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In Stitches March 22nd

Some speedy slow stitching on Gary and Paul’s textile bark strips for the next Above and Below Rust and Remembrance session. Gary had no time to stitch between sessions as he’s sorting through his dear departed wife’s craft stash – an epic task. Paul could only place and pin as he has his arm strapped to his side due to injured shoulder. I sent out a message inviting participants to bring in a jar with a lid and any small, rusty items they might have for the Monday session.

24th March

We were greeted by an absolutely magnificent array of rusty chains, nails washers etc to share amongst the group but before we started group member, artist and volunteer Lillian Douglas gave a talk about her pieces, which she had dyed and dried already.Lillian had three sample pieces and was able to talk us through what had happened during each wrapping and dyeing attempt. She had many valuable insights, tips and tricks to share and held the group spellbound.

There was also a lot of “So when do you add the tea?”

“Should the tea be hot or cold?”

“Do you just drop the rusty things in with the tea?”

“What should you wrap the bundle with?’

“Oh string, has anyone got any, no, well we’ll go and buy some?”

These and other questions ran up and down the table and Lillian patiently talked everyone through the process.

There was a lot of deliberation and discussion about how many items to roll inside the bundle and how long to leave the bundle steeping before unwrapping. This form of dying is unpredictable, so much depends on whether the fabric is natural or synthetic, how tightly or loosely the bundle is wrapped, how thick the bundle is, whether you remember to allow the bundle to dry fully before unwrapping and rinsing – there is a lot of delayed gratification!

Both Lillian and I came across this dying technique when we signed up for free, 5 day workshop organised by Textile Artist.Org https://www.textileartist.org/about/ Stitch Club and led by Deb Cooper https://www.debcoopertextileart.com and when thinking about creating a symbolic tree bark effect I could see this would be engaging and have great potential when working on the digial fabrics for the floating tree columns. I made a piece out of left over scraps.

Paul brought his Mum’s sewing tin to show us, and I was reminded of my Dad’s many, many tobacco tins – same brand different designs full of useful shed things. I still have a fair few, possibly awaiting a future project, it is hard not to feel outraged by the tobacco industry, but that’s another story. Paul had dismantled and reassembled my Dad’s shed once it had been emptied, that task had fallen to Andrew and was something of an archaeological dig. We are all tied by threads that chase between our roots and branches. The bark protects us and may be where we write some part of our stories. Silver birch bark peels like paper and has such subtle colours and marks like stitches.

Sukey brought in moss from her garden and once the wrapping and chatting and clearing were done we settled down for a mythic tale from Phil!


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Having made the discovery that the cathedral Beech Tree was now a growing space for new life on the forest floor I decided that the Silver Birch might be the inspiration for the hanging tree columns in my eventual installation. I was also intrigued by the Celtic connection in ecology and legend

“When the huge glaciers of the last ice age receded, birch trees would have been one of the first to re-colonise the rocky, ice-scoured landscape. Hence, ecologists refer to birch as a pioneer species. In Celtic mythology, birch is also a tree of beginnings and came to symbolise renewal and purification. Birch or Beithe, is the first tree of the Ogham, the Celtic tree alphabet.”

https://treesforlife.org.uk/into-the-forest/trees-plants-animals/trees/birch/birch-mythology-and-folklore/

I love that term pioneer species as the many unemployed men who came to Corby to work were also pioneers. On my forest walks I came across silver birches which often shed their bark. I was struck by the colours and textures and the papery nature of the peelings. A kindly tree spared me some shreds to take to show the group. The reddish lines also reminded me of stitches. Before the session I sent out a message to all who had signed up to ask them to bring any extra fabrics, threads or needles with them.

We were joined by Philippa Tipper my fellow explorer on the walk to find the Cathedral Beech tree. She was keen to meet the group and get a feel for their voices, stories, and experiences. She was also wanted to make her own piece of fabric ‘bark’ to add to the installation. I introduced the project, explained what we were aiming for and why, we had a cuppa, gave out the packs and the conversations began to flow. Phil also regaled the group with our epic walk to find the Cathedral Beech.

It was a warm, lively session and most people took their pinned pieces home to carry on slow stitching during the following week. There were buttons to share.


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