STITCHED UP

I'm having a go at some embroidery. I have been running
a workshop making hand made journals. We started with
colour washing the paper and then decoration with stencils
then stitching into journals .
I had a lot of paper samples left over and so decided to try 
a bit of embroidery. The image above is the first one and 
the one below I have just started and will add more images
as I progress, I'm hoping to finish in ten stages.

The first image is cartridge paper with acrylic paint and the

second is cartridge paper stained with tea. The embroidery 

thread is top stitch polyester that is normally used on a sewing 

machine and cotton floss skein ( not sure what that means

but that is what it says on the packet )

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BRAZIL

This was a commission for Temple Gardens in London. Temple Bar has an annual party and I had the job of decorating the marquee. The theme was Brazil. Paraiso supplied plenty of feathers and costumes that I worked into wall decorations and Rachael provided the inflatable flowers. I was responsible for the overall look and design as well has making flowers and fluff to decorate the space....lovely
Commissioned by EEA

If you like glitter and feathers you would have loved this project. It took me and four friends Marilyn, Joan, Akua and Ken ( +Jeremy) a week to make ten flowers, four center pieces, drapes and exterior decoration.

The centre pieces were approximately 4 ft high.

A selection of highly decorated flowers formed the centre pieces for  the wall
decorations.

Human catherine wheel and gigantic spinning flower from EEA in the gardens

Marque. Large inflatable flowers from Location Inflation

ELEPHANT DRESSING

I was commissioned to produced the concept drawings for the Mela by EEA.

Concept drawing of parade

Elephant line drawing

I really liked the drawing of the elephant

The original mechanical elephant made of steel, driven from the seat on top with built in sound system. I worked with my favorite costume designer Emma Garofalo to realise the designs.






Emma expertly making the green pyjama base

Women's group stitching traditional patterns

Decorating the elephants outfit

I then added the pattern along with the panels made by a Bangladeshi womens group.

Elephant on parade in Brick Lane

Owl concept drawing main costume

Owl colour

Change of colour and Emma turned the drawing into a working costume

I worked with Emma stitching the costume and made the blocks
that were used to print the pattern. The flower motif ran through the whole parade 

TELLING TALES

Telling tales was a installation with The National Trust and Hackney Caribbean Elders. I Designed and mounted the exhibition and worked with the story teller Sandra Agard, photographer Tunde Shoderu and the Elders group to record and exhibit their stories of coming to England.

The exhibition was mounted in a collection of grips. One had an illustrated pop up book, one contained personal effects such as passports, letters and photographs, another had trinkets and gifts and the last recipes that people attending the exhibition could take away.

Back home The long trip over

Arriving in England

The streets were not paved with gold

Building a community and family values

(unfortunately the table was damaged during the exhibition) Going back home I really loved this project and the elders that took part had great histories. This was a very emotional project to work on as my parents also came to England to build a new life, fortunate for them they have been able to return to the Caribbean in their later years. I would also like to remember the elders who took part in this project that have now passed on.

This project is from the book Making  Memories Matter by Pam Schweitzer and Angelika Trilling

HOW TO SKIN A TURTLE IN SEVEN DAYS

The turtle was made a few years ago for a the touring show Arena by EEA. Since then it has had many outings to various festivals and processions. I was commissioned to work on its new look for the Baishakhi Mela.
It was a great project because it was so big. The shell was made in four sections with the head and flippers as separate moving parts.I had to completely redesign and recover the shell and also touch up and mend the head and flippers.

The metal frame was designed and welded by Gordon.

Once the frame was primed I started the decorating. The fabric used to stretch over the frame was a waterproof flexible nylon that I salvaged from another project.Due to the shape of the metal sections there was a lot of pulling and pinching and darts similar to what I would do when making a costume.Every fabric surface that touched the metal had to be glued and stitched.

The turtle was designed to be used as a lantern during night time processions and events so I am cutting out the panels to fit designs into.Again this all had to be hand stitched into place.

Cutting and stitching designs. The patterns were inspired by traditional Bangladeshi print and embroidery. It would have been lovely to hand stitch and embroider but not possible within the budget and time scale.The patterns were stitched on an industrial sewing machine.

Each panel then had to be glued and stitched into place.

The backs were lined with a white nylon to defuse the lights that would later be fitted and each section had to be varnished.

The sections were looking a bit bare so I designed and had some aluminum sheet cut and applied with the help of Gordon.

Repainted and decorated turtle head.

Turtle on parade with moving parts and sound system.