I must admit that I have never really been inspired by the idea of journaling, I think because of recent times the shops have been full of ready made images and bits to stick on etc, and it all seems a bit too ready made and commercial. I came across Teesha Moore’s videos in which she generously shares her much more creative approach to journaling. I went through my books on Altered Art and found many examples of her work. I would recommend this as a fun occupation, particularly when it is too hot to do much, and , of course, there is the pleasure of buying lots of different pens to try out; also a good use for all the glossy Sunday Times supplements, with their wonderful colour spreads.

I found these three ladies in the Tapestry Room at the Vyne (National Trust).

 

Once you have your images, the fun can continue. I made some digital stamps using parts of the art work. I have printed some out to add to the journal.

Another idea is to print them out onto fabric using Ink Aid and add some stitching.

This was one of those strange experiences that you can’t quite explain; I bought an English/Chinese dictionary inscribed Hong Kong 1936 with the idea of using scraps in my work. I wanted the word ‘fruit’ translated into Chinese, and when looking for this a piece of hand written paper fell out of the book, with a biblical reference. I don’t know my bible well so it took some time to look it us and when I did it was exactly what I needed; ‘you are the Vine’ etc. Strange but true.

Birthday and Summer Event.

As a Gemini I have just had a birthday, and a new camera. I had become so used to the ‘old’ one that it is taking some getting used to; there is a lot to learn. Here are some pictures of a few of the textiles in my home.

I have two pieces of Kuba cloth which is made of cut pile  raffia. The marks above represent paw prints.The one piece was such a bargain from a Sunday market in New York. I wished I could have bought many more. The Indian bead work is part of a small cushion which one of my sons bought me for Christmas a few years ago.

If you live anywhere near do come and say hello at this Summer Event where I shall have a stall. It is bound to be a beautiful sunny day as I have opted for a stall inside. I have given up on summer fetes etc. having experienced dust storms, rain and worse! Thinking about it what could be worse when you are trying to sell textiles.

Where do you keep your Sharpies?

Melanie Testa is offering free tutorials this month and the first is this little pen/pencil case. As I had my recently dyed, stencilled material I was tempted to have a go. I don’t think I precisely followed her instructions but they are very clear.

I went to The British Museum last week to see the exhibition of Italian Renaissance Drawings, which I enjoyed very much, the only problem being that there is almost too much to take in during one visit. I bought the catalogue so I can study the work in my own time. A short walk from the museum is The Mary Ward Centre where I once did a felt making course, and have been back to many times since for the excellent vegetarian meals which are also really cheap by London prices.

Then onwards to the Gagosian Gallery to see the free exhibition ‘Picasso: The Mediterranean Years’; this is on until the end of August and is simply fabulous. I am slowly coming to understand his work and the pieces are stunningly presented. I have a catalogue from a charity shop of his work on clay, and here I was able to see some of the actual piece. The first exhibition ,which explains how drawing and the use of paper as a medium developed as a working tool for painters , was a good introduction to the Picasso exhibition. I particularly liked a set of drawings of a bull, which starts with a free outline of the animal and gradually works through the stages until a more classic drawing emerges.

This is for a laugh, in my drawing class last week the model was knitting throughout and it seemed a funny situation. So here is ' Woman with the Blue Knitting’.

I have had to try and tighten up on the security for comments, as I keep getting spam. I know other people are having problems, I hope it doesn't make it too much of a pain if you make a comment.

Not finished yet.

As you see, I have continued working on the Noughts and Crosses piece. I found a 'double fly stitch' which I have never heard of before to make the crosses in Mary Thomas' Dictionary.  'Stitch down loops' to make the circles on this site which has some very clear stitch tutorials.

The threads I am using are rayon threads from The Hand Weavers Studio, of which I have a large basket, which often provides just the right colour. This piece feels very nice to stitch as I am working on a piece of brushed calico which I dyed previously. It is nice and big, in case this becomes a cushion cover.

I have joined in celebrating Emma’s birthday this month and this is the postcard which she kindly sent me from Skye.

Coptic Bind

I went to a very special book shop in Alresford just before the visit to my friends and decided that a different present would be to make them each a Coptic Bound notebook. I was also keen not to lose the skill I acquired in making the previous ones; you may remember the basic bind learned form Keith Smiths’ book took some perseverance and lots of trying again. I now have two of his books and there are many versions of the bind, some involving more than one needle and sewing across the spine. I am content to try and master the basic version.

First chose an old book with an interesting cover. The red book was falling apart and I got it for a £1, a bargain. I had hoped to use the lovely end papers to cover some of the sections, but they were too brittle, however, the inside of the cover had the same marbled paper.

First take the book apart and clean the cover, I use a putty rubber and talc. I don’t know why I use the talc, it just came to hand one day and gives a nice clean smell.. I turned in the spine on the blue book and stuck it down. I sand papered some of the rough edges and touched up the edges with gold acrylic paint.

I then gave the covers a coat of Acrylic Wax. That is all very satisfying, but I find cutting the paper more taxing, as you need to have the grain of the paper parallel to the spine. Falkiners do a pack of special short grained book paper, but I still had to make it smaller to fit the covers. I have a deckle ruler which means I can tear the paper. My book cradle was v. useful once more for making the holes for sewing.

I used some ready waxed book binding thread for the red book, which made life much easier and waxed some pearle thread for the blue book. The blue book had some finger prints that I could not remove, so I added some thumb prints; perhaps they just look like smears.

Above is the stage at which you need courage and good luck, sewing on the cover.Taking Jane Dunnewolds's advice I took a deep breath and  the cover went on firmly.
I was pleased with the outcome, particularly the red book which is a nice size and felt good in the hand.
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Thank you to those people who have recently linked to my blog to keep me blogging. I hope you will  continue to find something to keep your interest

Textile Festival

At the weekend I had a visit to Cirencester which is in  the Cotswolds where every house is built with a golden colour stone and is generally v. posh and quite unlike the area where I live. The first trip was to Brewery Arts where there was a ‘pop up gallery’. I bought a lovely devore scarf made by Barbara Fidoe. I particularly like the colours and the long thin shape. I have had in mind to make a scarf of a similar shape in felt, but really don’t have quite the space, or is it the energy which is lacking. Any way it is extravagant and beautiful. Also showing were the felt pods of Deborah Roberts.

Barbara told us about the Stroud Textile Festival, there were many small galleries throughout the town and a larger display in the museum. I saw some stimulating work including the Brunel Broderers Curious Drawers, pieces based on the idea of cabinets of curiosity of which there are examples in the National Trust House where I work .It could not have been a better time for my visit .
In the museum the work was linked to the idea of Stroud Scarlet. Stroud has a number of old mills and in these the cloth for the red coats of the British Army used to be woven. The lawn mower was invented in the area originally to cut the nap on cloth. I particularly liked the light box installations of Henny Burnett, ( follow the link to see her work and more about the Festival) photographs of lots of tiny pieces on red cloth, old letters, thistles etc. Love Stitching Red would have found it all v. familiar.

I have started to work into one of my dyed pieces and so far have used a combination of curved seams and Spirit Cloths’ weaving technique which she shared with us on video. I am machining it at the moment and then intend to start hand stitching into it.
I don't usually like gadgets but I have fallen for the interactive fish which move with your mouse; the perfect pets.

Leaves

I thought the idea of leaves had come from nowhere particular, but had forgotten that I had been stitching some leaves in a sketch book over the past month. Here are some pics.

Some interesting shapes develop on the reverse of the page.

Anyone near The Hurst ,Tadley UK (0118 9812918) may be interested in coming along to three Saturday workshops to be run fortnightly on 12th June, 26th June and 10th July from 10-3pm.. The aim will be to learn how to design and make an embroidered panel using Ethnic textiles as inspiration with lots of creative fun along the way.

'A Lamentation of Leaves'

I have continued working on the dyed pieces and have probably finished for the moment.

I monoprinted using leaf shapes which I cut out of some Xerox transparencies I rescued from a charity shop; they have been so useful. I came up with the idea of cutting out a shape for the monoprint whilst falling asleep one night. Antihistamine Tablets have been giving me nightmares, but in this case seemed to help.

I then used a thermo fax screen of skeleton leaves in green to give a bit of contrast.

On the one piece I just kept adding layers and using left over paint. It easy to get attached to these pieces and I would find it difficult to cut them up at the moment.
I decided on some text and have used a quote from Yates:
‘A lamentation of leaves’
which I think is lovely and soulful. In my mind I can see some quite heavy embroidery at the base of the leaf piece. We shall see.

 I have been to some local Open Studio events, including a morning’s sketching at The Sandham Memorial Chapel, which centres on the amazing narrative paintings of Stanley Spencer; then on to a display of art/craft at Greenham Common Arts.

 I also visited the National Needlework Archives new centre which is in the same complex. I had hoped to go round the working artists' studios at Greenham but they were not officially open, a kind lady let me look around anyway. I was so struck by how the artists were working on a theme and pushing it in all directions. Working in isolation it is difficult to do that. It was v. inspiring.

Book Art Blog

My work is featured here on this new Book Art Blog   from Berlin  which starts with a general discussion and examples of what book art is about.
 The author has used an image of a piece of work I did on my Access Course to illustrate the discussion after finding it on Flickr. I hope it will be a success and provides us all with lots of ideas and inspiration.


I received my mini book swaps from Australia and here are some images from them. If you want to know more about the paper swaps head over to Woven Letters.

STOP ROBBING THE RICH

STOP ROBBING THE RICH
Originally uploaded by DBO PONDERS

Exhibition in Nottingham.

Monoprint

This is another stage along the way with the pieces of fabric I am working on after the two stages of immersion dyeing and manipulating using Jane Dunnewold’s recipe and later her stencilling technique.

 I bought some, expensive, Golden Liquid Acrylics and some open gel medium, following the idea suggested by Liz Berg in a free download from Quilting Arts. Unfortunately the packaging was so tight that I split the first minute bottle whilst opening the package - I patched it up, whilst still being aghast at how much I had paid for a tiny bottle of paint. You have to see this in light of the fact that I had just thrown out my old ‘glucky’ paints, most of which were acquired from charity shops, and the fact that I admit to being a mean Yorkshire woman.

 I have now found that a few drops of the paint go a long way. The resulting monoprints are great, in that the handle of the fabric is still nice and soft. When I have monoprinted on fabric previously I have used acrylics alone and the fabric has been difficult to stitch into, especially when machining and there is not much time to work on the marks before the paint dries.

The next Doodles workshop is on Wednesday 19th May 1-3pm and will be ‘Recycle/Reuse’ transferring images from old books to make a unique picture. Book by ringing 0118 981 1238.
My monoprint and stitch workshop is  available on HEN.

Why?

Over on  ‘Things Handmade' there is a bit of a reflection as to why the author is making, pricing items , exhibiting etc.; especially when she believes she is making work to satisfy herself and not primarily to sell.

I must say I was delighted to sell one of my two Cyrus Cylinders in ‘The Made to Fit’ exhibition. I had priced them both but with no real thought of either of them selling. I was pleased with both pieces, both the thinking behind them and the execution. When I heard one had sold I was genuinely surprised, but as I said delighted that someone literally loved my work enough to pay good money and give it a place in their home. It is still a strange feeling, as unlike selling items on a craft stall I have no idea who the piece has gone to, and there is a certain sense of loss – but that is only minor.

Here is a picture of the Flare Magazine display at the NEC recently.  It was worthwhile entering to get myself into action; I like to be motivated by exhibitions, competitions etc.

I have over dyed the pieces of cotton and silk, manipulating the fabric again and immersion dyeing. I also made a stencil in the Jane Dunnewold fashion and used this with opaque fabric paint on some of the pieces.