by Leonie Andrews

Opening Stitches, so far

Since I launched the Opening Stitches Project at the end of January this year, I have had 15 people sign up to the project. I also have a couple of family and friends who keep telling me they will be coming on board sometime soon.

While many of the participants come from Australia, I am also really excited that I have a number of contributors from overseas. Indeed the first person to sign up lives in Japan. I also have two contributors from the UK, one from Scotland and one from the Czech Republic.

So far I have received 11 squares from 7 people. Yes, some of you are sending more than one square and that’s fine by me. I have completed working on 6 of those squares. This photo shows you what I have done so far.

As the squares were before I stitched on them.
The squares after I stitched on them.

I am still not completely clear where this project will lead me/us. Until I get a good idea of what squares people are sending in I can’t really decide how I might combine or display this work. But one of my goals is definitely to show this work in an exhibition.

If it seems odd that I am thinking about exhibiting at such an early stage this is quite necessary as most galleries advertise a year out for future exhibitions. I continue to look for exhibition opportunities with the idea of showing the work in 2020 or 2021.

I can also tell you that your stitches have already started me off on several new pieces of my own, which I also hope will be part of a larger exhibition. Here’s a current piece I am working on, alongside its inspiration, a square contributed by Catherine Stern.

CSternLAndrews


I am posting updates about the project both on my Instagram page @leonieandrewsart and also on the blog on this website https://leonieandrews.wordpress.com. You are most welcome to re-post from my Instagram page or link to my blog posts.

I AM STILL LOOKING FOR MORE PROJECT PARTICIPANTS.

Please feel free to promote the project to your friends, family or followers. The best way to link to the project is via the dedicated project page on my website. https://leonieandrews.wordpress.com/gallery/opening-stitches/

 

by Leonie Andrews

Small beauty

It’s been a while, but I am moving forward again with my opening stitches project. This time a most beautiful piece of fabric and thread, (both made by Deb Lacativa, http://morewgalo.blogspot.com) contributed by Mo Orkiszewski.

Mo’s original submission.

Mo’s current exhibition ‘I dream of a world where love is the answer’ at Artsite Gallery Sydney, seems more relevant than ever given the awful events in Christchurch, New Zealand. Mo’s exhibition closes 24 March. (https://www.artsite.com.au/exhibition/2019-03-mo-orkiszewski-catalogue.php).

This was a piece that had me thinking of complex wetlands, filled with intense colours and flashes of light, glinting off the water. Couching the threads down proved quite challenging, so choosing to use some slippery rayon thread was possibly more challenging than necessary. Here are the photos of the front and back sides, now that I have worked on it.

The front side.

The back side.

The opening stitches project is still open to new contributions, check of the link to get the full details if you would like to join in.

by Leonie Andrews

Collage play

I have been looking at some interesting art lately, which has revved me up to get out and make something. Collage is my go to for quick work that encourages me to bang something out without thinking too much about it.

I try to follow the principle of not stopping at making one collage, or only one of anything, when I am exploring new ideas. I managed three collages before I ran out of time to complete anymore.

Using paint to isolate the images was inspired by seeing some of the 19th century photographs from the collection of the Australian Museum, currently on display in Sydney. Many of the images on the photographs have white paint surrounding them. This was to facilitate focussing on the specimen. If you look at the final image you can see how some of this paint has deteriorated over time, resulting in some very artistic marks.

I was undecided about painting around these last collages. But I probably should to at least unify it with the other two works.

OK, I took my own advice.

Finally, here is a photo of the back cover of the catalogue for the exhibition Capturing Nature. It’s well worth a visit if you are in the area.