Surfaces and skies.

Debby is teaching two classes at Stoke Lodge on a Monday . They involve mending and Sashiko .With this in mind she had been put her embroidery to good use .

A cashmere sweater had been eaten into holes ,rather than discard Debby had used perle and crewel to make a feature of the damaged areas.It will  extends its life and serve as a teaching resource.

She had recently used some of her work and photographs to take advantage of Prinfab’s swatch size 3 for 2 offer .She usually has them printed on velvet as it enriches the colours and is such a luxurious surface. When she wants to quilt or add stitch she has them printed on cotton as stitches tend to disappear on velvet 

She and her husband visited Venice recently and she was taken with surfaces around the city.Old walls and doors offer a wealth of colour and shapes.They wandered the back streets and visited venues showing work for the Biennale ,including Elias Sime who exhibited in Bristol earlier this year. She came across a shop selling pigments and couldn’t resist buying Verdigris ,lapis and Venetian red !

 

Sue had put the finishing touches to her workbook to accompany her Found pieces at Prior. It is good practice to have something to remind yourself and always a good resource to dip into .

She had been busy making clothes for her grandchildren ,one such example the hoodie pictured.

She was also excited to trade in her sewing machine for a new and updated version .She has the opportunity for a two day course to explore the possibilities.She has already been experimenting what it is capable of .

 

  

There are some patterns included but she is able to add in her own and mix them up .

Sue continues to attend watercolour classes and is making excellent progress .Some are U3A and some run by Paul Weaver who she likes as a teacher.Recent subject matter included Dramatic skies,Still life and portraiture.

After seeing the work that Liz did with Sally Tyrie’s Visual Narratives course ,she enrolled.Sally’s advice on beginning to research a topic was ‘to look for things you like ‘ With this in mind she has started to take photographs on her walks and is already feeling energised to begin.

 

 

 

 

Lazy summer days

Viv’s prompt for the art group was ‘Lazy ,hazy ,crazy days of summer ‘We think her acrylic painting captures just that .

It gives a warm glow ,especially in these cheerless days of November .

She also spent  some time on a portrait of a rose ‘Champagne ‘ 

and a pastel landscape which she might print onto fabric before using stitch.She has been toying with working a smaller piece from her ‘Found wallpaper which we look forward to seeing develop.

Carol brought along her piece from Jemima Lumley’s Coral workshop .The fabric was supplied ready painted and some vintage linens were used  alongside lace and tyvek which was painted with Pebeo metallic acrylic paint .

They  created a small piece of a coral reef ,or at least what they used to look like !

Carol had created a fun and frivolous selection of ice cream cones to please her granddaughter .Who doesn’t like ice cream ? Quite a lot of flavours to choose from, which is your favourite ?

She had done another workshop using Freezer paper stencils and bleach to colour fabrics for stitch.They make a nicely muted coloured fabric to add whatever takes your fancy.

And then she remembered her ‘Print and stitch sample ‘from our  activity at Prior.

 

November 2024

  Stitch Textile Artists ,Jenn is a member ,have their exhibition’Collections ‘ showing at Acearts in Somerton. It opened on Saturday 16th November and goes on until Tuesday 24 th December. They are open on Tuesday to Saturday. As well as the exhibition they have a lovely gift shop downstairs .There is free parking in the town and it is a pleasant place to wander.Some good places to eat too .

Rust ,Cyanotype and natural dyeing.

Debby had been creating some lovely pieces using onion skins to dye some fabric before adding in machine stitching to create the onions .

She had used some keys to rust dye fabric then used seed stitch to add background texture .If you visited our ‘Found ‘ exhibition you would have seen these .

She made a bag with onion dyed  fabric adding in some commercial cotton fabric depicting onions .

With her classes in Stoke Lodge she had done some Cyanotype printing achieving a good print of an Allium.

These little books were an experiment to see how they might reproduce if copied.

The copies are slightly less vibrant but only noticeable when seen next to the original.

 

Personal stories.

Taking inspiration from her grandmother’s Victorian scrapbook Alison has created a cloth version using vintage postcard and appliquéd items observed on her walks.

Another piece uses a fan shape reminiscent of those used by ladies in bygone times to show details of areas of Durham Downs.

Another uses the commemorative benches on the Downs with the wording to the remembered used in the background.

And finally her journey on the Downs when recovering and recuperating from knee surgery .

They all hang well together .

 

Stamp and stitch challenge.

As part of Found we decided to create a little opportunity for visitors.We used printing blocks to stamp on a square of fabric .These have been used to stitch into to show as samples as to what may be achieved.These can be used on a card ,create patches on clothing or add as decoration to book covers.Anything really you want and it is an introduction to stitch.

A little glimpse of another easily achieved idea ….bookmarks on coloured tyvek made by Viv.

 

September- finalising ‘Found’

We were short on members this time .We had loose ends and last minute ‘to do ‘ for Found to 

sort out  .Even so we managed to bring along some interesting things.Sue is continuing her journey with painting and brought along some examples of papers created  with Rita Dee , www.ritadeeart.co.uk

They  use tissue ,paint ,acrylic and alcohol ink on the surface.Some have been randomly applied and one in stripes.

Scrim has been added to the final one making for an interesting textured surface .Theses will form the under layer of a painting adding surface interest.

Jenn and Fumi  had joined in the TextileArtist free stitch club workshop given by Deb Cooper www,debcoopertextileart.com.You were encouraged to create a piece of fabric using up small fabric pieces and oddments  of ribbon and lace . Over this you hand stitch using various weights of thread and types of stitch ,as fancy as you like.The next stage was to tie these up in bundles then make hot strong tea and put in a jam jar to steep .After 24hours take out and leave to dry naturally before unrolling .

A further version was to add rusty objects to the bundle and do as before .Jenn and Fumi haven’t quite got there yet but maybe next month we shall see the results.

Fumi wanted some feedback on where she might put her initial on the piece above ,and what we thought about her handmade packaging for her hand made jewellery.

We love her attention to small details .