Maps & More

This month I rejoined the Art Textiles monthly group at Littleheath Barn.  This years theme is Maps & More.

We started with a warm up exercise in our sketchbooks.  I'm using a 20cm square Pink Pig sketchbook.

 

 

We had been asked to take a map with us and I took a map of Venice - where else?  It was that or the canals of the UK.

 

The next exercise was to take just part of the map and draw 3 lines then 5 then 7.

 

 

We moved on to A3 paper, drawing with ink and adding watercolour

 

 

I made my second piece of paper square.

And add handmade paper to the piece I had cut off.

The last exercise was to draw with a wax candle and put a wash of colour over the top.

 I folded the square paper into 16 squares and cut them out and put them randomly into my sketchbook.

With the large rectangle I made a book (surprise! surprise!)

 
I made a zine with the added paper piece.

I used little brown paper bags as pockets to keep the books in. I had made a collage using the pattern from the 5 line drawing

 We made a Turkish Mapfold booklet with the wax and watercolour wash paper.

It doesn't help that the writing is upside down but I'm not going to worry about it.

It was a really enjoyable and productive day.

To be honest I think I make a dreadful student and feel really sorry for any tutor who has to cope with me.  I frequently want to be doing my own thing!

But before I went I promised myself that I would be a good student and do what Liske suggested.  And it worked.  I had a lovely time.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Summer Photo Scavenger Hunt

Over the summer the theme for the Snapshot Girls has been to use the Summer Photo Scavenger Hunt from Patio Postcards.  We didn't officially join in but used the scavenger hunt list.

1 A plant with thorns

2 A Wordless Directional Sign

3 Something Netted or Webbed

4 Something Berry Berry Delicious

5 A Bridge

6 A School

7 Something That Dangles

8 Some Shadows

A Pothole

10 White Flowers

11 Extraordinary Water

12 Summer Tools

13 A Sold Sign

14 Something That Rolls

 You could take the list and do an Autumn Scavenger Hunt.

Thank you for joining me today
Bernice

MTF @ NSA

Next week The Midlands Textile Forum exhibition

 A Sense of Place

18-24 September 2023

Nottingham Society of Artists
St Luke's House,
71 Friar Ln,
Nottingham
NG1 6DH 

These are my pieces that are included in the exhibition

If you visit the exhibition please let me know.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

More Poetry

For the next few weeks I'm only going to post once a week on a Saturday rather than twice a week.

In our Write Poetry zoom group Sara-Jane introduced us to poems that had strong emotions and an element of urgency.  Here are my poems from the three exercises we were given.

The persistence of why 

Why is the sky blue?
Why does the moon move
in the night sky?
Why aren’t the stars out tonight?
Why do the clouds hide the sun?
Why do I have to get up?
Why do I have to clean my teeth?
Why do I have to eat green vegetables?
Why do I need to wash?
Why do I have to go to bed
when it’s still daylight?
Why can’t I roll in the mud
like the dog does?
Why can’t I jump in the puddles
like the raindrops do?
Why can’t I swim in the sea
when the waves are high
and crashing on the beach?
Why do you always answer
‘because I said so’? 

Sometime Never

Make the time,
take the time to rest,
to dream of future hope.
Don’t say sometime I’ll take the time
to dream and rest
as sometime never comes.
Take the time to take notice
of what you’ve done,
of where you’ve grown,
of where you’ve come from,
of where you are now.
Ignore the social pressure of
‘you’re not enough’.
It’s not true.
You are enough.
You are you, in all your beauty
and your imperfection.
So, take the time, make the time
as sometime never comes.

Not Invisible

I am standing here
Can you not see me?
I am here in front of you
Surely you can see me.

I am standing here
a sixteen not an eight
Quite large really, almost plus size
not a catwalk stick insect.

I am standing here looking
at the shelves, choosing
a flavour of yoghurt
but you step between.

I am standing here.
Can you not see me?
Pushing your trolley
into me while I’m standing here.

I may not be dressed in purple
or wearing a red hat. I’m not
so old that I’ve withered
to a ghost of my former self.

I am standing here,
standing right in front of you,
surely you can see me.
I am not invisible. 

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Theme Poetry

Last month I joined in Sara-Jane's Theme Poetry online workshop.

The session started with Sara-Jane giving us a list of things we might write about as a warm up exercise.  I chose 'up in the air'.

The View from Above

The coloured silk had lain
on the ground, beside
the wicker basket. It too
lying on its side. 

The noise of gas burners
forcing hot air into the silk
until it ballooned aloft
dragging the basket upright.
Pegged down, the basket convulsed
trying to escape the ground.

Climbing into the basket
trepidatiously, I wondered
what possessed me to think
that this was a good idea.

Ropes and pegs released
we lifted from the ground.
Husband and young son
becoming smaller until ant-like
they lacked visual form.

The currents took the basket
almost where they willed.
Occasional bursts of noisy power
interrupted the silent sailing
through the air.

The panorama stretched before us.
The rolling hills of Warwickshire
The patchwork fields and tiny trees.
Magnificent Oaks brought low
by height and distance.

A beautiful sunlit early evening
displaying mile upon mile upon mile
of pristine English countryside.

But all good things
come to an end
and time had run out.
It was time to land.

It wasn’t a pleasant experience
landing heavily in a locked field
brought down to earth with a bump!

But all these years later
nearly 20 years
the memory lingers of seeing earth
from God’s perspective. 

The theme for the session was 'In Minature'.  Sara-Jane did a presentation about 4 aspects of miniature or small things and introduced three poems to us.  She gave us a variety of ways we might write about small things.  One of which was to write from the point of view of the small thing.  Here's mine.

Trapped

It’s so dark
I cannot see my associates.

I’m flattened, squashed
amongst the obscured leaves.

It’s lighter now.
The cover has been opened.

Paper rustles as it’s turned
bringing the light nearer.

A discarded bookmark slides in
brushing against me.

The light is getting closer.
It’s almost time for me.

The reader sighs at words' end
as I, the final full stop

bring the adventure to a close.

 
Thanks for joining me today
Bernice