Round the World Blog Hop

I have been invited by Clare Smith of www.claresmith.blogspot.com to participate in this Round the World Blog Hop.  Clare is a Kiwi dyer and textile artist, and I love the work she is doing with dyeing fabric while in situ in a gallery.  The rules of the Blog Hop are that we have to answer some questions about our work, show what we are doing, and then nominate some other bloggers to do the same.

Here are the questions:

1. What am I working on? 

OK, this is a tricky one.  I have moved away from quilt art towards makings textile-related things for sale in the local Textile Emporium - in other words, I have gone from making stuff to look at to making stuff to sell. However......I have become very interested in eco printing, dyeing with plant material and Slow Cloth.  What is Slow Cloth?  It's my own offshoot of Slow Fashion, where I will create either accessories (eg cushion covers, scarves, bags) or garments from plain natural fibres (eg cotton, linen, silk) that I have transformed by slow methods such as shibori, dye bundling with plant material, solar dyeing, rust dyeing and so on.  

I am only just starting this journey, so haven't much to show yet except these 2 scarves:

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre? 

The Slow Fashion movement is still in its infancy, and slow cloth is even newer.  In many ways, though, it is older, as this is how cloth used to be made - when craftsmanship and artisans were valued and there was no mass production.  As far as I know, there are only a few textile artists embracing this style.

3. Why do I create what I do? 

Because it interests me.  I have always followed my own interests with cloth and dyeing.  My work has never been popular or trendy, but that doesn't worry me. 

4. How does my creative process work?

I sneaked a look at Clare's answer and positively chortled!  I have also gone to art school, but at an advanced age, so I write nothing down!  It is all in my head and I prefer it that way because it changes constantly.  I do my best thinking when I am lying down.  I think things through in quite a lot of detail this way.

Because I am somewhat late at getting this done, having been at work (unpaid) at the Textile Emporium all day and because I didn't read about it properly in advance, I am going to nominate 2 other bloggers without warning them - I hope they will be able to spare a few minutes to participate.

1. Liz Plummer  from Newport in South Wales.  Liz is a fellow blogger from the Quilting Arts blog ring who kindly invited me to stay for a few days when I was in the UK in 2010.  Liz is also a textile artist doing exciting things with fabric.

2. Dijanne Cevaal who flits from France to Australia and back again.  Dijanne was an early dyeing influence and will be known to many.  She will probably curse me for this as she is producing a book and doing a squillion other things.  However, I wanted to include her as she has also been a huge influence on my work - I love just about everything she does.  I stayed with Dijanne in the south of France when I was on my overseas trip and had a blast.