New Tracey Emin Tapestry

I was excited to hear that West Dean Tapestry studio is working on creating one of Tracey Emin's paintings in to a tapestry. Tracey Emin divides people, I'm in the love her camp, not least because she has an 'e' in her name - like all great Tracey's! Her work is brutal at times, personal, painful, but always so refreshingly honest. I am a big fan of her quilts, applique letters on kitsch fabrics, inner most thoughts told.

Tracey Emin - I do not expect to be a mother, 2002

I am reminded of Tilleke Schwarz's embroideries. In 2008 there was a Emin retrospective at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh. Inspired by my visit, I created my very own take on an Emin quilt. This was pb (pre-blog!) so I shall share it now. Hand stitched in felt and cottons.

Applique & more gathering...

I love the look of applique; it reminds me of a child's fabric book, fuzzyfelt and cute motifs on t-shirts. In fact my favourite skirt is covered in applique (courtesy of Monsoon not me!). I tried to do some applique that wasn't typical of this and came up with...
Reverse or Sans Blas applique using brightly coloured felts (no fraying - yeah!).
Using sheer fabrics and 'hiding' secrets inside - well when I say secrets I mean silk strands and gold stars. I've also being doing some more gathering samples, firstly using bright stripy fabric:
I like the way the stripes distort, bending and flowing into new shapes. I also used some blue hessian, using the strands themselves to gather the fabric rather than sewing thread in. I think this creates a strange rigid shape which reminds me of insects!