It’s been rather an interesting day.

It was the first session of the Contemporary Textiles Workshop for this academic year. We had been told to look at installation art during the break, so we had an idea 3D work might come into it – but I don’t think we quite expected to be given a black plastic bag full of junk from the Scrap Store and told to make an installation.

This is a bit of my group’s. Yes, that is a broom. And various bits of paper, ribbon, foil and yarn. There was a lot more of the installation – it started quite tight and g r e w.

It reminded me of a training course I went on where, amongst other things, we had to build a tower with various bits of wood. But today turned out to be much more fun. And more useful.

After we took lots of photographs we had to draw bits of the installations. Now, I know that I have said that this is a warts and all blog – but that doesn’t include my drawing. Drawing drizzles of thread is more difficult that I thought and only served to increase my respect for Susie MacMurray [scroll down to the Jerwood Prize].

But if I’m going to do an art degree I suppose I have to get used to showing my warts in public – so here is the best of them.  

This is the original

 

   

 

 

and this is the drawing.

Our homework was to change our photos to black and white, and select and print some for the next session in November, when things will be done with them. Well, of course, I couldn’t just change them to black and white - you can do so much more interesting things.

This is an original. I find the play of light on that plastic fascinating.

 

 

 

The B&W version …

 

 

 

 

 

and the results of playing around in Picasa – these are various combinations of ‘Sharpen’ ‘Highlights’ and Shadows. Much more interesting.

The coloured one resulted from applying maximum Highlights and Shadows to the original – not the B&W version. I think you need a fairly dark background to get such  a black result.

I shall resist the temptation to show you the results of playing around with all the other photos I took – like the 16 versions of the original of the drawing. Obsessional? Me?

Well – maybe just one.

What this all demonstrated to me was that you could take some uninspiring materials and produce some exciting results – although I have absolutely no idea how I might embroider them…

 

This is the final flower for a while, as I am going to take an brief blogging break. This is a hydrangea – even I know that – although I can’t remember where I photographed it …

 

 

 

See you in a week or so.

Busy doing nothing

that is very interesting – just gym, shopping, getting ready for Contemporary Textiles tomorrow.

I did [almost] finish these two last night – they are just waiting for their grommets. The ‘Q’ was going to be shadow work + kantha, but that looked boring, so I decided to add a row of beads. And then another row. And another one. And another row round the edge.

I hadn’t intended the alphabet  to be fabric manipulation – but so far most of it is…

Some more Mottisfont roses – we visited a bit late for the old roses they specalise, in but there were still lots of beautiful ones around. Must make sure to get there a bit earlier next year!

A finished piece.

 

Actually I finished it a while ago but couldn’t show more than a bit because it was for Art Quilts Around the World and due to be revealed today.  It was inspired by the ‘Solent Project’ of Kurt Jackson – and views of the Isle of Wight from the mainland.

 

 

By coincidence we went to the coast today – so here is a photo of a similar view. Perhaps I should have added a boat?

We had an enjoyable walk by the sea with Mr and Mrs. C and Ronaldog – who is a bit of a seadog.

 

 

Today’s flower is from Mottisfont again– a wonderful baroque honeysuckle. Possibly one to play with in imaging software, as it has such an interesting shape. Copied, flipped, inverted etc.?

Today’s post

is brought to you by the letter ‘L’.  A stuffed denim ‘L’.

These things are like Pringles – you can’t stop at one. ‘Q’ and ‘B’ are on the drawing board.

Alphabetical order would be more logical, but I keep having ideas which won’t necessarily work for all letters. For example, I thought ‘L’ would be easier to stuff than ‘B’. I did briefly consider turning it inside out to have the seams on the inside but decided that was insanity – and I like the raggedy seams, it seems more graffiti-like.

Of course if I decide to make words – which was the original idea – I will either have to choose a technique which works for all letters – or work with a very restricted vocabulary …

Some more old-fashioned roses from Mottisfont. They smelled beautiful too.

Mmm – I have been having an e-mail discussion with Mrs C. about colours for tutus.  These are a bit tutu-like, and yellow and cream looks rather nice.

Of boxes and books …

Months ago, when I was feeling uninspired, and it was a nice day to sit in the garden and sew – I started an embroidered box from instructions in ‘Stitch’. And then it stopped being warm enough to sit outside and sew, and I realised I didn’t have enough of the rather nice knitting ribbon I was using and nothing else worked – and it all got shoved into a bag and sulked in my sewing basket reminding me that it wasn’t finished.

So, in an effort to clear the decks before starting the degree – I simplified the design, and managed to finish it. 

It is much greener than it looks here – that’s in colour, not ecologically speaking, given that it is made from synthetic materials.

I have also, as promised, turned my green roller-printed pages into a book – a concertina binding.

 

 

 

 

 

And some St John’s Wort to finish with. One of those plants I tend to take for granted, but when I look at it the colours are lovely, and a little bit unexpected.

Some days I wake up …

and feel like stitching. Not often  these days, but this morning it happened. I had some ideas to explore my Banksy-inspired interest in lettering.

Like this. [Sorry about the reflection.] It’s my favourite technique of sewing things into plastic pockets. Not very challenging, I admit!

 

 

While I was at it I made a couple of wonky samples of lettering ideas – the plastic pocket one and some couching. These are on recycled Colour Catchers, but after my previous experience I backed them with iron-on Vilene. There are bits of pages which fell out of an altered book under the letters, and recycled card to stiffen them. I’m feeling virtuously green.

In due course they will get grommets and strings, but I couldn’t be bothered getting out the hole punch, the grommets, the grommet setter, the hammer and the string.

I didn’t entirely neglect the printed papers I did yesterday – the blue-greeny-yellowy ones got a wash of Koh-i-Noor. I think these will become – guess what? - book  pages - but I’m not sure about the black ones. There are rather a lot of them. And  there are still 9 chapters of Peot’s book to go, and I haven’t finished the chapter on prints yet.

I hope to get back to Peot later, depending on whether the embroidery muse goes to sleep on me again. She’ll have to wake up in a couple of weeks though. Actually she’ll have to be awake tomorrow but I’ll tell you about that later.

Yesterday I showed you one of the two types of flowers we have in the garden [apart from daisies, dandelions etc., that is.] Here’s the other one. A sedum. Green, I may be, but definitely not green fingered.

Another instalment …

from Margaret Peot’s book. This involved a dozen paint rollers and several other ingredients. [I know what they look like – but they are much too big.]

You may have come across the technique which involves printing with a brayer wrapped with elastic bands. I’ve never done it because I don’t have the right sort of brayer.

 

Peot substitutes foam paint rollers for the brayer – and elastic bands do not figure in her instructions – but I tried them out anyway. Of course you get a different effect because the foam roller is distorted by the elastic bands – see bottom left, above. I think.

Or it might be bottom centre, on the right. Peot tells you to make test pieces and note which roller you used. Did I? No. Should I have done? Yes.

Other things I learned.

1. Read the instructions first.
2. The techniques work best with a light and even coat of paint on the roller.
3. You can’t rely on your husband to have every DIY material mentioned in every craft book you own.
4. PVA does not make a satisfactory substitute for tile adhesive. And it drips a lot.
5. The techniques work best with a light and even coat of paint on the roller.
6. Rubber gloves do help to keep your hands clean.
7. Not all the techniques are as easy as you think but they work best with a light and even coat of paint on the roller.
8. Using stencils over a previously applied light rolling works well.
9. The stencils I thoughtht were made of plastic weren't - so …
10. it was not a good idea to soak them in a bucket of water.
11. Other colours apart from black can look good, especially with a leafy effect.
12. Oh – the techniques work best with a light and even coat of paint on the roller.

 

Some time ago I boasted that I thought that our display of cyclamen was better than that at the Hillier Gardens. Well – I’ve just been out to take some photos – and I think I was a bit vainglorious.

But its not bad.

 

I think I also once mentioned that we always knew when our figs were ripe because the blackbirds ate them. 

Here’s the evidence.

Looks like a shot from ‘Silent Witness’ doesn’t it?

Of course, it might have been a squirrel.

We’ve been getting educated today.

We went to a talk at  the Discovery Centre, on Spanish painting and sculpture, by  Dalila Castelijn. And very good it was too. She concentrated on 15th – 17th century art, and as well as looking at the greats like Velasquez and El Greco, she also introduced us to some lesser known artists.

Castelijn was very good at explaining the national and international background to the work, and its social history, so we were able to put it in context, and understand why pieces were made the way they were. We had chosen to go because we didn’t know much about the subject – I think we know a lot more now, and can look at such paintings with a new eye. There are, apparently, a lot of Spanish paintings at Kingston Lacy, so I think we may be paying it another visit soon.

But concentrating for three hours was blooming hard work!

So here is a relaxing picture, of a tiny garden behind the Cathedral, which I’m sure I’ve mentioned before. Taken on one of the few sunny days this year.

Thanks again

for all the interesting ideas involving wooden stamps – if I ever get time to play I shall have fun.

Today has just been exercising and shopping – although the shopping was interesting. I had a £5 Hobbycraft voucher – so I had to go and spend £25 in Hobbycraft to use the voucher, didn’t I? I stocked up on stuff I think I will be using when the degree starts, some balloons for Babybel’s birthday in November, and some adhesive fun foam to try making roller stamps like those in the current ‘Cloth Paper Scissors’ - which I was able to buy in my little local  dammit shop at a very reasonable price. Not sure if they stock ‘Quilting Arts’ but my sub to that hasn't expired yet.

As it happens, B&Q, that other Mecca for mixed media fans, is between here and Hobbycraft – and it’s Diamond Card day today – so I bought some paint rollers for the next chapter of Margaret Peot’s book, which could be subtitled ‘cruelty to paint rollers’. I also managed to find some liming wax, much used by Maggie Grey  et al, but which I've never managed to find before. It’s a biggish pot and it wasn’t cheap even with 10% off. Now I will just have to find the books which tell you what to do with it …

Speaking of degrees, I had an otherwise very nice e-mail from the tutor [who has taught me before] in which she describes me as a ‘challenging’ student. Me – challenging? I’m sure A would confirm that I am a quiet little mouse in class … Just like her.

My memory being what it is, I can’t remember which flower images I’ve shown you – but I'm trying to spin them out a bit longer as I can’t think of a different topic. I think I posted the original of this when I made a daisy book cover – but this has been got at, as you probably realise. Not a free program unfortunately, but Corel Painter Photo Essentials which came bundled with Paint Shop Pro. This is the ‘Seurat’ effect. I would love the full program but I think that will have to wait until W. has got over the fees for the degree…

Another Tuesday trip.

This time to Salisbury. I had noticed that there was an exhibition by Peter Eugene Ball in the Cathedral and as W. is never reluctant to visit Salisbury Cathedral, off we went.

We started off, as usual, with lunch at Salisbury Arts Centre. - good cafe with rather a nice Art Gallery attached. The current exhibition  is ‘Birdland: An Artist’s Imaginary Aviary’ – which could have been naff – but wasn’t. I particularly liked Mahali O’Hare’s deceptively simple canvases with almost stencil-like birds – there's one on the link – but Lizzie Sykes’ video installation of a magpie was fascinating to watch.

Then we wandered over to the Cathedral for the exhibition by Ball.  He uses driftwood or other pieces of weathered timber with bronze and other metals.

There were some secular pieces but although I’m not a Christian I preferred the religious ones – like a cross between medieval reliquaries and the Benin bronzes. The pieces looked completely at home in the setting of the Morning Chapel of the Cathedral, especially those set in the wall niches,

and the Madonna and Child in front of the altar. [I took lots of photos but the ones on his website are much better quality.]

 

 

 

 

 

Of course there are a lot of sculptures outside the Cathedral as well, like this one

 

 

 

 

 

and this rather worried looking gentleman who we were told was a fairly recent arrival.

 

 

 

 

 

On the way out of the Close afterwards I spotted some rather exuberant flowers.  I hadn’t realised before that petunias are scented – well, I think it was the petunias, there were quite a lot of other things there as well.

 

 

 

And when we got back to the car park I couldn’t resist this little fellow, masquerading as a fire hydrant.

Thank you, gentle readers …

for nice comments, which give me something to post about.

First, thanks to Lynne for confirming that other Oxfam shops are stocking crafty bits – well, at least those in the South of England. Of course her post encouraged me to go back in again this morning and buy a couple more stamps – and some glitzy patchwork pieces – and a  second-hand jigsaw for Babybel – and a book – and some wooden letters as stencil substitutes …

Lynne said she had wondered whether they would stamp very well – so I thought I would try mine out.

First I tried a stamp pad.  Mmm – not very impressive. [Not all of these are Oxfam stamps, by the way, the paisley shape and the human [?] figure came from elsewhere – and cost twice as much.]

Then I tried some runny acrylic paint applied with a roller. Much better – and would probably have been better still with a pad of newspaper under the paper. I love that horse.

 

Then I tried rubbings. I couldn’t find a black crayon so used white on black paper. This was a bit tricky because the stamps are quite deep and the paper tends to slide around – but nice results. Could be interesting to try fabric crayons  – and fabric should be easier to use.

Another thing I thought they might be good for – but didn’t try – was ironing Angelina over.

And having looked at Lynne’s interesting blog, and spotted her lovely metal framed mirror, I wondered if you could mould soft metal over them. Never having tried this I have no idea if it is possible – but might be worth a try. 

As I had the stamp pad out, I tried the next chapter from Margaret Peot’s book – making eraser stamps. Peot suggests cutting erasers into squares – as my erasers were 2cm wide this gave me smaller ones than I would usually use. She gives suggestions [definitely not prescriptions] for ways to cut them, and then to make patterns with them. As I am into letter forms at the moment [graffiti again] I did my own thing. 

My intention was to make a few basic forms [essentially variations of sticks and balls – you can take the woman out of the primary school but you can never take the primary teacher out of the woman] and use then to form letters. And, as you can see, it worked – more or less. I had real problems with ‘z’ and ended up carving an extra short narrow stick – also needed for ‘e’. I haven’t tried upper case yet but I like the anarchy of these lower case ones. The erasers were made by Staedtler and had ‘S’ patterns on them, but I like the effect of that too.

And finally – thanks to Leah and Kitty for their comments on ‘Nanny’. Truth be told, I’m so delighted that Babybel has a name for me that I don’t mind it being ‘Nanny’.

Kitty said that she had called her grandparents after their pets. Mmm. TS Eliot pointed out that cats have many names, and that is certainly true of Quality Control. The vet knows her as Custard [her sister is Roobarb] but I don’t think I want to be called that. Her other names include Tiddles, Moggins and Mogbad the Bad – older readers may detect the influence of long-gone BBC children’s programmes here.

Of them all, I think I prefer Mogbad. ‘If you can’t be a good example, be an awful warning.’

Perhaps it’s best to stick to Nanny.

For once – here is a seasonal flower – although they surprise me every autumn. Another favourite – especially, of course, the purple ones.

These are at the Hillier Gardens, but I think our own cyclamen display is better. Smaller, but thicker. I might potter outside later and photograph them for comparison.

A Sunday saunter

for once – we don’t often go out on Sundays – because we don’t have to. We went to the Stitch and Creative Crafts show. Although it is less my cup of tea than the Knitting and Stitching Show - too much paper and cross stitch - it is easier to get to. And this time I wanted to get some alphabet stencils, so I thought all those paper stalls would provide some. Well – I did find one eventually, although it was smaller than I really wanted, but it is metal so I can use it with a soldering iron. Apparently card makers don’t use stencils.

I only spotted one stall selling nothing but cross stitch, and they didn’t look rushed off their feet – the assistant was reading the paper – so perhaps other people are coming to share my view of cross stitch. [Regular readers will know that cross stitch is not my favourite form of embroidery.]

So what did I buy? This lot. The only things which were actually on my list were the stencil and the fabric, although I wanted to look at the books before buying them form Amazon or the Book Depository. [Resist temptation? Me? And Yorkshire Books had them for £2 off.]

The Burmese dolly is, of course, for Babybel – she is probably a bit young for her yet, but that will give Nanny time to make her some more clothes. [I would have preferred to be Granny, not Nanny, but I didn’t get any choice. W. is also Nanny, which can get a bit confusing …] The knitting yarn is also for Babybel – it is self patterning and looked good knitted up. Perhaps toddler and dolly cardigans? 

Today’s flower is a foxglove in the woods at Kingston Lacy – looking even gloomier than they actually were because of the flash. Lovely colours, shapes and textures.

Thank you

for your kind comments on my good news yesterday – you can be sure I will blog about it! Unfortunately I shall miss the first session due to a long standing commitment – but from 14th October on, you should get weekly witterings on the subject.

And thanks too, to Julie, for identifying yesterday’s plant as toadflax. I Googled and it definitely was – so named, allegedly, for it’s resemblance to a toad and flax. Obviously.

After all yesterday’s excitement it has been a quiet day today. A little charity shopping produced these two. [I’m not intending to do any church embroidery but some of the designs are stunning and if I ever need to make an alb or a chasuble, I now know how to.]

The other is the well-illustrated catalogue of an exhibition, in 2001 in Dorset, which I’m sorry I missed.

I’m cheating a bit with today’s flower because, as you can see, it’s not a flower – although it was once. W. found it on the pavement so I scanned it in grey scale, and tinted and collaged it in Picasa [I couldn’t resist a bit of image manipulation].

For those who haven’t guessed – it’s an unusually flat conker – and for those who don’t know hat a conker is, it is the fruit/nut [?] of a horse chestnut. Beautiful moiré patterns, and I like the shadows which resulted from scanning it.

Hip, hip, hooray

All can now be revealed – the thing I've been so secretive about. I have been offered [and accepted and paid for within 30 minutes of the letter arriving] a place on this. Yes – I’ve enrolled on another degree course – but on a much more interesting subject than I did before.  [Well, to be honest, I did find Psychology interesting all those years ago, but somehow these days – less so.]

Needless to say, I am a happy bunny this morning. And a bit scared. Drawing studies? But I know I need it and I knew what I was letting myself in for …

So, to calm myself down, here is a flower from our Wednesday wander yesterday. Not sure what the flower is but I know a bee when I see one.

 

We went, with Mr and Mrs C and Ronaldog to Rockbourne Roman Villa. After the torrential rain on Tuesday we were a bit worried that the weather might let us down, but as you can see from the photo the sun shone and we had an enjoyable outing. Especially as ‘Ancient Britons’ [their words, not mine – I claim Norse descent] are admitted free on Wednesdays. 

To be honest there isn’t a lot to see, but there are some mosaics, and an interesting little museum – even if some of the illustrations are a tad sexist. The site is pleasant, isolated and quiet, and dogs were admitted so Ronaldog could come too. No tea shop, although there was a coffee machine – we came home for tea and cake instead.

It’s been a busy day

which I'll post about tomorrow.

In the mean time – here  is an ex-flower - I’m not sure what it is, but i like the colours.

We’re having a rain storm …

a tropical rainstorm – well, a cold tropical rainstorm. So we stayed at home and did stuff.

Like assemble a book. I say ‘assemble’ because all the constituent bits were lying around waiting for their purpose to be revealed – I just introduced them to each other.

The cover was an experimental bit of quilt-and-then-shrink I did months ago – I lined it with some [wall] lining paper left over from something else and then added some pages, either stuff I’d painted previously in a spirit of experiment, or various bits of drawing paper.

After owning it for at least 12 months, it has dawned on me that the bindings in Keith Smith’s book ‘1, 2 and 3 Section Sewings’ are perfect for fabric backed books. The clue’s in the title, really. This is the ‘running stitch’ sewing [eagle eyes may spot there are actually 5 sections.] The added doodads are spacers from a long demolished charity shop necklace [the necklace, not the charity shop] and purely decorative, although I am telling myself they may help to stiffen the spine a bit.

And because the weather has been foul all day – I also made a bag. [I should point out that today was W’s day to cook, although I did make a cake for our visitors tomorrow. Melting method. It’s quick.]

After I’d made the Sock Sack I decided that if I made a bigger one it could be a fluffy pastel and white cardigan sack – so here it is with aforementioned cardigan.

Not for me or W. of course.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I’d drifted into our local Oxfam shop and found that they were selling crafty stuff – shisha, glittery bobbles, pachworky bits – and these. Carved wooden stamps – for £1.49 a pop. Bargain! I‘m not sure if all Oxfam shops are doing this, but worth a look if you like that sort of thing, and of course it’s all in a good cause.

And finally – just to reassure myself that rain doesn't always drench down in torrents – a petunia in a shower at Whitchurch Silk Mill.