Tag: vintage

Posted on

Archana Pathak – Meet the Artist

A little textile inspiration from my YouTube Collection. Today it features the beautiful textile art by artist Archana Pathak.

Join Archana as she shares her beautiful work in the Mapping Transience Exhibition.

Archana Pathak:   https://www.archanapathak.com

Textile art by Archana Pathak
Textile art by Archana Pathak

Archana’s making process involves collecting old memory artefacts such as photographs and maps then deconstructing them to re-use as threads.  Archana’s is born of British and Indian heritage, and she specialises in stitch and fine art textiles.

Vintage maps used as the foundation of the work
Vintage maps used as the foundation of the work

Having been raised in India and now living in London, the uprooting and the subsequent re-rooting have been transformative, and the origin of the exhibited work lies in this.  This exhibition reveals the evolution of her work, which follows the threads of transient boundaries and belongingness.

Re-imagined landscapes are inspired by the cycle of a day and are a harmonious representation of co-existence, multiplicity, and connectedness.

Textile art created from vintage maps
Textile art created from vintage maps

Filmed at the Knitting & Stitching Show 2022. 

Posted on

Unconventional & Unexpected Too Exhibition

A little textile inspiration from my YouTube ‘Meet the Artist’ Collection. Today it features the Unconventional & Unexpected Too Exhibition – stunning American Quilts from the Kiracofe Collection.

Improvisationally pieced, bursting with colour, and unruly in the best of ways, 14 quilts from the Kiracofe collection were selected to go on display at The Festival of Quilts 2022.

In this video Roderick Kiracofe shares these stunning quilts and explains the stories behind the artworks.

https://youtu.be/rJ–qXZXuoM

Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar Book
Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar Book

For over 30 years, collector and author Roderick Kiracofe has played a significant role in shaping the American quilt landscape. His second book, Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar, now in its second edition, celebrates dozens of utterly unique — and gloriously unexpected — quilts from his famed collection. 

Unconventional & Unexpected: American Quilts Below the Radar Book is available to purchase via this Amazon link.

Quilt from the Unconventional & Unexpected Too Exhibition
Quilt from the Unconventional & Unexpected Too Exhibition
Quilt from the Unconventional & Unexpected Too Exhibition
Quilt from the Unconventional & Unexpected Too Exhibition

The old things I found in our basement, the garage, or my grandmother’s home around the corner in a small town in Indiana, delighted me. When I was in high school I started going to auctions in the neighborhood and on farms surrounding my hometown. These objects represented the vestiges of an earlier time. They intrigued me, and I was hooked.

My curiosity about the “unexpected” quilts of the last half of the 20th century led me to eBay and other sources for seeking them out. The quilts that I am most passionate about are pieced, often crudely quilted or tied, and full of printed fabrics.  Most importantly, they are the quirky, funky, and soulful expressions from a quilt maker who broke the rules.

Roderick Kiracofe
Quilt from the Exhibition
Quilt from the Exhibition

Filmed at the Festival of Quilts 2022.

Posted on

Darning Sampler

Darning Sampler - hand stitched red thread into a vintage white child's garment

There’s something about working with cloth, it’s thread count and how the cloth is woven that fascinates me. This was the starting point for my latest project Darning Sampler.

The piece started with a vintage child’s garment that’s been in my collection for a number of years and an idea that’s been swirling around my head for even longer.

Darning Sampler - hand stitched red thread into a vintage white child's garment
Work in progress

Next followed extensive research into vintage and antique darning samplers. Given the very fine cloth and the weave of the cotton, only a select number of stitches were chosen. Some patterns were also adapted for this project.

I experimented and sampled with different weights of thread and settled on a very fine thread called Madeira Cotona.

Darning Sampler - hand stitched red thread into a vintage white child's garment
Work in progress
Darning Sampler - hand stitched red thread into a vintage white child's garment
Darning Sampler complete

The piece took nearly two months to create. Hand darned. Size 28 x 28cm.

Darning Sampler - hand stitched red thread into a vintage white child's garment
Darning Sampler – detail

Completed with a tiny vintage Mother of Pearl button on the neck of the garment.

This piece is part of the Embroiderers’ Guild ‘ Layers’ Members Challenge.

You can find one of my previous Members’ Challenge artworks in this post.

Update July 2023:

I’m thrilled that Darning sampler has won a First Award in ‘The Artistic Director’s Category’ in the Members’ Challenge 2023. For more details please follow this link.