Not everything works well

As you know I love to make things and show you the pieces in progress and finished.  But sometimes things don't work out as I might wish.  That has happened to me this week but I thought I would show you anyway.

I made these large collages last year at Committed to Cloth.

They have lived on the spare bed since last October!  Last Saturday I was watching a video from Hilary Beattie in the Saturday Sketchbooks online course and she was making books with large collages she had made.  And I thought it might be a good idea to use the collages I had made.

Wrong!

Two reasons!  

1.  I made them on thin card rather than cartridge paper and it really didn't want to fold.

2.  I used a glue stick rather than gel medium and as I folded the card some of the collage papers came adrift.

To make the books you fold the paper into 4 in one direction and then into 4 in the other direction so that you have 16 rectangles.  Then you cut along proscribed lines.The red ones in this diagram.  Then you fold it concertina style starting from the bottom left rectangle.

I made the first one.  The edges weren't straight.  The folds damaged the collage papers.  I was disappointed.  I managed to salvage it by putting washi tape along all the edges.

I used doublesided tape to tape the pages together.

WIth the second one I cut the original collage down to a square.

Folding this one was even worse.  And I have given up on it.

I was rather reluctant to fold and cut up the third collage but the paper seemed to be stuck down better than the others had been.

I cut it and folded it and stuck the pages together.  What a mess!  It was all skewiff!  The pages don't line up.

And they're not all the same size!

However, I persevered.  I trimmed the pages top and bottom in attempt to tidy it all up.  I found a copy of a gel plate print that I had made some time ago and made it into the cover.

I think the photos probably flatter the last book a bit.  It's not bad but it's not excellent.  However I shall keep it so that when I am demonstrating this technique I can show people what happens when it doesn't quite work out.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

And it's finished

After 7 months I have finished Module 1 of my Master Practitioner course.  It is hoped that you will complete a module in 6 months but I had task for a month extra because of my broken fingers.  I finished both the piece and my workbook and submitted it with one day to spare.  I'm sure I could have asked for more time but I had promised myself I would finish by the end of February.  And I did.

In my last workbook post I showed you the pages up to my final design.  So now you get to see the pages about making the actual piece.

I lived with the lutradur out on the table for about 4 weeks and for several days I added or removed bits on the collages until I was satisfied with them.

I used  bondaweb where possible to attach most of the collage bits to the linen background and then started stitching the collages.  I aimed to stitch one square a day but sometimes managed two.

Then there was the problem of how to fix it all together.  I had been mulling this over whilst I had been stitching.

Fortunately my fixing of choice - double-sided tape - worked really well and I didn't have to add any extra stitches.

 Here is the book folded up with a ribbon around it.

Originally this piece was going to hang on the wall in the Revealed exhibition but now it's going to sit on a table.  I deliberately chose different textures for the collages so that as people touch the work they can feel those differences.

To see this piece of work come along to the Traverse stand at the British Quilt & Stitch Village at Uttoxeter Racecourse from April 12th - 14th.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Further work in my workbook

My last update showed the art work I had been doing in relation to the poem 'The Road Less Travelled' and the music 'Summertime'.

I moved on to looking at the possibility of making fragments.   I saw instructions for a folding book on Facebook and thought it would be great for displaying samples.   I tried making it in card with squares of the gelli prints I had made for this project but not stuck in my workbook.

I made it again with collages made from the gelli prints. 

 And the page in my workbook

I moved on to dyeing fabrics.

And then started experimenting with different techniques.   I had been to a workshop with Clare Bullock to learn Nuno Felting.

The instructions with this course include:

• Try at least 5 materials you’ve never used before
• Try at least 5 techniques which you either haven’t used before or are now pushing to a different level

Nuno felting was quite new to me.  I had done a workshop with Lynda Monk but decided I would try some of the ideas in her book Beautiful Bonded Surfaces.  I tried out Tyvek with wool tops, scrim, bubblewrap and came up with varying results.

I also tried working with an Embellisher (squares on the right) but really didn't enjoy it.

I also tried a couple of machining techniques.   First I tried a water soluble fabric sandwich with Aquabond on the bottom, a layer of wool tops and a thinner layer of water soluble fabric on top.  I machined one with a grid and the other with free machining.

The other technique involved layers of sheers machined onto a felt backing.

I moved on to displaying the samples.  I took a photo f the samples and printed the photo out.  As I tried different stitches on the sample I scribbled what I had done.

I put in my submission to my tutor.  Each sample was photographed and annotated.

Stitched samples

I also had to submit a design brief for my final piece.  I had decided that I would make a larger version of the fold up book using Lutradur rather than card for the base structure.

I received the feedback from the tutor.  She suggested that I made an odd number of squares.

I had tried dyeing the Lutradur with the same dyes that I had dyed the fabrics but it just didn't work so in the end I painted it with acrylic paint.

Having decided I would make the piece larger I tried out various versions of the squares and triangles.

And eventually decided on this arrangement.

I am now working on the final piece and I will show it to you in a future post.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice