#needleworkmonday | Birds on a Wire | Nigel Cheney | #maybeaminnow
Birds on a Wire: the first of the embroidered panels by members of Aspects of Stitch. I wrote about this joint project last month.
Last Thursday was my monthly sewing club "Aspects of Stitch", an opportunity to visit Market Harboough, walk along the river and enjoy a meal, before joining the talk or workshop at the club.
Source Nigel Cheney with his exhibition at Design Nation.
This month was a talk by Nigel Cheney, who had grown up in Market Harborough, left to study embroidery in Manchester and then gone on lecture in textiles and fashion at NCAD in Dublin, Ireland's leading Art School. You can read more about Nigel's work in two interviews, here and here at Textile Artist.
Nigel has come back to Market Harborough (he's says he's retired, his mum, also in the audience for the talk, says he's unemployed) and continues to work on new ideas and experiments. His work is intricate, highly detailed, makes great use of computer aided design to create complex surfaces for embroidery and is of superb quality. His website has many beautiful and desirable objects.
One of Nigel's themes was about the influences of his family. These include his mum's rural upbringing - on her birth certificate, her father's occupation is given as Shepherd of Bumblebee Cottages; his father's and other family members' experiences in the armed services and the pervavise influence of Symington's Corset factory, where his dad was a manager and his mum an outworker.
Source Nigel's mum and dad on their wedding day.
Source And Nigel's dad now, in the meeting room set up for our talk.
Source Nigel's mum, the shepherd's daughter, a new work that will form part of the Shepherd's Daughter exhibition in Lisburn, Ireland in June 2019.
I know the fascination we have with memories and creating quilts for family and recovery, and how we all remember and love our mum's (and our own) button boxes.
One of Nigel's fascinations was with the many tape measures about the house as he was growing up. I can remember playing with these as well, learning to neatly wind them up, and then pushing the tape out of the middle, or taking the outer end and letting the tape cascade ... before winding it up again.
Source Nigel's 45 metre tape measure exhibit at CultureCRAFT.
I found some of Nigel's work iconic, in particular, the Naseby 11, a memorial of the eleven young men from Naseby village just over the county border in Northamptonshire who died in the 1914-1918 War. Concerned with the memories and loss and bereavement of the families left behind, the eleven body bags, made of reconstructed uniforms, military regalia and kitbags, are ordered by date of death, as their loss would have been experienced.
Source Detail of the Naseby Eleven exhibition.
Nothing caught and moved me more, though, than the great coat representing Richard III, complex, infamous, last Plantagenant King of England, part of the Lazarus collection. As Nigel was speaking about the complexities and history of this man, whose mutilated body was found under a car park in Leicester several years ago, I felt my mind sparking and calling ...
and remembering Cezanne's Bathers with paint scarcely covering the canvas in some places, Iain Glen playing the doomed alcoholic Jack Taylor in his liberated Garda great coat, the photograph in the Tate of a homeless black man with a spliff hidden in his hand in East London in the 60s, the fibreglass sculpture of a disintegrating head "Not quite right" that brought me to a salty waterfall of tears when I saw it soon after my partner had a stroke.
The patching and overlays, the hand-stitched blanket stitch trimming the edge, the softness of the base fabric, the stiffness and puckering of worked areas, the military brass buttons and formal regalia. No time to understand it all, greedily stroking it, trying to find its meaning, what are you saying, what are you saying, and left only with some fuzzy out of focus pictures and an inane comment to Nigel muddling up two different Civil Wars.
Nigel Cheney: Richard III from the Lazarus Collection, 2016 Detail
Nigel Cheney: Richard III from the Lazarus Collection, 2016 Detail
#maybeaminnow
Last week, I wrote about the initiative started by @steevc to grow the numbers of minnows on Steem - the number of accounts with more that 500SP. The following #needleworkmonday members have received delegations of 100SP, some sbi shares and a @dustsweeper credit to help them on their way:
- @mrscwin - I love @mrscwin's posts, it's always a pleasure when she comes up in my feed and
- @fiberfrau - posts full of colour and interesting techniques - a challenge to me to try new things and ideas.
Best wishes to both members with growing their accounts.
Oh yeah I have seen tape measures like that but only smaller versions the one pictured is huge, it's lovely what was done with those war coats @shanibeer I checked out the website alot of animals inspired stuff which is nice but pricey lol.
I haven't touched on the animals, that was whole other area of work! They are beautiful objects, each one unique and hand crafted, the price represents the value and the work that has gone into them. I guess they would become heirlooms!
YES! and my Mum still uses the same pale blue tape measure even now and is still knitting!
What great writing as always. Again, enjoyed reading that but doesn't Nigels mum look like Annie Sugden?
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Well, you know, I'm a city girl, a Londoner, so I don't understand all these rural references, but something about Emmerdale is ringing in my head? I remember when that first started, it was on in the afternoons, and I was unemployed and round my mate Bo's (he had a broken leg and couldn't go bait-digging at the time), watching Emmerdale in front of a blazing fire and resting my legs on his cast to warm my toes.
Wow! I truly appreciate your support, my friend!
And what an amazing exhibit this was. Such a rich history behind his creativity. I loved playing with my mama’s tape measure as well. She ended up getting me one for making my Barbie outfits with her scrap fabric. 🤣
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My pleasure :)
It was a very inspiring session - Nigel is also very entertaining and funny and warm.
I had so much fun making dolls clothes with my sister!
Sooorrrryyyyyyyy, I read your post, resteemed it and answered in my head... Unexpectedly my thoughts did not appear in written form as a comment, I guess I have to work on my telepathic skills - a lot. 🤪
I am always amazed how active the craft/fiber art scene in the UK is, although I live in this super densely populated area, crafts - and especially crafts as art - are seldom found. The more I am interested in your reports and research in regard to Fiber arts.
While reading your post I (predictably) was intrigued by the military clothing and its story. While looking at these pictures, I again noticed how boring/ conforming my sewing and knitting mostly is.... but who knows, perhaps I will someday break out of my perhaps self made cage of conformity.
The other topic which touched me is the artist status. Is he really unemployed, poor? If yes, I hate this. Really. Intensely. So often it seems to me there is only room for art if it is sellable or the artist him/herself sellable. THere is less space for exploration, for art which is not easily put into a market space. I know there are rules in this capitalistic world which must be obeyed to become successful, but especially in the art sector, the selection process is strongly dependent on variables outside from skill or persistence.... Argh.... sorry I rant...
Back to your post: thank you for always showing me new artist, wonderful art and lovely yarn/fabric.
And thank you so much for supporting @mrscwin (so happy you are back <3) and @fiberfrau (I love your beautiful scarfs and dirndl, and highly appreciate your help) 💕💕
I know the problem - osmosis and telepathy let us down sometimes :)
I don't believe this artist is poor, he has retired after teaching for something like twenty years (as well as producing his own work), his mum is enjoying a little joke by saying that he is unemployed.
But I agree with you the difficulties of being an artist, especially if you are testing your creativity, and before you become established. I'm managing it by becoming an artist later in life, when I retire and have an income :)
Is your knitting boring? Your sewing definitely isn't, you're experimenting in many different ways - fabrics, colour, pattern, cutting etc.
In my knitting which, at the moment, is my preferred medium, I am learning skills, understanding how different materials work, their challenges, getting to grips with construction, so I can choose the effects I want. I found a beautiful book about construction and texture ... I may write about it next week.
I like how I've developed over the past year - I'm more focused on what interests me, rather than what other people might think or how something looks. Participating in #needleworkmonday has really increased my confidence. Although, I am constantly frustrated by having to attend to distractions :).
I looked up #madememay19 - good idea, I might do it another month, though :)
Amazing.
@shanibeer, Art reborns the true expression. These pieces are wonderful to watch. Stay blessed.
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Thank you @chireerocks, good to have you here :)
Welcome and thank you so much for your kind response.
That exhibition sounds amazing. He has got so much creativity! The different pieces seem like snapshots of the world he sees.
Your birds on a wire are great! I look forward to seeing them all together with the other members pieces someday. The owl's feathers are perfect.
Yes - I was struck by the creativity and by the constant ideas pouring forth, there's a lot of energy and imagination, isn't there?
The birds are by different members, there's about nine or ten already! Mine are in a box sleeping :)
I thank you for your support. Please know you inspire me as well.
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😍
Interesting stuff. This is an art form that does not get much attention, but it's very relatable
Thank you @steevc - Nigel's work is especially interesting because, on the one hand, it is very influenced by the domestic sphere, and on the other, it is very beautiful art. He talked about artists' studios, and some people have them, and then there's other people who work sitting on the sofa in their underwear watching boxed sets and Game of Thrones. Also, how very influenced he was by music - it runs through his work, and the Lazarus Collection was being made about the time of Bowie's death, which had a profound effect on him. I feel we sew our lives :)
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