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

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

Playing at Committed to Cloth

I have just got back from 5 days of play at Committed to Cloth.  Admittedly I didn't play the whole time but that's a whole other blog post.

After we had all introduced ourselves and Leslie had explained some activities, I chose to make collages using brown, white and black paper, with added touches of red.  I started with 14cm squares.  I had decided I would work with squares because when I was at C2C last year I used circles.

I tried them in a long line and then decided to make 3 more to make a square.

I tried out different layouts.

Then I photocopied the squares 141% bigger.  The problem with that was 141% makes rectangles rather than bigger squares!

I had glued the black & white squares to a backing paper and then I cut it up.  You know I love cutting up stuff.  I tried out the strips in different layouts.

I added small amounts of red to make it more interesting.

I joined all the strips together and was  hoping to be able to have a curly book. 

The paper didn't really want to curl so I went back to my preferred zigzag.

I pinned it to the wall

Then (you know me!) I cut up the long strip into 3 strips.

I don't know what I shall do with this - if anything!  But I know from last year's play that what you see above may well inform something I make later this year although it won't be a replication.

That was just day 1.  There's so much more to come.  See you back here.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Workshops 2020

Some of my friends feel I should join Workshops Anonymous!  If there isn't such an organisation perhaps I should start one.

I spent many months this year saying I wasn't going to book any workshops in 2020.  But then signed up for 3 in January & February.  Then I said I wouldn't book any past March.  Yeah right!

So what have I signed up for?

January: Unlocking the Mystery of Creative Play with Lesley Morgan.
‘How do I make better work?’ We will look at simple language and principles of design found in the physical world. Working from a personal starting point, discover tools to create contrast and harmony using colour, value, size, shape, and texture. Bring your curiosity to discover what you like and how to achieve the elements you need to work with your theme and create effective compositions.

February: Abstract Calligraphy with Simon Sonsino
In this workshop we will explore abstract calligraphy with expressive form. We will work through exercises creating abstract letter form with different mark making tools.

February: Poetry of Stitch with Christine Chester
There will be a concentration on using the sewing machine, but also looking at hand stitch as the heavier and more ‘spotty’ marks that is tricky to do on the machine (though not impossible). We will explore your machine’s potential through use of tension, straight and swing stitches, and the occasional use of an accessory or two.  There will be an emphasis on trying lots of small sample pieces rather than working towards a larger piece, but these can be combined to form a book towards the end of the course.

April: Colour Studies with Lesley Morgan
We will learn how to use procion Mx dyes to develop an extensive palette. Build harmonious colour and value schemes to create contrasts that will enrich, energies and pop!  Use mark-making to create a visual reference of colour relationships and establish a method to explore any colour and value scheme of your choice.

May: Improvisational Curved Piecing with Leslie Morgan
Improvisation is the act of coming up with something on the spot. Improvisational Piecing is drawing with a rotary cutter. The act of improvising is to act or to start a piece without planning ahead, spontaneously making decisions as you go. Improvisational piecing promotes muscle memory, intuition, innovation, creative mistakes, repeatable mistakes, freedom ...

July: Land - Marks Summer School with Cas Holmes
A mixed media workshop exploring the qualities of cloth and paper for creating a mark and as a surface for print. Spend the first two days printing onto layered cloth using a variety of techniques, and the last day using some of the pieces to create a stitch - collage.

November: Layers in Land & Sea with Amanda Hislop
A 2-day workshop to explore land or seascape imagery through a process of layering; working on a fine background to build layers of recycled and specialist papers, natural fragments and threads. Experiment with ways of changing the surface of papers which will then be incorporated into landscape compositions developed from your own personal material. Acrylic paints are then applied using techniques to enhance and give depth to the colour within the piece.

And that ought to be enough!

However Liske keeps adding temptation at Littleheath Barn Studio.  It's 25 minutes away and I can live at home.   Sooo tempting!

But looking on the bright side!  I've only signed up for one online course: Wanderlust.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice