Skill and talent in abundance.

A present of this book and some carrageen moss set Kirsten off making these delicious marbled papers.It's not easy to do but with her diverse talents she managed very well.

As a member of Clevedon art club she puton her painting and drawing hat.This month's topic was skies and they had a taught workshop with Hugh ?She executed some fabulous skies in normal media then went on to create some in her beloved felt.

The felt fibres were supplemented with silk to add sheen, the colours were stunning as you can see below.

Not sure why the jelly fish crept in too ,sorry must have missed the reason.He's a fine fellow nonetheless!

The socks were a try out for an embroidery workshop to be taught locally to teach differeb=nt embroidery stitches to beginners.

And then this came out .......

Pigeons are always associated with carrying messages, so Kirsten proposes using them in her work for UWE later in the year.Her mock- up uses cut outs and drawing and she will create a background showing the pigeon's view.

And finally a selection of her birds which will make an appearance at the Guild in April/May.

Be quick though if you'd like to see them up close, as they usually fly out very fast!

Newark inspiration .

Debby had been to Barcelona for a little break and had been inspired by Gaudi. It set her thinking again about scales and mermaids and mermen ,fish and blue and white tiles.These were her focus when visiting Newark.So she has gone back and started two pieces based on these ideas.The photos were difficult to take as it was a dull day and the pieces were in the drawing stage.She starts with the face as it needs to be right to set the tone for the rest.The first is the mermaid with swirling hair and the fish.

The second has been converted to black and white to make it easier to see.This is the merman riding a seahorse .Debby had pinned some chiffon to the pieces ,the dark swirls, which will be stitched to incorporate.If you follow her on Instagram you will see she has already continued and made a lot of progress.

Sue had initially thought to do something with the chicken who roam around the tea garden in Newark.However,once on a recent visit she lost her heart to Spike ,the dragon .

She had been playing with placements and stitching some rudimentary ideas .

She also had cut out some playful dragons ,thinking she might have them running in and about a gateway.

She also brought along some old samples from her City and Guild days.We thought this gold work sample deserved to be framed and bought out into the light.

She had used leaves to create a stencil for screen printing for this sample ,then used discharge paste to print .It makes for a really rich fabric.

Sending a message.

Viv had made great progress with her old jeans pockets.They had been saved from a project some years ago and are now just the thing for 'Messages'.

She had obviously had a great time creating these little gems.The stitched slogans look as if they were on the original pockets such is her skill.

Sally had taken up the suggestion from last time to have some fabric printed from her images.She had gone with Prinfab.

She collaged some pieces and integrated them with stitch.

In addition she decided to use the emulsion method of transferring images ,using acrylic wax to coat them once the paper had been rubbed away.

She makes great use of her tablet.From original drawings and photographs she uses layers and creates some effective images which will feed into her eventual pieces.She intends to use cotton fabric as a base and maybe fashion a skin shape......we shall see.

Thread engineer.

Inspired by what she saw at the Anni Albers exhibition Jane decided to engineer some of her own thread studies.

She uses an industrial embroidery machine but is not content to use it with commercially produced patterns .She has trialled and experimented until she is able to engineer her own.

Each of these pieces have been constructed using either one or two colours of thread to create the shifting spectrum of colour you see.

They have an incredible amount of stitches in each one and take a lot of skill to produce.

The stitch patterns used create the nuances of colour

and variation of tone.

The photos do not show them at their best ,being difficult to capture especially since it was a dull, dark day.

She also brought along this piece ,which is from a photograph of the underside of the Prince Charles Bridge,Second Severn crossing.

 Jane used five shades of thread and created something like 156,000 stitches.

She has plans to create more pieces along these lines.

March and all speed ahead.

Such a busy year of exhibiting means we have to keep on top of our work, and try to pace ourselves while keeping to deadlines.The first will be our exhibition'Viewpoint' at the Bristol Guild 27th April-18May.

Jenn has been drawing with her machine,capturing people in cafes and coffee shops.

She works quickly ,in a small sketchbook with a pen ,to capture the people she observes.Then transfers these to fabric adding in detail as she sews.

StitchTextile Artists exhibition

Jenn will be exhibiting here with Stitch Textile Artists.Meet the artists on Saturday April 13th 11am-2pm.

Boxes and books

Sue had continued her fascination with the boxes trying out a slightly different construction method and experimenting with materials to make them.She was toying with the idea of memory boxes .Precious little trinkets and loved items finding a safe home within.

Liz had been doing a variety of projects a  book using oak dyed fabrics 

Exploring different bindings to create little booklet of marks ,such as chain stitch,

running stitch.

string of pearls

Using card cuts to hold thing together 

She had also been revisiting work adding in  holey shells collected in St Ives ,and adding in highlights of blue to echo the sea glass.

Lastly, a 16" journal quilt for Contemporary Quilters West .It takes its colour scheme from the rooftops of St Ives and makes use of recycled fabrics.