Five Amazing Days with Sandra Brownlee.

Sandra Brownlee is a weaver, tactile journal maker and artist living on the east coast of Canada. I have had the privilege of spending the last five days in a workshop led by Sandra, called TACTILE NOTEBOOKS and the WRITTEN WORD.

To start with, we made covers for our journals/notebooks, choosing our own fabrics and choice of stitched decoration, so that they can become something that we want to handle, and go to each day. They are somewhere for us to record experiences, explore feelings, thoughts and emotional responses to anything we may hear, read, dream see and experience during our daily routines, walks or wherever we may be. At least, this is my understanding, and something that I find extremely exciting.

I used some linen fabric that I had sampled some time ago when considering curtain fabric, but as each of  the three pieces were not large enough, they needed to be joined with hand stitch. 

I found aspects of this workshop very moving, but also exciting and inspiring which I'm sure will help me to move forward in a very positive and more personal way in my creative work. We were encouraged to explore different ways to use our pages, so that all our senses could be engaged. After a breathing exercise using paint and movement, I decided to pierce the paper surface, following my paint marks, so that I could 'feel' the rhythm of the breath. 

Exciting ways to present thoughts, ponderings or ideas are important, and writing them out can help to consolidate them more firmly in our mind.

Taking more notice of our surroundings, and seeing the beauty in shapes, textures silhouettes etc, can also act as inspiration for ideas. I know this is something I need to nurture, as I can quite easily walk from A to B without taking notice of anything at all!

I'm finishing off this post with some images I took of the building work that is presently going on in Eastbourne town centre. There are some really interesting structures to be seen on the skyline, and I have also included the roof top of the Victorian building that houses Eastbourne Railway Station, making an interesting contrast with the new.

Thanks for looking in, see you next time.

Print and paint.

The weekend collagraph workshop was so inspirational, I've become impatient to do more! I still need to buy the correct inks and paper, but decided to have a go anyway, with what I already have.

I've used relief ink instead of etching ink, and some mixed media paper instead of the recommended cartridge paper. However, I made a couple of plates using some fennel seed heads from the garden, foil and glue.

I made a ghost print of the full seed head, but all three prints needed some extra work. I have added  extra colour and detail with watercolour and gouache  paint, but have thoroughly enjoyed myself again, and feel reasonably happy with the results. 

Collagraph Workshop Weekend

This last weekend, I thoroughly enjoyed a Collagraph Workshop run by Birgitta Wilson. There were ten of us taking part, and we were amazed at how much we managed to achieve in just two days. Below is my very first attempt, and you can see the print above the plate.

We made our printing plates on a mount board base, and then used a variety of elements on the surface to create the different textures. These included sellotape, aluminium sticky backed tape, parcel tape, cling film, textured papers, thin dried plant materials and leaves, lace, scrim and a glue gun which we drew over the surface with. In fact, there are limitless materials that can be used, which helps to make this such an exciting way of producing a unique print. We also used a craft knife to score lines, and peel back areas of the mount board surface, which is then able to hold the ink, giving a darker area which contrasts with the lighter areas.

Above and below are example of the prints created by other members of the group. I can't remember who did what. so can't really give names.

Two plates on the left, (above), with the printed results on the right. I made another print of each which you can see below, and because the ink was applied slightly differently, the results are also different. I tried to introduce another colour on half of one of them.

The same with these two, both printed in blue/black, but I rolled some yellow ochre over one of them to see what would happen.

Sometimes, if there is enough ink left on a plate, it is possible to get two prints, although the second one is obviously much lighter, a ghost print.

Such an enjoyable workshop, and something that I would like to do more of. Birgitta is a brilliant and very generous tutor, and if you get the chance to take part in one of her workshops, I just know you will have a wonderful experience.

Finally, I'm finishing off with an image of a piece of work from my Wednesday art class last week. One of the backgrounds that I had created a few weeks ago, reminded me of a stormy sky, so I decided to work from my photo of those Gulls, and painted them in using gouache paint, which is opaque enough to cover the colours underneath.

It's been a very busy week, so I'm going to take it easy for a couple of days. I think I need to allow what I've been learning to get thoroughly embedded in my brain.

Thanks for reading yet again.

Some Stitching on the Horizon at Last!

At last I feel a textile piece is almost ready for the making! Above is my final plan for what I think will look good in cloth, paint and stitch. Two close-up views below.

It's an abstracted view, developed from my photo of the gulls on the beach a couple of weeks ago, you can read about process in the two previous posts.

I have taken inspiration for the background from the razor shell sketches, as I wanted to keep everything linked to the seashore, and I also feel that my simplified sketches of the gulls wings and tail feathers, relate very well to the shapes for the sea and sky.

My final stage now is to get out the cloth, paints and thread, give the sewing machine a good oiling, and fingers crossed I will soon have a piece of textile art to show you, the first for quite some time!

Thanks yet again, for reading my blog, and I hope you have also been inspired to get creating!

Detail and Colour

 Just a bit more detail to add to yesterdays post. I decided to make some reduction/abstracted drawings from my razor shell work, and also thought it would be helpful to show the process in a bit more detail.

I placed my 'window' over one of the ink and wash sketches, isolating an area that I then sketched in pen. Result below.

This process was then repeated, and as you will see from the images below, each time there is less and less to draw, until just a few lines remain.

I wondered about using one of these abstracted images as a background for the gull in flight drawing, the result is shown below. I think this could work, but I need to explore the idea a bit more. I like the idea of keeping all the ideas for a finished piece inspired by beach finds.

Above, is my razor shell, and below are my concertina book sketches from yesterdays post, now with some added colour. I think my favourite image so far is the third one down from here, and one that I feel shows some promise for being a starting point for a textile piece.

I had a walk along the seafront this morning, and the sea really was quite wild, with white crested waves. So much inspiration all around, so plenty of ideas for this theme!