'A story for very Little Girls'

Finally got round to using this book cover to make a book using a selection of papers, including some nice thick watercolour paper.

As you see, I attempted Coptic binding again, not perfect but not too bad. One of the kettle stitches is not right; it is one of those things you can only practise by doing and that takes a lot of paper, not to speak of patience.
The cover was cleaned and the picture given a coat of acrylic wax. In a moment of serendipity I used some baby talc on the leather and it seemed to bring it up nicely.

Photos and more.

There are some nice things to do with your photographs now. I had a gift token for Blurb for Christmas but haven't decided what sort of book to make with my photographs as yet. The picture of the onions with my stitching in the background was a present from one of my sons for Christmas; you can see the link under Photos to Canvas.

The address book has one of my photos on the back and front, it is printed onto a lovely silky material. The link to the supplier is under 'gift ideas'.
Thanks for the comments about the exhibition. I don't have many photographs of the work as it was very crowded and also because we were all given a CD of all the work shown. It was extremley well organized.

Cruel Britannia @ T&P Gallery, Philadelphia May 2009

Cruel Britannia @ T&P Gallery, Philadelphia May 2009
Originally uploaded by DBO PONDERS

Little Women

LITTLE WOMEN!

the 13th Women's Work

Exhibition

The Fairground Craft & Design Centre

Weyhill, Andover, Hampshire SP11 0QN

11th March to Sunday 22 March 2009

(Closed Mondays & Tuesdays)

10am to 4pm

This is an exhibition well worth the visit if you live anywhere near. The works had to be small enough to be displayed in a CD case or to meet certain size restrictions if 3D.
There is a huge variety of styles. We bought two small prints, as everything is reasonably priced and it is nice to have an original artwork.

One of my pieces was selected and is an artist’s book with the title ‘World Stability is Hanging by a Thread’, which is a headline I found in the newspaper. I like it because it feels so nice being made from handmade paper into which I laminated lots of thread.Unfortunately you don't get to touch it.

Felt and Print

I have been making a few new items for Etsy, mainly because I just wanted to make some felt and also try out the idea of printing with fruit and vegetables.

This small felt purse is made of merino wool with silk tops and some pieces of dip-dyed Wensleydale Fleece (this has a lovely kink but I find I have to separate it out to get it to felt into the surface). The inside is nice as it has a first layer of blended purple and white merino
The part of the purse which I like best is the edging of tiny felt balls with small beads. Fun to make. There is no sense of scale here but the purse is about 13cms high and the felt balls only a cm..
I decided not to fasten the flap down as I think it would spoil the purse but I suppose it makes it less practical, but then you can hardly say it’s a practical item.

This is a piece of the cotton printed with fabric paint and then washed over with Dyna Flow. It looked drab until I overprinted with two shades of gold acrylic which I think lifted the fabric. The lining is silk dupion.

Textile Doodles

On March 11th I will be giving a two hour workshop at Doodles the new craft shop in Franklin Avenue, Tadley, Hampshire. They are arranging a number of two hour starter sessions in crafts such as mosaics, glass painting and basket weaving.

I have organized two now which I have really enjoyed and I think the participants have as well. This time I am planning black and white printing with found objects, as the past two were very bright and colourful.

We are going to make a small fold book of samples.

This is an interesting blog with lots of ideas for stamping. I was taken with the idea of stamping/printing onto pleated material and of course I had to have a go using a sliced apple and a piece of onion.

Printing Blocks

This was a Christmas present to myself. I bid on Ebay but didn't succeed so I sourced them on Etsy from Angiepea, whose shop I would recommend. They were in a lovely polished condition when they arrived but as you will notice I have been using them since.

Fashioned Pages

I have started going to a drawing class locally, unfortunately it was closed last week so I started to play with some of the charcoal sketches from the previous two weeks. I am realistic about my current standard of drawing but I do feel that the Access Course has made me far more confident and improved my work. The drawing sessions on the course were sometimes really dispiriting as the standard was mostly so high.

I scanned parts of the drawings and used layers and ‘colour match’ from a photo of a flower.

I transferred the images using a gel medium onto white felt and cotton.This is fun to do and I suppose the next step would be to manipulate the photos of the stitched pieces on the computer. Well, you could just keep on playing really.

More Snow

Yes, Gunnel I do like the snow, mainly because I don't now have to juggle work with closed schools and slippery roads. I feel for all the parents trying to manage mixed committments in the present weather. For me it can now be just be a pretty picture.

This is a piece I made for an exhibition to go with the previous one following City & Guilds. There was also a hanging , silk organza ,which I embroidered with words from a poem about returning home to a white house by a Welsh poet. It seemed appropriate to get it out in the present weather.

Fabric Printing 2

I went on to colour the other pieces with fabric paint. I made two into hearts for Valentines Day on Etsy.

Another of the pieces I made into a birthday card for one of my sons who had reminded me that he had bought me the printing blocks, so long ago that I had forgotten where they came from.

My sons share the same birthday and this year they got home made cards.

Fabric Printing

On this really interesting and varied blog there is a tutorial for making a home made stamp pad. The idea is that it is easier when printing small items such as buttons to use a stamp pad. I thought I would have a go but ended up making quite a large lino cut. This is where the inspiration came from.

I used quite a lot of fabric paint so Iwent on to use a few other stamps, some carved out of a soft block material, some from erasers and a couple of proper print blocks.

I painted the top piece with Jacquard Dye-na-flow. Well ,it kept me busy for a few hours; I will show you what happened to the other pieces in my next post. By the way, I sometimes try to get back to people who have posted comments and find that I cannot access their blogs - so I would like to say here that I do very much appreciate your kind comments.

Hand dyed Heaven

Check out this beautiful treasury ,which can be viewed until Saturday on Etsy.

Many thanks to The Rainbow Girl for choosing one of my pieces to feature.

Frosty

There are a number of reasons for this post, firstly the frosty, icy weather in England over the last week. The fields surrounding went for at least two days without thawing and turned into a fairy landscape. Secondly, the frost reminded me of one of the final pieces I did for my City and Guilds assessment, which has languished in a box for years. If you click on the picture above you can look down into the piece and see more of the detail.

Thirdly I don’t post much about stitch these days as I get distracted by my varied interests since the Access Course; I felt I should fulfil the title of the blog. Another reason is that although these photographs are not great I didn’t take any close up pictures at the time.

The edging is an interesting stitch called Cinq point de Venise. Lynne Horniblow wrote a master class on it in The World of Embroidery Magazine in 2000 (Vol51 No2.)

Texture challenge.

Created for the textures for layers challenge on Flickr This is my first attempt at entering one of the challenges based on the tutorials provided by the group. Like any first try I like it and can't see most of the faults yet!

I think one could spend hours playing with photographs in this way, and I probably shall do.

The flower photo is provided and you then choose a texture from the group pool. The muslin texture is one I scanned in myself.

2009

Made today in response to a request for a kilt pin. I had the pins for sometime but had never got round to thinking through how to attach the felt balls. I made small beaded loops which seems to work well and be secure.

This one is silver coloured and included in one of the wire beads are two pieces of polished amber 'made' at a workshop at The Downland and Weld Museum,many moons ago.

Best wishes for a happy 2009.

Mosaic Monday

Mosaic Monday
Originally uploaded by Feltbug

If you want to look at some interesting work without much effort, its easy to click onto Feltbugs Mosaic Monday.She does most of the work for you!

Found

I saved this old book cover and the wonderful spine from the rubbish bin at a book bindery which I go to on Fridays. It looks as though somebody had used a piece of paper with their book keeping notes to cover the spine of this old gardening book. The whole thing is great for people like me who like that sort of thing; very nostalgic and tactile.

I'm not sure how I will use the cover yet but I have used the photographs as a layer with photographs of Derek Jarman's garden taken last year at Dungeness. I'm sure that I'm only pleased because it is one of a first few attempts at merging layers, and eventually I will be able to see all the faults.

If you live near Winchester, Hampshire a good place for old books is the Deanery Book Shop behind the cathedral; this being one of their rejects. They close during the winter. Another plug is for this group on Flickr which has excellent tutorials about using layers and textures with your photographs.

Three Headed Fish

Three Headed Fish
Originally uploaded by stitchworks-jackie

Apparently I have received the Max Fudge Award for this photo. The photography groups on Flickr are a whole new world, with their own rules and language. Well worth having a look at, but if you start posting beware of the rules, some of which take some time to get your head around!!

Stitching

Some progress with the stitching. Layers of Cretan stitch in different weight and texture of thread and some couching.

For anyone in Sheffield there is currently an exhibition of artists' books at the Banks StreetArts Gallery. I have a small book in the show which I made on my Access Course; it is called 'Figures in a Gallery' so its sort of appropriate.

Fo those in Hampshire UK there is a new shop featuring the work of independent artists called 'Doodles' in Tadley near to Basingstoke. It opened at the end of last month and also sells a small range of art supplies.For anyone who knows the area you will realize that it is something of an oasis in a barren land.

Malaxa

I fancied doing some stitching for a change and I have decided to use a picture of a window, part of a ruin next to the house which we stayed in during our holiday in Crete in October. I have tried various ways to transfer the image using transparency print offs and have decided that the most appropriate method is to inkjet print onto Bubble Jet soaked calico.

To get a textured surface I am starting with strips of silk carrier rods which I soaked in some diluted Walnut Ink; as you see there was quite a purple tinge but enough pieces to get the kind of effect I visualize.

Sorted out some threads for the first stage. I started with machining round the window shape and fastening the pieces of silk in place on the calico backing.

Now I have made a start on the hand stitching which is going to take a long time but as I said it will be a pleasant change to do some stitching.