Tag: mixed media

What I’m working on!

I have a private exhibition looming. It’s an unusual event as it won’t be open to the public, just to a specific group of people. The work that they will see is quite a big step away from some of the things that I have previously created. I’m just beginning a new artwork, and I thought you might like to see a part of the process.

The background fabric will be hand dyed cotton. Dull and dingy it will be a dark mustard in colour with splashes of a slightly brighter yellow and dark blue. It doesn’t sound very attractive or interesting, does it? So, how to make it more interesting? It’s too dark to respond to much more over-dyeing, so the answer is paint.

First some experiments:

blending 1

 

Blending colour is the first step, I don’t like to use ‘raw’ colour straight from the tube or bottle. This looks promising

blending 2

 

Looking better as it is mixed more and more. I’m not using a paintbrush for this process, I have a special blending tool which I’ll tell you about another day. They look good on paper, but will they do on the fabric?

fabric

 

 

Perfect!  Several thin layers of transparent acrylic have been built up. Some of it is printing using an old mouse mat which is a perfect printing surface. The experiments were worth it. Can you guess which colours I used?

colours

 

Did you guess? I love mixing colours – you never know what you will discover. I have never used these colours in combination before, but I will be using them again. Stitching comes next, but first, some more fabric preparation.

Is it time you tried some new colours? Let me know if you do.

Textiles in Focus

Forget about queueing for parking at Alexandra Palace, or the NEC for that matter. No charges for parking and less than half the entrance fee! Why not visit Textiles in Focus in Cottenham near Cambridge instead! There will be an exhibition that’s worth seeing, lots of demonstrations, and, of course, good traders. All the suppliers are specialists, so they know all about their products and there is good food and drink to sustain you too…… How can you resist? Dates? 15th – 17th February. There are also workshops and a lecture.

More information can be found here, I’ll be there with Winifred Cottage, so please come and say ‘hi’ when you visit. On that note, if you have any special requirements, for instance Kunin Felt, make sure you let me know in good time beforehand. I won’t be taking much of that with me, and may have limited stocks of other things too.

blog Cottenham

 

This is a photograph from last year. It’s a lovely show, and well worth a visit. Hope to see you there.

 

 

Something fishy

So, what I have been doing?  Quite a lot of this and that, with some time for creativity thrown in!  I’ve been boiling up some cauldrons too, and more about that later.

Firstly, here’s part of a piece started on the embellisher.  It’s a combination of fabrics, some stitching, and some printing.

It’s due some machine embroidery shortly, but that won’t be this week.

On Saturday we are travelling to Missenden Abbey for their Open Day.  Anyone coming? Don’t forget to come and say ‘hi’.  If you want us to bring something specific you can give us a ring, contact details are here.   There is never enough room, so we have to be selective in our choice of supplies.

As for the cauldron, well, I’ve been preparing some interesting and exciting samples for a new course that is running next month.  It’s called ‘Let’s Play With Dyes’, and promises to be fun.  It will be the last time I am teaching at Urchfont Manor before it closes, and this course is not the same as any I’ve taught before.  You’ll have to wait for a while to see any samples, I want them to remain a secret until the course.  They are fun techniques – using some unlikely ingredients to obtains interesting results.  There are still a couple of places on the course, so if you haven’t been to Urchfont before this could be your last chance.  If you have been before you can enjoy the facilities and food for maybe the last time.

Sadly it has apparently been decided not to have the Open Day at Urchfont this year.  If you are disappointed you can still get your textile ‘fix’ this weekend at Missenden Abbey, and also at Eastleigh College at the beginning of next month.  I’ll let you have more details of that in a day or so, but in the meantime, I hope to see you on Saturday at Great Missenden.