Bandage

I seen to have inherited quite a lot of old bandage. The previous generation were keen on keeping
First Aid boxes which appear to have never been used.

I'm pleased that my Embellisher gives me a use for most of them.

Alma Stoller is celebrating her 40th birthday with a $40 dollar reduction in the registration fee for the next six months of Stitched. See the link in my side bar for more details of the workshops. In June I will be having a give-away linked to my workshop. Alma is also having a draw in which you can win threads over the next few weeks.

Out of interest, I have not used the 'gotcha' code when people post for at least a year and hardly ever get any spam now that Blogger has sorted it out  - I must say I find it increasingly difficult to get the codes right first time.

For those people who wanted to see how I use the bandage, here it is embellished.

Work in progress.

I am currently working on a piece of hand made felt and found my button collection,including some charming old covered shirt buttons. They seem to have been fixed with wire as each had a small piece of wire which I had to remove. I really like the cuts and traces of use on  the big cream button.


Over the next weeks Alma Stoller is featuring interviews she has done on her blog.
Here is a link to the blog interview I had with Alma  and a few pictures of varied work I have done over recent years.

http://www.almastoller.blogspot.co.uk/

'The Sketchbook Challenge'

Sue Bleiweiss' book linked to The Sketchbook Challenge will be published next month.
The publisher in New York had an event recently to promote  their new craft books and I was asked to send my sketchbook and the piece related to it for the event. I thought it quite funny that my book had winged its way to the USA and then made its way back, only to go Fedexing back to New York. You can see some slides of the event here:
http://crafternews.crownpublishing.com/2012/05/15/crafternoon-2012-recap-and-slideshow/

The Sketchbook Challenge started last year and provides a theme each month with the possibility of winning a prize in the monthly draw.There is a link in my side bar and more about Sue's work here:
http://suebleiweiss.com/blog/

Art in the home.

I was very pleased to be asked by Susan Bowers of 'Trace Marks' if a particular piece of my work was available to purchase. On her blog you can see her spacious studio and be even more envious when you see the works of art she has collected to make a calm background for her own creativity.

 My small textile piece 'Snow Writing' is in 'grand' company far away in Queensland.

I have a textile piece by Dionne Swift, a print by Cathy Cullis, and one by Pat Hodson on the wall in front of me as I type. It is really special to have an original piece of an artists' work, it makes a sort of connection with someone who may be working many miles away or with  someone whom one will never meet but already feel an affinity with and it is definitely a spur to ones' own creativity.  We should all do more of the kind of collecting which Susan does.

Exhibition

I was in London today and enjoyed the variety of work in the textile exhibition at the City Lit College in Holborn.The work is in the display cabinets on floors 3 and 4 and in the cabinets in the entrance. I was really pleased that all the work I sent is displayed in the foyer.

I took photos of other people's work and most of it I have the names of the artists for, where I don't I apologise and can only say that I appreciated the work and that is why it is shown  here.
Emma Parker on the Tuesday Evening Textile Course:-

Work by Katrina Parris:-

Work from the Drawing with Stitch course by  Madeleine Famurewa  which looks to be a lively course:

These are the pieces which I most admired:-

If you want to see the work you will have to hurry as there are only a few days left.

Exhibition

Student textile exhibition

Students from various textile courses are displaying their work at City Lit 

Work will be by students from 'The textile course: day and evening', 'Creative stitched textiles', 'Costume Design' and short courses in 'Mixed media textiles' and 'Fashioning fabrics: collars, cuffs and corsages'. 

When: 26 April - 9 May 2012
Where: Third and fourth floors and also in the foyer at City Lit's Keeley Street site 

Grey Day.

I am continuing working on my theme of Change, Transform, Disintegrate using images from the rabbit’s skeleton. This piece uses bandage, a piece of grey commercial felt,tea dyed muslin, with merino tops and other bits and pieces.

Here is a page from my sketchbook.

It is a very grey and miserable day here in Hampshire UK with little to cheer up the gloom except the green shoots in the almost flooded field opposite.

I had fun finding various ways to fill the squares.

Stacks and Stashes

Wading through.

Feeling the pressure.

Quick kip.

Determined.

A little worse for wear.

Not waving but drowning?




A few bloggers have added some lovely photos of their almost forgotten stacks and stashes in response to this post by Jennifer.
Unfortunately mine are not so scenic and I am often knocking stuff over and wading through it. I agree that sometimes one just stops noticing those stacks of crushed cans or sketchbooks, and its good to have a look round and see with new eyes.

Tea and bandages.

With the embellisher you can make your own fabric, here I used an off cut of curtain lining, tea dyed muslin and bandage from a First Aid box cleared from my late father-in-law’s house as the base fabric.

 Other bits and pieces added included merino wool, felt and brown silk thread. I am enjoying experimenting with my embellisher and finding out the different things I can do. As you see the theme is still linked to the rabbit’s scull.

 I like how a line of stitching can be ‘knocked back’ with the embellisher and then brought back into clearer focus again. Mixing colours is easy to do as well.

Felt

Unfortunately I forgot to take photos of the work which I took to City Lit for the textile exhibition. Life has been really hectic for me recently.  The centre of this piece has muslin added during the felting process, ‘nuno’ style.

 The machined black line is rather heavy here but prior to taking it to London I embellished it which served to ‘knock’ it back and to give it a furry look and feel, which I liked, particularly as it fitted in with the rabbit’s skeleton theme.

I am so pleased with my new embellisher and only wish I had more time to play with it. This is a picture of my current set up, I am fortunate in that I can leave both my machine and embellisher up permanently. You can’t see the fields beyond, but I am lucky to have a lovely view. The field has just been sown and lines of green shoots are appearing.

Transform

These are some of the samples/pieces that I started working on during the ‘Change, Transform, and Disintegrate’ course at City Lit...

 The person next to me was doing a Felt course and when I saw her working on felt it seemed a good way to go with my theme of the Rabbits’ skeleton.

 For once I feel pleased with the results and I think this is going to give me the incentive to stick with my theme. I imagined them displayed rolled up and looking like the layered beads one sometimes sees intricately carved out of bone.

 Louise Baldwin suggested the idea of vessels and this is another way to go. Everyone’s theme and the work they produced was unique and it was an interesting group of people with a good deal of varied experience.