Almost time

Two years or so in the making.We hope you can come visit.

Ammerdown imminent.

Soon I shall be at Ammerdown with Stitch Textile Artists. We have an exhibition at Ilminster Arts Centre next Spring so will be putting finishing touches to things.

I have been working on growth and seedpods as a theme and have almost finished a wall hanging.

It is made from a favourites of mine.......cotton organdie.It has corded pintucks,print and cut back appliqué.

I had some leftovers so instead of putting them aside I made some pods which are free standing.

I can't decide if they might have tiny little lights inside when they are displayed.I'll take them along and ask for opinions.

Jilly Morris workshop

I took part in a day's Mark-making workshop with the lovely Jilly Morris last Saturday.

These are the results

lots of luscious marks.

It was lovely to just play with ink ,paper and tools and see what happened

These last few were "set to music".

To change the tone in the afternoon Jilly played some music and we had to just let go and respond.

We were told to choose jut two tools, a 'stompy' and ' sweepy' one.

It was a really enjoyable day,I want to try to develop some of the ideas and take into stitch.With work to do for Sian's masterclass in May I need to stop finding other things to do!

Enamelling taster.

It's been a long time since I posted anything here.I have been busy but not put anything up.

I have wanted to try enamelling for a long time but not wanted an evening course.I found a five week taster course locally which finished today.

Here are my efforts.

I have lots of copper etching plates from several years ago just sitting in my cupboard.The tutor seemed to have lots of jewellery blanks but I was interested in trying out techniques rather than finished items so she cut some up.

 Scraffito appealed ,so I could 'draw' and add layers of transparent enamels.

Using stencils and layering then adding lustres.

Also adding textures by putting through a rolling mill,scrim on left,sequin waste on right.

It has piqued my interest and I can see possibilities for using in textile work.I shall look out for another class.

Poppy

This was a piece I had in our exhibition in Stroud last October.It was a freehand drawing with the machine of stylised pods,just thread on cotton organdie..The RWA had an open entry for their 'DRAWN' exhibition which opened on the weekend.They listed textiles as one of the mediums they would accept ,so I decided enter.Unfortunately I was rejected but will be interested to see how many textile pieces will be on exhibition.In the last few years they have loosened a little and there have been textile exhibits.One of GTA's members had hers chosen for the Autumn exhibition,she too was rejected this time.Just have to keep trying to get textiles taken seriously.

Some experimenting.

This was one of the teapots I found by Maria Stewart ,it had been auctioned in Cornwall in 2005. It looks to be using the same technique of applying the glaze but in a different colour way.

I played with pushing colour through a stencil then adding in painted circles allowing them to bleed.

On the piece of fabric I did the same though using silk paints.I tried "crashing", where you layer fabric ,bondaweb ,released from the paper backing ,and finally solufleece. You free machine stitch and   then hover an iron over it and it bubbles and shrinks.

These are photos of the other teapot and a vessel alongside my painterly experiments.

Maria Stewart porcelain.

My textile group have an exhibition later this year in Nature In Art in Gloucestershire.As part of it we are each choosing a piece from the collection to base some of our work around.I have chosen a piece by a British ceramicist Maria Stewart .I have tried but can find out very little about her. The pot is so light and the colours are just beautiful ,almost like watercolour in their application.

I chose it because it reminded me of a seed pod.However,having had the opportunity to handle the pot I am reminded of sea urchins,lotus fronds,Klimt.I would love to know what was her inspiration ,as everything in the collection is related to nature in some way.

I have been able to find few other pieces on the internet and no information other than she was born in 1940.If anyone can shed any light I would be grateful.