September 4th Kantha - Our journey - Margaret McQuillen & Ruth Tykiff

This was the first face to face lecture of our new group.

Ruth and I gave a lecture on Kantha, its origins, history, symbolism and how it has influenced our work.

Ruth started by telling us about the origins of Kantha in West Bengal and how it was a means of using old saris to create household linens . They were turned into works of art by the addition of colourful stitch

I then went on to discuss the symbolism in the designs which use animals and birds as well as symbolic motifs

 

I then went on to explain that the Kantha is constructed from several layers of fine cotton held together with running stitches in a variety of patterns, motifs and borders. The kantha stitch is worked in the background to create the ripple effect. The word Kantha means quilt but is now used as the process

My journey began with a small sample piece worked during my City and Guilds college course.

While Ruth started with a sampler workshop with Dorothy Tucker

We both went on to do a workshop together with Dorothy using everyday objects as a starting point

and then I did a further one with Dorothy , using leaves, which I used as a starting point for a wedding gift by adding words

Ruth then told us about her visit to Bangladesh and how she was shown how the women work and then was able to start two pieces of work

She then showed us further work that she has produced influenced by Kantha

I continued the presentation with me explaining how much I enjoyed adding Kantha stitch to my work

and how using  Kantha stitch backgrounds I worked pieces based on the seasons of the year

We finished the talk by touching on Boro work which is a running stitch background but is Japanese and differs from Kantha as it is more about patch and repair than layering of the whole fabric as in Kantha.

We will be using the Kantha technique at our workshop on September 18th