Monday 27 November 2017

Advent

My friend Mary Brack has set up an Advent art project called Advent Words 2017.

From Mary's blog: Advent Words will be a daily challenge during the Advent season which runs December 3-24 this year. Each day there will be a word prompt along with a passage or two of related Scripture. You can choose to connect this word to whatever form of creativity you like - art journaling, collage, memory keeping, planner art, photography, poetry, painting - the creative practices to choose from are endless! You choose how you would like to participate.

Join us as we think about the reason for the season.  Find all the details on Mary's blog.

I've been thinking about how I want to record this project.  Originally I thought I might combine it with my December Daily. Then I thought I might make a fabric book - still not sure about that.  I have several books I have made which I could use.  Or I could make a brand new one.

Decisions! Decisions!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Friday 24 November 2017

December Daily Preparation

Last year I prepared my December Daily book ahead of time and found that to be most useful.  Many of the pages didn't stay the same but it's so much easier each day to see things in the pockets rather than be faced with choices of page layout etc.

I've pretty much stayed with the same colour scheme as last year - black, white, grey and pale blue.  This year there is the odd splash of red.   I didn't order the main kit from Ali Edwards.  Instead I ordered the Mini Kit designed by Paislee Press, the 6x8 Text Album , the 4x6 Stamp Set by Jasmine Jones, the Black and White Journal Card Set, the Religious Journal Card Set, the Chipboard Numbers Set and the Multi-Sized Stars Craft Die.  I've also included some bits left over from last year.

Here are my pages ready to go.  The numbers aren't stuck down yet so I can put them somewhere on the double page layout.









I had a spare set of 8x3" acetate monthly dividers from my One Little Word kit.  The original set I ordered had a fault so I was sent another set.  I cut the months off the top and used them here.



















December Daily ends on December 25th but I quite like to do right up to the end of the month.



The month is rushing past and there's only a week until I start filling this in.  Where has the year gone!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice


Monday 20 November 2017

Autumn

Today I thought I would do a simple blog post sharing some of the photos I've taken of Autumn colour this year.  These are all taken in our back garden and I was trying to catch how the light played with the leaves.  Some of them are more successful than the others.


 







If you want to see more Autumn colour checkout my blog post about our visit to Westonbirt Arboreteum a couple of years ago.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice


Friday 17 November 2017

Excited for creativity in 2018

There's still 6 weeks or so of 2017 left, but my calendar is filling up already with creative things to do.

As regular readers of my blog are aware I regularly sign up for far too many online courses.  Earlier this year I determined that I would try to do less online and more in-person workshops.  I haven't been totally successful with the online courses but I have booked some great workshops for next year.

Leslie Morgan: Unlocking the Mystery of Creative Play
‘How do I make better work?’ We will look at simple language and principles of design found in the physical world. Working from a personal starting point, discover tools to create contrast and harmony using colour, value, size, shape, and texture. Bring your curiosity to discover what you like and how to achieve the elements you need to work with your theme and create effective compositions.

Amanda Hislop: Developing Sketchbooks as a Rich Resource
A two day creative workshop working with a free approach to generating ideas through a working sketchbook, exploring abstract ideas and personal themes relating to land and seascapes. Explore mark making to develop exciting sketchbook pages, work with loose marks on paper with drawn lines, resist wash and layered tissue to develop a surface to fragment creating a series of abstract images to develop into personal sketchbook pages, with the option to include hand stitch to further enhance the surface.

Debbie Lyddon: Exploring Place
Discover new ways of inspiring your creative work by using all of your senses to observe the world around you. Part of this workshop will be spent outside – looking, listening and touching – to collect information from the environment. This material will be documented with drawing, sound recording and writing. Back in the studio your collections will form a starting point for experiments with paper, cloth, stitch, mark-making, collage and printing to create a unique and personal record of your exploration of place.

Cas Holmes: Spaces Places Traces
The colours and textures in the urban and natural landscape, from light raking over a ploughed field, bright summer flowers, to buildings reflected in water can provide stimulus for the design process involved in the creation of the narrative, formal or abstract qualities in textile and mixed media work. We will use a range techniques from the application of dyes and paints ,to create marks, to informal collage, appliqué involving the bonding of fabrics best described as ‘painting with cloth. This will include the application of sun printing techniques, weather allowing, as part of this explorative process.   These newly created surfaces, with the addition of stitch, will evolve into individual samples and pieces reflecting the locality and places which inspire you.

Julia Triston: Analysing Colour
This is a design workshop all about analysing colour. There will be several practical sketchbook based exercises working with papers, paints and threads. We will investigate compositions, collages, colour proportions and colour distinctions. Students will work at their own pace to develop a range of ‘samples’ which may be used as inspiration for stitched textiles. An ideal workshop for those wishing to develop their design skill basics further and really get to grips with using colour in their work.

Alice Fox: Land Marks
Exploring the wonderful surroundings we will use a variety of ways to record the landscape around us. Using gathered materials in a range of techniques we will make marks that record our experience, bringing these together into tactile book forms.

The first one is in January and the workshops are spaced out across the year as far as September.  I think I need to stop booking classes now!

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice


Monday 13 November 2017

Cutting up a piece of work

Last year I did an Art Cloth course at Littleheath Barn with Liske Johnson.   In my last post about it I said I was going to quilt it.  Well I didn't.  It's been on the back of a chair for months and then I took it back to Littleheath Barn and printed on it some more.

I was still not very keen on the art cloth so I cut it up!  And tried out various compositons using some fabric I had bought (and loved) and not known what to do with.




After some thought and a conversation with Sushi who is a quilter I made some headway with it.  Although first I ordered some more fabric from The Bramble Patch.
The fabric on left, whilst it matched some of the images on the art cloth, was too bright so I decided to use the fabric on the right.

I cut some strips and machined them together.

I cut a strip of the strips and machined it to the art cloth and added the strip at the bttom.

 I did the same with the bottom piece and machined the pieces together.

Then I added the pieces on the right.

Sushi suggested I made a binding with the strips and I've just placed it (rather badly) on the cloth to see what it looks like.

Before I quilt it and bind it I want to print some more over the top of the whole thing to try to integrate the strips into the whole thing and hopefully knock back some of the white.

There's a new Art Cloth course starting in February.And I'm going to be doing it.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice