A 'measley' fabric book flies to the US

Hi all,

Yes, me again, ..... at long last.

A couple of years ago, my blogger/FB friend Jennifer Coyne Qudeen posted about some spotty rust dyed fabric she had made. She didn't like the 'measle' spots. I said I really liked them, so she generously sent me the whole piece of fabric - all the way to Oz-  for me to play with.

Of course I procrastinated for over a year, but eventually made some delicious cushion covers to go on my new couch. I didn't want to use up all the fabric as there is still a garment [or part there of] waiting in the wings, so I backed the cushions with some lovely earthy organic fabric I picked up on my last trip to Japan.

The story continues.....My friends Barry and Fiona were heading to New York for December, and catching up with Jennifer, so I got my act together and made a lovely fabric book for her as a 'thank you'.

The book started with various ways to enhance the spotty and circular designs,

  but time was against me, so a few other designs crept in...

 

and then some 'pages' were a delight just as they were....

Here is the completed book, pages stitched together and bound over satay sticks, then stitched through drilled driftwood with feature wooden beads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This lovey running stitch on black was part of the card Jennifer sent me with the fabric.

 

 

 

I keep all my gorgeous wabi sabi fabric scraps, so many of them became a cover for the book,

 

 

...which wrapped around making a lovely little book bundle.

 

...and last but not least, my cushion covers which I love SO much.

Thanks Jennifer, Barry and Fiona for facilitating these lovely connections. 

XXX

Pojagi in Seoul

POJAGI [Bojagi in Korean] is the traditional 'patchwork' style of fabric construction, often from sheer fabrics, used originally as wrapping cloths to carry food, and all sorts of other goods - [the original GREEN BAG].

The POJAGI Forum in Seoul, Korea, had opened. I was hoping to go, but too much is happening for me back home.
However, I am thrilled to be included amongst the 35 invited International artists to exhibit at the conference.
If you have facebook, got to this link - there are some brilliantly wonderful works from all over the world posted here.

These are my contributions:

This piece is called 'Out of the Box' a linked series of about 15 x 3D silk forms [3 - 5 cm each], some tea dyed, with the traditional flat pojagi seams.

The next is 'Devil's Dice' - a statement about the mining industry's impact on the Australian interior.

This is the silk that I dyed with rust and green tea - amazing results from white silk.

This one is a little more traditional and inspired by the upcoming 'Peace Flag' project that many of us are involved in [World Peace Day - 21st September]



This is my statement sent to accompany the work for the PPP and promotion.

My Appreciation of ‘Pojagi’

I have always had a great connection with the qualities of ‘Simple, Honest and Noble’. The Korean pojagi, the Japanese boro, the Australian wagga, are all examples of textiles lovingly repaired and patched with whatever fabric was available. Not necessarily things of beauty, they have become objects of history, with a life and soul of their own, imbued with the energy of the time and place of creation. These traditional reconstructed fabrics were made in harsh times when money, materials and opportunities were scarce, but ingenuity, camaraderie, and ‘making do’ was prevalent. I imagine the [mostly] women sitting together sharing scraps of fabric, creating new and functional items for the home and family, at the same time sharing problems, hopes and dreams. The fabrics stirred memories from previous generations, helping to reinforce the traditions, stories and cultures that made each group or village autonomous and individual.

I feel very sad that in today’s ‘throw away’ society, we have lost these valuable connections. In my own way, I try to honour the traditions of recycling and reusing in my arts practice, bringing old energies to new life, and as a consequence ‘treading lightly upon the earth’.

Noela Mills

August, 2012

LATEST ART PROJECT

I am still playing with the book idea - for me it is a good way to experiment and to extend ideas but mostly a way to consoliadte 'stuff' that I have lying around.

I have hundreds of rather nice life drawings. What to do with them? Leave them in the cupboards for the silverfish and cockroaches? I can't bear to cut up the good ones, but I am happily using the mediochre ones for collaged book pages.

Yes, I am using tea bags, tea, mould and rust dyed fabrics, and various inks, paints, pencils and waxes.

Lots more work to be done on the images before they become a book.

I am also playing with scanned and printed images - this one has been printed onto T shirt transfer paper then ironed onto calico.

'POSTCARD FROM PARIS' continues

I need more pages for my book. Because I usually make things up as I go along, I often find myself in this predicament. I have some lovely rusted paper which I made in an Adele Outteridge workshop. This will be great as a basis for my pages but as I am using my printer to transfer the images, I'm a bit wary of what the rust may do to my printer....hmmmm, so I guess I need to go wash the paper with soap and water then dry it and iron it flat again. Yes, I have 'joined' pieces together with tissue paper to make them long enough for my book. Somehow the book pages ended up 30cm long, and the rusted bits are only about 26cm. Just as well [or maybe this is why] I am into wabisabi.

PERMISSION TO USE PHOTOS

I have also been waiting for my daughter to contact me regarding using some of her photos in this book. I have exhausted the possibilities with the postcard image, so I want to add a few other pics from Paris. I am scanning my old slides from the 80's but I have very few interesting pics from Paris. As well as the prohibitive cost of taking slides, I was into 'recording the sights accurately' in those days, and 'arty' shots were a real luxury. I am super proud of Eliza for taking lots of 'arty' shots [some just for my benefit]. She thinks she is not arty, but I beg to differ. Take a look at these....

Arc de Triumph

Glass Pyramid at the Louvre

the Seine?

and the stairwell inside the Arc de Triumph.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ISSUES

This is a bit of a 'hot potato' in the art world. The legal eagles who know our predicament have set guidelines for us and those who buy/copy/learn from us, but unfortunately enforcement is expensive and impractical. Just look at the 'McDonalds' battles. Who wants to go there?

If someone takes a photo, the intellectual property rights remain with that person unless he/she gives permission for the photos to be used. The pics may or may not be used for commercial gain, but the photographer needs to know the intent of the 'user'. The 'user' should then acknowledge the photographer if photos are used. This is especially important if the photographer uses photos as part of his/her arts business. Otherwise it is just plain good manners to do so. The same applies to photos of art works [paintings, quilts etc] but usually galleries or exhibition curators have an appropriate clause built into their contracts.

The really tricky issue comes with workshops. I have had to face this problem many times as I often teach at the large 'summer school' style conferences in Australia. Students will often copy tutor's styles and even specific art works. This is the nature of learning and teaching. However, the work made in workshops should NOT be offerred for sale and if it is exhibited [which I believe is also a bit dodgy], then the tutor should be given credit for teaching the techniques. Ideally, the student will leave the workshop with new ideas to incorporate into his/her own work. The work may be seen as being INFLUENCED by the tutor, but not looking like it was MADE by the tutor. I had a situation where a student produced work very similar to mine, even used the same framing style, AND exhibited in the same gallery as me!! In my early career, I was making fabulous 'up market' personalised hand appliqued and painted windcheaters for a ski resort. A couple of years later, the same design appeared as a screen print in all the local shops. Thank goodness I could laugh about it then as I had moved on to other creative things.

It's all a bit of a grey area, but I believe that tutors should state their personal beliefs at the start of classes, students should respect the tutor's skills, knowledge and experience by not profiteering from same, and galleries and institutions should support and encourage their artists and not 'rip them off'. Yes, I'm an optimist and can be very naive at times!!

Getting back to my 'Postcards from Paris' book, I won't sell this one, because the photos are not mine, and  it's very special [and as I have said, I am new to bookmaking and it will probably not be up to scratch technically]. I may use it as a general teaching aid, or may even exhibit it [NFS], but I will make sure that I credit Eliza's photos, probably by hand writing somewhere on the prints. Maybe I'll even give it to Eliza if she likes it.

This is not the end of the story, because what do I do about the original post card image? The card was paid for, there is no copyright logo [not that that means much], and the photographer, who is credited on the card, died in 1994. I am using an art work [photo] which is not mine though I am changing and distorting it to suit my own style of artistic expression. Is this ethical? If the photographer was still alive and I was producing multiples of the book [ie hundreds] I may feel morally obliged to ask his permission, or give him a cut of the profits. The legal eagles say that if you change the design in even a small way, you are not breaching copright, so legally I'd be OK, but I'm not sure how I'd feel morally. Maybe I'll just credit the photographer in text somewhere as this will add to the 'story' anyway, and then just go and bury my head in the sand.

What do other artists think about this issue? I'd love to get some feedback.