A few more knots.

This week we practised Bullion Knots and I found a few of my samples, including  a whitework one which reminded me of the time that I planned to try to learn Mountmellick Work, a traditional Irish Embroidery, but did not get very far. 

If you have not tried this stitch it is quite addictive, but  takes some practise the first time, and then needs a warm up before you get back into some kind of rhythm each time.

 Many tutorials online now, but I found the method in Tracy Franklin's book on whitework to be the easiest to follow. It may be available in your local library as I know it is in mine.

                                                  

Small and mini.

I made some small books with pamphlet stitch using some of the gelliprints from a previous session.

Finding just the right button.

Thanks to inspiration from Ines Seidel  one of my groups has made some paper bowls using brown paper, book pages, tissue and pressed leaves. Now we are making objects to put in the bowls such as paper flowers from book pages, and next week I hope we will make some mini books.

 All you need are some old book pages and something suitable for the cover; I was fortunate to be given some snake skin and I have some offcuts of leather so we are all set.

 I used glue to stick on the cover but in the past I have stitched in the pages. I really,really, need to tidy my 'mini' studio, but all that cardboard, those given treasures, boxes of buttons, bits of leather, they all have their day; but I am running out of space.

Gelli,lino and Stitch

I had another go at linocut with a gelli plate background. I also cut out some pieces and added some stitch, easy to take it to the sewing machine as I was working on strong watercolour paper.

 I decided that rubbing with the back of a spoon works better for me than using the Speedball baren.

In the one below I added some bling, which is not usually my thing.I cut out the image and added it to

a piece of my handmade paper with machine stitch.

Gelli Plate and Linocuts

I had the idea of making some lino cuts and using these with the Gelli Plate, I am sure it is not a new idea but new to me. I think it has some potential, especially using some of the background ideas from Carla Sonheim.

 Some of these were made on pages taken out of my sketchbook and I need to proceed in a more thoughtful way and on better paper.

 One advantage I noticed is that the background using acrylic dries quickly and can then be layered with the printing inks (or vice versa), whereas when I made a linocut background and then put another print using water based printing inks on top it took a long time to be dry to the touch.

In the one above you can see that some of the ink transferred to the plate from a previous print to which I had added a background.

Bye the way 'hello' to new followers and thank for reading.

Sketchbook Challenge Moon and Stars

Sketchbook Challenge Moon and Stars, a photo by stitchworks-jackie on Flickr.

See The Sketchbook Challenge for Novembers theme of 'moon and stars'.

Gelli Prints

Thanks to Roberta Warshaw  I heard about Carla Sonheim's  gelli plate workshop and have enjoyed working through it this week.

 I learned a good deal and would certainly recommend it. Here is some of the work in progress and a few prints that have been worked on.

 She makes the point that only a few prints out of a batch will be ‘almost’ completely satisfying and stresses the fun part of the process.

For those of you interested in Needle Felting you may like to take a look at my article in the November/December issue of ‘Cloth Paper Scissors’.

French Knots

This short video was made for a group some of whom are getting to grips with the delights of the much maligned French Knot for the first time. It is quite simple but some of them asked to be able to view it on-line.



019 from J Bowcutt on Vimeo.

I am researching a good tripod attachment for the ipad, not too expensive, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

Monoprint

I am not currently signed up for Design Matters TV  but no doubt I will join again in the future as I enjoy the stimulation of their weekly videos. I wanted to let you know that at the moment they have just added two extra free videos to advertise what they offer. The two new ones happen to be two of my favourites from past weeks, one is about monoprinting on fabric and the other is showing an easy way to wax papers. You may enjoy them. I was reminded of a technique for monoprinting designs onto fabric and had a go with my rabbit sketch.

I used a piece of fabric which had been dyed and one which I had rusted.

I then added some handwriting.

Playing around I added an extra rabbit to the photograph;this could now be transferred to fabric using TAP. 

Endless possibilities.

Knit and Stitch Show 2013

Last Friday I ventured to the Knit and Stitch Show at Alexander Palace, it involved a journey comprising of many buses, tubes and trains, and I must admit it all went smoothly in comparison with last year’s problems due to signalling breakdown. I hadn't planned to go this year, but like some groupie I could not resist going just to be in the presence of my current stitch idol Dorothy Caldwell.

 I joined her two hour Kantha workshop in the afternoon, and learned a good deal and had some nice chats with fellow textile enthusiasts.She has been involved with Indian young people producing contemporary Kantha work over the years, and this type of recycled textile work relates well to her aesthetic of repair/reconstruction, darning and mending. 

 There was a display of Dorothy Caldwell’s work made in response to the Australian outback and the Canadian Arctic  which was fascinating. 

The other highlights were the showcase of work by recent graduates; that of Jean LittleJohn and Jan Beaney and the work of James Huntley.

Really just too much to see and so little time (and not enough energy).

My journey paled into insignificance compared to that of Dale Rollerson and her husband who had come over from Australia to run their stand ‘The Thread Studio’ and for a holiday in Cornwall. It was good to say hello briefly to Dale, of Down-under Dale, who was extremely busy and doing good business. She has kindly asked me to write an article for the next issue of ‘ThreadInfusion’ which will be the third edition of her emag, which will be all about stitch, both hand and machine and is entitled ‘Stitchy Stitchy’.

A Walk in the Country

The theme on the Sketchbook Challenge Blog this month is animal companions, as we don’t have pets, other than tropical fish, I have focused on a photograph of a rabbit which I took recently, the poor thing had been partly eaten by predators, not such an unusual sight if you take a walk in the country.

 I drew in my sketchbook from the photograph and then used TAP to transfer both the image and those I had manipulated on the ipad onto fabric.

The straight forward stitched pieced using Bokhara Couching worked more successfully, whereas the other piece became more experimental.

 I machine stitched the outline of the two rabbits and then had the idea of cutting them out and placing them on quilt wadding prior to embellishing with wool and muslin. The piece was really distorted so I backed it with acrylic felt before further embellishing, free machining and adding hand stitch.

 To retrieve what was becoming a failed experiment I then took the scissors to the back, slashed into the rabbit areas and stuffed them Trapunto style with wool tops. Makes me exhausted just writing it down. 

So it looks as if I am gradually being taken over by rabbits, for anyone who knows the comedy 'Father Ted' it reminds me of the episode where the same thing happens.

Tie-Dye book a Winner

The winner of a copy of Shabd Simon-Alexander's book 'Tie-Dye' is:
Sheila of 'TEA and TOAST.

She loves teal but is a bit shy of grey.

The replies were fascinating, and prompted quite a strong response.
For me, I like purples, lilacs and am not keen on yellow, but then combine a bit of purple and yellow and that is something zingy!