(e)motive

(e)motive
Originally uploaded by stitchworks-jackie

Exhibition at Milton Keynes until 25th September 2010.
For more images and details see:
http://weloveyourbooks.com/page15/page15.php

Stamps

I have been working on my sketches, but I do get carried away. I have been using

some images from my Life Drawing Class to make stamps from ‘fun foam’. It nice and easy to cut and gives plenty of scope to play around with the shapes.

 I have used an ink pad, gouache, printing ink and acrylic. Acrylic has the advantage as you can put a wash over it easily. The ink pads are very tempting as they are so easy to use, but as I only have one colour this limits me. I have plenty of paint so I should stick to that.

 For lots of information about stamp making you can look at Melanie Testa’s blog and a video by Diana Trout  on You Tube

An issue you may like to remark on, I have a new Stats Counter now. It’s always fun to look where readers come from. One of the categories that can be tracked is the material which readers download. I was surprised to find how often this happens, I have never thought to download from a blog but I have done so lots from Flickr; especially when ‘gathering’ images for a project to show people with whom I work. I must admit to not having always thanked people, although I do try to do so. I am pleased readers like my images enough to want to keep them, and they are there for anyone, however, my point is that I now notice that readers regularly come along, download an image and never even comment. Thank You is recognisable in most languages I think. Moan over. The good news is that Blogger is now making an attempt to stop and track spam, which has become more of a problem recently.

Definitely my last post for a while, so don’t forget to sign up for the Summer Giveaway on the August 9th post before I draw in early September.

EXHIBITION: Inkygoodness 4 - 'Play'

EXHIBITION: Inkygoodness 4 - 'Play'
Originally uploaded by DBO PONDERS

Click on link in sidebar for more details of this exhibition in Brick Lane, London, starting early September.

Workshop

The next workshop at Doodles, Tadley (UK) will be on Wednesday 1st September from 1 to 3pm... We will be working with brown paper, wrapping paper or brown paper bags, to transform them to lovely pieces for book covers, cards etc..

Bring along your own paper if possible but paints, oil sticks etc. will be provided.

I have found some more images of stitched circles squared for my mosaic on Flickr.
I keep finding them all over the place now. These are all in my own work.



Don’t forget to enter the Summer Giveaway on the last post to be in with a chance of winning one of two stitched items. Thank you to those of you who have joined my Followers List to keep me blogging.

Summer Giveaway

I promised a blog giveaway for the summer and here it is. There will be two stitched items. One will be the piece made with Gerdiary’s avocado dyed fabric; basically she gave the fabric to me when I won a virtual voucher for her shop, so I will be passing it on. Except for the backing it is completely make with the fabric she provided and parts of the envelope from Berlin. The other item, well wait and see.

To be eligible for the draw you need to leave your comment here and sign up on my Followers List if you are not already there. I will let you know if you win and you can then let me have your contact details.

I will not be drawing this until 13th September as I shall be busy for a few weeks.

'Contemporary-Medieval'

I had a treat last Friday spending the day at City Lit on a one day bookbinding course. The course was called ‘Contemporary-Medieval’ and the tutor was Ina Baumeister, a professional book binder. I think most of us there were attracted by the idea of the book as sculpture and the idea of using old tyres as covers. Well, there were no old tyres, except in the tutor’s examples, but it was still a good day.

 We started with a basic format, sewing the sections onto cable ties, with instructions on raised band sewing styles.

 In the afternoon we saw the tutors work and were given a range of materials, shoe laces, rope, wire, strimmer tape, and old house signs from which to choose in order to make our own book design. I used a piece of black and silver plastic, not sure of its original use, wire, and plastic thread to work on. It was a packed course, which shows the current interest in book binding and the company was good.

The Squared Circle Group on Flickr is fun. Stitched circles don't really fit neatly, but no worry as someone has started a group for those photos which are 'dumped' from the original group as not being entirely to the rules.

Life Drawing and Monoprints

Over the next academic year I am going to attend two workshops a term at a local college, a ‘Creative Textile’ workshop. I think the idea is mainly to concentrate on design work and it will be good to work with other people. It is a local education college so, at the moment, relatively cheap compared to some of the London courses. I have also signed up for a short course on’ getting to know your DSLR’ camera, which hopefully will leave me less confused.

Back to the course, we are asked to produce a summer sketchbook with a hundred ‘sketches’ which has a wide definition including photos and stitch. So it’s likely that you will be seeing some of the pages here.

At my last life drawing class we did some contour drawing and some monoprinting, both of which were really enjoyable. These are some of the monprints I made at home using water based printing inks. Some on magazine pages.

I have just organized a morning workshop on Transfer Paints for a mother and two daughters. They were v. enthusiastic, which was nice, but I must say that I feel tired out now. I think it may be time for a cup of tea!

Avocado and Flowers

Some of you may remember that not long ago I won a virtual voucher from Gerdiary to use in her shop, I’ve used it now to purchase a pack of her pretty pink materials dyed with avocado skin. Take a look at her posts for more information about this process.

Before using the material I decided to experiment with ‘flower pounding’ which I have been reading about recently. There is plenty of information on the web about it. Basically you take a flower and place it carefully onto your material, put a piece of baking parchment or similar over it and gently pound with a hammer; I only had a piece of heavy metal. Then I turned the sandwich over carefully and worked on the material side, increasing the pressure slightly. The results are pretty, and quite detailed. I have no idea how long they will last and that isn’t too important to me.

I decided to use the material to make a mini long cloth and have very much enjoyed the process. I used every scrap of the material and also the stamp and pieces from the envelope sent from Berlin. I think it was particularly enjoyable as I don’t usually do ‘pretty’ and apart from the pinkness all the fabric was also light and delicate to work on.

As you see I harked back to some of the patching and darning of fabrics we had to do at school but never put into practise. I coated the paper with Acrylic Wax before machining it.

I just have to finish the edges and put on a backing now.

Look out for a blog giveaway in August.

I had a stall at a craft event this weekend, my first since Christmas. It was an enjoyable day, I sold enough at least to cover the cost of being there and had lots of lovely chats, including one with someone who reads my blog.

E-Motive

I am really pleased this year to have my book accepted for the’ We Love Your Books Exhibition’; this is especially so as my book on the closure of Woolworths theme last year was not selected. I felt quite daunted having another go this year, but it made it more special to be selected.

You can go to the website to find the books which will be in the exhibition and the full range of sketchbook spreads which will also be in the catalogue. Each year the organizers,Melaini Bush  and Dr Emma Powell lecturers from the University of Northampton and De Montfort University, ask for an additional element to the artists’ book and this year it was a photo of a landscape sketchbook spread.

The theme is E-motive and I worked on the idea of the colours linked with emotions. I used a series of collagraph prints printed onto cotton with the help of ink aid. I used an actual embossed ie colourless collagraph for the final spread.I made the prints on a Sunday printing course at City Lit. in London. As I now had the prints on fabric I could add some stitching.

It’s unlikely that I will get to the final exhibition but if you live in the area here are the details.

It’s worth having a look at the photos on Flickr as some of the books are really fascinating.

Great Linford Arts Workshop, Parklands, Great Linford, Milton Keynes MK14 5D2


from 28th Aug – 25th Sept, with a preview on Thursday 26th August from 6-9pm.


http://www.artworks-mk.co.uk/

Mini Tutorial

Some ideas for making interesting papers to stitch, for journaling or just for fun using recycled papers, and minimum resources.

You will need:

Old magazines, advertising papers etc.
Brown paper.
Black acrylic or water based printing ink.

Printing ink gives a better impression with detailed stamps and dries less quickly.
Tip if you spread the papers out to dry after using printing ink, be careful where you walk with bare feet!



Old brushes.
Spare scrap paper not too thin.
A brayer/roller if you have one.
Cotton buds or use the pointed end of the brush.
Incense stick.
Crayons.

Spread the ink or paint onto the scrap paper with the brush.

Make marks with a cotton bud or other implement. Here is the advantage of printing ink which gives you more time to work. Put the piece of paper you want to transfer the marks onto face down on the scrap paper and roll with the brayer (or rub gently with your hand).

Once the marks are dry you may wish to stamp over them with a favourite stamp; I used a handwriting one. If you have used ink at this stage you will need patience for it to dry.

If you work on brown paper and want to ‘antique’ it you can rub with some tea or coffee. I also added a couple of tiny drops of Walnut Ink. Use this sparingly as it can be very dark.

Scrunch up the paper regularly but gently.
Tear the edges to look aged. Rub with a gold crayon, markal or similar.
I used a smoking incense stick to burn the edges and some holes in places. Do this over a sink just incase you get too carried away.

Then rub the edges with a black wax crayon or similar.

E-Motive Exhibition.

Jackie Bowcott
Originally uploaded by rejectamenta

My sketchbook spread selected for the 'We Love Your Books Exhibition'. See some of the others on Flickr.

I must admit that I have never really been inspired by the idea of journaling, I think because of recent times the shops have been full of ready made images and bits to stick on etc, and it all seems a bit too ready made and commercial. I came across Teesha Moore’s videos in which she generously shares her much more creative approach to journaling. I went through my books on Altered Art and found many examples of her work. I would recommend this as a fun occupation, particularly when it is too hot to do much, and , of course, there is the pleasure of buying lots of different pens to try out; also a good use for all the glossy Sunday Times supplements, with their wonderful colour spreads.

I found these three ladies in the Tapestry Room at the Vyne (National Trust).

 

Once you have your images, the fun can continue. I made some digital stamps using parts of the art work. I have printed some out to add to the journal.

Another idea is to print them out onto fabric using Ink Aid and add some stitching.

This was one of those strange experiences that you can’t quite explain; I bought an English/Chinese dictionary inscribed Hong Kong 1936 with the idea of using scraps in my work. I wanted the word ‘fruit’ translated into Chinese, and when looking for this a piece of hand written paper fell out of the book, with a biblical reference. I don’t know my bible well so it took some time to look it us and when I did it was exactly what I needed; ‘you are the Vine’ etc. Strange but true.

Birthday and Summer Event.

As a Gemini I have just had a birthday, and a new camera. I had become so used to the ‘old’ one that it is taking some getting used to; there is a lot to learn. Here are some pictures of a few of the textiles in my home.

I have two pieces of Kuba cloth which is made of cut pile  raffia. The marks above represent paw prints.The one piece was such a bargain from a Sunday market in New York. I wished I could have bought many more. The Indian bead work is part of a small cushion which one of my sons bought me for Christmas a few years ago.

If you live anywhere near do come and say hello at this Summer Event where I shall have a stall. It is bound to be a beautiful sunny day as I have opted for a stall inside. I have given up on summer fetes etc. having experienced dust storms, rain and worse! Thinking about it what could be worse when you are trying to sell textiles.

Where do you keep your Sharpies?

Melanie Testa is offering free tutorials this month and the first is this little pen/pencil case. As I had my recently dyed, stencilled material I was tempted to have a go. I don’t think I precisely followed her instructions but they are very clear.

I went to The British Museum last week to see the exhibition of Italian Renaissance Drawings, which I enjoyed very much, the only problem being that there is almost too much to take in during one visit. I bought the catalogue so I can study the work in my own time. A short walk from the museum is The Mary Ward Centre where I once did a felt making course, and have been back to many times since for the excellent vegetarian meals which are also really cheap by London prices.

Then onwards to the Gagosian Gallery to see the free exhibition ‘Picasso: The Mediterranean Years’; this is on until the end of August and is simply fabulous. I am slowly coming to understand his work and the pieces are stunningly presented. I have a catalogue from a charity shop of his work on clay, and here I was able to see some of the actual piece. The first exhibition ,which explains how drawing and the use of paper as a medium developed as a working tool for painters , was a good introduction to the Picasso exhibition. I particularly liked a set of drawings of a bull, which starts with a free outline of the animal and gradually works through the stages until a more classic drawing emerges.

This is for a laugh, in my drawing class last week the model was knitting throughout and it seemed a funny situation. So here is ' Woman with the Blue Knitting’.

I have had to try and tighten up on the security for comments, as I keep getting spam. I know other people are having problems, I hope it doesn't make it too much of a pain if you make a comment.