Inkjet Printing

Last weekend I spent a day at Caroline Merrell's studio learning how to nuno felt photographs.

I had sent Caroline some black & white photos to print.

For some reason, this printed with a blue tinge on the silk.  And much of the black that had been there, washed away.  However I like it as a background.

Caroline had warned us all that this printing method was not always successful - it depends on the ink cartiridges, how long you leave the ink to cure etc.

Some washed away more than others!  This one was printed onto to hand dyed silk and the image disappeared completely.

However, before I started felting I had taken a photo of the printed silk.

Caroline had printed this one for me which also had the blue tinge.

And this is the same photo printed on silk at home.

This one was printed on cotton and looked great whilst it was wet.  However, now it's dry it's lost a lot of definition.

 This was the original photo.

 I also came home with two printed pieces of silk that I hadn't felted.

The whole point of the workshop was to experiment.  Now I have some pieces of felt to experiment on further.  I shall cut some up and stitch on them.  I may put another layer of silk organza with a print on top.

I'll let you know if I get any further.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Recording the black & white walk

Last time you will remember that I showed the photos from the walk I did from Kingswood Junction to Lowsonford.

The aim of this sketchbook exercise is to draw what you saw as you walked.  I didn't particularly want to draw things so I filled the pages with text and stencilling. I own a lot of stencils and I thought this would be a great way to use some of them.

The next activity was to isolate areas within the drawings to make 'tiles' which can then be made into stamps.  To be honest using the stencils made this part of the syllabus a bit difficult.

I was reading Jean Draper's book, Stitch and Pattern, where she suggested drawing a stylised leaf and making patterns using that.  I drew a stylised Hawthorn leaf as I had seen Hawthorn  hedges all along the side of the canal.

I made a sponge leaf, 2 funky foam leaves and 2 lino cut leaves.  These are the stamped images.

I made these into digital stamps and spent quite a lot of time producing pages of various versions of repeat patterns.

The spaces between the printed leaves interested me and I traced that and made another set of digital stamps and printed out repeat patterns for my sketchbook.

I also made yet another set of funky foam stamps using this shape.  I printed with a variety of the stamps on fabric.

The first set or prints are with Formusol - a discharge paste - which removes the colour from black fabric.

The formusol was spread on some plastic and then pressed onto the fabric.

White acrylic fabric paint on black fabric

Black acrylic fabric paint on white fabric

I have lots of ideas whirling around in my head but need to settle down to making 12 samples as a way of working to my final piece.

In the meantime I have a Jean Draper 3 day workshop to attend at Bobby Britnell's studio and a one day with Caroline Merrell.  This is on experimental inkjet printing learning how to transfer my favourite images that I have taken onto silk and then proceed to add fibres to nuno felt.  I will of course be using a photo from my canal walk, to use as one of my samples.

There will of course be blog posts to let you know how I get on.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Traverse & Uttoxeter

This coming weekend Traverse will be exhibiting at the British Quilt & Stitch Village at the racecourse in Uttoxeter.

This will be the big reveal of our exhibition: Revealed.  Although to be honest most of my work is the antonym of revealed - Hidden.

My Mother Said
This bodice began with writing on paper about my mother not allowing me to show even a hint of my underwear - not even a bra strap - when I was in my teens.   I built up the layers of paper and fabrics on top of the writing and then stitched it to a felt backing.

This piece is called Hidden Support.  It is about my broken fingers.  The base of the piece is made from the slings I was given.  I printed most of the photos I had taken about my hand and my teeth onto cotton poplin which was then bondawebbed to the slings.  The top layer is made from machining a grid onto the hospital appointment letters and then washing away some of the paper.  The tags are all the appointments I had between June 8th and December 31st with the consultant, the dentist and various hand therapists.  The ends are made from pencils and eraser toppers.

It's over 2 metre long so here are some clearer photos.

My third piece is from the felting course I went on.  You may remember I cut up the sample from the first day of the workshop and here it is reassembled as Piece by Piece 1.  The techniques used reveal what is hidden beneath.

My 4th piece is Piece by Piece 2.  You can find out about the two felt pieces in my Traverse blog post: If in doubt, cut it up!  It similarly reveals what is hidden beneath.

And finally my Master Practitioner piece: Hidden Meaning.  This was originally going to hang on the wall closed up so that people could unfold it to reveal the contents.  However I've now decided it will sit on a table so people can touch the different textures.

Thank you for joining me today.  I hope to see you at the Uttoxeter Show.  I'll be there on Saturday & Sunday.

Bernice

Felting Workshop with Caroline Merrell

Recently Cath & Deb from Traverse and I went on a felting weekend workshop taught by Caroline Merrell.  We had a fabulous time learning all sorts of 3D and sculpting techniques.

On the Saturday we started by making one piece with different types of samples on it - a ball cut in half, braids, and a tube.

Laying out the various samples

By the end of the day I had one rather large piece of felt with various bits added to it.  On Sunday morning I cut it into two pieces: a third and two thirds.  This is the two thirds!

 The craters cut into the felt around the tails.

Further cuts into the felt revealing the felt layers below

I started a second piece.  This is the first layer with bubblewrap resists.


Another layer of felt and more bubblewrap resists.

This was covered with more felt and a top layer of brown which I hoped would make a contrast with the layers underneath.  It didn't really work out how I hoped.

I started another piece with tails in the centre.   The brown felt reminds me of the old brown underfelt that people used under carpets.

I needlefelted some fibres onto the top of this piece.


The final piece I started was using a bubblewrap mask.


I had put a layer of  fibres over the bubblewrap and then I decided to cut rectangles out of a piece of prefelt and put the on the top with a piece of fabric trapped in between.


Then I cut into the felt where the holes in the mask had been.


None of these pieces are finished.  They all need stitching at the very least.   I will write another post about what I have done or will be doing with the felt pieces at a later date.   At least one piece needs to be finished in time for Traverse's exhibition in April.

Just to whet your appetite - here's what I did with Saturday's sample piece on the Monday after the felting weekend.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice