STITCHED AND TWISTED - DNA Artwork at ON HELIX

Well I have been very quiet of late and not blogged, however, today I can reveal why.... I have been working flat out to produce this new body of work as Artist-in-residence for the ON HELIX event organised by One Nucleus at the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge. 

Above is an image of  Twisted (- So beautiful it had to be true). This piece is made from very fine wire knitted into a double helix and the bases are represented by glass beads as can be seen below.

There are six pieces in this body of work, "Stitched and Twisted."

Genetic History above is a cut canvas restitched together to create cells, the nucleus of which is crocheted in fine red cotton. The background of the canvas has been stitched with the names of scientists involved in the discovery of DNA.

The same but different (below) is a cut canvas with crocheted DNA bases showing how DNA replicates by splitting or unzipping as I like to think of it. 

Perfect Match? is made of ribbons sown onto pairs to represent a set of human chromosomes. The background is stitched with xx and XY.

Blood lines is made up of a cut canvas, crocheted twists and the blood groups embroidered on.

Lastly, this canvas is called A stitch in time....comes out further down the line and is based on the work of Gregor Mendel and his work on the Laws of Inheritance. Mendel worked with peas and looked at how flower coloration, as well as other characteristics, are inherited by successive generations. I have crocheted pea flowers and pods as part of this family tree. 

Hello Stranger!

 Well first I must wish you all a very Happy New Year and then next I have to apologise for being absent from my blog for such a long time! Lots of stuff has been happening and so I think this blog better be a catch up first and foremost.
Brain artwork: Well the two images above show the neurone weaving I have been working on, it is still in the experimental stage but it is opening up lots of ideas.

Workshops for adults with learning difficulties: Below are some images showing the exhibition of the work they had created with myself and a couple of other artists over the term.

The following photos show the display of the work I had led....

Here are the woven baskets made from plastic milk bottles and rags, name plates made from papier mache and string,

 above are the tissue paper bowls we made based on a theme of either fire or water and to the left are our mexican god's eyes.
(We also made some gorgeous sewn picture frames that I may have shown in an earlier post but unfortunately I don't seem to be able to find a photo of them in the exhibition)



Then I must show you the homemade gifts I gave for Christmas this year. I was really inspired by my friend Nicola at Halfpenny Home Haberdashery, she showed me how to do freehand embroidery on my sewing machine and this is what it led to......

This apron I made for a chicken loving friend,

this one was for my Dad.......

I was particularly pleased with myself when I managed to do the knife and fork so convincingly even though it was only small. The last apron was for a friend and showed her house and animals.

It was also a friends birthday just before Christmas and so I made her a knitting needle roll.....

....as you can see I added all the important details in life- coffee and cake, wool and her pet cat Ruby. Finally the jumper I knitted for my eldest niece.

I hope you are enjoying the New Year, I am concentrating on keeping warm at the moment but it is beautiful outside in the snow..

...I'll try not to leave it so long before my next blog.

Weaving workshops

Last wednesday I ran a workshop for adults with learning difficulties on behalf of Suffolk Artlink at the Bridge Project, Sudbury. We were doing weaving and these are the squares the group made in there 2 hour taster session. They were really proud of what they achieved- as you'll see one of the students wouldn't even put hers down to have the photo taken so she held hers instead.....

 This morning I've been working with the Optua group in Stowmarket doing a similar taster session for Suffolk Artlink here are their finished pieces.....

............Well done to everyone who took part.

Brains, neurones and textiles

I have been continuing with my work based on brains, here are a couple of the latest pieces I've made. I like the idea of the neurons spilling out at the edge where the brain isn't sealed but I'm a little disappointed with the end result in shape - this may be says more about the state of my brain than I intended!!

This one is all embroidered but I haven't finished it yet there may be words around it too but I'm not sure. 
I visited the Wellcome Trust brain exhibition last week it was fascinating and inspiring, had to buy the book - too relevant to leave behind!

New Small Commission Completed

You may remember the flower pictures I made last year based on the work of Carl Linnaeus, well a friend of mine liked them enough to commission me to make a set of three for her, based on flowers that had some special relevance for her. I have finished them now after a few months of working on them. Each picture contains at least one knitted flower and an applique flower, embroideries of the formation of pistil and stamens for the given flower and the name of the group that they belong to within the Linnaean order plus the description he gave of that family. Here are some closer shots of the pieces individually.

The Sweet pea,

the Forget-me-not

and finally the Poppy

I hope she is happy with them!

Thoughtful Lace?!

This is my latest brain based idea, I have been embroidering neurones onto dissolvable fabric. I decided to make a fairly small trial piece incase once it was washed I ended up with just a jumble of loose threads. But with some trepidation I did wash the fabric away and .......

.....Wow, it worked. As neurones don't touch each other but have synapses between them that electrochemical reactions jump across, I decided to make the joins between each one in a small amount of electric blue. Exciting stuff.