Tacket Binding

Yesterday I was lucky enough to attend an Embroiderer’s Guild day workshop on Tacket Binding. The tutor was  HEATHER HUNTER        whose work ‘Washed Up’, with a whirlwind binding, was the inspiration for the format of my book made for the final exhibition during my Diploma course. As I don’t get to the regular meetings due to work commitments it was a treat to attend the workshop. I must admit it was something of a distraction as I am trying to be more focused on my theme this year, but sometimes you just have to eat all the chocolates at once.

My binding is unfinished but well on its way. If you get the chance to attend a workshop with Heather I would recommend her patience and experience as a tutor. This is one of her examples:

Tacket Binding is a very old form of binding in which documents were bound into paper or vellum covers in a way which meant that the papers could be taken out and replaced by new documents. The tackets act as a sort of staple.

'Transform,Change,Disintegrate'.

I am enjoying my workshop with Louise Baldwin at City Lit. in London; it is over three Saturdays but with a one week break for half term, which is nice as it gives one time to think things through a little. 

The theme is Transform, Change, and Disintegrate. In the first session we were shown pictures of work by artists who work with this theme, starting with a time lapsed film made by Sam Taylor-Wood. There was also a good list of artists whose work we could research, of course the internet now makes this so much easier. I particularly liked this aspect of the workshop because when you are out of the loop it’s good to be reminded of all the inspiring work which is around.

We then picked a few words to illustrate in samples. I worked with ‘peeling’ and slashed, and tore various papers before waxing them.

 Louise suggested that I look at the work of Antoni Tapies. I had never seen his work but this week he has been in the news having just died.

I then burned and waxed various papers to play around with. The resulting sample was not really successful, but the resulting photographs are interesting. There was also a lot of wire brushing of fabrics.

Peeling

Peeling, a photo by stitchworks-jackie on Flickr.

Paper, paint and wax.

Just messing.

Just messing about with this drawing from my bones and fancying doing some stitching, I decided to colour one of the monoprints using Ink Tense crayons.

I can’t say it was altogether successful, but fun to do and interesting to see what resulted.

Here is a link which my son gave me to an artist who does amazing paintings, you can see his fascinating process here.

Monoprint

I have had some fun with monoprinting some of the images from my rabbit bones.

If you follow the blog you probably know that I am a fan of monoprinting which can be done in a number of different ways and with varied media In fact my workshop on ‘Stitched’                            (Click here to visit Alma Stoller.) is   based  on monoprint and stitch.

                                                                   
A couple of weeks ago DMTV showed a slightly new version to me and I have been trying that out on some hand dyed fabric.

The results vary depending on how much paint is used. I think I may prefer the slightly squashy look to the
clearer line. I used acrylic with a medium rather than fabric paint as used on DMTV..

You will note that so far I am sticking with colour. I start my course tomorrow so I do plan to be more monochrome.

Bones

 I have been trying to do a little sketching from my ‘bones’, as however difficult this is it does mean that you look more at the source. So here I, quite bravely, share some of my sketchbook work so far.

I couldn't resist making a printing block even though I was all set to keep to sketching.

I am lucky to have a new computer which is presenting something of a learning curve, but it is so fast and I at last agree with my sons, who have been telling me for a long time that I needed to get rid of the old one.

Lace

Marianne de Wit from the Netherlands was kind enough to comment on some of my work on Flickr. She also asked me about a possible swap. I am not involved in any swap groups at the moment and have no plan to be, but I was pleased to offer her a swap as she had been so pleasant on Flickr.

We both put up photos of items we were prepared to swap and  I chose a piece of lace, as other than being a self taught tatter years ago I have never made lace other than a needlelace bag for a City and Guilds piece years ago.

Marianne was kind enough to include these three pieces of very delicate and intricate lace.

In exchange she chose a really chunky and shaggy felted bag. The main body of the bag being merino wool and the outside wool being some I collected washed etc. from the fields on the cliff tops on the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland. I was told by an experienced spinner that it was poor quality wool, only fit for rugs. But it was special as I gathered it from a special place, near the derelict schoolhouse where the film ‘Ryan’s’ Daughter’ was made.

Here is a link to Moira, a lady who made my day by having enjoyed the STITCHED workshop and producing some really imaginative work. Take a look.

'STITCHED'

In the first month an amazing 117 people have joined STITCHED. With 20 plus video workshops to watch, a wide variety of techniques are covered. So far I have had time to watch only a few. I think because it is the first video venture for many of the tutors they are really generous with the amount of time and detail they have included in the workshops.

I have found a number of good tips and ideas already.

My contribution is Make Your Mark with Stitch (Lets Play Noughts and Crosses) and I had some fun showing a simple monoprint method and adding stitch to make a stitched panel which could be used in a number of ways. Here I show it used as a bag front.
I realised part way into organizing the workshop that in some parts of the world they don't have any idea what the game of 'noughts and crosses' is, and not only that X's are not called crosses and 'noughts' is so old fashioned its like a foreign language; so as people have joined from all over the world its probably a mystery to them. Thank goodness for Wikipedia.

A number of firms have become involved and are offering prizes for the  regular draws which Alma is organizing.

The registration is open until May and the workshops available until June.
Click here to visit Alma Stoller.

Some burning will be involved.

 Its interesting reading peoples’ New Year resolutions and aims.  Most of us seem to start with the idea of a clean slate and some excitement at what we can achieve, lots of talk about getting those creative muscles working again. The trouble is that the internet, with all its great attributes, is such a distraction and consumer of time. Time I can usually justify as being well spent. It comes so much easier to flip through other people’s work, sometimes baffled, often in awe, rather than sit down and get myself to draw - even though this is usually where the real inspiration will come from.

These are my vague plans for the start of 2012, although I expect to get nicely sidetracked at some point. I received gift vouchers for the City Lit in London and have booked a short course, three Saturdays with Louise Baldwin. The theme is Transform/Change/Disintegrate. On a recent walk I was excited, yes its true, to find a partly decomposed rabbit skeleton. Wrapping the remains gently in dry grass I brought it home and gave it a good dose of disinfectant, I’m sure you are pleased about that.The ligaments contracted and were a bit eerie, and mostly I cut them off.

It really is almost painfully beautiful.These are some of the pictures I have taken so far.

I have a top of the range wood burning tool regifted by my son, who bought it for himself and thought I would make better use of it. So some burning will be involved.

I am inspired by Dorothy Caldwell’s work. I bought a Surface Design magazine recently in the hope that it would really feature her work, but there was not much about her. That is something that the internet is excellent for, as I can search through images of her work.

So, mark making, batik, encaustic and bleach.


I plan to keep to a neutral colour scheme, but as I am so drawn to using colour that will be really difficult.

 

So now I've put it in writing, some sort of commitment - we shall see.

'Memories are made of this.'

A little bit of tidying for the New Year. Feels better.

Link to Free Tutorials

Alma Stoller is the guest curator this week on CRESCENDOH(click on this link to have a look).

She has chosen  a number of tutorials from a variety of artists. If you haven't heard of the site it has lots of interesting bits and pieces and a regular selection of free tutorials.The header itself is really clever.

I am pleased to have one of my mini tutorials on decorated papers featured.

I have been  lucky to have a preview of some of the Stitched videos, and I can tell you that its probably worth joining just to find out how to make

Karen Ruane's Funky Puffs.

Click here to visit Alma Stoller.

Liebster

Earlier this month I was pleased to have been given this blog award by Deborah of Art Threads. It is always nice to know that someone out there is reading the blog and enjoying it




The Criteria: The Liebster is meant to showcase bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers. This is all done in the spirit of pay-it-forward.
The Rules: You must mention and link to the person who awarded you the Liebster, and mention 5 other blogs with fewer than 200 followers who you think are worthy of the Liebster!

'Liebster' means "favourite" or "dearest" in German. This award originated in Germany.
I thought I would try and give you a variety of blogs. I do hope they have less than 200 followers, which is sometimes difficult to work out.

Small Caps is an interesting German letterpress blog.

Rough Around the Edges is Robin Olsen's blog in Oregon.

Emma is a true blogger, always out there commenting and full of enthusiasm.

Alisa Golden's blog is about handmade books; like me you may have some of her books. She is very generous with tips and techniques.

Noela Mills' work on Wabisabiart, is always worth a look to see her work,enjoy her travels and follow her links.

 Don't forget that you can have six months of video fun with Stitched Workshops:

Click here to visit Alma Stoller.

Sketchbook Challenge

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

Trying for a weathered decayed surface look. Acrylic rolled off the block, tissue and a scrap of fabric on cotton rag paper.
I plan to stitch into this.

A nice surprise.

It was a surprise to be asked by Alma Stoller to be part of her Stitched workshops which starts in  January 2012 .She had been reading the blog and suggested that a focus for the workshop should be mark making with stitch, and as this is the way I usually embroider I was pleased to take up her suggestion.

I decided on a project using monoprint and stitch, to make a panel suitable as a bag front, a cushion/pillow front or as a picture added to a canvas panel.
Access to the video workshops is over six months, so I am looking forward to dipping in and out of the varied textile art sessions. I find this by far the best way to learn and have taken a few classes this year, as well as obsessively watching Encaustic DVDs and demonstrations.

 I’m sure there will be more encaustic experiments in 2012 and I really must do some more felting.

 So much to look ahead to, and no doubt I will get even more and varied inspiration from the Stitched workshops.

Click here to view more details of all twenty workshops.


I wish you all the best for the Christmas season and lots of creative inspiration for 2012.