Exhibition at Festival of Quilts 2016
This exhibition is the result of winning the 2015 Quilters Guild City & Guilds Bursary Award. All the exhibits were inspired by my research into Persian art followed by a journey through Iran in April 2016. Pages from my design books, together with photographs of the trip, illustrate what a rich source of inspiration Persia turned out to be.
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Silk jacket with multicoloured zip. Stencilled and hand embroidered motifs derived from Chinese-inspired clouds found in Persian manuscript painting.
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Hanging with Islamic star-and-cross design inspired by the tilework seen in Yazd, as well as by carpets and pottery. Applique, machine quilting and embroidery on silk.
Silk throw. Machine quilted on silk, with star shapes subsequently hand painted with Inktense paints.
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Quilted bag with Islamic star-and-cross design. Quilting, applique and embroidery on silk.
Reverse of above bag. Islamic key-and-cross pattern. Machine quilted in gold thread.
Silk scarf printed with the Arabic word for 'Life'. Screen print on hand dyed silk.
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Pair of cushions based on a floor design found at the ancient Persian archeological site of Persepolis. Hand stamped with Lumiere paints on quilted silk.
Black and gold camisole. Shop-bought black top embellished with printed and hand embroidered cloud motifs.
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Detail of calligraphic hanging. Kufic lettering in gold, screenprinted onto silk.
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Silk painted panel for cast iron screen
2. Inspiration for the exhibition: Travels in Iran, April 2016
We flew to Shiraz in the South, home to famous Persian poets, lush gardens and the most welcoming people imaginable. Then on to the ancient archeological site of Persepolis with its exquisite reliefs from the 6th/5th centuries B.C. Next we drove through the desert to Yazd, centre of ancient Zoroastrianism, and explored the atmospheric old town and the masterful tilework of the Friday Mosque. Onto Isfahan, the jewel in the crown of Persian culture with its 16th and 17th century architectural masterpieces. On the way to Tehran we stayed in Kashan, famed for its carpets and rich merchants' houses, and finally paid a memorable visit to the holy city of Shiite Islam, Qom. We flew back from Tehran, big and polluted, but with some superb museums which summed up everything we had seen on this inspiring trip.
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Inspiration: stained glass windows in the Pink Mosque, Shiraz
 Detail of silk painted screen based on Islamic design
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Pages from design book
Work in progress: panel 1 of a future tripartite screen. Black outliner on stretched habotai silk, later to be coloured in
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Inspiration for the silk throw: geometric 8-pointed star pattern based on a square. Commonly seen in Islamic screens, mosque windows and tile work:
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Black lines indicate quilting lines
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Detail of the appliqued and quilted hanging
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Tilework: Persian Star-and cross pattern, also known as 'The Breath of the Compassionate'
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Work in progress:
Starting point:
shot silk, woven in multicoloured squares
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Star-and-cross design stencilled on silk using freezer paper templates
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Two layers of silk to create colour harmonies and dark-to-light effects.
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Applique shapes and embroidered stars ready to be fused to base fabrics with Steam-a-Seam Lite.
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The appliqued and embroidered top layer is machine quilted along the outlines of the tessellating star and cross shapes
Inspiration for the quilted bag: Islamic tilework seen in the mosques of Yazd and Isfahan
Inspiration for the quilted waistcoat: designs from the ancient palace of Persepolis (centre), pre-Islamic stucco decorations (right, top) and carved stone ware from the 3rd millenium B.C. found in S/E Iran (right, bottom):
Detail of waistcoat hand quilted with gold and variegated threads
Inspiration for the hand printed cushions: floor tile design uncovered in the archeological site of Persepolis (6th/5th c B.C.)
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Page from design book on Persepolis
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Work in progress: tonal rendering of design
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Work in progress: stamps made from 'funky foam' mounted on foamboard
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Inspiration for the silk handbag: Kufic lettering from medieval Qu'rans in Tehran museums, and calligraphic decorations on mosque walls and minarets
Page from design book.
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Work in progress: freezer paper stencils for applying metallic fabric paint.
Work in progress: used stencils and samples of embroidery
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Sources of inspiration recorded in my design books
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'Life' in Arabic decorative script.
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Thermofax screen
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Inspiration for the calligraphic hanging: ancient Kufic script
Detail of calligraphy hanging. Ornamental Kufic script, gold screenprint on silk
Page from design book
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Inspiration for the silk jacket: cloud motifs from Persian miniature painting
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Work in progress: cloud motifs cut out of freezer paper placed on jacket waistband
Metallic fabric paint applied by shifting cut out freezer paper templates, then embroidering round the edges with metallic thread
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Detail of Chinese-inspired clouds from 16th C Persian manuscript painting, Reza Abbasi Museum, Tehran
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Shop-bought camisole embellished with screen printed and hand embroidered cloud motifs (detail)
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Detail from manuscript of the angel Ruh holding the celestial spheres, Iran, 16th century, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
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Own design of an overall cloud pattern for future quilting project
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Detail of clouds in an illuminated copy of the Persian epic 'Shahnama' by the poet Firdausi
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