Medals for Everyday Courage

 

During the First lockdown Alinah Azedeh was co-commissioned by Craftspace  and Midlands Arts Centre for our forthcoming national touring exhibition ‘We Are Commoners’ to produce Craft in Common, five workshop films “themed to relate to a human value or experience such as; courage, care, connection, loss and emotional repair” .  The first film Medals Making Medals for Everyday Courage was the basis for a small project to stimulate intergenerational conversations in the LGBTQ+ community that I was asked to lead.  The concept was very simple; help people within this community make medals that celebrate their, or someone they know, courage, and whilst making them talk in groups about themselves and their life experience. Alinah Azadeh describes it as “It’s courageous to:  try new things, reach out for support, feel and share difficult feelings, be strong for others, tell truth to those who you love, find joy in small things and to keep focusing on what you love and have rather than what is lacking.”

I don’t usually run with someone else’s ideas; if I am doing a workshop then I devise it.  However, Medals for Everyday Courage is such a beautifully complete concept and it seemed a logical step on from my #patchoflove project from the Second lockdown. If truth be told I am jealous that I didn’t think it up in the first place! ‘But the whole idea about Commoning is that practice is open source and collaborative; you don’t own the concept or work but pass it on for others to use.

Its been a joy to do.  I thought about the kind of courageous characteristics I might want to celebrate and it rapidly became personal and it was particular events or people that I wanted to make the medals for; sleeping under canvas as an act of protection in lockdown; days in inadequate PPE or days and days in the full blue astronaut gear; getting out of bed in the morning when everything, and I mean everything is going against you.

The Public workshop was lovely, in spite of the charming traffic warden who gave me a ticket for leaving my car for 2 minutes whilst I went to get the gate opened outside the LGBT Centre.  Although there were only 8 of us making because of social distancing measures in the room.  We had great conversations and some beautiful medals made.  They ranged from medals for a 5-year-old daughter to medals for exploring gender identity

 So here are some pictures

 

---

[1] https://craftspace.co.uk/craft-in-common/accessed 29/11/21

[2] https://craftspace.co.uk/craft-in-common/accessed 29/11/21

Recovery, resilience and stitchery: How quilting saved my life

 

Recovery Quilt 1: Let Go

This is my article in the July/August edition of Embroidery Magazine.  Many thanks to editor Jo Hall for allowing me to republish this

2016/17 was a bad year for me; our house suffered a major flood and the subsequent refit was handled so badly that we had to get my MP and the financial ombudsman involved; family members were very seriously ill; there was a row that alienated me from my family for a year.  When a professional disappointment happened after working on it for 18 months I crumpled; I buckled; I went under.

I was in a very dark place.  In the past when I had been in rough spots, my practice had always been the safety valve.  I had repeatedly used metaphor as a way to express my thoughts.  Symbolic animals running for their lives; blocks of dark colours overpowering ambiguous shapes. This time it was different.  I had ‘maker's block’. I couldn’t work and felt like I was looking into a void.  Writer William Stryon, compared depression to being “imprisoned in a fiercely overheated room”[1], but for me it was a crushing sensation.  I felt overwhelmed by the weight of failure; I couldn’t breathe.  Not like a panic attack but as if all the oxygen was being squeezed out of me.

I had been doing some mentoring for the Crafts Council as part of their Parallel Practice residencies with thread based artist Angela Maddocks.  As the project drew to an end we agreed to continue with a reciprocal agreement to mentor each other.  It took a number of months to actually admit how ‘stuck’ I was.  By now I was on anti-depressants and in a talking therapy programme but I still had nothing to work on.  In a conversation with Angela I found myself ranting about all sorts of things ranging from the aftermath of the flood, politics, a perceived lack of success and homophobia I had suffered twenty years earlier and Angela said in a neighbourly way ‘Oooo. What are you going to do with all that anger?’ as if it was a tangible thing; something that could be picked up and carried and moulded into something else.

And I didn’t have an answer but those words buzzed around my head like a bluebottle in a jam jar.  As it circled in my brain I repeatedly asked myself ‘What will you do with your anger?’

In the previous five years I had done commissions exploring leukaemia and blood disorders, cardiology and residencies looking at crippling bone diseases or working with prosthetic limbs.  It was heavy going.  My colour palette had gone from richly saturated hues to dark, dour monochrome. Whilst my work wasn’t making me ill it certainly hadn’t been helping.

So I decided I would work with colour again. Bright, vivid colour.  It didn’t matter what I made, but it would be for me.  It wasn’t for a client, or a community, or in response to someone else’s brief.  There would be no serious story to tell; it would be for my own pleasure; it would be about the joy of just making.  And then it became apparent that what I needed to do was to make a quilt that asked in joyful colours ‘What will you do with your anger?’

Two weeks later at sewing show I bought a pack of charms (5 inch squares) of Japanese Yuzen fabric.  They were perfect; a confection of jewel like colours, cherry blossom and chrysanthemums, flying cranes and patterned fans, all laced with fine golden print.  To start with I was hesitant.  I hadn’t made for nearly a year.  I collaged with photocopies of the fabric but I rapidly dived in.

There were only two rules.  ‘Technically slick’ and ‘Choose the more joyful option’.

Letters were digitised from scratch, sometimes with puddles of metallic thread stitched in splatters alongside, then stitched onto blocks that were pieced and freemotion quilted. When faced with an aesthetic dilemma the solution was simple; go for the joyful option.

And it worked.  The simple act of making for myself, not the audience, helped me rebuild myself.  I wasn’t over thinking the process, just doing, trying to swim in the happiness of pinks, yellows and turquoise.  Of course this wasn’t just the quilts that bought about my recovery but they were emblematic of the journey back.

Considering I was making them for me and no one else, they have been exceptionally well received.  The first two are currently on a European tour and the third was commended on the shortlist for the Vlieseline Fine Art Textile Award in 2018. Another three sit in pieces in my studio and I have made three quilts as a personal response to Covid. I don’t know when I will get to show them but at the moment that doesn’t matter.  When collectors wanted to buy the very first Recovery Quilt I realised I couldn’t let it go and made them another version.  The irony is that quilt’s title is ‘Let go’.  Its too precious to me because of the emotional significance in the blocks of bright blossoms, swirls and splatters of gold. I’ll never let that one go.

Two of Karina’s quilts are part of the Quilt Art touring exhibitions Material Evidence and Traces

Museum De Kantfabriek, Horst, the Netherlands, 2nd May - 26th September 2021
Handwerksmuseum, Deggendorf, Germany, end of November 2021 - March 2022

Vänermuseet, Lidköping, Sweden, 1 - 30 September 2021

 

---

[1] Darkness Visible, Vanity Fair, December 1989

It will never be over for me

When I started dropping the patches back in February the second wave of Covid was howling around the UK.  As an embroider in a global pandemic I thought there was very little I could do to make a difference.  I was inspired by hearing Betsy Greer in conversation with Craftspace’s Deirdre Figueiredo.  It started as an incidental ‘small’ thing to do that I didn’t really expect to go anywhere.

Nearly a 100 patches later and it has easily been a significant and extremely moving episode in my practice.  They have been left in all sorts of places ranging from hospital entrances, bus and tram stops, parks, canal towpaths, graveyards and bridges over motorways.  My criteria were
Am I passing that way anyway?
Might someone need comfort in the spot?

The exception on the drops were the two in separate ITU units where that I managed to get someone else to drop them for me (thanks Nicky and Liz).

Some patches were gone in minutes (Harborne High St and Kniver Edge); Others were days (outside my house, bottom of Third Avenue)

I didn’t expect anyone to contact me, but sometimes they did when they had seen them, often to say ‘Great idea but I don’t need it so I left it’.  I only had one message from a direct recipient who said it had made her day. 

I also did private drops for friends and family; they might have been bereaved, isolated, or going through a hard time.  I did callouts on Instagram to give a patch away with the one rule that they had to give them away in turn, but because no good deed should go unpunished, I would always put an extra one in.  Some people explained in moving detail who the patch was for and sent pictures

This was a very different kind of project for me and it was extremely extremely rewarding.  If you are reading this and are struggling and would appreciate a patch the message me on Instagram.  If I have any left you will be welcome to one

And of course…..

Stay Safe, Stay Strong

#patchoflove

 

The #patchoflove project is a direct, personal response to the third lockdown.  I know that many people are finding things really tough; the weather is bad; the novelty and fear of the first lockdown has well and truly gone; new variants and initial doubts of when any of us would get the jabs (and would they work?) seemed to build anxiety and uncertainty.  I am married to a front line NHS worker who at least three times a week was up on the ITU at the QE Hospital in Birmingham, the busiest ITU in the UK, dressed up like an astronaut, and I can see in real terms the effect that a year of pressure can do to someone.

But I am an embroiderer.  Yes I could do something for the local foodbank or support my elderly neighbour  like another human being (and I do) but I wanted to find a way to use this specialist skill in a positive way.  On the first lockdown I hung a quilt in my front window declaring ‘Stay Safe’. Now many of you will know that I am a recent convert to Northern Soul and before the pandemic had begun to collect the fabric patches associated with the genre; I had begun to make my own and signing off my quilts with a defiant fist holding a pair of scissors with the caption ‘Quilter ‘til I Die’ reminiscent of a Northern Soul patch.

I had begun to play around with a ‘Stay Safe, Stay Strong’ message on one of my patches before I was in the audience for the In conversation between Craftspace’s Deirdre Figueiredo and the legendary Craftivist Betsy Greer.  I was familiar with Craftivism and Betsy’s work but hadn’t really given it considered thought relating to my practice before.  And it was a light bulb moment.  I could make a patch telling people to Stay safe and Stay strong and give them to people who might be struggling in some way

And well that’s what I did.  I had some technical problems as I was embroidering in a way that I hadn’t before but after a couple of trials, I think that’s been sorted.

And so I have begun to leave them in spaces where I think that someone who might appreciate the equivalence of a pat on the back or a socially distanced hug because they are low. Entrances to hospitals and bus stops seem like good starting points.  I know that it’s a small, tiny gesture and I am sure some will think that it’s a waste of my time, but do you know what its makes me feel that I am doing something and its my time to waste.

If you don’t think I am wasting my time please DM me through Twitter or Instagram @karinaworld2

Thanks for reading.  Keep the Faith

A Geek's approach to metallic thread in eight easy stages. Part 2: Needles

Sewing machine needles aren’t really very exciting things to look at.  At a show like Festival of Quilts the customers aren’t 10 deep to buy needles.  Needles are usually sold in little packets which on first sight can all look the same. However they are the first thing that I look at when trouble shooting a problem with stitch out.  My best top tip in problem solving is to change the needle for a new one.  Hang on to the old one and if that isn’t the problem then you can always swap it back. Some say you should change your needle every time you start a new project. Schmetz recommend you change your needle every 8 hours.  Now you might think ‘Well they would say that, wouldn’t they’ but I have found that as soon as I start to have frequent thread breakage I will change the needle and frequently that will solve the issue.
I will not use a needle unless it’s a Schmetz or an Inspira one; I am sure there are other good brands, its just I know these needles work for me.  I know how to get them; I think they are well priced; they get me good results.

So lets talk a bit about the engineering and whats going on with a sewing machine needle.  A sewing machine needle has a shank (the bit that goes into the needle holder on the machine) and blade that ends in the point where the eye is.  The blade has a long grove that allows the thread to reach the eye and a scarf (flat bit)  at the back to help it pass through. Whilst the shank is standard, the blade, tip and eye are all variable.  Choosing the ‘right’ needle is like Goldilocks….you want it to make a hole that allows the thread to pass through but small enough that the hole is visible.  I personally try and go with and a solid heavy weight needle of about 14/90 although I’ve been using 12/80s lately.

But in my humble opinion it’s the eye of the needle that is key to working with metallic….so unsurprisingly I use a metallic needle.  The eye is much longer than the eye in standard needle and therefore the thread is not put under the same pressures.  I find this longer eye reduces shredding and breakages with any kind of delicate or fussy thread and I use them as standard now in my embroidery machines no matter what thread I am using.  The only time I dont anymore is if I need a jersey or a ballpoint needle because of the fabric I am working on.  I don’t find that they break more (although I have heard that they can be a little less robust than say a denim or topstitch needle).

And of course I have a pile of used, slightly dull metallic needles that aren’t blunt so I then wear them out on my conventional machine doing day to day sewing; think of it like the dressage horse handing its old competition saddle down to the Lord of the manor's horse.

A Geek's approach to metallic thread in eight easy stages Part 1 Thread

 

People get freaked out trying to embroider with metallic thread.  And understandably so…it shreds, it breaks, it nests more than ‘standard’ thread.  But once you get your head around some basic principle of working with the ‘metal stuff’ then you can get fantastic results with a few cautionary steps.  In this series of 8 fortnightly blog posts I’ll give you the tips I use to get great results from working with metallic thread.  Now I will talk specifically about digital embroidery but the principles are the same what ever machine you use be it a standard sewing machine doing inbuilt stitches or a long arm quilter doing free motion work.

I often think of digital embroidery and regular sewing machines like 19^th Century horses which is hilarious as I am one of the most un-equine people on the planet. Your basic sewing machines are like pit ponies; basic workhorses that can labour away on a task without much fuss or fills; a good mid-range sewing machine like the lord of the manor’s hunter; solid, reliable, good looking.  You can go up the hierarchy of machines until you reach digital embroidery machines.  I think of them like dressage horses, beautiful specialist animals that do the most amazing things that can take your breath away.  And just like with horses you need to treat in a special way; they can be particular or indeed fussy about what you put in them, refusing to perform unless they have high quality ‘feed’ and handling.  Don’t expect to drive your delicate embroidery machine the same way you can your pit pony sewing machine!

Number 1 Quality of thread

My first rule of digital embroidery is always quality needles and thread.  My first proper experience of digital embroidery back in 2007 was a painfully slow with constant shredding and breaking (every 30 seconds) and once I realized that it was to do with cheap unbranded machine needles and manky old thread that had been kicking around for years my work transformed.
For metallics I use branded thread like Madeira.  Their FS40 has been my go-to thread since the mid-1990s and I don’t think I have ever been without Gold 4 since 1986.  If you are looking for a cheaper option, I have had good results with the CR40 range; it’s got good colours in addition to the standard metal colours BUT I personally feel its thinner than the FS40 and have had issues with pattern fill blocks appearing slightly transparent.  I’ll talk through ways to solve that another time.  I use the Sulky metallics when I can get them but I burn through big reels and its often an issue of getting hold of them in quantity.  I have used other brands including some dodgy chinese brands with mixed results.

I’ll also talk about alternative metallic threads like lurexes and hologram sliver threads in episode 8 of this series

Think about how old your thread is?  Thread will deteriorate with age and if its left in sunlight.  It becomes brittle and frankly only good for embellishing machines! I have had branded thread snap all the time when it has been left on a window sill.  If your embroidery is shredding and snapping ask yourself is the thread a problem?  Can you run through your design with a standard rayon on a similar fabric no problem? Does the thread snap more easily if you pull it between your fingers.  These might indicate that you have a problem with your thread.
For a while I took a hard line that I wouldn’t use anything with an unfamiliar brand that I had bought on a market stall. That unfair on market stall holders but as a rule I would always say proceed with caution; only buy small quantities until you have tested the quality.  In fact I have had some good results with cheap metallics if I was careful with some of my other stages in stitch out.  Also be aware that you might not be able to get EXACTLY the right colour again if you run out on a project halfway through. 
If you are new to digital embroidery invest in some good quality threads.  You don’t want to be frustrated by thread that will easily shred and snap.

The Covid Quilts: Part 2

We all know that the last 6 months have been tough.  I am married to a front line NHS worker so we had been following the growth of this illness for some time.  It was clear that things were going to be bad from mid February.  I had read stories of what was happening in the hospitals of Northern Italy and could see it was only a matter of time before it was over here.  Nicky was battling with getting decent PPE and the right to wear it on wards with coughing patients still waiting for a diagnosis taking days to come through.

I was still teaching at Hereford College of Arts.  The last day before lockdown, as I walked to the station I overheard two students behind me talking; they talked about how they wouldn’t mind getting ‘IT’ because they could do with ‘a bit of a skive’.  I was so angry I couldn’t turn to look at them.  They were young and naïve but I thought of the older people in their lives and how they might be affected by the illness.

Nicky led from the front and was one of the first of her team to dress up like an astronaut and go onto ITU. She works in cardiology and Covid does horrible things to your heart; echocardiograms were in high demand.  The first time she went up there she said it was like a war zone; she was clearly shaken; she stopped talking about what was going on during the 12 hour shifts day and night.

I was at home feeling fairly helpless.  I am zooming away to my students from Hereford trying to keep them positive and working, but in comparison to what Nicky was doing it felt very small. 

I am a quilter; that’s what I do.  So I decided to quilt and this piece is the result.

I started with a simple ‘Stay Safe’ and then another for my sister, but I knew that I wanted to make a bigger more considered piece.

It says what I wanted to say to those two young people.