Saturday 30 October 2021

More Creative Play

Following on from my last post about paper collage play, my last two days were spent with paper and fabric.

At Festival of Quilts I had printed Venice based themes onto white cotton poplin.  I had taken the fabric with me to C2C.  After the conversations about contrast I decided it would be good to overdye some of the fabric to produce a medium and a dark version.   While I was waiting for the fabric to absorb the dye I made a paper collage using only black and shades of grey paper.

I also made a small zigzag book and inspired by some work I saw on Instagram from Littleheath Barn Studio I cut out circles and reinserted them.

I washed out the fabrics and dried them.

The fabrics didn't turn out quite how I had envisioned but this is what I have to work with.  I started cutting up the fabrics into different sizes of rectangles and put them on the deisgn wall.

The finished design which was then bonded to a backing fabric.

I also cut some squares from the original fabric and bonded them to a backing fabric.


By the end of the week my design wall looked like this


I enjoyed my 5 days of play.  There's no access to the internet or a phone signal at C2C so it's all about play and conversation.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Tuesday 26 October 2021

Unlocking the Mystery of Creative Play 4

I spent 5 days last week at Committed to Cloth. This was my last week at the C2C studio as it is closing next month.  Leslie is retiring and planning to spend some time working on her own work.  I am excited to see what she makes.

This was my fourth time of doing 'Unlocking the Mystery of Creative Play'.  You would have thought I would have unlocked it by now!

You may have noticed in recent posts that I have been making both paper and fabric collages and last week I continued the theme.  I started by making a concertina book.   I usually make small collages which are centred within a page so I set myself the challenge of covering the whole paper.  I used papers I had taken with me.

As I said, I like to work small so I challenged myself to work much larger.  I used papers taken from an amazing German art supplies catalogue.


This is about A2 size and as I worked on it I kept turning the paper round until all the white paper was covered.

I also photographed it in other ways up.



I moved on to another large collage

I don't usually work with dark colours so I had some interesting conversations with Leslie and with Amanda Duke about contrast.

Watch out for another post on Saturday about what I did next!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Saturday 23 October 2021

Sketchbook Saturdays

I signed up for a new workshop with Hilary Beattie called Sketchbook Saturdays.  This group is now full but it's worth keeping an eye on Hilary's shop page in case she puts on another group.

Hilary is always generous in sharing her passion, excitement and knowledge.  But for me, the added extra is that you can do your own thing within what she says.  Or totally ignore her!  Yes I'm one of THOSE students!

The first session was about making collages using magazine pages.  Here are the first four I've made in half an A5 Seawhite Concertina sketchbook.  I had previously cut the sketchbook in half and made a new cover for each half from the box it came in.





Collages are quite addictive so there will be more!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice


Tuesday 19 October 2021

Next stage

Do  you remember my post 'Lots of Work'?    Well, I've started work!

I machined the strips together.  Of course there are lots of assumptions to be made about this!  As in:

1. Have I accurately cut the strips?
2. Can I sew straight lines with my machine?
3. My ironing and pressing skills are up to par!

I'm fairly sure I'm nowhere near scoring 100% in any of those 3 areas.




These three pieces are all different sizes although the photos show them the same!

Now I have to decide what to do next!  Cut them up some more or leave them as they are.

Watch this space!

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Saturday 16 October 2021

NWYN Concertina Book

As I told you in a previous post, the second session of Notice What You Notice was looking at a photo of an item provided by Christine, rather than an object or photo I owned and therefore knew something about.

It's been quite difficult to photograph the concertina book so I've made this video.  The first half is the front of the book and the second half is the back.


I tried to take photos so you could see through the holes to the pages behind.





Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Tuesday 12 October 2021

Journal update August and September

It's hard to believe it's over 2 months since I last did a Journal Update.  I have mostly kept up with it although interest is waning.  That's not unusal to be honest.  Most years I've lost interest by June.

I tend to fill in the calendar at the end of the month to record what I've done.  This might change now there's less likelihood of cancellations.

Here's one of my diary pages.  I fill in the gaps with photos from the month.

My To Do lists.  Rather than list what I'll do in each day I list the aim for the whole week.  This gives me flexibility.

I also use photos of my grandchildren in the spaces but I don't share those online.

September is the last of the Dutch doot cutoutsand even with this one I glued it to the page behind!

At last - in person workshops on the calendar

September diary pages

To Do pages


January to December completely filled the book.  I bought a new one which I hope will last right through 2022.  As Valerie isn't repeating Plan With Me in 2022 so I shall only be doing the calendar, diary pages and To Do lists.  I thought I would do that from this month onward.

 

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Saturday 9 October 2021

Notice What You Notice 2

Previously on Notice What You Notice we looked at an object or photo of our own. (Can you tell I've been binge watching a tv series - actually several series of Project Runway! They always start with Previously on ...)

This month Christine provided us with photos of 3 items to choose from.  I chose this one.


What do you think is in the photo?

I thought it was a plank of wood.

Christine told me she thinks it's some sort of leaf, but now I'm wondering whether it's the bark of a palm tree.  Yes! They have palm trees in Eastbourne!

Anyway!  We were asked to make a concertina book and then to make marks that we had observed in our chosen object.

Here are my pages to date:









I mopped up the pages with paper towels

I'm going to collage bits of the paper towels into the concertina book.

Watch this space!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice


Tuesday 5 October 2021

Textile Explorations

Liske has started a new year of Art Textiles Groups.  This year's theme is Textile Explorations and has come out of her 100 day project where she made little collages each day using different techniques.

I took along for inspiration my Venice based Concertina sketchbook and some remnants of fabrics I have used for my Venice hangings.

I made 4 little collages during the workshop.  They are all 10cms square.

Back home it dawned on me that I had my 30 days of collage book.  So I looked through that and made some more fabric collages. 


I also added other bits to the original 4 squares and started stitching them.

I could have made quite a few more but I think I need to do more stitching to these before that.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice