Grids. And more grids!

In September I told you about the Maps & More workshops at Littleheath Barn.   The next session was in October after I returned from Australia.  I realised I hadn't written about that.

We did the grid exercise where you put masking tape horizontally and vertically onto fabric and then print in various ways over the grids.  I had found some narrow tape on Amazon which was a hideous green.  However it did the job.

When the green masking tape was taken off it was thrown away.

The finished cloth is rather more orange than the photo shows which doesn't really match my Venice colour palette.  So as homework I had another go.  This time using only my Venice related stamps, stencils and Thermofax screens.  I used some of the narrow green tape because it's really easy to make curves with.

I did two versions

This time I put the masking tape into my sketchbook.

Here's another page from the sketchbook

Our next session is in December so I'm afraid you'll have to wait to see what I do with these.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Maps & More

This month I rejoined the Art Textiles monthly group at Littleheath Barn.  This years theme is Maps & More.

We started with a warm up exercise in our sketchbooks.  I'm using a 20cm square Pink Pig sketchbook.

 

 

We had been asked to take a map with us and I took a map of Venice - where else?  It was that or the canals of the UK.

 

The next exercise was to take just part of the map and draw 3 lines then 5 then 7.

 

 

We moved on to A3 paper, drawing with ink and adding watercolour

 

 

I made my second piece of paper square.

And add handmade paper to the piece I had cut off.

The last exercise was to draw with a wax candle and put a wash of colour over the top.

 I folded the square paper into 16 squares and cut them out and put them randomly into my sketchbook.

With the large rectangle I made a book (surprise! surprise!)

 
I made a zine with the added paper piece.

I used little brown paper bags as pockets to keep the books in. I had made a collage using the pattern from the 5 line drawing

 We made a Turkish Mapfold booklet with the wax and watercolour wash paper.

It doesn't help that the writing is upside down but I'm not going to worry about it.

It was a really enjoyable and productive day.

To be honest I think I make a dreadful student and feel really sorry for any tutor who has to cope with me.  I frequently want to be doing my own thing!

But before I went I promised myself that I would be a good student and do what Liske suggested.  And it worked.  I had a lovely time.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

MTF @ NSA

Next week The Midlands Textile Forum exhibition

 A Sense of Place

18-24 September 2023

Nottingham Society of Artists
St Luke's House,
71 Friar Ln,
Nottingham
NG1 6DH 

These are my pieces that are included in the exhibition

If you visit the exhibition please let me know.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

A hanging book

This is the other book I had not shown completed.  I used the fabrics I had printed at last year's map inspired summer school at Littleheath Barn Studio.

I tore the fabric into 15x10cm rectangles.  I put a long piece of fabric to hold the pieces in place.

I put a layer of cream soft calico and another layer of printed fabric.

I handstitched through all the layers following the patterns made by the breakdown printing.

 It's possible because of the large D rings to hang the book either way up or either side showing.

Oryou can close it up.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

The Festival of Quilts at the NEC  is on from Thursday 3rd August to Sunday 6th August.  I will be showing my books in the Creative Textiles Studio on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

In conversation

In conversation with a friend about creativity, making a series of pieces of work and other related things, we began talking about how we move from one piece of work to another.  And I said that it was a good idea to reflect on a finished piece before moving onto the next as the first piece might inform the next.  Brilliant point!

However it's not what I do!  Do you?

So practising what I preach I'm going to reflect on all my map series at once.  Too late to do it after I finished each piece!  As several of the pieces are going to Eclectica exhibitions and need naming, I thought I could do that at the same time.

Hanging Book
Size: 114x10.5cms

I have made several of these before as books.  They usually fold up and have a button and a buttonhole.  This one has been made as a hanging with D rings at each end.  Making this was well within my comfort zone.

Map Collage #1-6
Size: 10cm square collages within a 20cm square box frame

Mapping
Size: Box frame 27cms square.
6 small fabric collages 3x approx 7x5cms, 3x approx 5x5cms

I had started the small collages before I started the Shelley Rhodes online course.  However I've done a workshop with her and have done lots of collage.  These collages were in a series with them laid out on the the table and different bits of fabric auditioned on the different collages to see where the best fit was.

Map Abstraction
Size: 42x45.5cms

The five pieces of fabric were left over from setting up 'Bits and Pieces' and the hanging book.  They were lightly bonded to the calcio.  Acrylic felt wadding was bonded to the calico and also to a backing calico.  I handstitched through the layers and finished the piece with bought bias binding.  The running stitch followed the marks on the fabrics and extended to the edge of the piece.  This piece was different from other pieces I've made - more abstract - but still within my comfort zone.

Bits and Pieces
Size:53x41cms

This was the first piece to be assembled and almost the last to be finished.  It has a mix of machine stiitching and handstitching.  I wasn't sure how much handstitching to put on. It fits with the other pieces in the series but I don't know to what extent this influenced the other pieces, and vice versa.

What Three Words
Size: Closed 19x15cms  Open 40x15cms

I had made the book using one piece of fabric, because I like making books.  It was made by folding into 16 and cutting along lines - the red lines in the diagram below.

The pages hade been bonded together and a cover added before I knew what I was going to do with it.  The blue fabric had been painted with dye whilst narrow masking tape had been stretched over it.  White paint had been stencilled on top.  The pages were too dark and patterned when I decided I want to stitch maps.  Stitching on organza was suggested.  It worked well but I don't think it's a technique I particularly want to repeat.

Maps & Grids
Size:  Closed 20x15cms   Open 40x15cms

Of all the series, this is my favourite.  It's more adventurous but still not particularly experimental. It contains both the running stitch element and the collage element with a few extra media - paper lamination, hessian strips, OS maps and machine-gridded paper.

On reflection

This has been a worthwhile activity although not necessarily informing a new piece from the previous piece in a series.  One reason for this is that I'm looking at the whole finished series.  The other is that when I work in a series like this I tend to have all of them on the go at once.  This enables me to work on which ever piece catches my attention on any particular day.  Or how much time I have to do something.

In actuality I suspect they all inform each other. But in looking back over the series in this way has been useful.  I think I will be looking to develop some of the ideas in the Maps & Grids book at a later date, possibly in another book or look at how I could make wall pieces.

But that's for the future.  For now, I'm going to have a rest from textiles and do some messy, painty stuff and also the Sally Tyrie workshop I signed up to and haven't done much with.

I started with a conversation with a friend which led to me having a conversation with my work.

Let me know in the comments below whether you reflect on finished pieces to see what you have learned about them and about yourself.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Another finished book

You may remember I mentioned last year that I had chosen 3 words that reminded me of each place I had lived.   I made a zigzag sketchbook with little drawings of maps of the location of each place.  I decided I wanted to copy these maps into the fabric book I had made with one piece of the map printed fabric I had made at the Summer School last year.

It's a highly patterned fabric and I didn't think the map would show up.  In addition I had already bonded the pages together so each map would appear on both the front and the back of the page.

It was suggested that I sewed the maps onto organza and inserted them into the book.  This has worked really well and here's a short, wobbly video of the finished book.

Thank you for joining me today.
Bernice