a Malay proverb -' If you plant grass you won't eat rice' and asked for details of my blog. The man went back,after researching my blog and bought a second piece entitled Murukku and asked if Geylang which he had seen in my blog post here,could be commissioned.

I was delighted to work on this commission.Here is a detail of the commissioned piece before I sent it on its way to Singapore. 

        

The commissioned piece is the same size as the original but I've changed the colours so each one has a personality of its own.

The three pieces- Rice, Murukku and Geylang  are going to give someone's kitchen a little local Singapore flavour.