Workshop fun and games

Firstly here are some exquisite embroidered ATC’s Claudia and I received from Anne in France. Anne must have extremely good eyes as the stitches are tiny!! Our return ATC’s have been posted to France but I won’t put them on the blog until they arrive.

This week began with Claudia off the to National Wool Museum for a workshop called Raggety rugs, where she enjoyed weaving strips of fabric onto a loom. All the kids had great fun using all sorts of colour combinations. We might make a loom at home for Claudia, just some strips of wood screwed together with screws at each end to hold the warp. It would be a great winter activity she could come and go at and use up some of my fabric scraps.

The next day I had a ring to say there was a vacancy for the ‘Buttons’ workshop. I was booked in for the one on the 18th July, but I’m off to Sydney for a conference that weekend. This workshop was based on Margaret Beal’s technique (which is probably in her book) but is also in the Dec08/Jan09 issue of Stitch magazine.

This workshop was great fun and doesn’t require much in the way of equipment. Just a 30 w soldering iron with a fine tip and various bits of synthetic materials. We began with a piece of synthetic felt and polyester fabric and traced around a 20 cent piece with the soldering iron to make our first button. Everything from then on was a variation of this: different layers, different metal shapes to trace around, adding acetate sheet, trapping sequins and beads. The soldering iron can also be used to make marks and different shaped holes in the buttons for variety, which I have yet to experiment with.

The last workshop for me this week was felting.

Leah came down from Euroa to teach a series of workshops (there is a felted jacket one on today and tomorrow) but the one I did was a cobweb scarf.

We began by making a felted square. As I was the last one there I ended up with the boring black wool, but I managed to find some little bits of colour to add. This was two layers of a wool silk mix layed on bubblewrap. We then put netting on top and wetted down and added soap. It was then rolled up in the bubblewrap and a towel and rolled 100 rolls in each direction until felted.

And then using just one layer of wool, we layed out a scarf on bubblewrap: 30cm x 220cm. Once again I was using the black wool. I very rarely wear black near my face as it doesn’t suit my fair skin but Leah let me have some lime green to add, and then I swapped some of my black for the purpley blend. This one was just sprayed with tepid water with a bit of liquid soap added as it was layed out and rolled up. I gave this one 1000 rolls just rolling in the lengthwise direction, changing ends each 100 rolls.

I’d like to try this again so I bought some nicer wool/silk from leah to make another one. Hopefully my technique and results will improve!!

Finally, this week I have been entertaining myself reading the Yahoo discussions of the Holey Moley clubbers. This group has been set up by Dale Rollerson as a workshop group, and if early indications are anything to go by it should be a fun conduit, riddled  and punctured with a honeycomb of burrowing fenestrations. (How’s that for getting as many puns as possible into one sentence?). The real fun begins this weekend so if you want to join in head to Dale’s blog (link above) for the info.

Cheers

Until next week.

Time Goes By (not slowly)

I don’t know how anyone can sing a song about time going by ..so ….slowly, certainly not me, it seems to fly and another week is over. We are already  at the end of the first week of the mid year holidays and I don’t seem to have made much of a dent in the list of things to do.

Last weekend, however,  I zipped up to Melbourne on the train and managed to do everything intended. First stop was the Melbourne Museum for the teacher preview of the Pompeii exhibition. It was fascinating and the artwork from that period is truly inspiring. We have a shed at school that could do with a garden frescoe or two!!

Then it was onto the free city circle tram and a short walk to Craft Victoria. They had a couple of interesting exhibitions: ’small things’, from which I bought this lovely beaded ipod case as a gift for a friend’s birthday and a really interesting knitted fibre exhibition.

 

Then it was on to a new fabric shop in Flinders Lane, just a little down from Craft Victoria, Tessuti. This is situated in the heart of the design district in a fabulous huge room up from street level. All the absolutely gorgeous fabrics are arranged by colour. If you are sewing something special or looking for fabric in a special colour this is the place to go. I resisted temptation very well and only bought some organza for the sea angels and some reduced fabric that was the perfect colour for some cushions. But I will be back.

Around the corner and down a block and I was at Federation Square. Cutting through to St Kilda Rd next stop was the Arts Centre where they had a display of the gorgeous costumes of Ballet Russes:

Final stop, just a hop, skip and jump to the National Gallery Victoria,where I had a look at all the free exhibitions, and there are lots of them: Persuasion fashions in the age of Jane Austen was an interesting look at the fashions of the late 18th century, unfortunately Mr Darcy wasn’t in his suit at the time!! ‘Light Years’ was another interesting exhibition of photos taken during space exploration in the 60’s & 70’s, which sparked off a few ideas for the Galaxy challenge/exhibition being held later this year by the Victorian Embroiderer’s Guild. I will have to go back another day for the special Salvador Dali exhibition and I’d also like to see the exhibition ‘Shared Sky’ at Federation Square, works by indigenous and non-indigenous artists based on the Southern night sky. Both these exhibitions include children’s activities so I may take Claudia up next week, she loves a trip to Melbourne on the train.

Stand by tomorrow night for installment two of holidays week 1, which includes some textile art fun. I’m off to bed

Cheers

Progress- of sorts

Firstly, I have been playing with paperclay and have made my first sea angel head. This is for a Christmas exhibition at the Johnston Collection, a collaboration of all the arty groups in Geelong. I began with a foil base on galvanised wire:

Following a tutorial here, I added the paperclay, beginning with a basic shape and then adding the details. This was great fun and Claudia joined in, making a Little Miss figure.

As you can see I have not yet added the ears, I’m wondering if they are necessary as she will have long hair. The pictures of ship’s figureheads which I have are the inspiration for the sea angels, and they all have ears so I had better add them. She is not quite symmetrical, but I plan to paint her in colours of the deep (a la Maggie Grey), not realistically, so I think she will look fine. Most people have slightly wonky faces anyway!! I have another to do as yet.

Here are my ‘killed catalogues‘ in progress.

This one I plan to embellish with gum tree type features; leaves, gum nuts etc.

This has a combination of quink, moonshadow mists, starburst stains and shimmering mists sprayed.

The next one I embedded some gauze and lace fabric in the gesso, then painted the same as the one above.

I was inspired by Heather’s fantastic chessmen and the gap in the middle for this one. It will be based on Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass and have text and WSP heads. A friend has a concrete statue of Alice just the right size, so I hope to  borrow it to do a paper cast.

Next month at the Creative Fibre arts group we will be playing with water soluble paper and paper clay so hopefully I’ll have all these finished to show.

Cheers

ATC/Postcard swap complete

Just a quick post of the swaps we recently sent, now they have been received in Canberra and North Devon.

For Ebony from Claudia (Doreen emailed this scan for me, thanks Doreen)

Ebony made this gorgeous ATC for Claudia:

And for Val;

Val sent the most beautiful postcard and ATC for me and an ATC for Claudia shown here.

The theme for the swap was spring, and I had a piece of fabric on which I had originally painted four roses (for a spring swap last year with Susan!)

This is the one I worked on for Val as it fitted the postcard size best. It has some pink fibres and some leaf shapes from the scrap bits of painted fabric covered with chiffon scarf and FME’d. It is finished with hand stitching and beading.

I still have the other two roses and am trying to decide whether to cut into ATC size for the Creative fibre arts group swap, or keep them whole and finish as quilties. These two have fragments of silk paper added, then FME over a chiffon scarf (I have a great collection of these scarves from the Op shop).

Progress on the casalguido:

 

I think the casalguido stitch is ideal for the tree, great texture. The thread for the stem stitch over the top is cotton a broder, between a pearl 8 and 12 in thickness. Hopefully I’ll finish this off today and add some needlewoven leaves. 

My sampler is a bit haphazard, unlike Sharon’s fantastic examples!!

I’m hoping to try out some of the needlewoven stitches from Effie’s book (which I have borrowed from the library, but like so much I’ve ordered it from Boomerang Books) in the space next to the tree.

Cheers

Off to stitch!

Slow and Steady

…..wins the race.

I love the idea of slow cloth, takes the pressure off completely and makes the whole process so much more enjoyable (as long as it doesn’t degenerate into procrastination). It’s all in the mindset, I find. If you look at the process of mulling over the possibilities in a positive way it becomes a constructive thing to do. Of course there is still an important place for the frenetic when inspiration comes pouring out, because work that is totally spontaneous can have fantastic results.

Most of my current projects are of the ’slow’ variety.

I am still working on my ’sea angels’ and finding many possibilities opening up as ideas are sparked from viewing lots of creative blogs.

I am also still working on my ‘killed catalogues’, a new idea for which was sparked off by Heather’s fantastic chessmen.

Here are a couple of great ATC’s we have swapped.

On the left is Gillian’s first try at ATC’s, very interesting textures, and on the right the amazingly talented Ebony’s sent to Claudia.

Claudia’s return ATC to Ebony, which should have arrived by now (which I can’t find a photo of, whoops) was part of this random felting she did at our March textile group. Claudia used her ATC window to choose the sections she wanted to cut out. She chose some colours of machine embroidery rayon and had fun FME’ing the circles and outlines. I always make sure Claudia puts on the safety glasses for this stage in case she breaks a needle. She also chose one to finish and send off to Val (forgot to scan that one too!!)

Here are a few more of Claudia’s in production.

I have been also slowly continuing with the Stitch Explorer for April and May. April was Casalguido embroidery and May was needleweaving. These two are complementary styles of stitching so I decided to combine them for this sampler.

The first stage, casalguido or padded raised stem band stitch, shows stranded cotton laid down, couched with sewing thread and then satin stitched with more stranded cotton. The perpendicular stitches are then placed in the second photo and I will try some cotton a broder to cover this with the final layer, stem stitch.

The base is four sided stitch using two strands of DMC. I will be doing some needlewoven autumn leaves in a hand dyed variegated pearl  bought from Sharon to finish off.

I found Effie Mitrofanis’ book a wonderful guide to this stitch, with clear directions and some inspiring contemporary embroidery.

I have also ordered Effie’s needleweaving book from the library as well, so I’m sure that will also contain some more great ideas and instructions.

Time to get off the computer and finish the housework, so I can sit and stitch!!

Cheers

Time Flies

It has been a long time, over a month, since I’ve blogged here. The only reason I have time today is that I’ve had an eye infection all week and can’t go to work. I have kept up with our textile group blog so you can read about our last meeting (May) here.

It has been a busy month with work and social events as well as all the sport our four children need to be run around to. The AFL footy season is very busy for us with two playing footy,  two training sessions each a week and two playing netball. Add to this swimming, basketball and tennis and it doesn’t leave much time for anything else.

We have been busy the last two weeks with preparation for a close friend’s wedding. A friend was staying with us from up north which meant spending some time spring cleaning. The ceremony blew everyone away with the music and singing (most of the bride’s family are working in music) and the strings trio at the after drinks were wonderful. I made a new outfit for the wedding, a high waisted skirt with tulle at the hem and a tissue taffeta top.Looks much more shapely on!! The skirt fits quite tightly and must have looked okay as daughter no 1 asked me to make her one in a shorter version.

My daughter and her cousin glammed up

I had a foray to the op shops before the wedding, looking for suit coats for the two boys. I managed to pick up one for $10 for son no. 1.

Of course, while there, I had a browse and found a wonderful satin bag minus a strap (added a chain picked up from spotlight for $1) and a sportsgirl clutch with a broken strap (added a bit of chain) for $2 and $1. Also managed to pick up lots of zips and other bits for a couple of dollars. The cream separating zip went into the wedding top. i’m hoping to knit the cardi at some stage.

 

 

Finally got Claudia to sit down and do some stitching when she had a day off school yesterday and she finished off a few ATC’s for swaps.

Val, you’ll be happy to know yours will be in the post today. Also Ebony’s. I’ll post photos next time so we don’t spoil the surprise!

Cheers.

Fabricate 09

Today Pauleen and I made the trek up the Melbourne/Geelong Rd to the opening of the Fabricate 09 exhibition by the TAG (Textile Art @ the Guild) group.

There was a wonderfully diverse range of textile art by invited artists from Australia and internationally, including art dolls, indigo dyeing, felting, weaving, free machine embroidery and printing. The exhibition is beautifully hung, with the ‘luminous’ indigo dyed panels of Rowland Ricketts 111 dividing the space.

The photos below are taken from the catalogue, designed to allow them to be used as postcards, with funds from the sale supporting the TAG group activities (there are more photos on the TAG site).

All art pieces at the exhibition are for sale as well as the patterns for Jennifer Gould’s exquisite dolls. Well worth a visit.

Cheers

Sculpted Books

Not a great deal to show on the textile front as many projects are still progressing.

We had a Johnston Collection meeting at the Guild this morning and the pieces being worked on are just amazing. There are some truly talented embroiderers. However the pieces cannot be shown because they will be exhibited later in the year. The sea angels are progressing with the bases begun (just waiting for the final paint coat and being stitched together) and some hand stitchery on a practice piece of dupion silk.

Today I called in to the Geelong Art Gallery to see a fantastic exhibition of sculpted books by Nicholas Jones from Melbourne. Nicholas doesn’t seem to have an active website at the moment but this link will take you to a great interview and photos. The exhibition, called “the garden of forking paths” (the title of short stories from the 1940’s) uses books recycled from various sources and sculpted in a variety of ways. Nicholas kindly gave me permission to show some of his works here.

 

These photos do not really do them justice as they are taken through glass cabinets with my phone, but show some of the amazing range of Nicholas’ pieces, well worth a visit if you are able to get there before the exhibition finishes on Sunday.

The girls and I are off to Melbourne for a couple of days, it’s becoming an annual girl’s trip, to see the penguins at the aquarium and visit some other sites and of course, shopping.

The latest update is on the Creative Fibre Group blog for the April meeting and details for the Next meeting on May 9th.

Cheers

Show and Tell

I have quite a bit to show and tell as I haven’t blogged for a couple of weeks.

Firstly we received some amazing swaps from Val in the mail. Val sent the heart ATC for Claudia, which of course she absolutely loved. The postcard and ATC were for a swap we arranged on the theme of ‘Spring’. The postcard’s colours are just glorious, and she has used Beryl Tayler’s fabric paper techniques. My favourite, however is the ATC entitled mossy bark which has the most beautifully layered effect. Thank you so much Val, the returns will be winging their way over shortly.

Our last creative arts meeting in March was inspiring once again with all the beautiful pieces on display. Unfortunately I forgot the camera, but there are a few bits and pieces on the group blog.

Some of the group, with others from the guild, attended a Machine embroidery workshop with Fibre artist extraordinaire, Jan Preston on a very warm Saturday. The title of the workshop, ‘Free stitch with Nature’, was very apt. We had to take along some snippets from the garden, which we enclosed in solvy and free motion embroidered over. Jan had some beautiful skeleton leaves she had found in the Otways which she generously allowed us to use. It was a great, fun workshop and such a pleasure to spend the whole day stitching without interruption.

These are some leaves I stitched over and also a rose hip:

This next one was a dried agapantha flower head that I stomped flat and stitched and some bamboo wool that I stitched over as well:

I finally finished the triangular book I started weeks ago for Maggie Grey’s on-line workshops for her book, Textile translations.

The outside has stars torn from paper casting over a corrugated meat tray and some heated tyvek motifs. The colour is mostly from radiant rains and moonshadow mists sprayed over. The inside has some marbled paper pages stamped with ‘reach for the stars, feet on the ground’.

Our final challenge is to convert ‘killed’ catalogues into art. Maggie has the details on her blog if anyone wants to join in. Here is my catalogue (actually oldest daughter’s Cosmopolitan magazine), newly unearthed from the mulch under the rose bushes. Some people have had trouble with husbands and dogs trying to steal their catalogues away; my husband was quite happy to keep the mulch topped up over it and the rose thorns kept the dog away!!  I have sprayed it with vinegar to disinfect and will start playing once it is dry (might have to brush a bit more dirt off).

Cheers

 

Progress on WIP

Firstly some beautiful post received, from Britt in Perth

Claudia was mega excited when she opened the envelope and saw all the cute extras Britt had included. Britt offered a huge range of ATC’s on her blog for swap, each featuring her beautiful, fine tatting lace.

Also received were these amazing ATC embroideries from Anne in France and Emmy in Netherlands. I do not have the patience for such fine embroidery so I’m in awe of both of these super talented ladies. If you want to get a surprise for the return ATC’s don’t look any further girls!

 

It is a great feeling to actually finish something. I have had a number of projects on the go at the same time which sometimes makes it difficult to feel you are progressing. Having a long weekend this weekend and staying home instead of gadding about has made a huge difference. I have managed to finish or make obvious progress on a number of fronts. The biggest task was finishing off the ethics application for my research project. Emailing that away on Sunday was a huge lift off the shoulders. It meant that on Monday I could relax and enjoy some arting with Claudia. Firstly here are the ATC’s we finished for our swaps.

Claudia decided she would like to draw some pictures to stitch on to hers, so they have been scanned and printed onto ready to print cotton sheet. For the base fabric she layered some silk fibres under the green chiffon fabric (left over from my Mum’s cardi) and FME. I gave her my sample from a machine embroidery workshop and she chose to do a star pattern. The hearts are the ones Britt sent to Claudia.

My ATC’s were made as a strip of seven and are based on one of my favourite paintings by Grace Cossington Smith called Landscape at Pentecost . I used some techniques from Angie Hughes new book Stitch, Cloth, Paper and Paint. Bits of curtain fabric, scrunched tissue paper, silk threads and muslin were adhered to pelmet vilene with vlieofix. Then all the bits were secured with FME zigzag with white polyester cotton thread. The details were added with some cable stitch using no. 8 perle cotton in the bobbin. A coat of gesso was added all over and left to dry overnight. This morning I painted over using koh-i-noor watercolours mixed with white pearl lumiere. A tiny bit of handstitching finished them off.

Claudia also wanted to paint so she painted some cotton sheeting with nice, bright stripes to use as the backing for her ATC’s. The Stitch Explorer stitch for February is the Trellis Stitch, a great stitch for 3D effects. I have tried out a couple of motifs on my sampler based on the links Sharon gave us. The circular motif is in perle 8 and includes a few beads threaded on by hand. The diamond is stitched on a base of reverse chain stitch and I worked each side separately decreasing to form a triangle shape on each.

This weekend progress has also been made on trying out a few techniques for the ’sea angels’. While painting fabric I tried out a few different colours and paints on some dupion silk and will use this as a sampler to try out stitches for the sea angels gowns. It scanned really badly so I won’t bother loading that picture.

This week is the new stitches and craft show at Melbourne Showgrounds. As I have to go up to uni on Thursday I might try to pop in for a few hours and check it out. If you’re free check out the web-site, it looks like a mega show with something for everyone.

Cheers