Aritists book with print

This is the book which I made at the City Lit course in London over the last three Saturdays.

The images all relate to my drawings and photographs of the surrounding fields with bales of straw during the harvest.

The tutor suggested two ways to develop the images via print.Firstly using a plate rolled up and drops of parrafin and lavender oil dropped on. These were not really successful and I used one print for a slip cover for the book.

The second worked much better with some practice. It involved adding pva and carborundum to a plate made from drypoint paper. It was easy to rub away the gritty mixture when inking the plate, but the effect related to my drawings which were made by dropping Indian Ink on wet paper. We discussed various ways of adding the prints and I decided to use stitch , which was sort of appropriate for me.I would certainly recommend the course to anyone who lives near enough.

Fabric Printing

I’ve just been to a course at the City Lit in London, over three Saturdays the theme was Artists Books with Print Making. It was very enjoyable with a good mix of people. It was good to see their work and examples which the tutor brought along. More about that when I get round to take pics of my books. On the course we used polystyrene as one way to make relief printing blocks and I tried this method with fabric paint. I enjoy printing and finding out about some of the methods of interpreting marks, but it is frustrating to not have access to the equipment needed at home, which is why the polystyrene appealed.

I have been using some marks which I found in the snow, a boot print, which has the look of writing in some unknown language. I used this to make the printing block. The experiment was made into a small quilted bag which I have put on Etsy.

Nuno scarf

When I made the felt balls I also made a nuno felt scarf. I used a piece of muslin which I had previously dyed with procion as the base. I think it worked quite well but the difficulty was in having enough space to make it long enough, so it really is quite short, but as its not meant to be a winter muffler I think it is fine.

Merino tops being arranged on the muslin.Fibres being rubbed through a piece of net, using soap flakes and warm water.Rolling the felt between bubble wrap using a bamboo mat.Throwing the soapy parcel of felt on to a ridged surface; a CD holder from a charity shop.A good tip I found is to add extra wool along the edges to keep the shape. It takes a bit of time to get the wool to adher to the edges but works OK in the end.

Using leaves

This is a post for Things Handmade who asked about possibly including pressed leaves and petals in a quilt. This little box was made some years ago, after I recieved some fabric flowers as part of a Christmas present and was sort of challenged to do something creative with them. The box is made of vylene and the leaves and a variety of fibres, flax, silk ,etc were added using Super Mend powder. I then free machined everything in place. At the same time I made a hanging for Poetry in Action which was hung in a number of public places, hospitals and such. I don't have it now but blogged about it here , March 2006.

Its fun to do and certainly lasts a few years with no deterioration; obviously not heirloom material.

Another method is to place petals and leaves between two pieces of bondaweb (taken off its backing) and sandwich between a piece of paper or material, with a sheer on top. Iron carefully,i.e protect your iron with greaseproof paper or similar.

Apples

As you can see, I am into still life at the moment. This is less successful, I think, but a way to use this transfer print of a fern leaf. There are real leaves embedded in this, which have lasted a few years without deteriorating.

I combined sewing machine patterns with some hand stitching.

Autumn Still Life

http://www.flickr.com/groups/echoesjournal/

I've just joined this interesting mixed media group on Flickr and added this 'still life' as my first contribution.

At last a use for all the piles of stitch and dye samples. The background is a piece of brown paper, stitched and painted with bits of old tights for texture. The produce is all down to my husband.

Felt

Last weekend I visited the Brewery Art Centre in Cirencester. I understand it has recently been refurbished and is certainly worth a visit. There you can see a small book making workshop and an exhibition in the gallery. There is some beautiful woven fabric; I could have bought a unique and extremely expensive outfit. There were woven hangings which incorporated strips of digital photographs. I haven’t seen that idea before. I didn’t have long to look round so I can’t give you any artists’ names other than the felt maker Sarah Brooker.

The lovely felt there gave me the push to get out the bamboo blind and have a go at felting again.These little chaps were supposed to be beaded but I kind of like them as they are.
They seem like a little family just about to flee the cave and start life in the big world beyond. The idea for the photo was partly inspired by the header on this interesting blog, which always has some links worth following up.

Photo Journal

http://photojojo.com/content/diy/make-your-own-photo-notebook-journal/

This is a great link to a tutorial on how to make a Photo Journal. I made mine using two photos of our local fields during the recent harvest. I also used up a stack of old envelopes which I had been collecting. It works well. The only mistakes I made were not to measure the brown paper for the spine nicely and if you put writing on your photos remember that the spine could cover part of your title. Think that out first - wish I had done.

I was asked for a ‘how to’ on the cover material I used on the Coptic Book – I worked out that I made the material about ten years ago. I did look up the reference which is Lis Mann, ‘Faux Par Excellence’ March 1997 and May 1997 in ‘The World of Embroidery’. They are basically painting techniques used on cotton pillow ticking which works like a canvas.

Mosaic Monday

Mosaic Monday
Originally uploaded by Feltbug

A nice surprise on a really dark wet Tuesday to find my work in Feltbug's Mosaic. She finds some interesting work, so its always worth having a look.

Coptic Stitch

I was able to borrow a copy of a book by Keith Smith which gives very detailed instructions on Non-Adhesive Bookbinding, and so, following the instructions for Coptic Binding I have produced my first attempt. The instructions are so detailed that at times I wondered if they made the whole process more complicated than it need be.
I find I learn best from a combination of someone showing me and then having quiet time to work it out for myself. Having said that I think the book is excellent and plan to get my own copy at some point. The cover is a piece of material I decorated with a faux mineral effect described by Liz Mann in Embroidery Magazine many years ago; for those of you who remember that was before they changed the magazine and cut out techniques for a more art based approach.Perhaps I should try the magazine again as my interests have moved on, but I'm still a sucker for a new technique!

Is it a bag or a book?

Here is an idea of what to do with those important birthday cards that you just can’t bear to throw away. I bound my cards into a book to remember a ‘special’ birthday. I used the carrier bag that one of my presents came in and a ribbon off another present to decorate the cover

I pasted in pieces of old envelopes to hold a series of postcards which I received,and stitched in the cards as separate signatures.

On one page I stitched the wrappers from some very posh chocolates which came from Denmark.




Of course you have to have friends and family to give you the nice cards and presents first.

Award

Thanks Mary for giving me the above award: http://maryandrews.blogspot.com/

The rules of the award are:The winner can put the logo on her blog.Link the person you received your award from.Nominate at least 7 other blogs.Put links of those blogs on yours.Leave a message on the blogs you’ve nominated...

http://www.feltbug.blogspot.com/ (for her Mosaic Monday)

http://u-handbag.typepad.com/ (for her tutorials)

http://pirilamporiscado.blogspot.com/ (beautiful work)

http://www.karenruane.blogspot.com/

http://foldingtrees.com/page/2/ (book binding)

http://littlepaperbird.blogspot.com/

http://www.ragandbone.com/blog/

Newspaper

I’m planning to do a recycle/reuse theme with a group that I work with, so the idea of beads made from newspaper appealed. Its is quite labour intensive but fun the first time round. I gave up on the sandpapering which I think is the clue to getting a nice even surface, as you see mine are really craggy. I think they could be useful as dangles on a bag or even a hanging. I made holes in mine using my book binding awl which was quite easy. Here is the link, in case you have not already seen it and from there you can find the person who originated them on Flickr; hers are much nicer than my first (and probably last) attempt.

I have also been playing around with close ups and depth of field, in case you are wondering what these boring blob pictures are about.
I have been posting on the I Love Haberdashery Group on Flickr which is fun if you like old wooden cotton reels and that sort of thing.

Wordle

Too many ideas.
Can’t keep to one.
A good thing or bad.
Excitement, inspiration, crazy must does.
Why? Purpose none. Just to keep going day after day.
Where do you put it all? Where indeed.
Don’t let me ask that. Don’t let me ask.
As I trip over paper, fabric and thread.
Camera and tripod. Wacom and all.
Pencils and paint. All the new stuff.
Creativity. Madness. Misunderstood.
Obsessional.
Don’t let me stop.
Let me keep going and not loose the thread.

Have fun with your own words at Wordle here.

Lemon Skin

Continuing with a theme for once, at least for a short time, I have worked on the close up of the lemon skin. I machined into the Indian rag paper, and tried some hand stitching. Eventually I added some lace and wax, and then some French Knots on top.

I also tried waxing over dress pattern tissue. It’s quite hard to get the effect over in a photo which is largely tactile due to the layers of wax.
I also did another collage using a photo of a banana plant leaf; the photo being much better than my artwork.

At the weekend we went to Art in Action at Waterperry Gardens. Some of the work was amazing, especially that of an embroiderer called Rosalind Wyatt who was showing how she uses stitched letters on antique textiles. Also inspiring was the felt work of Heather Belcher who uses a heat press (don’t ask me, I never heard of one before) to incorporate her drawings onto felt. My head was buzzing with new ideas, and of course I wanted to try them all - and all at once!!

I was quite productive last week and using some close up photos of a lemon and a houseplant leaf I started to develop some designs. I don’t know if I will ever take them further but it is an attempt to work on my sketchbook, so that I don’t feel my course was wasted.

I used part of the photo and printed onto it with Acrylic Gesso and then added some watercolour paint.
On the one of the leaf I used watercolour and drew into it with ink.

Shop

Trying to make time to update my Etsy store after many months. I have added these two small quilted wall hangings or throws.

' Raspberry Ripple'

I am also trying to ‘destash’ as it is called. I have quite a lot of dyed fabric which I was really into when I made a number of printed and embroidered book covers, so I had the idea of adding pieces of the brushed cotton fabric to the supplies section on Etsy. It was really difficult to photograph.

'Fairy Glade'

'Green Glade'