Progressing.

Viv has been working on her piece we saw last month.

You can see the size of the piece as it sits on her lap.She has been making some slips which will find their way onto the piece,below.

This photo shows a closer view of the extra stitching she has added ,I think it has been couched to emphasize the seed heads.

It's going to be a stunning piece,with the Eco dyeing ,printing ,piecing and stitching.

Deryll had also progressed with her 'madder' piece.

She had strengthened the stitching of the plant ,but has plans to add more colour and overlay with sheers before cutting back.

 Viv and Deryll had been experimenting with media too.

Deryll had taken some flowers from the garden ,bonded them to fabric and machine stitched to gauge how well they would last.We await the verdict.

Viv had been using up some dyes on crumpled paper before rubbing some metallic over to pick up the high spots.Both are interesting techniques.

Not a lot !

We were at Ira's this month and she told us she had not done much since we last saw her........hmmmm.

She had been to Dingle in Ireland and had been amazed at the colours seen in the rocks along the coast.Some photos below which,no doubt ,will give her inspiration for years to come.

 

She had been working on several pieces,first by painting with acrylic and layering with tissue before overprinting with her hand made blocks.

This is the first stage ,some "bling" in the form of metallic gold.

Then each piece is stitched by machine ,before having hand stitch ,beads and sequins added.There are several of these in progress.

Here is an example of the base layer and one of her blocks.

This is another of her inspirations,a card picked up from an exhibition.It shows a little snippet of each exhibiting artist' work.Ira thought this might be a good way to experiment with her own works.She intends to collage together examples of her own to create a composite work.

Since the meeting she has had her knee replacement operation,has it slowed her down? Not a bit of it she is stitching and beading as usual while her husband goes and sources supplies for her! Indomitable!

Stitching....

As well as the contributions already seen ,Debby brought other stitching of interest to the meeting.She has joined in with the monthly Kantha stitch group at Heartspace.

She noted how the back of the work gives a different feel to the front ,emphasising the rhythms and ripples in the fabric.The front points attention to the stitch,sorry but seem to have forgotten the front picture.

Found it !

She had these pieces of transfer printed satin discarded by her daughter,and thought they might be interesting to try out .

She had this delightful little card using machine stitch,appliqué  and up-cycled table cloth.It led her to this little motif below stitched out on some tweedy fabric.

Jane had given Debby her machine embroidery machine to experiment with.She was unhappy with the work all being done by the machine and had decided to add her own little touches.

Noble Fibres

Debby and Kirsten both teach at Heartspace studios and are taking part in their next exhibition"NOBLE FIBRES' June 20th -July7th.It is part of the Westbury Park Arts Festival.

Debby has chosen to work with the clothes moth .In the piece above she has incorporated fluff from the tumble dryer along with silk fibres and Angelina to give a bit of glitz.

She found some copyright -free images and has printed them onto book pages .You' ll have to visit Heartspace to see how she develops these.

Kirsten,as you would expect, is working in wool and has chosen a Lion.

 

She plans to dry felt his face and use wool tweed for his mane.

More inspiring workshops.

Carol and Kirsten had both attended workshops since our last meeting.Carol had done the second of Margaret Beal' s for the Embroiderers Guild.

They only used synthetic fabrics as these can be manipulated with a very fine tipped soldering iron.

No finished piece was created but lots of samples of the kind of things that can be achieved.

Lots of three-dimensional effects.The techniques are pushed to show exactly what can be done with man-made fabrics.

Kirsten was doing cutting of a different kind.She spent time with Myrtle Pizzey at her Somerset studio lino printing.

She manages to be so very precise,no easy task with lino cutters!

The block creates a very pleasing design when lined up and printed. A happy accident or a cunning plan!

Enthusiasts!

Our June meeting at Ira's,someone was having a clear out......... 

Forgive the out of focus photo but it helps catch the enthusiasm with which we pounce on anything we can use to create textile art.

There were all sorts of 'goodies' to be had.Thread,buttery soft leather,wool roving,fabric and net.Just the stuff to whet the appetite !

A trip and some texture.

Sally had been away with a friend since last meeting .She had made a book as a record as usual but told us about their visit to the Meissen factory.

This is a picture from the book she bought showing the Monkey figures which sell for fantastic sums of money.Her base was in Dresden ,which was subjected to large scale bombing during World War 11.They had also visited Berlin and ended up having a very good and interesting week away.

Sue had been revisiting embroidery frames,this time to venture into texture.She had used cords made in a variety of materials and couched them to the surface.The addition of a washer creates another texture.A very interesting exercise.

Colouring in.

Jane has been experimenting and getting to know her very complicated embroidery machine.In her methodical way she has explored blending colours ,in a similar way to when you paint.She has documented her explorations thus far.

Debby visited some exhibition,or fair recently and as usual had picked up lots of goodies.I think these are linen and so luscious she has considered framing them ,just to look at!