Burano Houses

A cold Sunday morning in Halifax saw us transported by way of a workshop with local textile artist Gillian Travis, to the much more picturesque location of Venice and the small island of Burano, where the houses are painted bright colours, reportedly so that in times past, the fishermen coming home from the sea could immediately tell which house was theirs. (I expect they use sat-nav now!) 

Gillian explained to us how to interpret our own photographs in line drawing, in order to trace the results and transfer them to coloured fabric (turban cotton is ideal) which is then applied to a backing piece and stuck down with Bondaweb or Heat and Bond (the latter being easier to trace onto and giving more exact results). 

When all the applying (or more correctly, applique) is complete, the pictures are enhanced with machine embroidery to become the finished product. Here are our pieces pictured just before we finished for the day. 

Needless to say, no-one reached the sewing stage! Here are some of Gillian's Burano houses to show what we are aiming for. 

You can see more examples of Gillian's work by following the link to her blog in the side bar.