Make It Personal 5

I've just spent two days at The Bramble Patch again at the Make It Personal workshop with Hilary Beattie.

This was the 5th of 6 sessions this year but actually my last one as I will be in Florida when the next one happens.

I've written about these sessions in January, March and March again, May and July.

This session was about using the fabrics and papers we had made during the other sessions as a starting point for inspiration and designs.   The fountain in the photo above has been the inspiration all year but I have really struggled with it as I didn't have any definite images I could use as focal points in any designs I came up with.    I wrote about this problem here.

However I decided on the first day to just tear up papers and fabrics and stick them down on a large piece of Pelmet Vilene (Pellon Peltex) and see what came to me.   I should have taken photos of the process but didn't.   On Friday once the piece was dry I started looking at what I could do with this background and Hilary suggested cutting up slivers of one of my gelli print deli papers. I put Heat'n Bond on it first and then cut it up and ironed it on.

This is it with all the raw edges.

  And here it is in closeup.

I worked on 3 design pieces over the two days working on one or other as I waited for things to dry.  I worked on this 12 inch square canvas.

This is a rectangular canvas that has some stamped seedhead images  using one of Hilary's stamps.

All of the pieces need more stitching and marks made on them.  Whether that happens is another matter!

The course is being run again through 2015 so you could sign up.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Blog Hop - with a difference!

I was asked in June to take part in a blog hop with a difference but it came at a bad time so I had to decline. But last week Sandie invited me to take part and it seemed like a good idea (until I came to actually write something)! Why is it a blog hop with a difference? You are given 4 questions to answer and you have to invite 3 people you know to blog the following week and invite 3 people. So here goes!

What am I working on?
At the moment I seem to spend more time thinking about what I should be working on rather than actually working on it. I have lots of projects on the go and none of them seem to be getting anywhere. I signed up for a Sketchbook course with Linda & Laura Kemshall and then realised it really would be better if I finished some of my other projects first.

I’m working on an Advent blog called Pause, Ponder & Prepare with my friend Diane who lives in Florida. Diane has written an Advent study and I have found the Bible verses that tell the Christmas story for an Advent Calendar. All of this is on the blog already although there are still PDF links and such like to add. Also we are both going to do our versions of the study and calendar and blog about it on our personal blogs. I haven’t even started on that yet.

I have been attending a class called Make It Personal taught by Hilary Beattie at The Bramble Patch. It’s six sessions of 2 days over the year. Session 5 is at the end of this month where apparently ‘we will work using our fabrics/papers as a starting point for inspiration and designs.’ Come back at the end of the month to see how I got on!

If you are a regular reader of my blog you will know that I am taking part in One Little Word and Document Life Project – although with the latter I tend to ignore the prompts and do my own thing.


How does my work differ to others of its genre ?
I’m not sure my work fits into a genre. I do different things for different projects. I like to work with paper, paint and inks when I am art journaling. I like to work with fabrics and paper when I’m working on a textile piece. At the moment everything I’m doing is driven by a course or a project and I rarely just play.   I need to do more of that.   I’ve learned loads of techniques from attending workshops, doing on line courses or watching YouTube videos.   My aim is not to be a poor imitator of well known tutors work but in doing that I don’t start working on my own work.  I must find time to play.

Why do I write/ create what I do ?
I love setting up what I call art challenge blogs. Click on the tab at the top of the page to find links to them. I started them as in the creative circles I was mixing in online there were people asking for challenges. I decided that I would do them with quotes and Bible verses to use. I particularly wanted to make them easily available to everyone and not charge for them although the planning takes up a lot my time. I include a particular art technique to use each day. I also work on the challenges myself and do photo tutorials on my own blog of how I did my pages. However I encourage people to use their own ideas, the paints and papers that they already own and to come up with their own work. I am always astounded by the wide range of styles and work I see as a result.

Earlier this year I launched more Christian-based studies. These are based on teaching series from my church to which I add journaling questions or prompts. These studies offer opportunity for creative responses but I don’t put art techniques to use.  You can find a link to Identity and to Honour at the top of this page.

I feel that I am called to use my creative gifts and my teaching skills to help other people release their creativity and their faith.

You may like to read this post From under the sideboard.  It explains a little bit more about me.  The coaching sessions I had with Robin encouraged me to launch my first art challenge blog, An Attitude of Gratitude.

How does your creating/ writing process work ?
I spend a lot of time thinking and then have short bursts of creativity with the paints, inks and papers.  And then I go back to thinking.  Sometimes I wonder if the ratio of thinking to doing ought not to be the other way round - more doing and less thinking!


Well done for getting this far down the page.  I seem to have written rather a lot after all.  Thank you for sticking with it and to Sandie for inviting me to share my creative processes with you.

Let me introduce you to three friends:  Mary, Shonna and Merri who will be sharing about what they are focussing on next Monday, 22nd September.  Do hop over to see them.

Mary Brack stumbled on art journaling about 6 years ago.  She makes and sells altered book journals and you can find her at Me, With My Head in the Clouds.

Shonna Worsham Bucaroff teaches art classes in San Diego and online.  She has set up a Ning Community - Twistedfigures and has just started offering the Free online course "Kingdom Come". 

Merri Dennis is running a year-long free online creative Bible study using Psalms.   You can find her at Bible Crafts and Activities.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Zig Zag book pt 1

Do you remember the papers I painted last week?  Well here's what I've done with them so far.

I started of with a 6 inch square zig zag book which I bought from Art Van Go.  It's made from 100% recycled cotton rag and you get 5 of them in the pack for £3.50   You can see more about the paper here.

I worked out what size I wanted to work and drew a recatangle on each page.

I cut up some of the painted paper to the same size and tried it out on the pages.

I cut up the painted paers in different ways and glued them to the book pages.

I couldn't decide whether to show you each page as it developed or as in the way I worked.  I chose the latter.  I worked on each page and then took a photo.

Originally I was going to work on the small pieces of paper and use my sewing machine but I'm not very practised with that sort of work so I decided to do faux stitching instead.

These pages are finished - for now!  I'm going to leave them for a while and then come back to them to see if I should add anything else.

And of course, there's the other side to do yet.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Make It Personal playtime

As you know I have been attending a course taught by Hilary Beattie.  I blogged about the last session here.

When I was listening in to Hilary's one-on-one chats with some of the other students I had a lightbulb moment.  Other students have chosen a particular image for their inspiration which is more easily incorporated into their designs and I realised that this was where my difficulty lay.  My source of inspiration is a fountain in King's Cross, Sydney.

I have associated this in my mind with Agapanthus but when I got home I looked online to be able to send a link to Hilary and discovered that actually the fountain is described as a  dandelion fountain.

I have lots of dandelion photos so sorted out a few of those.

I went for a short walk and picked some small dandelion leaves and pressed them for a couple of days.  Today I used then with  my gelli plate.  I used blue, green and white fabric acrylic paint, a bought stencil and a bought dandelion stamp.

As you can see the colours are much more muted than when I work at The Bramble Patch.

I have some ideas percolating around my head for these.  But that's enough photos for today.

Thanks for stopping by.

Bernice

Make It Personal Session 3

On Thursday and Friday I was at The Bramble Patch again doing the third session of Hilary Beattie's class: Make It Personal.

Here are details of Session 1 and Session 2 part 2 and part 1.

This session we concentrated on screen printing.

Firstly we used masking tape to make patterns on the underside of the screen.

I printed through the screen with thickened dye onto white cotton lawn. Later I overdyed the fabric.

I carefully peeled the masking tape off the screen and stuck it into my sketchbook.

And cleaned the screen into my sketchbook.

The next exercise was to cut or tear patterns into paper - I used scrapbook paper which was slightly thicker and lasted longer.

The yellow 'pinwheels' in the background were applied by putting the dye through the screen which had the cut-out on the back.

At the end of Thursday we put a thick layer of dye onto the back of our screens and left them to dry overnight.

I didn't put my dye on particularly thickly so when we reactivated the screen on Friday morning I didn't get many prints off it.  The two prints on the left are on cotton lawn and the one on the right is on Deli paper.

I cut a stencil of my shape and painted white acrylic fabric paint through it.

This is onto paper.

And this is on the backing paper that was on the top of my table and soaking up all the dye and pattern all day.

We also tried putting inktense block colour onto the screen using stencils to get the pattern and discharging that with plain thickened manutex.  The piece on the right was where I drew directly onto the fabric.

I also played in my sketchbooks.

I don't enjoy working in the A3 sketchbook so took this one with me as well.

We used thermofax screens.  I used pearl paint through a screen on this page.

And then added dye ink over the top.

Here's a close up.

This is two different screens using acrylic paint.

And dye ink painted over.

This page was done with thickened dye.

The two days sped past.  Hilary is very generous in sharing her knowledge and we have great fun with her.  On Friday a film crew were present filming Hilary for JustHands-On TV and at one point the camera was pointing at me working.  Will I make the cut or be lying on the cutting room floor - or whatever the digital equivalent is?!?  I'll let you know.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice