Since last September I have been attending an Art Textile Group at Littleheath Barn run by Liske Johnson. The theme for the work we were doing was the Seasons.
As you may know I love making books and I love doing collages, so here was the opportunity to combine the two. We started the sessions working on Summer but having finished the work I have decided to join the book so that it starts with Winter.
The Front Cover
The book is approximately 7" x 6"
For each season I made 3 collages. At one point each season could have become a panel rather than a zigzag book.
Winter
Spring
Summer
Autumn
The Back Cover
During our time together we tried out various techniques on fabric, the results of which sometimes were included in the book and some pieces have added to my ever-increasing stash.
I am doing a Seasons based course at Littleheath Barn which I realise I haven't shared here but I will do soon. One of the things that Liske has been suggesting is making a different style of book for each season. Her Winter book has been a Wabi-Sabi book. Whilst this style of book doesn't fit with what I am doing for the four seasons, I loved the idea of making such a book.
I have bought lots of rust dyed fabrics and decided I would use those and I stamped and printed circles onto the fabric. I cut the fabric to the size I wanted them to make a book.
At this point I was just playing with fabric and not really having a plan. And then the light bulb moment!
I wrote about how I played with some ideas at Committed to Cloth in this blog post. At C2C I was working on the theme of Senses and in particular Taste and oranges and lemons. The week of play produced this amongst other pieces.
I could see the influence of the work above on the printing I had done on the rust dyed fabric. Great - I have a theme for the book.
I sorted out the fabrics into pages and was sure I had made 12 pages. However it turned out to be 11 and then decided rather than have one book, I would make 2 books.
I cut circles and wedges from other fabrics I had and bondawebbed them to the pages. I had also realised that the book needed some contrast and bought some hand-dyed fabric from Leah Higgins. I started some free-machining on these pages but soon realised that it's not really my thing - insufficient practise really! So I am now going to hand stitch on the pages for now.
This is the larger book. The photos show both sides of the page. When you sew on one side, the stitching shows up on the other side which is interesting. But as you can see I'm not good at free machining circles!
I'll show you how I get on with these books in later posts.
Traverse
As you know I belong to a mixed media and textile art group called Traverse. We got together last weekend for our first meeting since we finished our Destinations theme.
There are two ways to go with a theme - a technique-based route or a concept-based route. I really want to go with the concept- based route but unfortunately it's much easier to think of techniques that fit with Revealed or its opposite Concealed. However I have looked at all that comes to mind with the topic as well as looking for synonyms and antonyms.
I tried firstly to make lists of words.
Then I decided to try my usual method of mind mapping (or whatever it's called these days!). The problem with any of this is that I've probably got enough ideas here for the rest of my life! I only need a minimum of 3 pieces of work by March 2019. Plus I have at least another 4 of these mind maps on other themes.
The ideas may be hidden now, but no doubt the right ones will reveal themselves.
I know!! You're allowed to groan.
So on to the next group!
Near & Far
I have joined an online group called Near & Far. This is a Facebook-based group run by Chris Gray. She hopes that we will have a gallery exhibition at some point. The theme for this group is Maps & Journeys. And guess what I'm doing!
That's right! Venice!
We each have to make a minimum of 3 pieces - one wearable, one useful and one decorative. I am going to make a Venice-inspired dress, a sketchbook with a Venice-inspired cover and a scroll book as the decorative piece that will be some sort of imagined journey along the Grand Canal. I have bought several books about secret Venice so watch this space!
And lastly
Art Textile Group
I am also signed up to join a new venture that Liske is setting up at Littleheath Barn Studio.
Liske's description: In the art textiles class we will use the seasons as our inspiration and the plan will be to work on a series of 4 collage style pieces using fabrics created on the course, and adding work from home to suit your skills! Input from the group will help the course evolve and we will have the chance to exhibit at Avoncroft at the end of the final term!
So of course I have to share this:
I think I'm going to be a bit busy for the next few months!
