Summer School continued

In my last post I showed the fabrics I had printed.  Here's what they looked liked together.

Photo by Liske Johnson

I had a Thermofax screen made of the poem I wrote and using fabric paint printed onto some of the fabrics.  Then I started tearing them up and collaging them.  This is now tacked ready to sew, probably on the sewing machine.

These were random pieces left over which looked good together.  They are lightly bonded to a piece of calico.  I haven't decided what to do with this.

I tore up the fabrics into 6x4" pieces and put them together to make a hanging book.  This can either hang on the wall or fold up.  It's double sided.  This is one side.

And this is the other.  It's all tacked together ready to stitch.

Then with a large piece of fabric I made a book.  I ironed bondaweb on the back of the fabric and then folded it in 4 one way and 4 the other.  I cut it like this

Cut along the red lines

I removed the backing paper carefully and ironed the pages together.

I made a cover with one of the other fabrics

With some of the leftovers I started making small collages.  Some of these will probably go on the pages of the hanging book.

I still have lots of the printed fabrics left, but it might be better to finish all these before I start something else.  Or not!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Summer School

After an uncomfortable two days of extreme heat for the UK, I spent two cool days (in both senses of the word) at Littleheath Barn with Liske's 'Art Cloth: Maps and More'.

We spent the two days trying out various techniques with a limited palette to produce some fabrics that sit well together.  My colours were basically rust, slate grey and a little charcoal dye.  The aim was to produce fabrics that were dark, medium or light.

Sadly the photographs don't really show the true colours of the fabrics.

For this fabric I put some white acrylic paint through a bought stencil.  I put narrow masking tape on a screen and printed through it.

right side

reverse

Liske had demonstrated how to make a breakdown screen which I used.  It didn't breakdown as much as I thought it would.

right side

reverse

This is muslin which I wrote on with dye.  I scraped dye over the one end and used a thermofax screen on the right.  I cut it into two pieces.  The top part shows the results of using flour paste as a crackle which I put rust dye over.  I scraped pale rust over the the bottom piece.

I used soy wax and drew lines over my screen and scraped dye through the screen.

right side

reverse

I made a screen by spreading a thin layer of flour paste on it.  On one half I put a bought stencil.  On the other half I scraped lines and shapes when the paste was dry.  I also used the stencil to fill in the gaps so I have positive and negatives of the design.

right side

reverse

I scraped dye over this piece of muslin so I have some matching plain fabric.

At the end of the day I had a fabulous piece of dropcloth.  I had started the two days with a new clean cloth.  I cut this piece from the dropcloth and sprayed a soda ash solution over it to fix the dye. It's cotton drill which is heavier than the calico and muslin I had used so it will possibly become a background.

We're back next week for another two days of composition, planning and making using the fabrics. Although we may start with adding more layers of design using fabric paints.

I've no idea what I shall do with all these fabrics.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Paper Lamination

I spent 3 days last week at Littleheath Barn doing a workshop led by Christine Chester.  It was so enjoyable.

Transparent fabrics are notoriously difficult to photograph but here goes!  This is the basic paper lamination with newspaper and organza, with matte medium scraped through a Thermofax screen.

The next two are the result of a gesso lamination.  My fabrics don't really echo each other as they should.

Another newspaper two

The next two are dry brush lamination using magazine pages.

I handstitched this piece.  It needs pressing and binding.

Find out more about Christine's online Paper Lamination course.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Half way

Can you believe we're halfway through the year?!

Over the past few months I have bought rather more sticker books than are sensible.  So I need to use them.  The journal pages for June reflect me using them.

This one is totally butterfly mad because it was Naomi's birthday this week.

Just getting round to sorting out this week and the monthly calendar.  A bit behind for some reason.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice 

Yet more grids!

More grids! This time I played on paper.  And I had a friend come to play!

I tried to be less rigid about the spaces.

And used other shapes with the grids

The first layer was blue (see above).  Then white which you can hardly see and then orange.

After the masking tape was removed.

And the masking tape put together.

 

My friend used blue, white and yellow.

The masking tape.

I think I'm going to leave making these grids for a bit and try something else.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice