Burnett & Catt - Recycled Costume Commission

Burnett & Catt: Finished Recycled Costume commission. 'Powdered Wig' made of recycled knits. The dress, cuffs and fans are recycled polythene bags, sweet wrappers, soft toys and other assorted rubbish, embroidered and stitched.

Mr Tumnus Head dress For Narnia

Finished Mr Tumnus head-dress commissioned for Narnia Production.

Burnett & Catt - Head-dress for Ice Queen

A last minute commission from a Theatre Company to deliver by Sunday. Head-dresses for Narnia Ice Queen and Mr Tumnus. Tumnus isnt complete yet and Ice Queen may become a little more bejewelled tommorrow. We're sleeping on it.

Phrenology (grandma) old enough to know better

The third phrenology head from the Red Riding Hood trio - terrible photographs unfortunately, taken in bad light before I took it to New York. The three have been to Scope Art Fair now and are now on exhibit at Jack the Pelican in Brooklyn.

Fibreart review of 'Pricked'

American Textile Art magazine 'Fiberart' review of Pricked:Extreme Embroidery. Click on the image to enlarge text.

Phrenology - (Red Riding Hood) Small Enough to be Eaten

The second head in the new Phrenology series of 3 for Scope Art Fair in New York.I'm taking the heads to New York myself on Monday so now I'll have a chance to see the rest of the exhibits. Will post photos when I get back.

Phrenology - (Wolf) Big Enough to Eat You

This is the first in a new series of Phrenology pieces. This one is based on a wolf, the other two in this new set are rabbits. I'm adding final details to the others but will post them soon. I'm working against the clock - but hopefully these will be showing at the Scope Art Fair in New York with Gallery 'Jack the Pelican Presents'. The first Phrenology series will also be transferring to 'Jack the Pelican' when the 'Pricked: Extreme Embroidery' exhibition closes on the 28th of April

'we make money not art'

Just a quickie. I love the 'we make money not art' website and they've just done a great review of the 'Pricked: Extreme Embroidery' exhibition. Please click to see the review and have a look around the fantastic site.
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2008/03/pricked-extreme-embroidery.php

scraps for phrenology

I'm working on another set of phrenology heads - each head is stitched into and appliqued with printed texts and images from my sketchbooks. This is part of a set of sketchbook pages I'm using for the current work.

Burnett & Catt recycled costume commission - designs

We've been commissioned to design a new costume made of recycled materials to help promote recycling. This is the initial design sheet. Its based on a late Baroque Madame Pompadour/ Marie-Antoinette style character with a powdered wig created from old knitwear. The main part of the gown to be created from used carriers and foil packaging, embroidered and woven onto
a fabric backing. The shape of the dress is based loosely on tree roots - carrier bags wrapped around a padded framework of spiralling curls. The bodice can be heavily stitched and patterned. The wings to be attached to fibre rods, we're imagining a loose and delicate filigree of stitched plastics. The gown to be sleeveless but finished with a set of heavily embellished bands at the forearm and a sash of flowers created from plastics (bottle bottoms/ carriers etc). A pair of fans will finish the outfit and enable the actor to create shape and character. As far as possible we will will limit the palette, we're imagining white with greens and maybe a touch of purple / blue, but this really depends on what materials we find. There is also scope to create little creatures, birds/ butterflies etc, and hide them within the wig and folds of the dress to add interest. We'd aim to make the costume look sumptous and baroque, with closer inspection revealing the nature of the materials used to create it.