Happy Christmas

Origami Christmas trees. This was our post-lunch activity, instructed by Carol.  So much fun.

continuing with December

Carol had also been working with shells in an interesting way.

She had been following Kasia's Advent Calendar, a diary with each day's subject dictated by an online prompt.  (Everythingart.com)  Her pages so far have made a really interesting sketchbook.  

She had helped to make all these poppies for the display at Olveston Church. Busy, busy lady, well done!

Carol and her husband had been together to a glass crafting workshop and had produced these jolly Christmas pieces.

Debby showed us some things she had been teaching at her after-school club.  These were things to make from circles of fabric - simple but effective.

She had made this pretty soft pot

Debby will be tutoring creative stitch courses at Stoke Lodge, BS9 1BN from 14th January.

December, continued

Liz is working with a length of woven fabric which she thinks could be Miao.  It has interesting lines of blue in the weft, and she has found some shells and threads which pick these up perfectly.  No doubt she will create an interesting hanging (or2, or 3?)!

She also showed a strip of African mud cloth which she had printed with leaves.

She showed us a publication which has inspired her book-making:

"The Art of the Fold" by Hedi Kyle and Ulla Warchol.

December 2018

Kirsten had been making felted Christmas cards, using a tree motif from Kyrgystan.

She had been to a life drawing class and produced a series of charcoal drawings. The one in the centre was looking at the negative space around the figure.

She had also been to a painting class.  These images were produced by applying watered-down paint to dampened paper, resulting in some lovely landscape-y scenes with great possibilities for felted pictures.

Journeying.

L

Sue had been to Iceland and from there to Canada to visit family.She had taken the brave decision to not use a camera but  to record what she saw in a notebook. Her impressions of bridges crossed ,museum exhibits and trees at the Montreal Botanic Garden delicately drawn in pen with some  additional , written notes.Using this technique places and experiences can be recalled quite well.Kurt Jackson often includes notes within his paintings which evoke the sense of place.No doubt Sue will have personal memories of the places she travelled and visited which may well bring forth new work.

Liz had also been journeying but in a different way.She had taken a day of Meditation and Stitch where they concentrated on breath as it was taken in and out.The stitch had no plan or pattern but evolved as the day progressed ,a time of quiet contemplation with no chatter.A rare occurrence in our busy lives.

They also made a little concertina book dyed with turmeric where they recorded their thoughts and feelings.

She had news of a forthcoming venture where  international exponents of Eco -Dyeing without toxins are to be invited to exhibit in next years Festival of Quilts.

Liz is going to concentrate on producing work with oak, using the leaves and bark throughout the seasons to see what, if any, differences can be seen.The piece above was from fabric dyed in the Summer .Oak has lots of tannin so no mordants are necessary.She has also returned to her love of bookbinding ,and has started creating books with oak covers.

Identity ,style.

Would you be able to identify which one of GTA had created these

pieces in progress?

The person in question was doubting that she could still create relevant work.She felt that her work was more of the same.We thought that having a recognisable style was good .....think of the artists like Monet, Van Gogh etc.So many people strive to get to a place where they have mastered technique and can then spend time on perfecting what they want to explore and say.What do YOU think?

These pieces seek to explore old walls and the textures found therein.They are built up with layers of paper and paint and are torn to reveal what lies beneath before being intensively stitched.

Historical themes are being explored with paint and copper stitchery

The pieces at the top will morph into land and seascapes.We had a play with rearranging the smaller pieces within the large.

Whether anything will result we shall wait to see.

In case you didn't guess see below.

When sorting through she found the newspaper article which gave rise to her misgivings about her style.We think there is nothing to worry about as Ira is so committed and prolific we shall be seeing her and her work for a good while yet.

She has an article in Maggie Grey's WOWbook number 3 which is available now at

www.d4daisy.com

Deryll had been down Memory Lane too ,unearthing the samples you see below.She had sold four pieces based on thistles back in 1998.She wondered if it was worth her while to resurrect the idea.We thought her time might be better spent developing new ideas and work rather than try to get enthused over an idea that had probably been played out.

RWA course.

This lovely fabric piece was bought by Jane from URBANSTAX on a visit to the Ally Pally show.As yet she has not decided what to make with it .No doubt we'll see it all made up at some time soon.

She had attended a course at RWA recently which was right up her street!

It concerned Islamic geometrical art which is geometry with a spiritual, philosophical connection.It is both practical and meditative.

The designs are all based around the circle and connect Heaven to Earth.All of the designs used just a compass and a straight edge ......there was no measuring! They spent two days exploring the patterns and how to create them.

Perhaps these earrings, created on her industrial machine , were influenced in part by her studies.

We have no doubt that other work will surface related to these two days.