Venturing into pattern.

Jane had taken a weaving workshop with Angie Parker where she completed this cushion cover.She said it was lovely to come home from a workshop where in three hours a lot was learnt and there was a completed item instead of a UFO .She had used a four shaft table loom which had a striped warp and she was able to choose the colours for the weft.We think she has caught the bug !

Jane is interested in computer coding and often blinds us with the science.She had bought a book where coding  was used to create Art then by adding in something random magic happens.The art generated is man and machine working together to create.

These are her experiments where she has used the idea .

She has used a vinyl cutter pen to draw the pattern

then has transferred the pattern to fabric before 

stitching by hand with Madeira and woolly threads in combination.

It's fascinating and has lots of mileage.

 

Hidden considerations.

What no-one who visits an exhibition sees are the countless decisions about a piece of work before it reaches the wall.One is how to display ,

what will back it ,will it be behind glass ,in a frame ?

These were some of the things being pondered at our meeting.Viv had found a frame to repurpose but needed to alter the backing colour

Deryll was going to have hers as is but needed to weight the bottom 

Debby had sent her collograph print to be printed on velvet and was deciding how best to hang and how much stitch ,if any ,to add .

 

Cosmic vibes .

Sue talked about work she had that had reached a certain stage but not progressed further .

She had been working into these pieces on her embellisher and adding in stitch.With exhibitions on the horizon she had wanted to move them forward .One consideration was how best to exhibit them.She thought hoops and we agreed but 

they would need to be large enough to show off the wonderful colours and detail and not constrain  them .

We considered that they might be good mounted all together on a backboard and would certainly make a statement.Sue 's work is process led so pieces materialise without being planned .She lets her materials dictate how she works , these have a nod to planetary shapes but did not start out that way.

The piece in this final image has been under consideration for some time .Sue had found a piece of fabric that complements it perfectly.

That's now settled but the work of preparation for exhibit now begins.It is a long and sometimes , fraught journey from inception to completion.

 

Gwen Hedley online workshop.

Viv took part in the free Gwen Hedley workshop run by TextileArtist.org.

It consisted of a daily video over five days.First colouring media in two colours was applied to cloth using a variety of tools.Then small pieces of fabric were cut up  and joined together before being added to with stitch. 

Several of GTA signalled their intention of joining in but Viv is the only one so far to show a finished piece ! Perhaps there will be more to add to this page when we meet next week.

At the February meeting Viv showed the progress of her piece.She turned it into a lined bag using instructions shared by Deryll many years ago.

The remainder was used to create a useful book wrap.Viv obviously made excellent use of the fabric she made.

Jenn also joined in with the workshop but apart from piecing some fabrics and adding stitch she hasn't decided what further to do .The technique is interesting and may well feed through into other work .

She was quite pleased to move out of her usual colour palette choosing Payne's grey and yellow acrylic ink .

Debby also chose to test herself and use a different colour palette from her normal 'go to '.She used her Gelli plate with Payne's grey and Burnt sienna .

She has added a lot of stitch creating postcard size pieces .She has been teaching at Stoke Lodge and found postcard size allows for pieces to be completed in about the time of the class which is always good .She has also adopted 'Propogate 'as her word of the year ,fittingly her pieces follow a garden theme .

Surprisingly ,Sally joined in as she dislikes mark-making.She didn't exactly follow the instructions but used her hand made stamps and acrylic paint to mark the fabric .

Then another deviation was to use machine stitch to add to the surface.We thought it linked very well with what she is exploring in other work and could be incorporated with it.

Deryll decided just to watch the videos !

 

2020 Lockdown pieces.

Jenn brought some small Lockdown pieces not seen 'in the flesh' These three were inspired by Sue Brown's weekly Sunday prompts on Instagram.The fabric was rust dyed then over printed with stencils before being embellished with stitch and appliqué.

This long piece was created in the November of 2020.She stitched and appliquéd each day of the month using some indigo dyed handspun fabric pieces, bought from an Etsy shop.

The applique fabrics were scraps of silk left from a piece exhibited in Newark Park.