Foreign travel.

Sally had left for Sri Lanka, the Maldives and the Seychelles just two days after our December meeting ,and had returned about midnight the night before this meeting.She was obviously tired and had done no stitching.We chided her for neglecting to bring her sketch book of her travels but we know it will appear.

She had been taken with the same plate as Jane from NiA.iN fact it was included because of Sally.She had ideas of a scroll or broken and smashed fragments .We thought it would be interesting to see how two people might interpret the same object.
She created a lovely zig zag book of her Autumn garden last year.She had plans 

to use her time at her Thursday drawing group to explore her Spring garden .So we look forward to seeing how different it will be.

Enterprise.

Debby brought along this little bag,chosen because of the woman stitching and because she loves the painting bought from the museum.Sorry but the painter's name escaped us!

She brought a selection of her brooches and told us about her success selling through a new outlet.The shop is in Westbury on Trym called 'We Make Bristol' The concept is that you rent a shelf  from the proprietor and display your wares.They manage the selling,take a commission and the rest comes to the  artist.Debby did very well in the run up to Christmas and has been promoted to a more prominent place in the shop.Do go and see for yourself.

She had looked at the NIA objects and wondered whether to stick to insects and irridescence as her inspiration or to work outside her comfort zone.........printing from ACTUAL fish was mooted!

Onion skins and rose petals.

Liz has continued to explore Eco dyeing,she has been doing an online course.She has used onion skins and rose leaves,petals.Although these scarves  have very distinct marks she is not happy with using vinegar as part of the process.The smell clings to the fabric despite washing.

She has very good results with her own process,but it is always good to try other methods ,at least you can add or reject.

She also decided to begin a Stitch a day hoop after seeing something on Instagram.She is just pulling out the thread from her stash with no regard to matching colours and doing a new stitch a day.

The really exciting news she had was having a quilt accepted for SAQA .This quilt was one of 30 out of 90 to be accepted.It will be sent to America and will tour in exhibition until September of this year!The quilt was on Display last year at Newark park.The one you see above is in progress for Festival Of Quilts this year.Liz is adding texture to it.

Wildlife.

Marilyn's weavers are taking part in  producing another calendar .They had a very successful one last year which was reprinted as it did so well.

The inspiration is a sea slater ,apparently a woodlouse but one that lives under water.She wasn't too taken with the colours as they were drab and grey,so did something on the computer to enliven them.She has to have 20 samples completed by the end of January.This is her sampling so far,using pens to colour the yarns just to try out the background colours.

Carol had taken part in an Annette Emms workshop.

They used wool blanket as a base and lightly embellished scrim on top .The rest was appliquéd and stitched adding lace .Carol wasn't too happy with the braided wool tops.We didn't think it added anything to the piece.

This little hare was created by laying bondaweb between two layers of calico.It stiffens the base which can then be drawn into.

This is a delightful piece which would work in a frame,or be put to use on a special cushion,bag or book wrap.Carol has made this technique her own.

Medieval magic.

Ira brought along just a few favourites from her Medieval collection of thirty five books!

She had been interested in looking at the work of Carole Waller.She had used metallic paints 

to paint several large sheets.The paint was swirled and dripped over the surface.

Then came the magic........using fragments of Medieval designs she drew onto the surface using ordinary drawing pens.This will now be embroidered and embellished .

Ira favours these pens ,along with a white pigment pen and a Sharpie. 

                                    She has used them in the drawing you see below.She likes the different qualities they have,from waterproof to water soluble and in the case of the white pen ,opaque.

Doodling.

Who does this remind you of?

Sue had been using some of her cards to play with drawing images of playing cards.By turning upside down the images added colours and textures to her 

drawn images.

An interesting idea and good for recycling.

She also brought out a set of enamels done some time ago .She was wanting some inspiration as to haw she might use them.One idea was to put them singly in a large frame to draw in the eye to the delicious colours.

Another was to use them alone by making them the centre and adding outwards using other media.

They reminded Liz of Cornwall with their colours and shapes.

We think there is scope for much work in these.So Sue,what will result ?

New year new work.

A new year and our thoughts are turning to the new challenge of creating and presenting work in exhibitions.

This year we will exhibit at the West Country quilt and textile show at UWE 1-3rd September .

Our main exhibition will take place in Nature in Art Twigworth in 3-17 thOctober.

We are going to use some of the 50 best loved exhibits to inspire us,at least in part.

Deryll has chosen to work from this ceramic piece .She was drawn to the textures impressed into the surface and its obvious landscape reference.

It is "Pebble Vase ''by Alan Walworth.

Here she has started to look at ways of using stitch to create textures,and her statement couronnes make an appearance.

Using a 'wing'needle and loose weave fabrics make the fibres react ,bunching together and creating areas of delicate texture.

Jane has chosen this 10th century Persian bowl.

She liked the chaos of the figures which parade around the dish.There are symbols too and Jane thought they might be calligraphic and symbolic of something so she thought best not to include these in anything she might create.

She has started to draw some of the bird like creatures and has thought to replace the symbols with spirals or other marks.This will obviously link with her love of Celtic calligraphy.

Sally said she had been drawn to this bowl too and it had been added as 51st object by Simon Trapnell because of her choice! There was some discussion as to how interesting it would be to see how they might treat the subject matter and what might result.We shall have to wait and see.

End of year meeting .

With the build up to Christmas and New Year routines become more difficult to adhere to .So,with another meeting fast approaching ,the blog needs to be brought up to date.There are a number of items which have not been blogged about ,so apologies if they all come in one fell swoop!

Debby brought an ornament made at Tyntesfield and called pinwork.

She had also unearthed a "round robin" quilting piece that had started life as a piece of 'ugly grey felt.She thought it didn't particularly work so we gave her suggestions of cut it up and reassemble,put it in the washing machine and to burn back some of the areas covered with the organza to reveal the underlying areas .

Sally had framed some of her 'found' assemblages.There were several opinions about this,some thought they were better as she had them previously ,others thought they looked better in threes.That's it with GTA but whatever the artist listens and goes away to make up their own mind.

Jenn had seen the idea of decorating tags on Designmatters for Christmas and had shared it .Sally true to form,brought a piece she had done in 2007 of Cranes in Spain. 

Created on tags and hung from handmade tassels

Viv had been thinking ahead to Nature in Art in October this year.

Put the date in your diaries OCTOBER 3-15TH

We will be linking at least some of our work to a piece in the collection.Viv has chosen a piece by Alardus  vanden Bosch.

it uses trees as its inspiration and Viv plans to work with velvet and discharge like this piece below which she did with plastic doilies!

Sue enjoys working with the embellisher ,fibres of all kinds and COLOUR.

This was a purchase at the west Country show in November,a luscious ball of sari silk.

Below is a piece she is working on,adding to with her variety of fibres.

Ira had been away in Wales and had picked up this beautiful rock on one of the beaches she visits regularly.She draws wonderfully,and was looking to work from realism into abstraction.These are some of her preliminary observation drawings.

No doubt we'll begin to see  some textile work emerge from these despite her 

saying she has done none since last May

 Kirsten couldn't come without some felt ,this one is hollow.she'slooking forward to a workshop with Gladys Paulus this year .

These were from a workshop learning how to dye aluminium sheet and then using to create jewellery pieces.

This stunning quilt  is one she's sitting and hand piecing while sitting in the evenings.It looks like a kaleidoscope!

Marilyn has to work with fibres but this time it was knitting but not just any knitting .....

this is knitted all in one piece!

and currently on her needles a PAIR of socks.

Liz brought a quilt based on rust marks in the landscape .It was to do with SAQA 'Made in Europe' and destined for a competition in USA.

She had done a lot of workshops just recently ,among them this collgraph course.

She produced stunning results using very ordinary materials ,such as foil,parcel tape and nail varnish!

This is the plate for the top print.

She had also been on a workshop for the Chinese thread book inside above ,cover below.

Jenn had continued with her seed pods.She had been having fun with a session on her Gelli plate looking at the patterns within.She printed into an A6 sketch book and has begun to add in collage and further marks.