Tuesday 27 April 2021

Adding layers

Last Autumn when Liske was able to run workshops we started on Text, Texture, Textile.  These are some of the fabrics I dyed and printed at that time




Last week we were at last able to go back to the studio.  I hadn't really taken to the fabrics I had printed which is why I hadn't done anything with them.  So last week, I added more layers of text and shapes using thickened dye through stencils and thermofax screens.








I'm still not totally in love with them.  But I suspect they'll be fine cut up into smaller pieces.  Or I could put another layer on using fabric paints.

I've also wondered about over-dyeing them all with one colour.

Watch this space!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice


Saturday 24 April 2021

One finished, one to go!

In the post Another new piece, I showed you how far I had got with piecing some bought fabric togther.

And this is the finished piece:

I went back to the other hanging which I had got stuck on.  I realised it was because I was trying to replicate the Paul Klee work too closely.  Stepping away from it for a while was a good thing.

I continued to cut up fabric and stitch the fabrics fairly randomly together.


I made some strips narrower and some wider than the original 6 inch strips.

I sewed some of the strips together and kept making extra bits.  I made the rust coloured strip at the top narrower.

I sewed all the strips together and trimmed the whole thing.

It's ready for the wadding and the backing.  I haven't decided whether to bond the layers together and then add the binding, or use a technique called stitch-in-the-ditch to quilt it together.  Stitch-in-the-ditch involves machining where the seams join.  I would only do it in the verticals.  There are far too many horoizontal seams!  However I've never done it before so I'm a bit wary.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Tuesday 20 April 2021

Signs and Signposts

This month's photography theme was Signs and Signposts.  I haven't been anywhere this month apart from my back treatment appointments so I trawled through the archives.

Here are just a few of the photos I found:


















Thanks for joining me today
Bernice


Saturday 17 April 2021

Saturday Story

Today I thought I would look at the letter M.  Are there particular stories in your life concerning words beginning with M?  We all have memories - good memories, bad memories!

All the travel posts on this blog are memories.  Here's a photo of Mount Hood from 2017

Obviously there are real mountains, but there are also metaphorical mountains in our lives.  There's the saying: Don't make a mountain out of molehill.

It seems to me that we can easily make mountains.  We let our thoughts run riot and exaggerate nothing into something.  We can take someone's comments about our work and make it into a rejection of us. Not liking our work is not the same as not liking us as a person.

Over the years I have chase after techniques in the hope of finding my voice - my style.  I've taken part in workshops online and in person.  Good ones, poor ones and great ones!  Basically in search of me in my work.  It's good to know techniques, but it's even better to actually make work.   It's good to find out what is a good fit for me.  I listened to this great podcast this week: Art Juice - Is Your Personality in Your Art

One of the most helpful things I have found is mentoring.   Christine Chester is an excellent mentor.  Here are the memories of the mentoring session.

Currently I am over half way through a year of faith based creative expression mentoring with Matt Tommey.  This has been an excellent way to consolidate the things I have learned over the years, combining my faith with creative practice.

Matt has an excellent podcast series plus a blog.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice


Tuesday 13 April 2021

Another new piece

You may remember this post: Starting a new textile piece.  It didn't get any further than here:

Firstly because I think I was trying to hard to make it like the Paul Klee painting and secondly, I got sidetracked into messing about with the sketchbook.

Last year I bought some fabric from Littleheath Barn Studio and then last month Liske advertised some more which I also bought.

My mind was buzzing with what I could do with it so I put the paints and sketchbook away and starting cutting up fabric.

I stitched the strips back together.

 
As you know, I love cutting up my work, so having stitched it all together, I promptly started cutting it up and inserting narrow strips of a contrasting colour.

I tried out the remaining fabric in different positions

Then sewed it together.

And joined the whole thing together.

Only then it didn't look right.  I tried the contrast strip in various places before cutting the piece up again.

It still looked a bit odd and I needed to decide how to finish it.   I printed out the above photo and cut out the images and tried different versions of cutout.



I chose the last one and cut the actual fabric.  Now to decide whether to use a binding or a facing and whether I should quilt it.  I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Saturday 10 April 2021

Canal Concertina Sketchbook

I had started a concertina sketchbook way back in 2018 which was based on views of Venice - except lots of people thought it was Morocco.  I didn't get any further with it than the photos in this post: Karen Stamper workshop.

I did another workshop with Karen in 2019 and was more pleased with this sketchbook.

Anyway, back to my original sketchbook.  I loved the zigzag book I made from an Everything Art online workshop.

I thought I would make a bigger version using the old concertina sketchbook.  I cut out the main Venice pages leaving the ones I had started.  I knew I could cover up the stamped architectural images.

I won't show you all the pages, just the development of a few. This first double page spread was totally blank when I started.


As you can see this page had gothic window shapes stamped on and some Italian dictionary.

I used gesso and acrylic paint to cover the stamping.


This spread also had Venice related stamping.

I added washi tape and part of a photo.

I added acrylic paint and stencilling.

I'm still working on the pages.  I work on one and then go back to another.  I'm adding photos, text, stencilling, paint, gesso.

Here are a couple of pages that are next to be worked on.


I'll do another post later this month with some more finished (or almost finished) pages.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice