Florida inspired

I still have one more canal-inspired book to make but I thought I would make a Florida-inspired one instead.

I can't remember when I dyed and printed this silk noil which I recently tore into 6 inch squares.  I had used Coral Sand and Robin Eggs Blue procion dyes that I had bought from Hilary Beattie.

In a recent online poetry workshop with Sara-Jane Arbury we were looking at list poems.  In particular we looked at 'Blackberries' by Rhiannon Hooson.  The lines of her poem started with 'I bring you' or 'I give you'.

Using that format I wrote 'Shells'.

I bring you shells.
I give you rippled waves on shingle.
I give you sandpipers running in an out.

I bring you boardwalks on sandy tussocks
And searing heat from the sunshine state.
I bring you remembrances of childhood.

I give you the sunrise glinting on tumbling waves
Easter morning dawning, singing
In praise of the risen Lord.

I bring you pelicans flying in formation
Sweeping low across the shoreline.
Daughter-in-heart, I give you shells.

As the fabric had been printed when I was working on Florida based ideas I decided to add the words of my poem onto the pages of the book.

I printed the poem on paper first and cut it up to make sure the font was the right size and the sentences fitted.  I printed the poem onto organza onto which I ironed Mistyfuse. I cut up the sentences and ironed them onto the silk noil.

I made sure that the pages are in the correct order and decided on a 'hinge' for the joining together.  I'm not sure what else to call the joining piece other than a hinge.

I'm a dab hand at thinking about the finishing of a book almost after the fact but with this one I worked on how to join the pages together to make the book.  I used some left over silk noil to make the hinges.  I bonded two pieces of the fabric together.

I had already bonded cotton fabric on the back of each square of silk noil.  I stitched through the fabrics using the printed lines as a guide.  I will then bond the back and front of each page together trapping the hinge inside.

Come back next week to see the finished book.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Collage and a poem

Continuing with Visual Narratives I started playing with the photos I had printed out which I mentioned in my last post.

I cut up a sheet that I had intended to be a zine to make snapshots of marks.  I put them into my sketchbook.

Then I tried making collages with  the different surfaces - paper, tracing paper and ohp film.

They're not totally me.

I had also printed one page of photos onto address labels. I peeled some of them off and put them in my book.

I also took words I had found and wrote them on the page using ink and then added water.

These sentences are part of a poem I wrote about canals using the phrases and words I had found in the book Canals: The Making of a Nation by Liz McIvor

The Cut
I was once a stark man-made corridor
Cut by sweaty, swearing navvies.
Now a ribbon of calm, spiralling out from the centre of the city.
Cutting lines through scarred landscapes
And meandering through verdant countryside.
Iron bridges tower over me
Looped lines from shadow lattice patterns
Fall on my surface
Disturbed by ripples from coots and moorhens
As they scurry into my reeded banks.

 
Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Shadows

Continuing with Essence of Identity one of the suggested activites was to go for a walk and take photos of shadows.  However since we hadn't any sun here for a few days I used photos I had taken some time ago for the photography group.  I put some of them together in a montage.

The second part of the activity was to right a poem or a story about your photos. I wrote a poem.

Shadows 

What hides in the shadows?
What lurks behind the lines?

Lines drawn by the sun
through metal fencing
Charcoal grey on pale grey tarmac.

Straight lines. Diagonal lines.
Sharp point on shadows
that have no sharpness.

Straight line fencing
along straight lined paths.
Yet, in amongst the shadow lines
Shadow plants linger,
soft and curling.

What hides in the shadows
of our minds?
What lurks behind the lines
drawn on our foreheads?

The inner critic.
The voice we know that lingers,
soft and curling
And lurks behind our creativity.

Pull down the thoughts
Take captive the voice that impedes our way
Let nothing hide in the shadows
Let nothing lurk behind the lines.

I'm really enjoying writing poems at the moment.  I don't know where it will lead - if anywhere!

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

My sketchbook or whatever you call it!

The problem with calling something a sketchbook is that you feel you should be sketching in it.  And I don't sketch.  Or draw.  Or even doodle.  However, a bought sketchbook can become a repository of ideas, a workbook, even a diary of how your work is progressing.   So whatever it is you choose to call it, I am going to share some of the pages form the book I'm recording my ideas for the Master Practitioner course I'm doing with the School of Stitched Textiles.

Finding which poem to use for inspiration.

Collage pages having chosen The Road Not Taken.

Leaf printing with birch leaves

Using the music 'Summertime' as inspiration.

At this point I was beginning to get ideas for what I wanted to make from all this inspiration.  I'll show you that in another post.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

October's Party

When I was 6 years old, my mother was my middle infant class teacher. (Now called Year 1).  I remember that we often acted out The King's Breakfast by A.A. Milne.  And I also remember learning October's Party by George Cooper off by heart.

Today we went a walk along the Droitwich Canal amidst some beautiful Autumn colour and the poem came to mind.  Admittedly I could only remember the first two lines but that's not bad after 57 years!

So as I was walking along I decided to take Autumn colour photos and write a blog post using the poem as a basis.

October's Party
George Cooper

October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came-

The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.

The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,

Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.

The Chestnuts came in yellow,
The Oaks in crimson dressed;

The lovely Misses Maple
In scarlet looked their best;

All balanced to their partners,
And gaily fluttered by;

The sight was like a rainbow
New fallen from the sky.

Then, in the rustic hollow,
At hide-and-seek they played,

The party closed at sundown,
And everybody stayed.

Professor Wind played louder;
They flew along the ground;

And then the party ended
In jolly "hands around."
 

 What fun!