Exhibitions and workshops

Liz,as ever ,is busy busy,busy.These pieces are on exhibition in Weston -super-Mare and are inspired by the shore.Liz collects all kinds of rusted metal when walking by the sea .She to uses them to colour  her fabrics and papers,before adding stitch.

Below you see her holding one of the pieces just back from exhibition in Frome with the Contemporary  Quilters.This time she focused on matching her own coloured fabrics with indigo,modern and vintage.

Below some details of the stitch in the panels

A new Eco -dyed piece in progress.

She had attended a workshop with Edwina Mackinnon just the week previous.They had been exploring

Batik with Soya wax.It is more environmentally friendly than beeswax or paraffin and gives just as good results

Liz loves mark -making and we can see how much she enjoyed this.

Further education,collaboration and inspiration.

Ira had been on a visit to her daughter who had persuaded her to work with her on an Advanced higher Art qualification in textiles,a Scottish syllabus.

Ira had begun by mark making .monoprinting and cutting up the results to create these fabrics

She considered John Piper as one of her inspirational artists.

This month she is undecided about Piper .She has to produce 15 A1 size drawings for the course by next May and tells us she will not have time for textiles.Hah! do we believe that .....?

Above is the beginning of her book cover she told us about last month and below her inspiration,a cliff face in Ireland.

Ira has created the piece below for the Norwich Shawls project.Only a photo of a photo as it has gone off to go through the selection process.We wait to see if it is accepted.

Majestic mouse is the inspiration behind the piece.The story is of the mouse who makes himself at home in Granny's work basket.Ira has collected together suitably vintage items and married them with her free machined fabric.The mouse was made by Kirsten.

The tale does not end there ....After completing her Majestic for Ira ,Kirsten was inspired to go on and make a collection of mice for her own piece!

They are such individual characters .We have encouraged her to make her own nest of mice to flourish for Stroud in October

Inspirations,finds and progressing ideas.

Carol had also been to the very popular Mandy Patella workshop and had created this lovely bird piece.

She had been inspired by a previous workshop with Wendy Dolan and had gone on to create another piece above.She had used setacolor silk paints to colour the fabric.

Another moment of inspiration struck and while the fabric was wet she pressed it into an already prepared piece and got this offset print.Paler but still very usable.

A little find of a tin of Dylon cold water dye and a classic book from a charity shop 

 occasioned a dyeing fest

 We often find that things tried in workshops we attend might not surface for a little while or not at all! Others have a habit of morphing into something that becomes one's own take on ideas. As here Mandy Patullo and Fay Maxwell's influence but definitely Carol's take with her use of the satin edge of a wool blanket and exquisite stitching.

Other work stems from Carol's interest in ecology.She is presently wrestling with ways to draw attention to the plight of corals in our seas.

She is using crochet to represent the corals,coloured for the healthy ones and off white for those that are dying because of the increased carbon dioxide and warmer ,more acidic waters.

She also is intending to use small discs cut from red and blue organza to represent oxygen molecules.This will be a thought provoking piece in more ways than one.

Good causes.

Jane has made this quilt to raffle to help raise funds for her daughter.She is volunteering with Tearfund 

and is spending three months in South Africa.

Jane has used disappearing nine patch and then quilted it with a variety of quilt motifs.

It would be lovely to own and also know you were helping fund a good cause.You can find out more at 

www.gallimaufry.blogspot.co.uk.

Weaving pleats.

 Isn't this just lovely? Marilyn has been experimenting to create her challenge piece.This though is a prototype collar.It's woven with wool and Lycra and finished with beads.

Doesn't it sit nicely around Marilyn's neck.We look forward to seeing how this develops.

Flowering.

Viv has completed her iris piece and had it framed.It is stunning.

It looked beautiful before but it is quite incredible what good frames will do to enhance work.

Sally showed us more strelizia pieces.

We think she has enough to create two more hangings so she can have a triptych at Stroud.