landscape – One Stitch at Time

Tomorrow the show for the MA courses in Falmouth ( Woodlane campus, 6-9pm) opens.

The part-time student taken part with a group show in the Garden Studio.

Here is a glimpse of my contribution and a few thoughts……

Wool is my medium and my companion.
Wool is renewable and sustainable.
Wool is warmth, comfort and calm.
Wool teaches me respect for the sheep.
Wool teaches me patience and perseverance.
Wool connects me to the origin of our cloth.
Wool connects me to the land and to life.

The Joy of Stitch

Walking the Talk

May 29, 2013 Christiane Berghoff

Sometimes it is good to “walk the talk”!

After traveling from Penzance to Univesity Falmouth, dealing with Reprograhics, a tutorial with Gillian Wylde and lunch, it just flet the right thing to do, just to sit for an hour and stitch, while listing to some music! (The Bookshop Band, my current favorite!). When I look back at my documentation of my journey in Stitch, I realize, that it took me a bit of time to really take the Stitch piece on as my ‘companions! At the beginning I stitch only in ‘special moments’, at home and while filming. Only when I started the ‘Small One’ and the ‘Middle one’, I really started to carry them around with me, stitching on the train on every journey, they went to Germany, to London, to Totnes, several times to Truro.

Over the weekend I was thinking, that the Graduation show is really not the end of this work! The three pieces will have a break, I will continue working with them, when they come home! Before they go into the show next week Friday, I will take a final photo, which will be only a recording of that moment! This is a good feeling, a feeling of continuity!

Stitching in public is a really different ball game compared with other activities such as Knitting, or Crochet. It draws more attention to it, the is not a day or an outing without someone coming up to me, complimenting, commenting and inquiring, sometimes I tell people of the context, sometimes I keep it vague, saying I just enjoy doing it!

Here is another bit about “Walking the Talk” from last week:

Today I have locked myself out of my work, by leaving my laptop charger at the college last night!

So I decide to take some time out and went to the Poolside Cafe in Penzance and I here I am sitting right now and stitching! And breathing through the disappointment, the frustration and the upset. Better to accept the situation as it is and make the most of it.

Enjoying a coffee, watching the sea, breathing and stitching!

The Joy of Stitch

Reflection on the converstions with Gillian Wylde and Bill Goodyear

February 11, 2013 Christiane Berghoff

Talk with Bill, Thursday, 17.01.2013

I talked with Bill about the tutorial with Gillian yesterday; the base line is to move on and take the activity “Stitching” on a journey.

It means leaving the church behind for the time being.

I might want to film in some of the small country churches; the spiritual environment, the quiet and the time factor,

particularly here in the South-West of Cornwall echoes with search of a point- place-moment-sequence meets in the stillness that is interwoven with a place and its sounds.

It means going outside, on beaches, rocks, moors. Gillian suggested going out for a day on a journey, for example Dartmoor, spend time stitching and later on writing about the experience.

Also it became very clear, that the video and stills act as documentation and are not the work itself.

The Work is the activity, the act of being in a place while finding the place inside, through a moving activity, the Stitching.

The Stitching becomes a “real” time documentation, tangible memory of the time spend. Each stitch holds the memory of a moment, a breath.

So much comes together for me in this work;

⇒⇒ my search and longing for beauty (reference Satish Kumar on Beauty),

⇒⇒ my love for the handmade activity, ⇒⇒ my search in using material which are kind to the environment. (Here hemp and British Wool)

⇒⇒ working with music and sound

In talking with Bill it became clearer what I am looking for:

> in the visuals > Images in the landscape, working in the landscape

> in the sound > ambient sound of the filming

> under laying with sound from close up recordings of stitching, needle through the fabric, breathing, moving of cloth.

Also I became aware that I could only think of one “mode” at a time, which is interesting in itself.

Gillian suggests “Contrast” work as in a setting of stitching at Piccadilly Circus.

First I rejected her idea, as something I was not looking for; in the conversation with Bill,

I thought, it would be interesting to explore the idea, with the freedom to abandon it, if it doesn’t feel right.

At the moment I am concentrating on the “Calm” mode.

Working with sound and music is an integral part, as music is such a powerful tool for expression of moods and feeling and plays an important part in my life.

The Joy of Stitch

Sea, Wind Embroidery and Muisc

February 8, 2013February 8, 2013 Christiane Berghoff

A moment of being out in the elements, the wind, the sounds, the feel of the rocks under my body: sitting still, taking it all in, stitching the experience into the fabric in my hands.

Sea, Wind, Embroidery and Music

It was my first outing with my Embroidery into the landscape. it was a new experience to in the wind, to hear the sea crashing and the gulls crying above; stitching in my awareness of place, a place close to my home. The embroidery, the act of stitching is the inner place, space I long for. The Frame and the fabric become the space, to journey into. – filming requires collaboration, a dialoge with the person behind the camera (Thank you so much Bill!!) , it requires communication, taking out of my head my vision of what I am looking for. I enter a process with the person I am working with, there is a give and take, a exchange of ideas. – Music – the music is guitare improvisation by Bill Goodyear (thank you again for your time and input). It was recorded late in his flat during another filming session. Bill’s music becomes a audio anchor for my mind, my hands are moving and I am listing, entering a place of calm.