Swans, snow and Spring!

This year, our (Contemporary Quilters' Guild of The British Isles) journal quilts are 12" x 6" and we have to decide whether we are going to make them portrait or landscape, Our decision needs to be followed through for the year. As you can see from above, mine are going to be portrait.

I'm considering continuing my bird theme for the whole set of twelve, and for January, decided to choose the swan as my first choice of the year. I have used rag paper coloured with acrylic paint by printing onto the surface from my gelli plate. I have then embossed for texture, adding highlights of gold paint onto the raised areas. The swan is reversed appliqué using lace, and I have quilted the swan and the rag paper with free machine stitch. 

We had our first snow of the year here in Surrey today, always lovely for the first few hours, but once the novelty wears off, I find my thoughts are turning towards Spring and a longing for warmer days.

Hurry spring, hurry!

A good spot for a tea/coffee break!

Tafa is 5 years old this week, goodness where have those years gone I wonder! Anyway, I became a member soon after, and I am just one of over 500 members from 44 different countries worldwide. I think this is one of the things I love about this organisation, just to be able to browse through all the links and to see what other textile artists and makers are producing from so many diverse backgrounds and cultures.

It is definitely well worth a good long look, but as my post heading says, you'll need to make yourself a large cup/mug of your favourite beverage before you settle down, and depending on the time of day or evening, maybe even a glass of something a little bit stronger! The Tafa link is here, and I have also provided a few links to some of my favourites here  here  here  here and here, but to be honest, there are so many to choose from, just pop over to Tafa and explore for yourself. ENJOY!

There and Back...(to see how far it is!!!)

I made this wall hanging of the solar system for our grandson for Christmas. He's three and a half, but loves to look at the night sky, the moon and the stars. This is something that he can enjoy now, and continue to do so as he gets older.

My second piece inspired by Hundertwasser above, I'm not so sure about this one, so may make changes at a later date.

I have also made another triptych similar to the first one I posted about before Christmas. This one was a belated Christmas gift for a friend.  I have shown the photo above of the three sections before they were stitched together, as they are easier to see, and below you can see them after they were hand stitched and ready to stand.

Thank you for reading, and I hope you have enjoyed seeing what I get up to most days!

Done!

Done! I decided that this didn't need a crow after all, it stands alone as a mandala type piece, so I finished it off today, and I'm now planning my next piece. I've included a few close-up shots below, and you can probably see that it's really quite rough, the edges of the fabric are fraying, but it is the look I wanted.

I spent the rest of today making a few more stamps, and also had a go at cutting a lino type print of my robin. I think I need to buy some better cutting tools, but I did enjoy doing it, and tested out my stamps a few times as you can see from the photos below.

Finally, I made some experimental stamps from the clay that needs a 15 minute bake in a low oven. It is very lightweight, and easy to roll out and takes a good impression from whatever is pressed into the surface. I also thought I'd have a go at making some jewellery to see what it turns out like. It can be painted and varnished, so it will be interesting to see how they turn out.

Here's wishing you all a peaceful and creative week.

Still Playing!

The three above are the way it's going, but maybe without my friend Mr. Crow....(or is it Mrs.?)

The four below were the results of my playing this morning, but were soon abandoned!

Big sigh!! but I'm determined to get there in the end, so thanks for following me on this one!

Taking a break!

After four days of struggle, albeit enjoyable struggle, I decided to take a break today! 

These photos are hopefully self explanatory.

Above, some of my own hand made stamps, and above that, a selection of gelli prints I made today, combined with my stamps.

These were all printed onto pieces of recycled white sheeting, using acrylic paint mixed with with acrylic textile medium.

It felt good to just mindlessly roll paint, arrange leaves onto my gelli plate, and stamp with my old faithful stamps!

I feel a few postcards in the making , and then, dare I say it, shshhh! a return of the (crow) 

Those pesky crows!

I've now spent the last four days working on this 'Hundertwasser inspired background' theme for my crows, but somehow as soon as I add those pesky birds, it all seems to go wrong! I like this background, but the crow? those egg shapes?........Naaa!! Not working, and there is too much stitching on the crows to unpick them all. I may have to put them away for a week or two, and then rethink what to do. In the meantime, I think I'll go onto my next inspiring Hundertwasser image, and see what I can do with that!

Hope you're all having as much fun as I am!

Responding to JOYFUL inspiration.

I just love the work of Hundertwasser, and a good friend who knows this about me gave me the gift of a daily 'flip over' calender of his artworks. Straight away, I decided that for each new project I embark on this year, I would first look at the image of the day, and see if I could glean an idea or a starting point from his wonderful abstracted landscapes with their wonderful colours and linear designs. At the same time, I have also been pondering the new theme that we in Kairos, have set ourselves for the next few months, which is the word, 'Moods'. Our last theme word was 'Birdsong', and I still feel that I have some mileage left to explore there too, so I have decided that I can maybe combine the two together.

Maybe you can see now where this is all going, because the image from my Hundertwasser calender for Saturday was the one you see above, and I immediately thought of a bird's nest, all those wonderful spiralling lines, with the egg shape in the bottom left!

The two images that I have produced over the last two days are experimental. I have really enjoyed playing with ideas, but I've cheated with the crow, by tracing off one of my previous birds. I think it looks tired here, so I need to rethink the bird design.

I may decide to play around with another idea from today's calender image, but again, it will involve a crow, and lots of lovely colour. Once I have a few more ideas worked out, I can decide which ones are worth pursuing, but I'm feeling very enthusiastic and inspired at the moment, so I hope I can keep the momentum going

Oh, and the 'Mood'? Well with all the lovely colours, and promise of new life, I think it has to be 'JOY'

New Ideas for a New Year!

At the end of November, I spent a day enjoying a workshop with Maggie Grey. I bought her latest book, 'cut, shape, stitch' working creatively with cutting machines.  (Maggie Grey-Samantha packer-Paula Watkins) and was so inspired by what can be done with one of these machines, decided there and then it was going to be a birthday gift from my husband which just happens to be in December!

I painted up some rag paper, using my Gelli plate, and then passed it through my new cutting machine using an embossing folder. This gave the paper the lovely plant like shapes you can see in these photos. After cutting out the shapes for this triptych, I painted up some thin card, and then passed this through the cutting machine using a cutting die to give me the swirly shapes you can see on the two front panels. Some further embellishments using embossing powders, and some fancy gold stitching around the top and front edges, completed the look I was after. I hand stitched the two sides together, then inserted and stitched down one of my crows on the inside back panel. Just so much fun, and I have lots of ideas for further projects similar to this.

Now, the main reason I decided that one of these cutting machines was something I couldn't live without, had nothing really to do with the die cutting or embossing! It was the idea, that it could also be used as a small printing press for collagraph prints! I first experimented with collagraph printing on a workshop with Cas Holmes, and have really enjoyed playing around with this technique, but also found it frustrating that using the back of a spoon didn't always give the results I hoped for. Maggie Grey let us into her secret that using a cutting machine also made an excellent alternative to a small printing press for collagraphs, and apparently, pasta making machines also work well.

My new toy!

First, I decided to make a small collagraph plate using one of my crows. I cut out the crow perched on a branch with a blade, and then stuck him down onto some mountboard, using some scrim, bits of lace, and screwed up thread for the background. I also made some feathery marks on the crows body with the blade.

This was all given two coats of shellac, back and front, and then the fun began! I bushed acrylic paint into the plate, making sure it went down into all the spaces, then rubbed away any paint that was laying on the surfaces. I dampened the paper before putting it all through the press, and the results are what you see below.

Not perfect by any means, but I'm feeling quite excited by the possibilities that this machine is going to give me. I think I like the fact that it has a multi purpose use for ideas and future projects. I also used the negative shape left after I had removed the crow from the background paper.

So many ideas coming from this, and somehow, I don't think I'm finished with this ongoing bird project either!

Finally, I have also been using some of my gelli prints as inspiration for some small experimental projects using a simplified version of paper lamination. Another technique recommended by Maggie Grey on our workshop day in November. Below is a photo of one of my gelli prints, which I printed onto plain copy paper. Using white felt as a background, the image was laminated face down onto the felt using bondaweb, and when the back of the paper was dampened with water, it rubbed away to leave the image on the felt, ready to be further embellished with stitch, and a little paint. The result is what you see in the photo above.

Well, that's about it for now, I'm so looking forward to the new year, creating, making and generally having fun! Thank you so much for reading my rambles and I would also like to take the opportunity to wish you all, a very happy, healthy and above all, PEACEFUL New Year for 2015, wherever you are in this wonderful world of ours.