More Stash

The good news is that I am working steadily through my stash of dyed, painted and printed fabrics, merrily cutting curved seams and making a variety of blocks to be used together at some stage. On the less sensible track I decided to dye some more material, in fact to use up most of my store of cotton and silk which I bought prepared for dyeing. I will have to look at Whaley’s updated price list so I can get tempted.

I don’t know about you, but the more I read about dye recipes the more confused I get. This is despite the fact that I once wrote a dyeing workshop for Workshop on the Web. I think it’s a bit like felt making, everyone seems to have their own pet method which tends to come over like it is written in stone. I have been watching the Complex Cloth DVD and decided to go back to basics. I have started with a low water immersion using an initial colour, binding the silk and cotton, and then intend to go for over dyeing for the next step. I am even using up my Procion Dyes which is another good thing as I have had them for a long time.

There were two enthusiastic people joined in the Doodles (Tadley) printing workshop this week. We printed on envelopes and old book pages using water based printing inks; by the end of the session there was some creative buss about and I enjoyed that very much.

I have put this together using a 'new' to me version of blogger,which should make it much easier to place pictures, when I get used to it. It was a steep learning curve for me when I started this blog, when I had to ring my son to check out how to insert code. Things have become much simpler since then, but I am stuck in  my ways, and felt a moments panic when the familar uploading was nolonger there.                   

Kozo

Kozo
Originally uploaded by stitchworks-jackie

Cyrus' Cylinder Part 2

For my second piece for the ‘Made to Fit’ exhibition I made another version of Cyrus’ Cylinder, this time, influenced by my course with Louise Baldwin, I used various papers,including some very delicate Japanese papers, stitched into the seams around the cylinder. On some pieces of Vellum I printed either lines from the Bill of Rights, or some of the quotes from the actual cylinder.
On a trip to the British Museum I asked where I could see the cylinder but had a blank response. Fortunately in the Enlightenment Gallery, I found a number of incised cylinders and presumed one of them was the one I was looking for.

This is a piece I made in Louise Baldwin’s workshop which relates to the finished piece.

I stitched a piece of calico with a twin needle to get the shape of the cylinder. This is the inside, I stamped both sides with a handwriting stamp and added rolled beads made from book pages as in version one.

How to get the pieces to keep their shape; it was simple in the end, when I got the idea of using empty cardboard toilet rolls. I did paint them nicely with gesso.

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Here is a tip if you haven’t thought of it already.

When I went to throw away my old window cleaning spray, I thought how useful the spray attachment looked.

Cut down it works well should you want a sprayed background, especially on the days when you haven’t enough puff for the diffuser or the tiny spray bottle is too fiddly.

Next Workshop.

The next workshop at Doodles Tadley ( see link for website) is on Wednesday 21st April.

Called Recycle/Reuse we will be making art on book pages from 1pm to 3pm..

Cost £12.

JUST ANOTHER

JUST ANOTHER
Originally uploaded by DBO PONDERS

Video fun.

I really enjoy watching craft type videos at the moment; I am sure that for me it is an ideal way to learn. If you have ever filled in one of those questionnaires about learning styles, I must be a visual learner. Its not only the techniques, I also enjoy observing how people work, their setting and in general their accents and mannerisms.
My three favourites at the moment are the amazing Jude Hill on Spirit Cloth, (see links), I imagine many of you will have been avidly watching her technique for weaving strips of cloth and I see chequerboard patterns springing up across blog land.
Even more generously on You Tube you have three video lessons from Alicia Merrett showing how to cut and sew curved seams. If you Google her, she has an interesting website with information about her workshops in the Glastonbury area. She shares the whole process in a lovely clear manner and doesn’t try to sell us anything, other than wanting us to share the fun which, of course, I had to do after buying a new blade for my rotary cutter.

For a good laugh you can watch the phantom one handed felter here.

For no reason other than to be nice, Chris Gray has sent me some of her faux leather papers. Chris is to be admired for sticking to her ethnic theme and exploring it in her textiles and sketchbooks; so, not at all like me. I'm off to cut some more curved seams.

mosaic monday

mosaic monday
Originally uploaded by cathy cullis

For Easter

For Easter
Originally uploaded by stitchworks-jackie

Mini Books

Here are some images of the books I have made for the mini book swap on http://wovenletters.blogspot.com/

I used some remnants of leather I had for the covers and used pamphlet stitch to attach the pages made out of nice creamy paper.

The third ‘book’ is made up of pieces of scrap paper and business cards, including some of my own. I have a pile of these on my desk,collected at exhibitions, as I drool over other peoples’ work. The pictures are also to show my son that I do use the sewing cradle he made for me.

I hope the recipient will be pleased as I had fun making them.

On this blog Ann is writing about the workshops which I have organized at Doodles (Tadley). She made a lovely bag decorated with the silk carrier rods which we painted and Cretan Stitch. Last week we made pictures using Eyelet Stitch and wrapped rings. She has been v. creative with the results.
The next workshop is on Wednesday April 21st at 1-3pm. Called ‘Recycle/Reuse’ we will be making art on old book pages and there will be some buttons in the mix too.
I have three short online workshops running on HEN which can be joined at any time; ‘Painted Kantha’,'Printing with Found Objects’ and ‘Monoprint and Stitch'.

'Cyrus'Cylinder'

Dear Reader I hope you will find this interesting; it is interesting for me to track how ideas for these two pieces came together. There is a group on Flickr called The Persistent Thread which encourages thoughts of how certain ideas are always in the background, even if sometimes one tends to think there is neither rhyme nor reason to what one is doing.

I recently stitched a piece based on the shape of a book spine, using marks in the snow as symbols. Watching the TV I briefly saw an image of Cyrus’ Cylinder in the British Museum and it reminded me of the shape I had been stitching. Thanks to the internet I was able to research its fascinating history. It is a pottery cylinder incised with an edict made by a Persian King after he conquered Babylon. There is some controversy over the claim that it is the first declaration of Human Rights. I jumped up in bed one Saturday morning, having already made the two pieces, to hear it mentioned in the news, as the Iranian regime would like to borrow it from the BM but politics seem to have intervened. There is a lot more to say about it, have a look at the link if you are fascinated.

I used a photograph of an old book spine which you may have seen here before. Old accountant pages in Copperplate had been used to cover the spine of the book. I added text using lines from Cyrrus ,some from the Bill of Human Rights, and some that I used to use with people in my work i.e. ‘You Have the Right to Make Mistakes’, ‘You Have the Right to say No’, these contrasted nicely with ‘The Right to Conquer Discretely’. Calico was coated with Ink Aid to print out the image.
I shaped the material using twin needle stitching. The piece had to be made to a certain size and I ended up making two versions of this piece as I wanted the threads to hang loosely at the edges.

Beads were made from old book pages, and eventually stitched in place with Cretan Stitch and stitches looping into the machine stitches.

I will tell the' secrets 'of the cylinder shape and the second piece in the next instalment.

Private View

Last night we went to the Private View for the ‘Made to Fit’ exhibition which is in the newly refurbished Willis Museum until mid April. I think there was a greater mixture of techniques this year, probably less prints than last year. Most of the work is for sale and at affordable prices.

The format works very well, which is that all works have to fit into a CD case or to exact measurements if they are 3D. I understand that a new format is planned for next year. I am not always pleased with my work when I see it displayed, sometimes, what you have angst over for so long can look quite insignificant – at least that’s how I sometimes feel – but on this occasion I am pleased with my work and how it came together.

I will be posting more about how the two pieces were made and the thoughts behind them.
The Italian meal afterwards was good too, although so rich that I had to admit defeat on finishing the Gorgonzola and Gnocchi.

A word about my Header. I thought some Spring flowers would be nice. The stitching was some of the first I did when I started to embroider. I am amazed by the detail, but pleased that I can feel that my work has progressed.

TECTONIC PLATES

TECTONIC PLATES
Originally uploaded by DBO PONDERS

TECTONIC PLATES EXHIBITIONAn exhibition of plate designs by UK & International Artists.Private View: 27th March 2010 4pm - 8pmShow runs until 3rd AprilLocation: The New English Gallery, Barlaston, Stoke On Trent, ST12 9DA

Includes work by my son DBO.

The novelty of winning.

' THE GHOST'

To cheer me up today I received an email from Heike Gerbig to tell me that I am one of three lucky people to win a virtual voucher towards a purchase from her new shop. You were asked to say what you would collect if you had all the money in the world, my choice was lovely handmade paper and hand stitched notebooks. I did make the point that I am well on my way to doing that anyway.

If you have not read her blog it is Gerdiary ;her handstitched work is beautiful in neutral calming colours. You can now browse her shop as well. I haven't bought anything yet, but I shall keep going back to get tempted.

I have been using White Matte Precoat InkAid recently and I must say it far out does Bubblejet Set for printing out images onto fabric. The only downside is that on calico it gives the fabric a quite rough not so pleasant finish for stitching.

The above image printed out wonderfully, the bit of stitching looking quite three dimensional and all the words legible. I currently like it so much I am recluctant to stitch on it; there is nothing to stop me making more prints, any size I wish. I am thrilled with the novelty at the moment, and of course with the novelty of being a winner.

What on my wall in March?

A little bit of everything of course, I was reading about Snippety Gibbet not being able to stick to a 'to do' list - I can’t really stick to one thing; I just get carried away by the next enthusiasm. I know I’ve told you before and really have to come to terms with it and be thankful that I can always find the next thing I just must have ‘a go’ at.

I am coming to the end of my first term of Life Drawing and really enjoying it. I think it must be like golf. How? Well, each time you think you must get better and have cracked it, but next week the challenge starts again. This week we used large poster markers and a little bit of monoprint.

The SPLASH apron, in Alisa Burke’s style, is something that will be really useful. The sweetie badges were sent to me in my very first swap on the Internet, and I am ashamed to say that I now can’t remember the name of the person who sent them, but I still appreciate them.

'Made to Fit'

I’m very pleased this year to have had both the pieces I submitted for the ‘Made to Fit’ exhibition accepted. This is an annual exhibition, which this year will be in the newly refurbished Willis Museum. The exhibition marks the 14th year of the celebration of women’s work in Basingstoke. The exhibition was started by a local artist/print maker who sadly died recently.
My pieces are artists’ books. All the pieces have to be small enough to fit into a CD cover or made within very small dimensions. I will show you my pieces and how they were made when the exhibition takes place.

I have found two very interesting blogs recently. Firstly 'Woven Letters',where regular paper swaps are organized. I’m going to take part in the April one, which involves mini books.
Take a look. If nothing else admire the clever Header.
Secondly, 'The Altered Page' which has a section called Secret Sunday. Artists and fellow bloggers share their secret tips and techniques. Fascinating. I spent ages looking through all the posts.

I have added another workshop to HEN, 'Monoprint and Stitch'. Here is a link to the site:

http://handembroidery.ning.com/page/monoprint-and-stitch

A little bit of sunshine.

I have been working on my butterfly felt. The felt itself is very fine and probably I should have made a more substantial piece of felt; I didn’t have much energy when I made the background and I would have liked the colours to have been stronger. I used some metallic powder with Ormoline Medium to colour some areas on the wings and gradually added more outlining until they stood out a little better.

Finally, I added some words up by the tiny butterfly on the right,’ the elusive butterfly of love’. I did it quite quickly as a bit of therapy; I am reasonably pleased but its execution could have been better. I made two circles of felt as hangers which echoed the circles of stitching. The brick wall like part in the middle is in a dark green metallic thread.

Here is a small tip for those who you who do a lot of machining and may not have heard it before.

Two rubber doorstops under the back of the machine tilt the machine forward which is helpful to the back. Make sure the machine is nice and stable before you go into top gear of course.

Opportunities

The HEN embroidery site has a new on-line exhibition up and there are varied entries from a number of countries. See my links. Have a look and why not think of putting a piece of work in for next time. My entry was from my City and Guilds Course as it seemed to fit the theme of Winter Wonderland, and there had to be some reason why it sits in a box under my desk taking up space.
Another opportunity is here where you can enter a machine embroidery competition and every entry gets a small thank you from the organizers. I only just started and the entry date is early in March, but there is still time and it does give you a focus, or you may already have a piece which fits the remit.






The problem with my piece is how to define the butterflies now that I have free machined them. I have a number of ideas. I must admit that I have a phobia about butterflies, and in fact most fluttery winged creatures, so not a theme I would choose.
Thanks to people following my blog. I am sorry if I don’t get back to you, I do try.
To answer the question about Louise Baldwin’s workshops, yes I am sure she runs them regularly at City Lit...
The next mini workshop at Doodles, Tadley is next Wednesday and we will be working with silk carrier rods. They now have a good website with details of all their courses and the craft shop items.
I have just joined the ECHO group on Flickr. They have a bi-weekly theme and the current one is Juicy, hence my new header, 'threads that make my mouth water'. See the badge in the sidebar. Why not join in?

More Paper and Fabric Samples

On the last session of Louise Baldwin’s course the theme was distressed paper. We had suggestions, one being machining a grid on the paper and then crumpling it before rubbing areas away. I first heard of this technique from Val Campbell- Harding and like to think she first came up with it. It is fun and you can try it on a variety of different papers to make an open grid. In fact one of the first pictures I posted was of a photo album which I made using this technique; with the open grid areas layered on top of a newspaper which I had picked up in China Town New York.

This sample is layered over a piece of woven fabric and generally distressed to the point where I have forgotten exactly what I did. There is some dyed wool in there and some metal pieces.

The second technique was Faux Chenille but using paper for the layers rather than the usual layers of material. You machine the layers and then cut through to the areas you choose to have showing. This sample was also covered in wax. It opens up like a book.

This is a tiny photo of the album I mentioned. The sky has some wonderful colours in between flurries of snow, and its difficult to get good photos today so this is an old photo. At least I feel that my photos have improved. My other excuse is that I have been in bed for two days with the lurgie. I can’t wait to have some energy again.