In progress

Lately I have been working on a new piece in my Dancing in Fetters series.  It is very different from my usual style.

It had been suggested to me that I use metal chain for this piece.  However I found that this would be too heavy to hang on a wall.  I bought this plastic chain which I thought would be easy to paint with acrylic paint.  How wrong I was!

However after several coats of paint - I lost count of how many - I was eventually satisfied that they looked suitably rusty.

I am using my Nonet poem again.  Each strand of chain has the number of links that matches the number of syllables in the line of poetry.

 

 

Much to my husband's bemusement - and that of the Evri delivery guy - I bought a piece of driftwood off Etsy.

The inspiration for having a piece of wood was this photo I took in Tasmania

It seemed to me that it was easier to buy the driftwood than try to distress a new piece of wood.

I wrote the lines of the poem on strips of fabric.

And wove the strips through the links.

I pinned the strip chains and then stitched them.

I heated some copper shim to discolour it and cut it into tags.  I printed the words of each line on the tags.

 I've yet to attach the tags to the chain.

The last thing will be to attach the finished piece to the driftwood.

Then on to the third piece in the series which will much less mixed-media and much more textile!

Thanks for being here today
Bernice

More Shape Shift Words

In my last post I showed you some of the creative writing I did.  For the afternoon session it was suggested that we took some of the words we had used and use them as text in isolation.  As ever I went my own way.  I was a 'good girl' and tried out the media but I went off on a tangent with the words I chose!

I started thinking about my map pieces and the words I had used in my poem: Mapping

I was thinking of making a book with the words but now I've decided to stick them into a sketchbook.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

31 days of Art Journalling

I signed up to do Laura Kemshall's workshop: 31 days of art journalling.   I am up to date with watching the videos but not so with the actual pages.

I chose a small square Seawhite sketchbook for this project.  Before I started I took out the centre pages of each signature.  I learned from the class I did with Laura before that the binding doesn't like all the extras pasted in.  It also means there are less pages to complete.

Laura introduces a different idea or technique each day so none of the pages I am going to show you are anywhere near finished.

Some previously painted papers ready to put into the book.

Machine and hand stitching

Letters cut from a newspaper and a magazine

Laura suggested a variety of themes to choose from but I retreated to one of my favourites- canals.  I cut some photos from the Towpath newspaper that we get.  And this Roundhouse from the National Trust magazine.

I had a go at a Ransom Note headline

And I've glued in a couple of my own photos.

 

The workshop is a third of the way through and I'm intrigued to see what Laura comes up with next.  I am a bit behind but not to worry there's plenty of time.

Why not come and join me.  You can find all the details here: DMTV

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

A new adventure

Last week I was invited to show my work to a lovely group of ladies who make up the textile group Eclectica.  I have seen the group's work at various exhibitions over the last few years.  I thought that maybe now was the right time to apply to join them.

I was encouraged to take lots of work to show them.  I took them at their word and filled a suitcase.

The two display tables soon morphed into four!  I put my work together in groups.  This table had a variety of work that has no overall theme.

Here are my canal inspired textile pieces and sketchbooks.

Off now to another country!  And my work and sketchbooks based on Florida.

And no sharing of my work would be complete without Venice!

As I prepared to take all this work to the presentation, I realised that whatever the outcome it had been a useful exercise.  I have never put everything together like this before.   The sketchbooks usually live on shelves downstairs whilst the textile pieces are either piled on the spare bed or in bags for life in the same bedroom.

I found that after I stopped shaking that I enjoyed talking about my interests and my textile and mixed media work.

The day before I had been talking with a friend about how to be proud of your work without being prideful.  She sent me a link to a blog post by Ken Reid.

I like what Ken says: When you accomplish something and feel really good about it, that isn’t pride. It’s delight. 

Being proud of, or prideful about, your work means that you need everyone to know that you did it. Your delight is not in the work itself but in the recognition from others that you hope your work will bring. 

To have delight in your work is simply to enjoy it and be amazed that it came from your hands, or mind, or words, or what have you.

So whilst I am putting this blog post about my work out there, it's because I have found a delight in what I have done.  And yes I am amazed that I did it, especially the sketchbooks.

I'm also delighted to say that I have been invited to join Eclectica.

I'm excited to be starting a new journey with this group and will let you know how I am faring as the year goes on.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Canal Concertina Sketchbook

I had started a concertina sketchbook way back in 2018 which was based on views of Venice - except lots of people thought it was Morocco.  I didn't get any further with it than the photos in this post: Karen Stamper workshop.

I did another workshop with Karen in 2019 and was more pleased with this sketchbook.

Anyway, back to my original sketchbook.  I loved the zigzag book I made from an Everything Art online workshop.

I thought I would make a bigger version using the old concertina sketchbook.  I cut out the main Venice pages leaving the ones I had started.  I knew I could cover up the stamped architectural images.

I won't show you all the pages, just the development of a few. This first double page spread was totally blank when I started.

As you can see this page had gothic window shapes stamped on and some Italian dictionary.

I used gesso and acrylic paint to cover the stamping.

This spread also had Venice related stamping.

I added washi tape and part of a photo.

I added acrylic paint and stencilling.

I'm still working on the pages.  I work on one and then go back to another.  I'm adding photos, text, stencilling, paint, gesso.

Here are a couple of pages that are next to be worked on.

I'll do another post later this month with some more finished (or almost finished) pages.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Introducing Simply Create

 

I launched Simply Create on December 12th and I am thrilled that lots of you joined me in the Simply Create group on Facebook.

 

Simply Create is about the creative process.

It is not about creating works of art or even finished pieces of anything.   You will learn how to use art materials and tools in different ways which I hope will lead you to investigate your own ways of working, build your own creative language and find your own style.

Plus it is totally FREE

  Is Simply Create for you?

You can find all the information on this page.

If this is not for you but you know someone who would be interested, please pass on the link to this page.

Thank you to everyone who has continued to follow my blog through 2020.

Here's to 2021.

Thanks for joining me today.

Bernice

Some questions to answer please

I'm interrupting my Norfolk series to ask you to answer some more questions.

Thanks to all those who answered my questions about my blog last month.  I really appreciated you taking the time to reply.  The concensus was to carry on as usual.  For me to blog about all the things I listed in the Taking Stock post.

As I said, I have more questions, but this time I've put them on a Google Form.  That was a whole new learning curve!

I'm contemplating putting together a series of short video courses on a variety of mixed media topics.  There's a possibillty of textile ones as well, at a later date.

These courses would be for beginners, although they would serve as reminders for those who have some mixed media experience.  They will come under the umbrella title of Simply Create.

Although I can think of several topics to cover, it's more important to know what you would like to learn.  What media would you like to know about? What techniques would you like to know how to do?  Click on the link to the Google Form to let me know.

See you on Saturday for my last post from Norfolk.

Thank you so much
Bernice