EXHIBITION: Kenmare, Co. Kerry

As part of the Kenmare Lace Festival, I held a 2-person exhibition with Fiona Harrington, in the lovely gallery at CLEO, Kenmare, Co. Kerry

PROJECT: Artist in the Community, Kenmare. Co. Kerry

I had mentioned in an earlier blog post, I received funding through Create Ireland for research and development into a project with the Kenmare Lace Festival. (Read more about it here).

The 6th International Biennial Exhibition on Mini Textile, Ukraine

In all the hecticness of the past few weeks, I'd completely forgotten about the Scythia Exhibition! It opened last night in the Ukraine. Obviously I didn't attend, but I'm delighted my little piece of my embroidery is part of this exhibition

International Freeform Fibrearts Guild

Every year, the International Freeform Fiberarts Guild votes on a theme for the annual challenge. Work is made of a period of a few months, and is then presented in the form of an online exhibition and a book. We dont publish the pics anywhere online until the exhibition is live on the website. Which it is now, go head over for a min and have a look www.intfff.com/ 

Gandino! (Italy, Part II)

 Ancient Map of Northern Italy, (with rough indications of towns)

After four days of intense talks, chats, chats and talks in the Palazzo del Broletto in Pavia, it was time to say goodbye to the majority of the presenters and attendees of the symposium, and get excited about the 4 days of textile road trips ahead.

Embroidery Digital Commons

Embroidered Digital Commons, 2009 - 2013

An embroidery of the text 'A Concise Lexicon of / for the Digital Commons' by the Raqs Media Collective (2003)

Curated by Ele Carpenter

More information here: www.open-source-embroidery.org.uk/EDC.htm

(Previous blog posts in EDC here and here)

It's finished!! (Embroidery Digital Commons)

I'm trying (desperately) to do just one project at a time. To complete that project before I move on mentally and physically to the next. Something I'm not very good at at all, I have a tendency to juggle plans and projects.

So, because I've got a a big crafting session coming up, (making some decor for Dr Stokers Truly Macabre Circus of Horrors), I've had to cram embroidery over the past few days. Not an easy thing to do. (As I always end up saying "gentle needle-arts, my ***!!")

But after many hours of stitching, many meters of thread, I've finally finished embroidering all the words for  the Embroidery Digital Commons Project. An embroidery of the text 'A Concise Lexicon of / for the Digital Commons' by the Raqs Media Collective (2003) (see previous blog post). I've yet to photo all the pieces, I'll do that over the next week. But phew! what a relief to be finally finished.

I have to say, I really, really enjoyed this project, much more than I expected. Embroidering the words gave me the time to think about the term as a whole, the individual words, the project, and travel mentally far and wide. I love letters, font, words, textiles, and a little geekery thrown in, so it summed up everything I enjoy. There is something about stitching words that makes it strong, permanent, and very powerful. Maybe that's why it is becoming the craftivist weapon of choice.
 
http://www.open-source-embroidery.org.uk/EDC.htm

Post Dingle Harvest Picnic with the Kerry Bicycle Festival!

Incredible! That is the only way to describe the day that was the Dingle Harvest Picnic. We had sunshine, kids on bikes, chilled out parents, workshops, talks, and SUNSHINE!! Its amazing what a sunny day does to Irish people these days. It was almost overwhelming, to be able to organise something outdoors, and not have it cancelled or moved because of bad weather...We had an escorted cycle around the marina and town before heading up to the town park for a day of fun and frolics. Talks, workshops, music, and even the match (Del-boy style, a TV on top of a van!)

Blog Awards Ireland 2012

I've been shortlisted for the Blog Awards Ireland 2012!! 

I feel a bit under pressure now, better double check my p's and q's, dot my i's and write something intelligent.................................

Was never good in the spotlight, get all shy and type-tied, can't think of anything to say, so here is something I've made - the latest piece of embroidery for the ECD Project

Inspired! Music and Art in Fibre - Exhibition and Book

Each year, members of the International Freeform Crochet Guild set a challenge. This challenge is to create a piece of freeform crochet using a chosen theme. The pieces are finished and photos are sent via email to the organisers, and an online exhibition and book are created. None of the pieces are shown publicly until  the exhibition and book are ready, which this year was July 1st.

Embroidered Digital Commons

Embroidered Digital Commons, 2009 - 2013

An embroidery of the text 'A Concise Lexicon of / for the Digital Commons' by the Raqs Media Collective (2003)

I've just been given the official go ahead to co-ordinate the stitching of a term as part of Embroidered Digital Commons, a very interesting project curated by Ele Carpenter. 

"The 'Embroidered Digital Commons' is based on the beautifully crafted language of the Concise Lexicon of/for the Digital Commons written by the Raqs Media Collective, and published in the Sarai Reader 2003. The full lexicon is an A-Z of the interrelationship between social, digital and material space. It weaves together an evolving metaphorical language of the commons which is both poetic and informative."

In the next few weeks, I'll be organising a venue to have a public stitch-in, anyone who would like to get involved, meet up for a coffee, buns, and stitch some geekery, get in touch! There is approx 103 words to be stitched, so everyone is welcome. And considering how many times I have sewn my work to myself, stitching skills are a minimum...

More info about the project here:

www.open-source-embroidery.org.uk/EDC.htm

Ele's blog: http://www.eleweekend.blogspot.com/

 

Embroidered Digital Commons - YARN from Sophie McDonald on Vimeo.

Hang Up's

Here's a piece I made recently for an exhibition, "Hand Up's", currently being organised by Prudence Mapstone, in Australia. The criteria was freefrom, on a hanger...so that what I did.

Crowd Funding - Better Fashion Week and Yarn Graffiti!!

Have you heard of Crowd Funding? Its a fancy way of asking people to donate money to projects. All kinds of projects, all kinds of people, its your choice who you give to, and what amount. You can just pay a minimum amount, and donate for kicks, or you can give money to a project you might be passionate about.

I have donated to a few projects, firstly because I am interested in those projects, and would love to see them successful, but also because I like to think, if every I wanted to get funding for a project, I could be supported. Having run events both successful and unsuccessful in the past, I know that money is always an issue, and its a horrible reason to have to cancel what could be a financially poor, but emotionally very successful event. And when it comes down to it, that is what art, movies, music, etc, is all about. If it makes money great, but it should not be the reason why we do it, We do it because for some bizarre reason, an animal painted a picture on a wall in a cave a long time ago. Its in us, we dont know why, but its what makes us human.

The projects I have funded to date are all textile (surprise, surprise), but are movements, ideas rather than actual physical textiles. As I have said before, I think its great that textiles, knitting, crochet, etc are back in, but am horrified with the impact it is having on the environment, on farmers, on people.

So one of the first projects I donated to was Dirty White Gold - Journalist Leah Borromeo is making a documentary about the horrors of the cotton industry.

At its height, up to 26 Indian cotton farmers a day drank pesticides to kill themselves out of the debt they got into in order to work. The country where 4 of the world’s 10 richest people live is also 70% agrarian. Journalist Leah Borromeo traveled to India and met with a suicide widow, local doctors, farmers and workers along the cotton production chain. And a 23-yr old man who tried to kill himself over £800.

Her funding campaign is over, but Leah is still working hard to bring her documentary to a reality. She was recently in Copenhagen attending the Stockholm Convention on Persistant Organic Pollutants. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

RE_DRESS- A fantastic Irish group dedicated to raising awareness of sustainable fashion, are looking for funding to organise their event: Better Fashion week is organised to highlight better practice in the Fashion Industry. Better fashion is creatively inspiring while being environmentally and socially responsible. There’s still time to help them out on Fund It. You can catch up with updates on Twitter and Facebook

Yarn Graffiti Documentary. And just last night I came across a a campaign on IndieGoGo by Sarah Gonzales, who is looking for funding to make a documentary about urban art and in particular, Yarn Bombing. This is something I have been following with great interest over the years. And hopefully if she gets the funding, will make a great documentary!! And yes, she is on Facebook and Twitter too!! Check out all the details on the blog http://yarngraffitidocumentary.blogspot.com/

Here is the blurb:The primary goal of this documentary is to formally introduce the world to Yarn Bombing, giving a retrospective history. First, the filmmakers will spend time with each of the knitters, documenting each unique style and statement. Next, we will conduct interviews with each of the subjects, gathering their stories and perspectives on the craft. Topics of discussion will touch on why Yarn Bombing is dominated by women, how it differs from male-dominated crafts, and whether commissioned artists have “sold out” from their guerilla, graffiti roots. In the end, it is our goal to piece together the chronology of this movement. Just as Rockers defined Reggae in the 1970’s and Style Wars defined Graffiti art in the 1980’s, we hope to bring yarn bombing to the world as the newest art of this decade.