Mixed Media Textile Book

I went to the Willow Gallery in Oswestry to do a workshop with Suzette Smart.  As ever I ignored some of the instructions, although I did follow the basic ones.  Suzette's style is to do a lot of mark making with the sewing machine.   I may try that some other time but for now I am really pleased with the simplified version that I made.

We were asked to paint some Bondaweb and for Suzette's technique you paint trees or birds or other images onto the Bondaweb.  I just coloured it with two colours of paint across the whole piece!  When it was dry I cut out teardrop shapes.  I also ironed some Bondaweb onto a book page and tore the page into little strips.

Rather than machine stitch certain areas I stitched across the whole thing with variegated thread.

 Then I machined some tail feathers.

I added beaks, wings and legs.

I stitched the back on and pintucked the pages to make a zigzag book.  The edge at each end was pinned as I wanted to add some fabric - but that was at home!

At home I machine stitched the piece of fabric inside the open edge to close it up at both ends.

The finished book.

I don't usually do 'cute' but I really love this little book.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Art Cloth Day 3

As I mentioned in my last post, I went to Littleheath Barn Studio for part 3 of the Art Cloth course.  I continued to work on fabrics I had made last month.

This piece was thickened dye through a screenprinting frame with torn masking tape on it.

I had set up a screen for breakdown printing at the end of the last session and this is what it looked like before I started printing.

I printed on some of the pages of my sketchbook.

I printed on the fabric from the first photo.

I used Thermofax screens to print onto my large art cloth.

I used a Thermofax screen to add the scribbled spirals.

As I had already washed this fabric at home I was able to try some Formusol through the same screen which bleached out some of the dye.

When I got home I washed the fabrics to remove the Manutex that's in the thickened dyes.  It also washes out some of the dye which means the fabrics are paler.

The Art Cloths are also paler but I still like them!

Next time we are printing with fabric paints.  I might make some fun foam stamps.  However I've got until mid-May to think about what I want to do.

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice

Together Again

You may not remember my friend Elaine - my son's wife's sister's husband's mother - but I wrote about our road trip last year.   We got together again this week but in the English Midlands not South Carolina!

We had a quiet day on Tuesday.  On Wednesday we woke up to a beautiful day.  We drove to Kingswood Junction and walked alongside the Stratford Canal to the Fleur de Lys pub for lunch.

And back again of course!

On Thursday I went to Littleheath Barn Studio for day 3 of my Art Cloth course.  More about that next time.  And Elaine had a day to herself which included a coffee shop and a facial.  In the evening we went to my Lifegroup meeting.

On Friday we drove to Shrewsbury where we planned to do a 4.5 mile walk.  However we missed a bit out at the end because I was exhausted from the heat!

Shrewsbury School which is housed in an old workhouse.

Shrewsbury School and its rowing club.

 

We drove on to Oswestry where we stayed the night.  On Saturday I did a Mixed Media Textile Book workshop whilst Elaine did a 2.5 mile walk and visited coffee shops!

After the workshop we drove back to the centre of Birmingham to have dinner near The Mailbox.  Then we walked along the towpath to Symphony Hall.

We went to see Remembering Fred.  Roger had bought me 2 tickets as my Christmas present - one for me and one for a friend.  Isn't he wonderful!

Thanks for joining me today.
Bernice