More design work

Continuing with my design work and playtime at Committed to Cloth.

My previous post showed me working with squares.  In May I am going to C2C to do Improvisational Pieced Cutting which is basically playing with fabric and a rotary cutter.  So for the latter part of my playtime week, Leslie suggested I played with curved shapes.   I had this photo with me.

Thankfully I realised fairly early on that trying to replicate this photo was difficult and I should just take shapes from it.  This led to these designs.

I took some close up photos of areas that looked interesting.

Eventually we realised that I had been working with the photo upside down.  It's of lifting gear in a a cafe in Savannah.

 On Sunday morning I returned to my comfort zone of small collages in a zigzag book.

And finally my show and tell design wall with lots of b&w photocopies.

I had an unusal 5 day retreat - a mix of play, some angst and some serious self investigation.  More about that next time in Climbing the spiral staircase!

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Playing at Committed to Cloth

I have just got back from 5 days of play at Committed to Cloth.  Admittedly I didn't play the whole time but that's a whole other blog post.

After we had all introduced ourselves and Leslie had explained some activities, I chose to make collages using brown, white and black paper, with added touches of red.  I started with 14cm squares.  I had decided I would work with squares because when I was at C2C last year I used circles.

I tried them in a long line and then decided to make 3 more to make a square.

I tried out different layouts.

Then I photocopied the squares 141% bigger.  The problem with that was 141% makes rectangles rather than bigger squares!

I had glued the black & white squares to a backing paper and then I cut it up.  You know I love cutting up stuff.  I tried out the strips in different layouts.

I added small amounts of red to make it more interesting.

I joined all the strips together and was  hoping to be able to have a curly book. 

The paper didn't really want to curl so I went back to my preferred zigzag.

I pinned it to the wall

Then (you know me!) I cut up the long strip into 3 strips.

I don't know what I shall do with this - if anything!  But I know from last year's play that what you see above may well inform something I make later this year although it won't be a replication.

That was just day 1.  There's so much more to come.  See you back here.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Creative Play

I have just got back from a 5 day retreat at Committed to Cloth called Unlocking the Mystery of Creative Play.  I went last year to the same course - only to find that it was totally different this year.  Partly due to the make up of the group and partly to do with my thought and design processes having moved on in 12 months.

My starting point was the theme of 'taste' for a new series of work on Senses.  I had in my head the idea of oranges and lemons and the nursery rhyme to go with it.   However as you will see from the photos it developed into a more abstract form.

I started with mark making - first trying a rubbing with a commercial stencil.

I moved on to making marks with various circular objects.

And then tried words with various tools.  I love drippage.

I cut some of the pieces up very small to make mini collages.

I played with the bits left over after I'd cut circles out.  I loved the circular mark at the bottom of this page which reminded me of the spray from peeling an orange.  I had this made into thermofax screens with 3 different sizes of the image.

I joined four A3 sheets of black card together and glued all the bits down - the circles and the bits from round the circles.

I took numerous photos of sections of the above using grey 'L' shapes.  I've just put one photo here to represent the 12 I took.

I used my new thermofax screens over the top of the large sheet.

Then I took the sheets apart and worked on the individual A3 sheets.

I looked at segments.

I played again with the 'L' shapes

The next 4 photos show the sequence of auditioning and the final cut.

Here are some of the other pieces I made.   Each of them went through the auditioning process and the cutting process before being pinned to the wall.

And then more mark making

And my final gallery displaying my 5 days of work.

In the last hour I was there I took the original sheets of mark making and tore them up and glued each of 2 pieces of paper together to make a book.  I'll do another blog post on that soon.


I don't know whether any of these ideas will make into a textile piece.  I don't think it matters really - I just had a happy creative time and that's what matters.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice