Paper Dresses

Paper Dresses:
Now for a roundup of pretty paper dresses in all varieties of styles and colors.

• Figure 1: Paper thin ice dress by Lilliput Loft
• Figure 2: Folded paper sculpture by Danielle Hammon
• Figure 3: Making of madame paper dresses by Hattie Newman and Matthew Brodie
• Figure 4: Paper couture dresses by Lia Griffith
• Figure 5: Recycled smock(s) by Rika VanHeerde Snyder
• Figure 6: Book dress by Jennifer Collier
• Figure 7: Zoe Bradley paper dress via Jackson-West

[image credits: all photos via the links above]

By Emily Barletta, I always find it interesting to see really...

By Emily Barletta, I always find it interesting to see really...:



By Emily Barletta, I always find it interesting to see really well embroidered paper, the use of one colour makes these all the better. Increasing the density of the lines of stitching makes the top piece have a unique depth.

Ethnic Kitsch

Ethnic Kitsch: I first came across Severija Incirauskaite-kriauneviciene work at the Cloth and Culture Exhibition in Manchester a few years ago and again last week at Oriel Mostyn Llandudno. I love her exprimental and innovative use of thread in everyday objects.

Maria Ortiz

Maria Ortiz:


There’s some great things to see in Maria’s Flickr photostream.

The Cutting (& Stitching) Edge – Melanie Kay

The Cutting (& Stitching) Edge – Melanie Kay:
Melanie Kay is a textile artist from Manchester who creates domestic textiles from beer cans and recycled materials.



“I am intrigued by things that I hear and read as well as the things I see. I take inspiration from the media, the theatre or even a film which allows me to take an introspective approach to my work and merge aspects of fine art and design. The desire for my work to be meaningful influences the things that interest and astound me which in turn influences the way in which I work.

“Being experimental with the materials I use has enabled me to be innovative and inventive in the way I portray my imagery. I like to illustrate figuratively to encourage thought and portray sinister events in an aesthetically pleasing way. My aim is to catch the eye of the observer and draw them in before revealing the true happenings concealed within my work.
“Using beer cans as a surface for my work has meant that I have had to be innovative in the way in which I transfer imagery onto the cans. I begin my illustrations mostly in pencil and then use various textile techniques to transfer the imagery onto the cans including, printing, heat pressed textile vinyl, hand and machine embroidery. Not wanting to be limited by textile processes I have experimented with processes such as sanding and punching. “

I met Melanie at the Knitting & Sttiching Show in London and was iintrigued by her work and the accompanying narrative. Melanie’s use of beer cans as the materials for her work relates to domestic violence and the secrets that take place behind closed doors. Drink can be a demon, and one that can hide in plain sight; Melanie’s charming pieces are more sinister than they first appear.

Find out more by visiting Melanie’s website.

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Future Heirlooms- Deeann Rieves

Future Heirlooms- Deeann Rieves:
Deeann Rieves contacted me about her work, in my role as a curator, and I immediately loved it and felt connected to it. She powerfully combines realism and abstraction and also works areas of loose free shapes and line with refined careful stitched. The contrast in her work pulls me in and makes me want to stay and learn more. So she seemed like a perfect subject for my next Future Heirlooms. Turns out I was right. So here we go. Meet Deeann.

If you had to describe your work in 3 words what would they be?

mixed-media fiber paintings.

What is your background as an artist?

I graduated from Memphis College of Art in 2007 with a painting emphasis and also took many surface design and fiber courses. My last year in school I began to combine these two loves but it honestly took a couple of years for these techniques to officially melt together in my mind and natural way of working. I moved to Nashville after graduating and pursued my artwork full-time with a lot of encouragement from my family to dream big and do something I love for a living. My family is artistic, my dad is a musician and he and my mom have been in ministry my whole life, so they can easily support doing something for a living that you have to really believe in and that isn’t always consistent. I married Loyd in 2009 and he is also a musician, which I am grateful for, because we totally understand each other’s work methods and melancholy personalities.

Your work often combines medium and technique can you talk about the role of the different materials and processes?

I use collage, torn paper, vintage lace, fabric, pastels, and paint on almost every piece. I incorporate machine embroidery on fabric, paper, or Sulky Solvy (a water-soluble stabilizer for machine embroidery). When I use the Sulky for machine embroidery, it is often hard to control, which also relates conceptually to the work. The series is about the coverings we make for ourselves when we aren’t being genuine and how hard we try to control what appears on the surface versus being completely vulnerable, willing to lose control, and spilling it all out.

In relationship to the above question how do you decide your process for each piece?

For me the process often relates to the piece conceptually, in my piece Walls Crumble I literally ripped and tore pieces from the surface and let them sag and adhere them to the bottom of the piece like they were falling down. The covering called Pieced Together was literally separate pieces that were sewn together. This series was challenging because there were so many types of pieces I would often think of a title way before deciding if the piece would be on wood, paper, or simply be fabric and thread, but I think it makes the series innovative and I hope that it gives my work a versatility that makes it appealing to many different types of people.

How does the incorporation of fabric and sewing affect the conceptual aspect of your work?

I love how old fabric and vintage laces contribute their own history and they bring another layer to the work aesthetically and conceptually.



On your series “Embody” you did work inspired about the females characters in the bible, Can you discuss how spirituality affects your work?

My faith is such a large part of who I am that it is a part of everything I do and comes through in subtle ways in all of my work. I grew up in church and became a Christian at a young age, I later worked as a counselor at a camp and almost went into art therapy as a way to use my art to help others. Perhaps some of this is why my work is about people’s stories, feelings, and experiences. Embody was my first professional series and each piece was a narrative, inspired by a woman from The Bible. My work still carries a lot of these themes, but in a different way. For example, Pieced Together was inspired by Eve feeling naked and making a covering for herself with leaves. I don’t think that is obvious when looking at the piece and that is what intrigues to me about it, because anyone can relate to it– our feelings and experiences are the thread that connect us all.

You work often skirts the line between narrative and representational and abstract managing to be both simultaneously, can you discuss your attraction to both sides of this?

As I progressed towards abstract work that did not include a figure with a story, I still got my inspiration from women in the past, women I know, and how our stories are connected. For example, the piece “Her Tattered Covering” is inspired by a book by Francine Rivers called Redeeming Love, it is a contemporary story of Hosea and Gomer from the Bible. Hosea is instructed to marry a prostitute to signify God’s love and forgiveness for Israel even when they abandoned their faith and went back to their past. Gomer leaves Hosea over and over returning to what she knows and there is a moment in the Redeeming Love where the woman is scrubbing herself raw in the river as she tries to wash away her past. This image stayed with me and I felt like it was directly related to my Spills and Coverings series. I wanted to make a piece that was fragile, raw, tattered, and made up of old lace that would insinuate lingerie. As I sewed the pieces together, they looked like a piece of old clothing but the lace was so brittle it literally ripped as I worked and reminded me of the disintegrated leaves I had been looking at for inspiration. So, I emphasized the torn areas with a dark red thread that looked like it was eating away at the “Covering” which wasn’t really covering anything because you can see right through it. I wanted it to be displayed in a vulnerable raw position so I decided a clothesline would seem very personal, like you were peering into someone’s dirty laundry or their past.

Can you discuss how the role of the female informs/inspires your work?

I think I began to see the women and their stories as inspiration, but my purpose is no longer telling their stories as narratives.

Much of your work starts to become sculptural by 3 dimensionally coming of the wall or spilling onto the floor. What does this sculptural element do for you an an artist and what draws to you push the 2 dimension?

Well, the work itself asked to break the boundaries of the traditional canvas. For example, When the Bottom Falls Out began as a normal wood panel and as I worked on the piece and the concept became clearer, it absolutely had to look like the bottom of the painting literally collapsed. My other pieces would slowly progress and I would add paper and fabric pieces that went over the edges until I eventually felt free enough to make a piece on loose canvas with fabric that literally spilled all the way to the floor, Puddles To The Ground. I wanted to have a few pieces that were more like installations in nature so they could emphasize the meaning of the other pieces.



In your new work, Spills and Coverings, the work has become more fragile… Can you briefly describe this series to us. Emotionally describe the experience of painstaking making something that looks like it is falling apart.

I work on several paintings at once, but one of the first pieces was Holding It Together and I was looking at disintegrating leaves for inspiration when I decided to cut holes into the panels and have thread suspend across the gaps in the cut out areas. After I finished the machine embroidery on Sulky and immersed it in water, it literally barely held it together. That is when I realized how the lines of the thread had so much meaning, not just aesthetically, but because of the process of each individual piece and phrases people use that easily relate to fiber materials — holding on by a thread, unraveling, holding yourself together, etc.



How has your work evolved since you first began working with fabric?

I feel like my work finally began to be mine when I began use fabric, cut holes in my pieces, and let the panels not be square, like it was a breakthrough of where I was supposed to be going as an artist.



What is the next direction or step for your work?

Just in the last week or so, I have felt like the Spills and Coverings series is coming to a close and specific pieces will spin-off into new bodies of work. After doing several works on paper like Pulling Away, I have started to keep the work even more airy, leaving more space for the eyes to sort of “rest.” It has been refreshing to me as well because it brings more attention to the delicate embroidery lines. They almost seem like fiber drawings instead of paintings so I think I may run with that idea for a while and begin a few new bodies of work at once.



Describe your studio and studio practice.

I feel like my personality has a good balance of artistic and melancholy mixed with extremely self-disciplined, logical, good with numbers, I make a lot of lists and goals, and I am extremely organized. This is my fourth year working full-time in the studio, and I decided to log my hours on my work calendar to make sure I worked 35-45 hours a week and it helped me be a better steward of my time. I have to find a balance between painting, blogging, photographing my work, editing the photos, researching and applying to shows, updating and maintaining my website, advertising, planning, emails, twitter and other types of networking. But its interesting because every day is a little different, some days are for beginning way too many pieces at once, and other days are for finishing touches.
Who are the 3 most inspiring people to you as an artist and why?

Sabrina Ward Harrison was the first artist that made me want to be an artist. Her work is playful, whimsical, something you can really relate to. She makes books, paintings, does photography, teaches workshops and I remember thinking that I would LOVE to have a job where I got to do so many different things like that and inspire and help others in the process. My husband, Loyd, is my biggest encouragement and my constant reminder to dream big and keep moving forward. Being self-employed can be exhausting and sometimes I just need someone else to help make decisions and bounce ideas off of so often times for me, Loyd is inspiration to embrace new challenges, pursue new ideas and directions. I am not sure I could choose just one more artist who inspires me, lately my favorites have been Fran Skiles, Joan Snyder, Sidonie Villere, and Harry Ally.

What else do you spend your time doing?

I absolutely love to cook and have friends over, I easily flow from creating in my studio to cooking dinner or baking something for a big get together. I also nanny on the side and this is a fun way to get out of my isolated studio and be playful. I teach in the Summer at a children’s art camp, I really enjoy this, it is always like a retreat from the pressures I put on myself which inspires new directions and ideas. I never thought I would enjoy teaching the way that I do, but I have come to love it. I teach workshops to adults occasionally as well do art workshop tours annually. It is inspiring to see other people realize their creativity.



Give us an idea of a day in the life of you.

Nothing about my life is perfect routine because my husband is a musician so neither of us are on a regular 9-5 workday schedule. But I work a little bit every day and tend to be a workaholic when he is gone and a bit more relaxed when he is home so we can spend time together. I love being a hostess and having people over, when he is gone I invite girlfriends over for dinner and cook for them. I am a bit of a home body and I think this helps my work because I rarely feel stir crazy in my studio like some other artists or friends I know who work from home. I almost hate having something every day in one week because I feel like it interrupts my flow of working. I usually paint and create for a while and make a huge mess, frequently go on cleaning binges that often give me more energy in the studio, when I get stuck in the afternoon, I go work out, cook and eat dinner with Loyd and then usually go back to working randomly throughout the evening.

Where can we see your work? links, websites, galleries, shops, etc.

www.deeannrieves.com

blog.deeannrieves.com

Puddles To The Ground and Holding It Together are currently displayed in Fiber Focus at Art Saint Louis in St. Louis, Missouri until October 13. http://www.artstlouis.org/current.html

Thank you Deeann, such an insightful and honest interview. I cannot wait to see what comes next and definitely hope to work with her in the future.

Until next time keep sticthing!

The Cutting (& Stitching) Edge – Allison Watkins

The Cutting (& Stitching) Edge – Allison Watkins s an embroidery artist from San Francisco. Her body of work is called “UNFOLDINGS”.



“Wanting to capture the transitional nature of clothing throughout our lives I drew and embroidered my closet from photographs. The clothing would come and go and I would always have this documentation of the way it once was. Through the trace and embroidery the garments became flat and unrecognizable- no longer functional, yet still tactile-between spaces, where it is unclear if the garment is deteriorating with time, or in the process of being created. I view these spaces as floating simulations between the photograph and three-dimensional garment.



“I have been documenting my closet through embroidery for the past couple of years: The “closet studies” were made by drawing sections of a closet. They were made as a precursor to the larger, life-size closet drawings.

“My Closet In San Francisco” was my first exploration into the life-size closet; it is a documentation of my closet while living in San Francisco, and was recently shown at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art and the Textile Arts Center in Brooklyn, NY.

“Hers and His” was stitched life-size from a photograph of a closet I shared with a boyfriend in San Francisco. There was little space in the apartment and we had to squeeze our clothes into one small closet.

Allison’s choice of subject matter is fascinating. Our society makes us obsess about clothes and how they make us feel, yet we place them inside closets where they remain hidden from view. Allison explores that perspective, and makes us consider the value of these items when they are inert and impotent.
The addition impact comes from the fact that these pieces are life-sized, which brings the subject even closer to our understanding. To study this work is to consider ones own materialism. Allison has exhibited in several US cities; visit her website to find out more.

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The Cutting & Stitching Edge is brought to you in association with my new book!

eMbroidery – Paddy Hartley

eMbroidery – Paddy Hartley:
Welcome to eMbroidery, a series of interviews with male embroiderers. This month, Paddy Hartley.



Name: Paddy Hartley

Location: Dalston, East London.

Main embroidery medium: I use Bernina Designer digital embroidery software. I used to apologise for being a ‘digital’ embroiderer, but haven’t for a long time as it’s a whole other skill set in itself.

Noteworthy projects or pieces: All of the pieces I made as part of Project Façade, my own personal response to the medical records of facially injured WW1 servicemen. In particularly, the pieces about the lives of servicemen William Spreckley and Henry Ralph Lumley.



How did you come to be an embroiderer? Through necessity. Embellishing the military uniforms I work with representing the facially injured seemed logical for many reasons. The surgery they underwent involved stitching the outer fabric of the body, the skin. In addition, the servicemen who underwent multiple surgeries where hospitalized for months, years at a time, so rehabilitation played a major part in their recovery, many of whom took up embroidery. Up to that point Id never considered embroidery as a medium I could use but it lent itself to the work well.

What does it mean to you? Throughout the making period of Project Façade it was an appropriate means to an end. I had a 1-year making window in which to embellish the 16 uniforms with which I was working, to embroider clear narrative in both images and text. At the start of the project I had never embroidered by hand, let alone digitally, so getting to grips with the software and translating it to fabric was a massive learning curve.

Where do you like to work? Wherever I can concentrate, increasingly I’m finding that I need silence to work. No email, no mobile. Bliss!



How do people respond to you as a male embroiderer? Usually with a raised eyebrow, but then with fascination because of the subject of the work, particularly when who you think the least like people engage with the work. Like the guys in their 40s/50s who look like builders, being dragged around a group exhibition by their wives which featured some of my work. On more than one occasion I’d see these guys pacing the space like the walking dead until they saw my work and they could engage with the work because of the subject of the work which just happened to be embroidered. You can engage anyone with using any media or process so long as they have an interest in the subject.

Who inspires you? Right now, the students I meet around the UK when I’m guest lecturing. With the phenomenal rise in tuition fees, you have got to be committed to what you do if studying the subject Id going to land you in such eye-watering debt. Arts education and where you get it in the UK is undergoing an incredible change right now and in the years to come as many creative industries courses will close as a result of students being unwilling to get into such massive debt for a qualification in an industry which essentially doesn’t exist. As an example my own training in Ceramics is becoming an unviable subject for Universities to offer so what was a healthy number of under and post graduate courses has become a handful. I think we are going to see a very different breed of artist, craftsperson and designer emerge over the next few years in the UK. Ultra ambitious with a very astute commercial eye and many of whom will not be University educated and they are all going to give us a real run for our money!



How or where did you learn you learn how to stitch or sew? Im totally self-taught but if I need advice, I have friends who I can fling the odd question to if Im scratching my head, but usually, I can work out a solution. It may not be a conventional solution to a problem, but if it works for what Im doing, that’s fine by me.

How has your life shaped or influenced your work? It’s very much the other way around, what I do has made me the person I am and each project I work on changes me (for the better I hope) just that little bit more.

What are or were some of the strongest currents from your influences you had to absorb before you understood your own work? In making the work about the facially injured servicemen for Project Façade, memories of the men shared by relatives was a revelation, but had to be handled with immense sensitivity. I learned to not include all the gory detail, that’s sensationalist and exploitative and disrespectful to the men and their families. So I learned to distill their stories down to fragments which the viewer has to piece together.

It would have been easy to have embellished the uniform pieces with lots of images of the subject with his graphic injury and images of surgery. That would be crass. I kept the use of such images down to a minimum and often placed them discreetly on the piece.



Do formal concerns, such as perspective and art history, interest you? I cant say I have much interest in art or art history so it doesn’t really play a part in what I do. I relate to the subject of the work directly rather than looking at how others may have dealt with similar subject matter or material. I used to feel guilty for saying Im not much of an art lover. Saying you are an art lover is like saying ‘Im a TV lover’…I like some art, just like I like some TV. Most of what is around is dross, lazy and badly made, but there is the occasional gem which sparkles every now and then.

Do you have any secrets in your work you will tell us? Yes, when a piece feels like it needs a little something more, take something away instead.

How do you hope history treats your work? Kindly, if it is remembered at all.



Where can we find you and your work?

• www.paddyhartley.com for an overview of all my work over the past 20 years including Project Façade highlights.
• www.patrickianhartley.com for my fashion design, Face Corset work.
• www.projectfacade.com for the Project Façade work in its entirety.

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eMbroidery was created with the support and wisdom of the magnificent Bascom Hogue.

The Cutting (& Stitching) Edge – Stacey Page

The Cutting (& Stitching) Edge – Stacey Page

Stacey Page is a mixed media artist from Georgia, USA.

“The photographs mostly come from obscure auctions in the backwoods of Georgia which in themselves can be more bizarre than the art itself. The photographs are extinctions or discarded, and I don’t begin by having any relation to them. At the time we are done, I know them by name, which is given.

“I stare at a photograph for quite some time throughout the process, and the relationship develops. I like to think of the relationship as a respectful one, but I do have to admit at times one is an enemy. I use the copier to sketch, playing with possibilities in color and stitch. The sketch sometimes changes with the embroidery, and there is a nice history of my friend’s transformation. The dialogue is most entertaining and at times frustrating as it is very easy to lose a photograph.”

I could look at these all day. While the production process is the same as Shaun Kardinal from last week, Stacey’s stitches empower her subjects with character and eccentricity.

Stacey’s use of stitch creates texture and depth, adorning the subjects with creations that embellish their character. It must be an interesting alchemy as the relationship between subject and artist evolves, and I love that Stacey sometimes falls out with the subject of the piece, despite them appearing inanimate.

Visit Stacey’s website to meet some of the other characters she has created. Which one is your favourite?

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The Cutting & Stitching Edge is brought to you in association with my new book!

The Cutting (& Stitching) Edge – Shaun Kardinal

The Cutting (& Stitching) Edge – Shaun Kardinal:

Shaun Kardinal is a mixed-media artist from Seattle, USA. He does a bit of everything, but we’ll focus on his embroidered images.



“I enjoy creating, curating and contemplating visual arts, music and websites (when I’m not obsessing over long-format television shows and books).



“I am constantly inspired by, frustrated with, raving about, and occasionally crushed by the work around me.



“I cannot see enough of it. I must always hear more of it. Even when I’ve worn myself out of it.”




We’ve seen instances of people stitching on photos and paper before. Shaun’s work on postcards reconstructs nostalgia, giving it a fresh perspective and a modern twist while retaining the spirit of the age.



His other embroidered pieces play with the form, using thread to stretch at constraints and to energise images. Easy to engage with and super cool, I like Shaun’s work and enjoy seeing his new pieces as they arrive.



You can follow Shaun on his blog and bask in his creativity.

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The Cutting & Stitching Edge is brought to you in association with my new book!