Exhibition Days Away 2

In my previous post we had arrived in Ruthin.  The next morning after breakfast at Wetherspoons we had a wander around the town.

 

 

We were amazed to find that the public are allowed to wander freely around the grounds of the Ruthin Castle Hotel.

The Gatehouse

We moved on to the Ruthin Craft Centre to see the exhibitions there.  There was one room dedicated to the textile work of Matthew Harris.

And in a much larger space the exhibition Natural (Re)Sources which had work from 14 artists using a variety of different materials.

Work by Claire Benn

We then travelled to Ellesmere.   We had visited the town once with my parents but only remember viewing the Mere.  This time we walked along the canal and into the town.

After lunch at The Boathouse overlooking the Mere we drove towards Whitchurch, visiting Grindley Brook Locks on the way.

 We had a little walk around Whitchurch.

And then we drove home.

We packed a lot into our two days away!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Completing the tunnel book

The pages were ready.  Now to work out how to make them into a book!

This set of pages were left over from the Folded Book.   I had bonded them together back to back.

I didn't like the tunnel picture on this page so decided to bond a cover to the book using the page as a stiffener.  I also added some more printed bondaweb to the side I liked.

I had cut the cover so that it could contain the pages when folded up.  Before I bonded the page to the cover I inserted a ribbon of the fabric so that it would hinge to the next page.  Below you can see the Bondaweb ironed to the inside of the back cover.

I bonded a thick piece of Lutradur to the inside of the cover and bonded another piece of 'ribbon' before adding another layer of the dyed silk noil.

I bonded some dyed cotton fabric to the back of one of the pages

I inserted another 'ribbon' piece using Bondaweb

I ironed Bondaweb onto the back of another page and then ironed it onto the prepared page and contained the hinge pieces at the same time.

The book closes with the pages folded inside.  Ideally I think it should have buttons and buttonholes but the buttons should have been sewn on before I bonded the page to the cover and I'm not terribly good at buttonholes.  A work-around will come to me at some point!

As you open the book the fourth page shows first

And then page two and three are revealed as you unfold the book.

I have made versions of this style of book before with the ribbon of fabric that holds it all together as one long piece right through.  However I didn't have enough of the fabric to do that so I improvised with small 'hinges'.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Tunnel book

I am calling this silk noil book - Tunnel Book. Mostly so I can identify it amongst the other silk noil books.  The fabric was all torn up and ready to go.

More often than not I start something without knowing the end result.  I know it will be a book and the pages will be of a certain size because I've already prepared the fabric, but from that point on it's a mystery.  Little things like how the pages will be joined together or how the whole book will be finished happen as I go along.  It's not always the best way to work but on the whole it works for me.

As with the previous book I had put pieces of printed bondaweb onto the silk noil pages.

I made small fabric collages on each of the pages.

Then I stitched over the collages using extended fly stitch and sveral different colours and thicknesses of thread.

Next time I will show you how I put all these together as a book.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Along the canal

After the PoliNations garden and the not-so-raging bull we strolled along the canal to the Roundhouse, where there was a lovely cafe. Hot choclate all round!

I had thought the Roundhouse was for stabling horses that worked on the canal.  It turns out that it was where Birmingham Corporation stabled their working horses in the early 20th century.

After we had watched lots of archive film of Birmingham we strolled along the canal back towards Snow Hill Station.

Who knew that a landlocked city had need a Harbour Master?

We wandered off the canal to a fabulous Italian restaurant on Ludgate Hill for lunch.  Then walked through St Paul's Square to the station arriving with 3 minutes to spare for a train home.

 

It was lovely to be out and about again.  Looking forward to sharing more adventures with you soon.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice