SKETCHBOOK CHALLENGE

I have been taking part in the Sketchbook Challenge set by Sue Bleiweiss http://sketchbookchallenge.blogspot.com/2011/01/sketchbook-challenge-begins.html and this is my first page of doodles under the title 'Highly Prized'. I also made the sketchbook to house the sketches and I am very plesed with the effect gained by stencilling over an old purple disposable tablecloth with Markal oil sticks and Treasure Gold products. To protect the surface I acrylic waxed the final result.

THE PRESIDENT - CLEMATIS

                                                                          It has been a while since I last posted but I have been busy creating and just to prove it here is a silk embellished picture of a clematis that used to climb throughout a quince at our last house. Sadly it is no longer there as the new owner has pulled up most of the garden for an extension!! So glad I have a reminder of this stunning clematis 'The President'. I've bought a new one for a trellis at our new house.

This closeup shows in more detail the texture I achieved with the embellisher and the finishing off on the sewing machine as well as the beaded centre.

Bye Bye "End of Season"

"End of the Season" has been hanging in my art room for a few months now and I had really begun to like it again. It was a piece that I completed for the Textile 21 exhibition at Norton Priory last year, before all my operations and because it was done whilst I was not feeling 100% I dismissed it. It is a peaceful piece and was a success in terms of techniques that worked. The background is a piece of dry felted velvet using silk and wool tops. In particular I liked the effect achieved by the silk noil. The stems were trusty tyvek rolled painted heated and then painted again for highlights. As with most of my pieces the finishing touches were hand stitches for the seed heads.
Well it has gone, sold at the Holmfirth Art Week. When I found out the buyer I was very excited as it is the local Yorkshire artist Jill Moynan, check out her pictures. Even more surprising was the fact that of all the 500+ pictures on show it was one of hers that I would have chosen as my favourite and given wall space to. Must contact her to share this revelation with!!

Here is detail of the seed head the smaller stems are machine wrapped cords that I then painted.

I also sold lots of my knitted necklaces and scarves, it is so gratifying to know that individuals out there appreciate my work and choose to wear them. Thankyou so much, it makes me want to continue with creating.

I'M BACK!!!!!!!!!!

Been away too long, health and family got in the way as they do!

However here is my latest piece that is in the Holmfirth ArtWeek (Yorkshire) starting the 5th -11th July. Well worth a visit if you live in the vacinity. Entitled "Green Silks", fairly obvious as it is entirely silk and I used yellow and turquoise procion dyes.

This is the finished piece, ignore the shelves behind I forgot to edit before posting!!

I painted a box canvas in mixes of white, burnt senna and lemon yellow to get rid of the spark white of the canvas, works well!

I entered and was selected for the Derbyshire Open with a piece entitled 'Golden Strata' that was inspired by the Blue John stone that can be found in the Blue John Caverns in the Peak District. It is achieved by painting tyvek gold and then heating until it resembles molten metal. the bulk of the purple is free machine embroidery. The preview was last Friday and it was great to see my piece on view.

Will post more very soon now that I am back to normal!!

TEXTILE 21 EXHIBITION

Here is my latest piece of work for the up and coming Textile 21 exhibition at the New Vic in Newcastle under Lyne from the 23rd March until the 25 April 2009.

The exhibition title 'Recollections' brought to mind colours that my mum used to favour when I was child in her work. She was a seamtress and of course like so many children of the 50s I never had anything on my back that wasn't homemade be it fabric or wool. I still have a piece of cotton guaze like fabric that she was saving for something 'special'. The day never came and my children ended up using it to dress up in when they stayed with her. I still treasure that fabric and it gave me the inspiration for this latest piece - hence its title, 'Memory Shades'.

I embellished two layers of synthetic organza with trapped fibres between, leaving large areas unembellished to creat the raised effects. Then set to work on the hand embroidery, again a hommage to Mum as she enjoyed her embroidery so.

Below is a closeup of the section of french knots that works so well.

T

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all dropping by.

I have been very naughty in not posting sooner this new year but life has certainly been busy recently.

Great family Christmas, met up with my brother and his family on Christmas Sunday for a bracing walk in Lyme Park, neither my brother or Husband is on this pic but the younger generation look suitably happy. It was very cold glad I had my hat on. My two beautiful daughters are on the far left. I was very pleased with myself as we walked one and three quarters of a mile, this was the furtherest since my new hip op in September.

Creatively I have been trying to complete the Tif challenge and this is the result. The relatively dark colour scheme was Octobers challenge and my interpretation of the theme of Storage. I compartmentised the postcard in to 24 squares and filled each one with some aspect of my storage needs e.g. beads, threads, buttone, wool, fabric. As usual Sharon stretched my use of colour and made me approach one well outside my comfort zone.This was December's colour scheme and I used the seasonal theme of Christmas. I used tiny bits of ribbon and and then machined seasonal motifs on top of the braids and ribbons. To finish off the basic design I machined squares around the edge and ontop.

I then attacked the Maggie Grey on-line workshop for November. I finished my wigwam books, the first hand stitched has some brillant colours as a result of Quink ink on Gesso, the six cords each have a different bead some hand made some from my stash.

This is a view of the back which shows the gilded finish on the trapped muslin.

This bronze and purple book utilised woodem stamps pressed into the wet gesso and those in relief are tissue moulds made from the same stamps. The pic below shows how I FME the motif. To save time I machined the three sides together, i was surprised how well my machine coped with the pelmet vilene and gesso.

Ruth Issett Workshop 'Surfaces to Dye For'

Been so busy recently with three exhibitions and family gatherings but still managed to fit in a two day workshop at Alston Hall, Lancshire with Ruth Issett entitled 'Surfaces to Dye For'. The aim was to see how different fabrics and fibres reacted differently to Procion MX dyes. Ruth is such a special lady she is so experienced in dyeing and an accompolised embroidery women. Having been in education for 30 years myself I can always spot a talented teacher and facilitator and she certainly is that. I personnally can't understand a 'teacher' who won't share their expertise and Ruth did so much sharing of tips and hints that all who attended went away with so much wealth of knowledge, it just wasn't long enough.

This is the sample experimental piece that we completed the first night so that we could assess the suitability of our stash of fabics.

BEFORE DYEINGAFTER DYEING
We then spent a day and a half completing, in my case, two embroideries that utilised cotton, linen, viscose and silk plus a range of the 'newer' fabrics and fibres now readily available eg banana, hemp, sisal.

This was the cotton, linen and viscose piece. The fabrics tended to be heavier in weight and included muslin, builders scrim, tailors canvas, lace, binca and tapestry fabrics,

After dyeing the range of colours was amazing it wasn't until it dried completely that the subtlety of how the different fabrics took up the dye emerged.

This closeup shows the surface decoration in more detail. French knots, cretan stitch, whipping stitch, tassels, bullion stitch and some machine embroidery stitches in different thread to the couched thread.

This second piece below utilised silk fabrics in many weights, such as muslin, pongee, noile, organza and velvet. This closeup illustrates the vertical lines I achieved by laying down many threads some of which were couched, some left to dangle freely.

I choose to dye this piece with turquoise, lemon yellow and golden yellow, although it was relatively successful I now can see that some scarlet would have given some subtle burnt oranges and browns. All in all a very enjoyable two days and I learnt so much about how to utilise fabrics when dyeing.