Butterfly

Jenn is keeping her options open by flitting from one thing to another.Here she has added some drawing to her concertina sketchbook ,loosely based on places visited in Italy.She has an idea to print some out on fabric and incorporate into a textile piece, we'll see.

The next page has yet to be added to but it is great fun deciding what might emerge,especially since there are no rules!

The magnified pictures displayed on each news bulletin of the Coronavirus have been in her head .To while away some time she  did some drawing, and created a little hand stitched piece from silk paper.She has an idea to work some more on dissolvable fabric.Where will it lead.......who knows?

She has also done a machine stitched "ironwork" on dissolvable for the Barrier work .

To minimise waste she may do some small ones before dissolving .

King Boletus and Oak.

Carol has been researching fungi and tree associations as part of networks and barriers.This little piece below is the King Boletus fungi which is found with the Oak.

You could almost believe these have just been picked from the leaf litter .The attention to detail is so fine.

Challenging times.

In these challenging times we ,like many others ,will have to restrict our activities.It will be many months before we can congregate and physically share our work.We hope to keep showing what we do but remotely, and that means the posts here might become different from normal.In these uncertain times making and creating will give much needed headspace and release , we hope you keep up your practice and keep yourselves safe.

Wall ,menagerie and naughty badger !

Deryll had been looking at different things that inhabit spaces in walls.She had observed different ways that they grow and had begun to sample .She thought of ivy, ferns and we suggested lichens on the surface.There is still a way to go but some encouraging progress.

Kirsten brought along the beginning of a menagerie.She has now made several hares and remarked they seem to get slightly bigger each time .What we love is the character she manages to give her creations.

The view below show them in her basket with an unlikely bedfellow! As well as these fine fellows there are lots of birds in progress.

She was concerned as to the whereabouts of her badger as he was not to be found in the car.

No worries though, he had decided to spend the day very comfortably ensconced back home on the sofa!

Rock, recycle and print.

Ira had created her Rockface using her usual acrylic paint on left over wedding dress fabric.Stitch was then added before being framed. However, the piece needed to be cut down to fit,Rather than leave the excess go to waste Ira had turned them into cards.We thought they were little works of art and should be framed as pieces in their own right.

She is doing a great deal of sorting out and reassigning work at the moment and in the spirit of recycling has cut up her large  Newark park clock to work into a smaller piece.Nothing ever goes to waste.

She had gone back to the packaging brought last month she had turned into print blocks.This was her favourite and she intends to add into it .

Taking inspiration from Liz's idea of using a tetra pack as a print block she had created an image derived from cathedral vaulting.

Prints were made on paper and fabric and some had already been embellished with stitch.

Networking for trees.

Carol had been researching fungi that relate to particular trees.She had begun to sample ways she could translate the images into stitched three -dimensional shapes.A chanterelle in progress above ,looking very realistic.She has considered fabrics and notions and also bought a chamois for glass cleaning to use.We look forward to her other incarnations.

She had also attended a workshop run by Cherrilyn Tyler .It used transfer images onto fabric to stitch into .Carol was a little disappointed that they didn't get to try ways of transferring images for themselves.

The kit had already been prepared and they chose the one they wanted before adding fabrics and stitch to make it their own.

Postponed

                              

                                 Due to the current situation with 

Corvid 19 we have taken the decision to postpone our exhibition at

Nature in Art 7-19th April.

We hope that we will be able to hold it later in the year.

Nature.

Debby had completed her companion feather pieces. These are based on  crow and magpie feathersThey are framed beautifully with Whistlefish frames.

They were very difficult to photograph as 

they do not show the lovely colours she has used within the stitches ,nor the stitched words on the background.You will have to see them in life to appreciate the work properly.

She had also been adding to this piece for Quilters.It was a challenge that had to include a horizontal line.She has used intense blocks with lots of water with pencil and stitch to create areas of delicate  colour.In addition she added the bursts of red appliqué as a contrast .She uses thin iron -on wadding as a backing.

Piecing and layering.

Viv had some lovely little pieces of Japanese fabrics left from her hanging, rather than waste them she pieced them together.They make excellent coasters and are all quite different from each other.They will be gifted to her Japanese relatives when her son and daughter- in -law next visit.

She had also spent some time doing some print experiments ,using calico as a base.

She is has very methodically made notes on the results so they can be replicated in future .At the back of her mind has been an idea for a rock pool perhaps theses experiments will be a starting point.

Jane too, had been piecing together some fabrics that came free with something.She was trying them as a practice piece using many shapes at random and hand stitching them, with maybe an eye on developing the idea to gift a quilt.She was interested to relate some research which measured the changes in brainwaves when doing handwork.There is a lot of  evidence to suggest it is very beneficial to mental health.

Her bellringing piece did not please her so she had over stitched the shades of blue with yellows and it had changed the dynamics of colour. It is difficult to catch in a photo but there are subtle nuances depending on the direction of the way the light falls.

We had various suggestions as to how this piece could develop but the consensus seemed to be three dimensional as cylinders or boxes.Jane will figure it out and astound us with her solution ,no doubt.

Nature's messages.

Liz was away for the meeting but had sent her pieces for us to see.Hopefully they will be available for you to see up close at Nature in Art over Easter.

They include hand dyed fabrics and eco dyeing

with lots of hand stitch.

This one uses fabric dyed with avocado ,which gives various pinky shades, and some beads sourced from The African Fabric Shop.

March meeting.

Jenn had begun to look at the various pieces she had  left over from some previous work  on barriers .She had added in some printed fabrics and some free machined motifs on soluble fabric based on ironwork .As yet she has no clear idea of where it is leading but decided to pin them up to look at and play around with in the hope inspiration strikes.

She and Sally had also spent a day working together in concertina sketchbooks in an effort to kickstart more ideas.Jenn had originally begun before Christmas but not continued.Working with someone else often energises and gets the ideas flowing again.

Sally has a fabulous file of doors and windows which she has been collecting and adding to over many years.She decided she would like to work with this.Jenn's work above ,Sally's below.

Sally also brought along her book done during December for Kassia's Advent Calendar.

and her travelogue done in response to her recent India trip.

Nature in Art

We will be at Nature in Art from Tuesday April 7th -Sunday April 19th.We have an article about the exhibition in the new issue of Be Creative with Workbox. www.creativewithworkbox.com

if you'd like to find out more about our inspirations.The team at Workbox also have allowed us to publish this offer if you'd like to take it up.A great magazine at a cut price! Win win.

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