Stitch Loop

Sketchbook Drawing Competition

2012-02-01T05:19:00.000-08:00

You can post your drawing competition entries on your blog now until the final day on 14th February.

Please post all your drawings in one posting to make it easier for the judges. Then send me an email or leave a message on my blog with your own blog address.

This is very exciting and I hope you are all enjoying drawing anything you like that could fit in with the title "Looking Into".

If you still haven't got going yet - well - you have 13 more days!

You could still make it if you started today!

So, sharpen your pencil and remember that if you don't enter, you will miss out on one of the lovely prizes on offer. Take a look at the details on the Distant Stitch website.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon!

Urchfont Manor - episode 2

2012-01-26T00:32:00.000-08:00

You might have sat on one very special bench outside Urchfont Manor at tea or coffee breaks or for our 'goodbye' group photo last year as above. That special bench is in memory of Tom Barklem, a past Vice Principal and lecturer of ancient history who led many of his adult students around Greece and Italy on educational expeditions. Tom wrote the small book 'The History of Urchfont Manor' which is a fascinating story about the building and the alterations made over the centuries as different generations 'modernised'.

Tom has three sons and as well as a lovely garden bench, they now wish to buy Urchfont Manor itself and retain it in its current function to provide residential adult education. This seems to be the fairy godmother act that everyone was hoping for but never really thought would materialise. As you might imagine, this does not automatically 'save' Urchfont as Wiltshire Council need convincing that there is a demand 'out there' from adult students in order to persuade them to accept this bid and not to seek a much higher one, which they might get on the 'free market'.

Wiltshire Council have been censured for their lack of public consultation before last weeks vote so another is being taken on the 30th January. Can you help them in their 'consultation' and email the chair, Jane Scott and let her know how vital and enriching Urchfont has been in your life and wish it to continue providing adult education. So many of you come to Wiltshire from other parts of the UK and other countries of the world. Let her know what a gem Urchfont is in the world of adult education' and most importanly of all, please give your backing to the Barklem bid to buy Urchfont Manor.

Please email Jane Scott before the 30th - jane.scott@wiltshire.co.uk

Many thanks to you all.

Sad news of Urchfont Manor

2012-01-19T02:11:00.000-08:00

I have very sad news about Urchfont Manor College. Wiltshire Council has decided it must close to save money. So unless some rescue plan or fairy godmother comes forward, it will close its doors in September 2012. I am sorry that the devoted staff will lose the jobs they all do so well.

I can't say how sad this makes me to lose such a wonderful venue as I have been teaching at Urchfont since 1982 as a young embroidery tutor alongside Val Campbell Harding. I have become fond of the heroic staff who give their services so cheerfully. My husband has worked out that I have spent a whole year of nights slept there in total!

Events such as the Distant Stitch Summer School will go ahead as usual this year and Mandy has said that they will make sure it is one to remember. So this will be your last chance to meet up at Urchfont - so sign on now before it is full. Even though the venue for the 2013 is yet not known, two tutors have been booked already so be assured it will take place and we will establish a new Summer School 'home. It will be difficult to find somewhere as good as Urchfont, but I will try my best.

Urchfont is the City and Guilds Examinations Centre for Distant Stitch. This will be re-located to another similar Centre in due course so all business with City and Guilds will continue as normal as far as students are concerned.

Similarly with the Masterclass weekends I tutor, a new home will be found for us to meet up for our weekends together.

To remind you of those lovely days at Urchfont, take a look through the Summer School pics on the Distant Stitch website and wonder back through the years to see Urchfont Manor and fellow students and their work.

Walking around the gardens at Urchfont on a recent frosty day.

Looking into the nest

2012-01-10T12:13:00.000-08:00

'The Empty Nest', shown in my previous posting, will be part of the 62 Group exhibition, 'Interventions', at Platt Hall from tomorrow until 19th May. Check out the opening times on thier website http://www.manchestergalleries.org/our-other-venues/platt-hall-gallery-of-costume/exhibition-programme/

I wonder why I was attracted to this recent find in a nearby hedge, a small nest? It has been lovingly constructed in the shape of a heart by a goldfinch someone said.

A communal drawing day at a local church hall allowed me precious time away from the computer (much as I love you) to do some drawings of this nest. A warm-up exercise asked us all to do an 'unseen' drawing with our eyes closed of our faces by recording only from touch with our left hands. A very interesting exercise!

Here are a few of the most interesting ones of my little nest, done perhaps as a way of 'looking into' something.

Chalk on black paper, using the edge of the square pastelstick.

Charcoal and soft pencil.

Black pastel stick, charcoal and soft pencil.

Monoprinted base layer with added black pastel chalk and pencil.

Second print with added drawn lines of black and grey pastel sticks.

Textile response

2011-12-22T07:32:00.001-08:00

I’ve just finished a piece of work and it’s packaged up and sent off for selection – hopefully – in the next 62 Group exhibition. I thought you might be interested to see my response to an item from the museum collection of Platt Hall, where the exhibition will open in January 2012.

This is the item I chose after a research visit last summer – it’s a child’s bonnet made of extremely fine silk net. The 3D form is barely visible except for the solid lines of the seams. I made some quick sketches a and took photos in the short time I had in their wonderful store room, filled with hundreds of boxes containing the most exquisite textiles. Platt Hall is only open to the public in the afternoons and 3 hours was just not enough!

My newly discovered skills of working with willow seemed a good way of describing the lines of the seams so I soaked, tied, bent and coaxed my locally grown will into lovely curved shapes. I also broke and snapped more than I bent! I take my hat off to willow basket makers everywhere.

The ‘net’ was made from stitched paper, using pages from my old school sketchbooks, recently discovered in my loft. Many pages were machine stitched together making a long surface of about 3.5 metres. Many more lines were then stitched all over to form a connecting network. This stitching created the ‘net’ after being soaked and scrubbed in the sink – I didn’t risk the washing machine in case too much of the paper disappeared.

After lots of trials of how to attach the ‘net’ to the willow and how to form an interesting shape –

(no details here but to all who have deliberated and are currently deliberating with a ‘creation’, you will know the joys of anguish and indecision) this is what emerged – ‘The Empty Nest’.

It can be suspended or

placed on a surface.

Happy Christmas!

Drawing Project–Christmas Competition–with prizes!

2011-12-06T08:53:00.001-08:00

This is it – the finale to the Drawing Project – well at least for the time being!

I am inviting you to take part in the Distant Stitch Drawing Competition – with lovely prizes -

A £50 Voucher towards a Module of any Distant Stitch Course for you or a friend to be used in 2012.
A £25 voucher from Art Van Go (See Trusted Traders section on www.distantstitch.co.uk)
A £25 voucher from Ario (See Trusted Traders section on www.distantstitch.co.uk)

This competition is open to any one who is a non-professional artist, whether you are a Distant Stitch student or not.

There will be three jurors – Jan Evans (Distant Summer School tutor), Viv White (Distant Stitch Creative Sketchbooks tutor) and myself, Sian Martin.

After judging, a selection of the submitted drawings will be posted on a special gallery on the Distant Stitch website along with links to your blog.

The title or theme is “Looking Into”.

A drawer containing ‘things’ could perhaps come under this title. I have a large cupboard of tiny drawers, rescued from a closing chemist’s shop. Peeling the tatty sticky labels off the outsides and scrubbing off years of grime revealed the original painted labels in gold. So now you can see what I keep in my ‘opium turc’ drawer! Any chemists out there who can tell me what ‘r:helleb:a:p’ is please?

What else could you ‘look into’? For all the details and hints on how to get started take a look at the Distant Stitch website.

Drawing Competition

2011-12-01T08:23:00.001-08:00

Look out for a major Drawing Competition to be published here soon.

Visit my blog again to find out the details and the prizes!

Open to all.

Get your sketchbooks ready!

Poppies and vessels in Weston-super-mare

2011-11-12T10:18:00.001-08:00

A full class of lovely students at Weston-super-mare, pulled threads from the coloured linen scrim replaced them with stitching and then moulded it into flower and vessel shapes. The day was a ‘Remove and Replace’ workshop which takes withdrawn threadwork to extremes. Many people chose to make poppies as tomorrow is Remembrance Day and what better than to wear ‘one you made yourself’.

Here is my demonstration sample and I will wear mine tomorrow.

A vessel was made by forming a flat piece of linen over a selection of large balls and adapted bowls– no flat bottoms please – these are art pieces!

My next workshop will be at Plas Tan y Bwlch in North Wales. This will be a two day Shibori workshop. Come and join in the fun of steam-setting weird shapes into your fabrics and being in this wonderful place in the middle of the Snowdonia National Park.

Autumn Colour

2011-11-05T07:11:00.000-07:00

Carnage on the nearby motorway and the river bank collapses in the town centre of nearby Bridgwater last night. All this amidst the amazing spectacle of the famous Bridgwater Carnival and a colourful dyeing session for my next 'Remove and Replace' workshop.

Thinking of the ironing!

November Drawing Project – Still life with ’Pots and Pans’, your breakfast table or tea time.

2011-11-02T11:32:00.001-07:00

This drawing project is a still life project. Make a collection of a few shapes from the kitchen – pots and pans or crockery. Perhaps your coffee cup or wine glass as you enjoy drinking from it! Perhaps a setting for dinner or the tea table; perhaps a bowl of fruit; perhaps dishes on the draining board or stacked for washing up.
Keeping up the tradition of taking a walk down ‘memory lane’ with the first image of each Drawing project, here is ‘one I did earlier’, in fact when I was at school, probably for my O’ Levels homework. It’s a painting of our fruit bowl – a brass one from my granny. I now have it in my own home, although with no fruit in it to hide the glorious patina of the brass. Although I can see that I didn’t quite get the right silhouette, I remember being very proud of the reflection of the base and the way the colour changed around the curved surface. Not bad for a 15 year old even though I say it myself!

Now please follow this link to see this drawing project on the Distant Stitch website

I would be delighted to get your comments about the project on my blog and to add your blog to my list below, especially if you have posted some of your drawings.

Special news in December about another Drawing Project so keep watching. Happy drawing!

‘Say something beautiful’

2011-10-31T01:26:00.001-07:00

A day away from the computer for lunch near leafy Queen’s Square, kicking the leaves and looking at the graffiti art work on the walls of Nelson Street in Bristol. Thanks to Anne for reminding me about this ‘event’. It will probably be there for ages yet so if you have a chance to visit Bristol, take a walk from the Broadmead shopping area towards the open areas of the Horsefair towards the Waterside area of town. Nelson Street is normally a bit dingy but is now enlivened by these interesting artworks. A sunny Sunday afternoon brought lots of people out with their camera so we ‘queued’ to take our photos. I’ve posted some that are different to Anne’s blog.

I was particularly fascinated by the ones that acknowledged the existing structure of the building with their work; a good lesson when considering a textile installation in a specific site – note to Embroidery Diploma students!

I’m sad I completely missed the ‘dust art’. Another excuse for lunch at ‘Graze’?

Scary Halloween pairs!

2011-10-26T07:12:00.001-07:00

Beatrice and Amelie

My sister and I on coronation day 1952 – I’m the taller one, aged 2 and a half; Eira would be about 18 months, the same age as Beatrice - the little witch above! The page girl costumes were made by my mother so we could take part in the village fancy dress parade.

Brenda’s singing marionettes, Joan and Derby. They are part 2d and part 3D. Puzzled blog readers note that this image is nothing to do with the others except they are a pair of figures which I have posted for Sharon who is working on ideas for a 3D figure for her Diploma.

October Drawing Project - Plants, flowers. foliage

2011-10-10T01:27:00.000-07:00

Find your flower or leaf. Use the same one throughout your project. Let it wilt, change, age so you have interesting things to observe each day or each time you look at it.

My first recorded flower drawing, on looking back through my school books was of a daffodil to make a design for my schools St David’s Day celebrations. I thought I’d put it here for a giggle! It is cropped so you can’t see the date at the bottom of the sketchbook page, carefully recorded in neat calligraphy style letters. I can see that I was trying to convey that each petal was not just a flat shape but had an undulating form, a gently curved surface with slight ripples. The centre trumpet, looking like a cupcake, shows this in an exaggerated way making it look quite solid. All the devices I used in this drawing are ones which we will look at in this project – use of line, tone, colour and outline to indicate a 3D form.

Pop across to the Distant Stitch website to continue this project - www.distantstitch.co.uk

Ally Pally

2011-10-09T07:16:00.001-07:00

Foot sore and exhilarated after three days at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally, London. I was stewarding at the Textile Study Group’s exhibition space, seen here and teaching several one hour sessions in the ‘Learning Curve’ section of the show.

The whole show seemed to be heaving with people, looking, buying, asking questions. These photos were taken at the end of a day when the crowds had disappeared and Gwen was having a well-earned sit down – probably the first of the day!

It was great fun, particularly meeting all the Distant Stitch students, particularly Pascale who came specially from Luxembourg for the Show. It was lovely to meet you for the first time Pascale and everyone else who was able to pin me down to say hello.

Several of you wanted to know how I eventually decided to present my piece, ‘Family Ties’. You can see it hanging in here within the exhibition setting between a lovely hand stitched piece by Jenny Bullen on the left and an interesting strip of sprayed and stitched organdie and wrapped safety pins by Sarah Burgess on the right. The exhibition was pivoted around how each artist had been inspired by a postcard of our choice. Links made by each person were fascinating and thought-provoking. I chose a postcard by Bridget Riley as I love the way she defines a three dimensional surface by clever use of a simple repeating pattern.

The support for the hanging is a 12"inch embroidery ring; the piece is draped over the ring as a cloak.

The image below shows it folded flat for packing.

My alternative ‘hat’ during the show was as a member of the 62 Group of Textile Artists, who had a small stand to advertise our big celebration plans for 2012. It is our 50 anniversary next year, as the Group was started in 1962 by Constance Howard and several other embroidery tutors and graduates at Goldsmiths College of Art. This prestigious event has the misfortune to coincide with the Olympics and the competition for funds to support the arts has been very difficult. In order to have funds to produce a book to celebrate these 50 years, we are offering the book at a reduced rate for advanced sales, thus being able to pay the printer!

This book will be a ‘limited edition’ and will be much ‘sought-after’ by the textile world, so take advantage now. I became a member in 1975, just a couple of years after leaving college! I do hope there will be no photos of us in the early days!

If you would like to order an advanced copy, you can use the form below or email me so I can send you one.

Swanning and Dyeing

2011-10-04T01:25:00.001-07:00

These are the reasons why the next Drawing project will be a little late this month. Apologies if you are waiting with bated breath for the next instalment.

Swanning – along the the Llangollen Canal in north Wales with Susan, Frank and Eila. Here are Eila and Susan as we float on our narrow boat along the famous aqueduct over the River Dee - built by Telford in 1805. We sat in the ‘pointy’ end while Frank and my hubby Roy steered at the back. Occasionally we girls did a stint with the tiller. Here’s how to make it look easy; the smile hides a grimace as the next tight spot loom ahead!

Sometimes we stitched and chatted and enjoyed the fabulous scenery. Thank you to Frank, Susan and Eila for inviting us to share this wonderful experience.

Dyeing – fabrics for my workshops at the Knitting and Stitch Show on 7th, 8th and 9th October. The workshop is called ‘Letting Your Stitches Flower’ so the cotton organdie fabrics had to reflect those in a colourful garden. You can pop along to the Learning Curve area to see what’s going on without enrolling for a class to see what everyone is doing. You might even be able to spot colourful stitched fabric flowers around the show!

I will be based at the Textile Study Group exhibition in TG I1, first area on your left as you enter the main West Hall by the centre doors. The short teaching sessions will be part of the Learning Curve; you can sign up for any class with vacancies when you arrive or book in advance via the website.It will be so good to meet up with you to say hello if you are able to catch me between teaching, stewarding, shopping – or and queuing for the loo!

THE NEXT DRAWING PROJECT will be based around flowers, or maybe foliage or grasses. I aim to post this next week when I have returned from the Knitting and Stitching Show. See you soon I hope.

Postscript to drawing of a textile

2011-09-16T07:29:00.001-07:00

I can’t resist showing you a few more ideas so here are some ways of developing your drawings based on your textile study which I’m sure you’ve been busy with over the last couple of weeks!

The first two ideas are only for the brave!

First idea – Take a rubbing or an area of your textile. Arrange a single layer (if possible) of the textile onto a hard surface. This not quite such a risky operation if you choose a strong paper such as tissuetex which is a reinforced tissue paper used in brass rubbings (available for Art Van Go). The rubbing below was made over the border area of my child’s dress, using a candle and then inking over with black ink – after the dress had been moved far away!

Second idea – take a print of a relief surface of your textile. This needs a lot of care and perhaps shouldn’t be attempted if the textile is precious. My print below was done by holding my breath and I’m pleased to say that I didn’t get any marks on the dress, only on the paper.

To see how this printing process was done, please continue over onto the Distant Stitch website.

This print was used on the inside cover of an exhibition brochure by the Textile Study Group called ‘Not What it Seams’. You can see this brochure on the TSG website.

Judith Aylett sent me this link of the work by Mandy Pattullo. She presses textiles into thick, damp paper – and this looks such an interesting idea, I must try it, but, oh for a proper printing press.

http://mandypattullo.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-07-10T04%3A09%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=7

Another brilliant idea from Judith is the work of Ruth Lee. Take a look at the incredible knitted structures on this link. - http://www.webs-of-intrigue.co.uk/gallery.htm. You can see Ruth, some of her work and buy her super book at her stand at the Knitting and Stitching Shows. If you are reading this Ruth – “looking forward to seeing you soon at Ally Pally”.

I also remembered the work of Susie Needham, a Somerset artist whose work I admire and thought you might like to take a look at some examples here. She calls her process ‘photograms’. She doesn’t seem to have a website but is included in many other website so you should be able to find more of her work.

Just for fun, inspired by Susie’s images, I decided to change my dress print into a negative and created even more ideas for drawing from this!

See you in October with a brand new drawing theme. In the meantime, continue enjoying your textile and be encouraged to try some of this less conventional drawing ideas. I’m looking forward to seeing exciting stuff on your blogs – please leave me a message there to let me know. www.stitchloop.blogspot.com

Come and have a chat

2011-09-13T04:55:00.001-07:00

I shall be at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally next month, so if you’re going to be there, please find me to introduce yourself and have a chat.

You will find me mainly at the Textile Study Group exhibition space. The show plan isn’t available yet so I can’t give you a reference number for the space, but it will be big, bright and called ‘Individual and Collective’. As well as stewarding at this exhibition, I shall be doing some teaching workshops in the ‘Learning Curve’. You can come and chat at either place so if I’m not at one I’ll be at the other.

You can book a place on one of my workshops, called ‘Letting Your Stitches Flower’ on the Knitting and Stitching Show website. This image might give you a clue as to what the workshop is about -----

Dates at Alexandra Palace, London

Thursday (6th October) from lunchtime onwards

All day Friday and Saturday (7th and 8th October)

Looking forward to seeing you if you can make it!

A pleasurable few days

2011-09-10T08:59:00.001-07:00

Distant Stitch students who met Susan and Eila at Summer School last July will remember that they only just got to the UK from New Zealand in the nick of time to join us after a flight change due to ‘volcanoe dust’. They have been travelling throughout the UK, Eire, Germany and France during the summer and we met up for a few days when they passed through Somerset this week. We visited the spectacular gardens, designed by Edward Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll at Hestercombe and enjoyed a jolly steam train ride to Minehead.

Susan and Eila have now continued their journey with a walk around the south west coastal foot path, a canal boat trip over the famous viaduct at Llangollen and finally a few days at the Knitting and Stitching Show at Ali Pally. How many of us will have done so much or seen so much of the UK since Summer School!

Susan, Eila, Siân at Hestercombe Garden

A close-up of one of the wonderful clusters of Gladioli, placed at each angle of the formal border shapes – to send best wishes to from us all at the Distant Stitch Summer School to cheer Evelyne who is poorly at the moment.

September Drawing Project – Textile Detail

2011-09-01T00:08:00.001-07:00

This drawing project is a study of a textile; all the little details rather than the whole piece – that will come later.

I chose to study two textiles - the details on this little dress (see 20th August , titled ‘Drawing Project Plan’). The stitching is done by machine so perhaps dates it at the end of the 19th century (Anne, you might be able to correct me?) And my second choice is an old silk fan (given to me by Constance Howard as I had just made my piece – ‘Fan Fair’ way back in the 1980’s.

This project will be divided into two sections and posted separately. The first section is called ‘Slow Drawing’ making controlled, careful study drawings. The second section will involve development of these detail drawings, using other media to convey the effects in your drawings – a bit more of a free spirit!

The start of this Project is posted here on my blog – then continue by looking at the Distant Stitch website.

Enjoy your weeks of drawing textiles. I’m looking forward to seeing your drawings on your own blog. Keep a look out for ideas for developing your drawings in a few weeks time. Happy drawing – remember that a small something each day will build up a large body of wonderful work!

Drawing Project Plan

2011-08-20T09:07:00.001-07:00

I hope you’ve had a bit of time to catch up with the 30 day sketchbook tasks! I promised I’d let you know my plans for a future drawing project so here it is -

A monthly Drawing Project, starting at the beginning of September.

Each project will involve a topic to study and a few ideas of drawing method and technique. You can make this relate to your own current design theme if you wish by combining the two to make use of your time and to expand your personal studies.

The first topic will involve looking at textiles. I have an ulterior motive for this as I am starting a study for a piece of work based on some element of the textile and costume collection at Platt Hall, Manchester. I shall be visiting the Museum next week with my sketchbook and pencil as I have an appointment to take a look at certain samples of their lace collection.

I can’t resist adding an image to this posting. Here is a close up of a little Christening gown a thoughtful friend gave me.

Look forward to seeing you in September!

Sketchbook Day 30–stitch

2011-08-15T00:50:00.001-07:00

I made some preliminary drawings of my sunflowers with a pencil as this was the first time I have looked at them closely and didn’t feel I knew the shapes well enough to rush into using stitching. You should do the same thing if you are going to choose a new for this drawing. Alternatively, choose something you have previously drawn. The drawing on the right is the first one and then I drew a much freer version on the left page. This ‘freer’ version was only possible after I had ‘learnt my lines’ in the first drawing and is one I much prefer. In case you think that the left drawing was done by looking at the right drawing – not so – it was done, looking at the sunflowers from the same position and trying not to look down at the page but only at the shapes ahead of me. Try this yourself and see what you get. (I wish I hadn’t done it on the opposite page – see comments in ‘tips’.

TODAY’S TASK –

Choose a hand sewing thread rather than a machine thread. This should be a pale colour and one that will happily accept colour such as a cotton or linen thread. (Wool and synthetics to be avoided for this.)

Make sure to use your thimble.

I forgot to take a photo of the stitches before I added the colour – too eager to see what it would look like with colour! So I hope you can see them clearly enough in the image below. I used the same thread throughout, making long straight stitches along the stem lines and loopy chain stitches for the leaves. In hindsight I should have stitched the edges of the sunflower heads and I might well do that later. Looking at my drawing below now I realise that I was probably more interested in the huge droopy leaves!

Add a liquid colour to your stitch drawing such as inks or water colour. I used a pale colour first to act as a background and then added stronger colours to the leaves. It’s interesting to notice how the thread changes to a much stronger colour than the paper and how a stitch has acted as a sort of reservoir for the liquid in places.

Take the opportunity to ‘take a print’ while it is still wet. The printed stitch is a delight and adds lots of ‘oomph’ to my freer drawing on the right.

The two drawings below (scroll down – I had made myself a very long sketchbook!) were done last year on a canal boat holiday in Le Canal du Midi in France. I sat on the browe and drew the view of the canal in front of me each day for a whole week. Each of these drawings were folded in half and the wet paint (from my Kohl-i-Noor paint box) was allowed to print onto the folded half. The top left hand drawing was made using wax resist from a candle and long horizontal stitches. The top right drawing is the reverse side of the left hand. So you can see that one drawing created the base for four others. Further colour was added to the three ‘extra’ drawings of course.

Future ideas for stitching for the next few days -

- Add hand stitching in coloured thread to the stage above right and to the print it made on the page behind (see image at the bottom of this blog).

- Use machine stitching instead of the initial hand stitch or add it to one of the prints – the opposite one or the one behind.

TODAY’S TIPS – Leave a clear page opposite and behind if you wish to take a print but don’t want it to risk it covering a drawing.

Make holes in your drawing before you stitch with something easy to hold such as a stiletto or a pin with a large head or even make your own stiletto by (carefully) pressing a needle (eye first) into a wine cork. Place a piece of scrap card behind if you don’t want your holes to go through a few pages.

Take a look at the stitching on the reverse side of your page and also the print this has made. I can see further drawing potential in the print – perhaps adding stitching in coloured thread.

Future Sketchbook plans – I shall continue to add drawing tasks to my blog and thank you for all your encouragement from Distant Stitchers as well as others I don’t yet know. It will not be on a daily basis but it will have a different format and be at a slower pace, also as a result of your feedback! I have improved my drawing skills by doing something every day and my cat has enjoyed my company as her basket is on my large worktable.

I will post my plan for the next stage in a few days time. This will give you all a chance to ‘catch up’ with the daily tasks and give you an incentive to keeping an eye on my blog. Don’t miss it.

Sketchbook Day of rest – sunflowers but no sun shine!

2011-08-14T03:17:00.001-07:00

If you have been trying to leave messages on my blog and been unable to, please know that you are not alone. Here is a message from Catherine via email as I promised to paste it here as well.

"Blogger won't let me post comments on your blog, which I've tried to do throughout. I just wanted to say how much I am enjoying the project. I am too far behind to really feel a part of it with everyone else (the pace is hectic - could you post just every second day next year?) but I'll continue with it in my own time.

It has made me determined to keep a small sketchbook all the time now and draw something each day. Your guidance has given me new ideas and expanded my view of what drawing is. Thank you for that.

Another great pleasure has been to see your own beautiful drawings as well as those of other students. I am quite gobsmacked at the talent there is around! It has been a tremendous amount of work for you, but very much appreciated."
Thank you for your lovely comments Catherine.

I've also been unable to leave messages to several of you. Will try to find time to send a complaint to 'Blogger'.

In the meantime - I've been taking a close look at my sunflowers by doing some line drawings in my sketchbook, ready to do some stitching.

Sketchbook Day 29–swirling ellipses

2011-08-13T00:54:00.001-07:00

I enjoyed making the two short videos yesterday and they are now on YouTube as well! I’ve also been able to add my demonstration video to Day 13 so you can now see it here on my blog as well as the Distant Stitch website.
I hope you’ve been enjoying the method of monoprinting. I have found it quit addictive as its such a quick process it encourages you to do ‘just one more’ until the paint runs out! Speedy drawing is just what you need to get your eye and hand ‘in’ for curved shapes particularly elliptical shapes. So a couple of extra ideas using this technique today.
Have you looked at ‘ferrinbroderie’ to see Jenn’s monoprints from yesterday? A lovely collection of sensitively observed elliptical shapes. I notice there is very little paint between the lines in your drawings Jenn – perhaps this is because you have used separate thinner paper than your sketchbook page? The monoprint drawing below has been done on ‘tissuetex’ or ‘repair tissue’ but still seems to pick up quite a bit of the paint from the plastic sheet – although I do like the way it gives the drawing a sort of hazy, mysterious look. A tip from you please Jenn?

TODAY’S TASKS -
TASK 1 – Add monoprinted lines to a previous drawing. Work with a different colour – preferably a darker one. You will already have the lines of this print on the back of the page so it should be easy to acknowledge the lines already drawn. Use this second layer of lines in different ways;
- Add lines to emphasise certain areas of your shapes that suggest a shaded or darker area.
- Add lines to give clarification of detail, pattern or just where the previous print didn’t pick up enough paint.
- Add the same lines again, but move them over a bit to act as a sort of over-print suggesting ideas of transparency or floating layers.
- Add a completely different shape add to the composition. For instance you might have drawn a wine glass yesterday – so now add the bottle!

^{These two drawings above where made onto yesterdays drawings to accentuate some of the features in the cotton reels.}

TASK 2 Draw into the inked plastic sheet and then press onto a page to take a print. This will produce a negative drawing whereas the drawings made by pressing through the paper produce positive lines.
The plastic sheet is on the right in the two examples below. It has been rolled with paint and then drawn into with the end of a paint brush.
The plastic was then placed face down onto a sketchbook page and a clean roller was used to press it firmly down.

TODAY’S TIPS – Mix your paint with a drop of washing-up liquid to keep it from drying too quickly. Mix this thoroughly before applying it to your plastic /glass sheet.
I have used a flexible piece of plastic to roll out my paint here. It was cut from a plastic sheet that covered the screen of a new computer – waiting for just this purpose!
You can use anything you like to draw with – a fine point or a very wide point, a textured point (old fork perhaps). I like your idea, Helen, of using the tip of a mini screw driver to make marks (see Fibrenell).
If you don’t have a second roller – use the back of a large spoon.
NEXT TASK – The next drawing day on Monday will be the last of this series and will involve stitches, so my ‘day of rest’ tomorrow (Sunday) will allow me to indulge myself with some stitching in preparation. If its a dry day I’m going to stitch looking at my row of 20 sunflowers which are looking quite droopy in this glum and wet weather.

Sketchbook Day 28 – monoprinting

2011-08-12T00:48:00.001-07:00

The method of monoprinting is used by well-known artists of this century including Paul Klee. It creates an attractive furry line and gentle tone between the lines. The monoprints on black paper below are drawings of the cylindrical shapes of reels of machine threads.These can be glued into my sketchbook when dry.

Paint from a tube (rather than a liquid) is rolled onto a smooth surface such as glass, Plexiglas/Perspex or a sheet of flexible plastic as used by Ruth Issett in last year’s Summer School workshop.Your paper is placed onto this painted surface and lines drawn on the paper surface to pick up the paint below. If working in your sketchbook, check that the painted surface can be slipped under a page. Take a look at the two short videos to demonstrate monoprinting. You can also see them on the Distant Stitch website .

TODAY’S TASK – Find some cylindrical objects such as crockery, cotton reels, tins. You will be looking at the elliptical shapes that circles form when viewed from an angle. To draw these with any sense of ‘flow’ you’ll need to practice drawing these shapes, noting how the more distant circles show more compressed ellipses and the closer circles show more open ellipses.

The ‘missing’ elliptical top in the drawing below was drawn with a old biro and the rest was drawn with a pencil – much easier to see what you’ve drawn!

TODAY’S TIPS - Thinner papers work best so you might like to choose papers like repair tissue (Tissutex) and then attach to your sketchbook afterwards. I used the actual pages of my sketchbook to see how the thicker paper would work. It tends to pick up more of the paint underneath which I also found gave interest to the linear drawing.
A a couple of drops of washing up liquid mix well into your paint to encourage it to roll out smoothly and to stay wet longer.
To draw elliptical shapes, don’t grip your drawing implement near the point and don’t let your hand touch the paper to rest on it. Let the flowing line be made from your whole arm and not just your wrist. Practice this until you can draw them without any awkward angles. Don’t worry if the first swirl isn’t right – keep going round and round until you find the right shape. Your eye and arm will be ‘learning their lines’ so that the marks you make in the monoprinting process can look good.The monoprint drawing below was a practice one to try making the different sizes of elliptical shapes.

Tomorrow – more monoprinting variations, so wash your equipment thoroughly and keep it at the ready!

Sketchbook Day 27–carbon copies 2 or tangled legs!

2011-08-11T00:36:00.001-07:00

A request from Anne to do some drawings by monoprinting will be on its way tomorrow, so look out a small sheet of glass or plastic. A piece of old plastic wallet/envelope will do. This method is related to the ‘carbon copy’ method so thanks for mentioning it Anne. I was also inspired when I was saw Tracey Emin’s monoprinted drawings at the Hayward Gallery recently. If anyone else has a request for a particular method of drawing or a particular difficulty you need help with, please leave me a message either on my blog or yours or by email and I’ll try and oblige.

The Project will finish after day 30 and might continue on a weekly basis if requests indicate you’d like me to continue.

TODAY’S TASK – As the headings suggests, today’s method is a variation on carbon drawing. Perhaps this method is a more basic than yesterdays and should have been placed before it as it uses the idea of creating a carbonised surface with a soft pencil or a graphite stick to act as the carbon surface.

Draw on the next page surface with heavy pressure, using a hard, well sharpened pencil in the same way as yesterday’s method. Remember that the carbon drawing of the deckchair in the image below was done on to the back of that page.

Note that the carbon surface does not seem to reveal an ‘after image’ of your drawing, BUT you can now use it to do a drawing with your eraser. I chose one on the end of a pencil as this was quite hard and had an edge to make narrow lines. Oh, those legs!

A second bonus to this method is that the very heavy handed drawing you made to create your carbon drawing can also be worked into to make more interesting – again with the eraser. Use it to break up the solid, heavy pencil lines – just scribble over them with the eraser. I also added a few lines with my fine pen. Try this yourself to transform it from an over-heavy ‘beginner’ style into a light,’confident’ style.

TODAY’S TIPS – Place a piece of card behind your pages when scribbling with the pencil/graphite stick to stop unwanted indentations passing into neighbouring pages. Notice slight unwanted indentations from a previous drawing in the carbonised surface above!

Before making your drawing with heavy pressure to pick up the carbon, place a card below your drawing page and draw your lines lightly first to help you get it right. Then remove the card and go over your lines with a heavier pressure. An alternative is to draw your object on a separate page to ‘learn your lines’ first. Here’s a pencil sketch done prior to the carbon drawing to help me make sense of those deckchair legs!

Final tip – don’t draw a deckchair!

Sketchbook Day 26–carbon copies

2011-08-10T00:56:00.001-07:00

Thank you to Jenn for her suggestion of using a bamboo tip to get curved lines. I wonder if it would work in this carbon drawing method? Although this task is related to objects with straight edges, some of you might prefer to draw something with curves instead?
TODAY’S TASK – Draw an object such as a table, chair, box, greenhouse, building – anything in fact that is 3 dimensional and has lots of straight lines. I hope you have been practicing as a result of yesterday’s task.
Try this method of indirect drawing – you scribble two layers of media on the left hand page. The principle of this carbon method is to build a layer of chalk onto the paper surface and then another layer of crayon. The crayon will not stick to the paper so can easily be lifted in the drawing method.
I suggest you make an initial experimental surface to find out what media you have available works best. If you know of other media, please let us all know.
I covered the top half of the page with a white chalk-like charcoal and the bottom half of the page with a coloured pastel. Then added second layers in vertical bands of 4 different ones I had – oil pastel, wax crayon, stabilo pencil and Markel oil stick. You can judge for yourself which ones worked best.

Turn your page over and make your drawing on the left hand page of this next pair of pages, using a firm, rounded (not sharp) point such as a biro. I used a ‘spent’ biro so that it only made deep colourless lines in the paper surface which I then smudged with a coloured pastel to show it better – I hope you can see the lines.
My drawn lines show the lines of my garden chair. I have taken each line out to the edge of the page. This gives the drawing interest and also allows you to check that your lines are tapering towards the top area – remember that shapes appear to get smaller as they are further from us – AND that all up-right lines remain upright!

Turn your page back and look at the way your pressured lines have picked up the top layer of media from the opposite page. The wax crayon seems to have transferred least well, even though that is the traditional crayon to use.

The drawing below is of a different view of my garden chair. I used white chalk and a layer of wax crayons on top as my carbon page.

TODAY’S TIPS – Don’t scratch the lines as in a previous method – use a ball point pen so that you just make a deep mark with a lot of pressure.

You can transfer more of the ‘carbon’ colour by more drawing on the back of the next page of course. I continued with this one by scribbling over all the negative spaces around the chair. The carbon copy becomes a drawing in its own right and of course shows the positive areas of the chair – two for the price of one again!

Sketchbook Day 25 - getting into perspective

2011-08-09T02:31:00.001-07:00

My few days away were spent near Swansea, at the Gower Show, where the Gower Society were launching a re-print of my parents' designs of the stunning landscape and historical buildings of the Gower peninsular. My parents were founder members of this society so my brother and I were thrilled to be invited to join some of the current members for lunch and be given a set of cards.

TODAY’S TASK - The next few drawing days will help you to use line in interesting ways and to look at a way of drawing 3D objects using straight lines. Several of you are probably know how to use the principles of perspective, so please challenge yourself to draw more complex objects or objects from unusual angles. I hope these basic tips in today’s lesson will help those who have no experience, but nothing beats looking very hard at your object – with your brain as well as your eyes.

TODAY’S TIPS - Remember 2 things -
Shapes appear to get smaller as they get further from you. Further away is towards the top of the page. Closer to you is at the bottom of the page.
Very important - all upright shapes stay upright!

I drew these without a ruler so try this yourself as this is not a geometry lesson. Press lightly with the first line to judge whether it looks right; make changes, again using a light pressure. Make your line darker when you feel it is right. No need to rub out the lighter lines as these will all add up to being part of the character of your sketch. I have rubbed out a few lines in these drawings below to make them less confusing as a teaching aid.

The basic plan – Draw 2 lines at an angle from one side of the page to the other that are not quite parallel but seem to taper slightly in the direction of the arrows in this drawing. Draw another two lines that taper in the opposite direction, with arrows facing the other direction.

Left image - Where these 4 lines cross, draw lines in a downward direction. Make these parallel to the left and right edges of your page. These lines will indicate the legs of your imaginary table – remember – all upright shapes stay upright!

Middle image – Decide on the height of your imaginary table by marking a point [A] on the near leg. Draw 2 more tapering lines through this point one in one direction and the other in the opposite direction. These two new tapering lines should follow the taper of the first sets of tapering lines you drew. As these new lines pass through the lines for the left and right legs, these points will indicate their base [B and C].
From these points [B and C], draw 2 more tapering lines, again following the direction of the other lines, but still trying to create a slight taper as the lines move towards the top of the page. These 2 lines should meet at the base of leg D. If this doesn’t happen, check that you have made all the tapering lines look as if they are disappearing into the distance by very gradually looking as if they would all join into a point, well off your page, to the right and a point to the left.

Right image – Draw bold lines to show your imaginary table or perhaps a box.
You will notice that this ‘table’ or ‘box’ looks as if it is being viewed from a height – as if you are looking down at the table from the ceiling. So I suppose it looks more like a brick or box shape as we are more used to viewing smaller objects from above.

To change the angle of view, you need to change the angle of your tapering guidelines. Notice how the lines in the drawing below are different to the ones above and produce a table/box shape viewed as if you are looking at it from a lower position.

Perhaps you can get the idea from these two woodcuts by my father, Edward Martin – one viewed from high up, looking down into the church in Cheriton Valley on the left and on the right, looking upwards from the road towards the church in Llangennith

To help you gauge the best angle for a particular drawing, hold a straight edge up in front of your eye. You’ll notice the ‘learning’ drawing on the right is not totally accurate as I have simplified it to help me understand it first. I was pleased to be able to make the legs and arms look solid.

Tomorrow I’ll use my experience of drawing these lines to make drawings that are freer and more characterful of my garden chair. I hope you’ll find this preparatory stage intriguing.

Sketchbook Day 23–a few away-days

2011-08-06T00:20:00.001-07:00

It was lovely to meet Julia Green, a Distant Stitch student that some of you will have met at Summer School 2012 in Ruth’s workshop. Julia was one of my students at the Gilding the Stitch workshop in Solihull, Birmingham yesterday.

I’m off again this morning for a couple of days to an area of South Wales that is my favourite place and was where I spent my childhood – the Gower peninsular, near Swansea, the first area to be awarded the title of ‘Outstanding Natural Beauty’ in the UK.

My parents who were both artists and designers (as well as mother being a well known embroiderer) contributed drawings for a regular publication by the Gower Society. These have just been re-printed as greetings cards for fund-raising. My brother, husband and myself are invited to an event in Gower to launch this tomorrow. I thought you might like to see an example of their work. Below are two scenes around Penrice castle which is where this event will be held tomorrow – in a marquee rather than the castle ruins I hope!

SKETCHBOOKDAY 24 – Away in Gower

As I’ll be away today and tomorrow, this will be two days of rest. A pic to give some interest to this day - I finally managed to get a drawing I was pleased with of the clematis growing over my window. It was a rainy day so I worked from the lines within a paper frame stuck to my workroom window. Isn’t it good to get a printed version on the opposite page. This could also be worked into.

I was interested to hear that you have also been using Windows Live Writer to set up the info on your blog Daniela. You mentioned that the images don’t enlarge. I’ve checked this on yours and can see that this is the case. I’ve checked it on mine and they seem to enlarge, but not hugely.

Looking forward to the next sketchbook day on Tuesday. See you all then!

Sketchbook Day 21 and 22–sgrafitto

2011-08-04T00:32:00.001-07:00

I am venturing north to Birmingham to day to do a workshop with Sutton Coldfield Creative Stitchers at their exciting ‘Stitched-Up’ summer event. Hope to meet up with Maggie Grey and Sue Rangeley and others. My next blog entry will be on Saturday so you have two day’s worth here. It’s raining today so if it’s the same with you, perhaps you’ll need to place your frame onto a window or use an indoor plant.

A very useful blogging tip from Kay Lockie – use Windows Live Writer to write your blog. I’m using it now – just like a Word programme - it’s so much easier than doing it in ‘blogger’. If this works, you must all download it.

SKETCHBOOK DAY 21 – Trial and error

TODAY’S TASK – Explore different media to find the best combination to make layers for scraping back (rather than scratching) – politely known as the technique of sgrafitto. Not all combinations will work. It is based on the principle of placing a layer of colour on top of another one and then scratching back to reveal the colour underneath.

TODAY’S TIPS – Do a tester page as this saves you colouring in vast areas only to find you can’t scrape it back!

The secret is to use a ‘slippery’ medium in the bottom layer so that the top layer doesn’t mix in when you add it.

Some media like to be left to ‘dry’ before adding the second layer.

SKETCHBOOK DAY 22 – building up and removing

I did this yesterday, outside in the lovely sunshine - I’m sorry that your working week has been sunny and the weekend a wet one Anne.

TODAY’S TASK - Prepare a coloured ground two layers of colour media.

TODAY’S TIPS – You can use more than one colour in each layer. The image below shows the ground colours of wax crayons which are going to be the colour of my scraped lines. The top layer of pastel crayons will be the colour of my background. Difficult to get your head round, but easier when you take time to think about it and actually do it.

This is the result – the tall stems of fennel with their feathery fronds and umbrella formation seed heads. Too much detail to give in such a small area of my sketchbook page so I just ‘suggested’ the effects.

I then did a simpler study of the fennel as it is such a beautiful structure. (Curved lines are really difficult! Any tips?)

Sketchbook Day 20 - wax resist

2011-08-03T00:07:00.000-07:00

The weather is dry and sunny here so I'm enjoying popping outside to sit in front of my huge stems of fennel. Hope you can work outside too.

TODAY'S TASK - Use candle wax or wax crayon to mask out lighter shapes. Paint over with water colour or inks. 'Scratch-out' across the wax marks to create cracks to allow the colour to seep through. The scratch marks were trying to suggest the fine detail of the fennel seed heads.

Winter clematis outside window. On this page, I was trying to record the light patches of sky

through the leaves - not quite got it right as it's difficult to

see where you've put the invisible wax! Will try again later.

Two different coloured water colour paints were used.

The wax marks have been added to a previous drawing to suggest the tall fennel stems and seed heads. This is a little dark as I didn't choose a contrasting enough paint colour to the first layer. No matter, it makes a mysterious effect and the the effect on the opposite page got better!

It is lovely to see the scratch-out technique in a 1882 painting by Meg's great, great aunt in her blog (Meg's that is) Set the Fibres Burning - link below. Thanks for showing this Meg.

TODAY'S TIPS - 'Scratch-out' through the wax areas to create cracks in the wax for the ink to go through - just like a classic batik method. The scratches seem to become much darker lines if done when the paint is still wet. Enlarge the images to see this and note that only one colour was used in the top one.

If building up a layer onto a previous drawing, choose one that is lightish and use a darkish colour on top to give a contrast between the two layers.

Every time you add a layer of wet, close your sketchbook and hold firmly to take a print on the opposite page. These can be worked into later.

Sketchbook Day 19 - layers

2011-08-02T00:21:00.000-07:00

We will continue with the 'scratch-out' method as I have discovered that it is can give quite exciting results.

TODAY'S TASK - Use wet colour such as paints, inks and water soluble pencils to build up layers of textured colour.
This will record two elements within your observational frame -
The linear patterning and the main areas of colour.

- Start by making some 'scratch-out' marks on a plain paper.
- Then add colour with a large, soft brush and watch the burrs trap the colour. I used my Koh-i-Noor paints and the Stabilo pencils as you noticed yesterday.

Notice whether there is a colour difference within your 'frame', perhaps lighter at the top area and darker in the bottom area; maybe there is a difference because of what you see behind your leaves/stems or maybe the top area is against the sky and the lower area darker because it is in the depths of the plant or surrounding plants. Use these observations to suggest what colours you use and where you place them - perhaps choosing only two or three at the most. Allow these colours to gently merge so that the boundaries are indistinct.

- Add more 'scratch-out' marks and then another layer of colour, perhaps not over the entire drawing. Be restrained and look at the colouring within your frame. The drawing below shows the added layers of 'scratch-out' and colour to the drawing above.

Further layers could be added tomorrow!

TODAY'S TIPS - It's easy to get carried away, making sweeping lines with your 'scratch-out' tool; try to make these marks reflect the general character and rhythm of your observed lines of the stems/leaves.
Try scratching out when the colour is dry and also when it is wet as you'll get different effects - you might be able to spot the differences in the top image.
Enjoy the fact that you can get 'two for the price of one' by closing your sketchbook while the colour is still wet. When you add another colour, close it again and you will notice how the effect builds upon the opposite page too - sometimes more effectively!

Sketchbook Day 18 - jungle texture

2011-08-01T05:27:00.000-07:00

Time to go out into the garden or bring a bit of garden indoors. If you do not have a garden, you could choose to work from a plant. Place a frame in front to select a view to draw. You are looking for small scale pattern - a sort of visual texture for this series of drawings.

Set up a frame in a position that you feel you can work at over the next few days. Both these two outdoor frames can be brought in if it rains.

The next three images show frames stuck to the window so you can work from indoors and the bottom left frame is placed over a house plant.

TODAY'S TASK - A new sketchbook for me - without spiral binding this time!

Use a craft knife or a scalpel or a blade from a scissors to scratch marks onto the page surface. I can't show an image of this but only the results after the colour has been added!Use a dry marker for this - pastels, oil pastels, pencils.

I learnt about this 'scratching out' method in the 'Watercolour' exhibition at Tate Britain recently. Several 19th century painters used it by scratching back to the white paper - after the water colour paint had been applied, using any sharp tool such as a pin, needle, knife, quill or thumbnail. It was often used to suggest water ripples and texture of bridges - not really a major feature, but I'm sure we can take it a step further! I've tried it before and after applying the colour. You can get some quite impressive textural effects.

If using water soluble pencils, you could try blending with water - notice how the scratched 'burrs' of the paper surface seem to attract the colour.

TODAY'S TIPS - You will be able to add some of the methods over the next few days so don't feel you need to add all the information you can see at these first stages - just a generalised rhythm of lines.

Try holding your blade differently so the edge of your blade scrapes the paper surface to get wider marks.

Try using something else such as a sand paper perhaps?

More use of scraping tomorrow!

Sketchbook Day 17 - second day of rest

2011-07-31T01:12:00.000-07:00

Ashy surveys the scene of the recent week's work in preparation of work on the sketchbook project.

For the coming series of drawings, please take a look and see if you can find an old picture frame or card fame or any other type of frame you can use for your drawing projects next week.

You might be able to lash four bamboo sticks or kebab sticks together with string or rubber bands for a 'make-shift' frame.

If the weather is good we can make the most of it and draw outside or if it is not good we can prop the frame up on a window sill to draw outside.

My plum was cut up to eat with my muesli this morning and I couldn't resist..............

Sketchbook Day 16 - ripping and sticking

2011-07-30T02:51:00.000-07:00

I'm having a problem leaving messages on some of your blogs, so please don't feel neglected! [Blame it on 'blogger'.] I really am enjoying looking at all your wonderful drawings so please keep it up - you're forgiven if you have missed some of the tasks, but you can still refer back to them later if you wish.

TODAY'S TASK - Gather coloured materials (papers and/or fabrics) that relate to the colours you are currently working with based on your objects. These could be bits torn from magazines, colour washed newspaper print, decorated papers from previous design projects, old wrapping paper - anything in fact as long as it can be glued down fairly flat!

First task - Choose to work on one object first as this can be large enough to fit onto your sketchbook page.

Select a ground paper and cut or rip (depending on character of your object) a basic shape. Add further patches of coloured materials to record the general areas of colour. My plum is still around - but you'll notice it is a bit wrinkled. This might be its last 'portrait sitting'.

Second task - 'Colour-in' your last printed background. The individual shapes in this will be a lot smaller I expect, so use your paper shapes to suggest the general colouring and not the detail. Read the two stages below as I found this helped me to sort out my coloured papers and get the idea of using quite crudely ripped blocks of colour to achieve a good effect - see below.

Stage 1 - Place large pieces of coloured papers on the various areas to help you identify the colours that you'll need then add smaller bits to suggest detail.

Stage 2 - Rip or cut these coloured papers up and position them to create each of the objects.

TODAY'S TIPS -Glue down your paper bits as you work and don't be tempted to just position them to see if they look OK. As you build them up, you'll never be able to glue them down where you want them at the end - I know! Glue them down as you go; if you decide it's wrong later, add a piece on top to hide it or partially obscure it.

Keep squinting at your collage to see if you are getting the colours and tones right. You can of course, just take your glasses off or look at it from far away.

Don't be over ambitious as this technique has its limitations but can give such exciting and unexpected results.Have a go.

Sketchbook Day 15 - scribble away!

2011-07-29T00:38:00.000-07:00

TODAY'S TASK - Use biros and felt tip pens to scribble away! Build up layers of vigorous coloured marks to record the surface of your object. Search around the house for all the different colours you might have

TODAY'S TIPS - Find out if your biro or pen reacts in an interesting way when used on a wet surface; some of mine did so I wet the paper first. Others that didn't work on a wet surface, I had to wait until it dried to use them.
Your colour range will probably be limited and possibly a bit 'bright'. Layer your colours to create more subtle mixtures and in the process create fascinating effects.
These pens will also make very narrow lines so the pattern you make to 'colour in' larger areas will allow you to change direction to describe a rounded or textured surface.

You can then 'colour-in' another of your prints. I challenged myself not to use a black in this drawing (although I did in the first plum study) but to make dark areas by building up layers - lucky the paper was thick or I might have scribbled right through! I had great fun adding scribbled colour to the background colour and seeping out over the edge.

Take a look at Daniela's lovely biro drawings on her blog - 'stitching in the sun', below. Would you like me to add a link to your blog?

Happy scribbling!

Sketchbook Day 14 - continue with colour

2011-07-28T03:03:00.000-07:00

TODAY'S TASK - Today I am going to continue ideas for drawing with colour, using oil pastels and water soluble pencils. These are the chunky 'Stabilo' sort which are great for adding strong colour, either as a dry marker or with water.

Both these types of markers can be used to build up layers of colours to make just the right variations you need. They don't seem to mix together well as the pencil finds it difficult to stick to the oil pastel. You might find that different media behave differently so you could use your initiative when reading the tips below.

TODAY'S TIP - You can use colouring 'markers' to make lines and also to build blocks of colour. Firstly, use the line to help you discover the different colour areas of your object, just to draft in the shapes. Then start to make solid areas of colour, perhaps by building layers of different colours to get a good match with your observed object. NOTE: Making a colour in this way creates a very rich coloured surface which always seems more interesting than using just one 'correct' colour. You can see the wide range of different colours used to record the rather limited colouring of my plum, so I'm grateful that I didn't have a pencil called 'plum colour'!

If you are using a water soluble marker

If you are using a water soluble marker, you can blend in the different coloured layers - although not too much as this negates the wonderful colouring you've just achieved.

Your final task - perhaps tomorrow - is to 'colour-in' one of your extra prints of your original composition. The shapes of each of your objects will be much smaller so try not to be too ambitious in the amount of detail you try to record - just the main colour patches.

Happy colouring!

Sketchbook Day 13 - shining your highlights

2011-07-27T05:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, you coloured a background of a group of objects, ready for adding in the objects later. Scan this page and print out several copies of it so you can experiment with different ways of drawing the objects. I made four copies (but can only squeeze two in below) and can always print more if needed. I printed onto good quality cartridge paper and not the typical thin computer printer paper which is horrid to draw on. I inserted two images onto one A4 sheet so that each print would end up the same size as my opened sketchbook page.

TODAY'S TASK - Firstly, select one of your objects from your composition to look at in detail. I suggest you use a liquid medium for today's drawing; inks or water colour paints, to study just one of the objects.

Secondly, when you feel confident, colour-in the voided spaces in one of your backgrounds. The left image below shows mine 'in progress' with the hollyhock and plum completed and the aquilegia leaves and lettuce leaf just with added dabs of 'water'. See the video in 'tips'. The right image below shows all four objects completed. This painting was done onto a 'copy' - so you'll notice that I was happily able to work over the spirals with ease!

TODAY'S TIPS - Place dabs of water to the areas that indicate the shiny highlights. Before these dry, add your paint/ink to the surrounding areas and touch the water patches to allow the colour to merge into the edges of the wet patch. Dab more water to the patches if they are not allowing this gentle 'flooding' to happen around the edges of the wet patches. This short video shows this in action! It has also been added to the Summer Sketchbook Project Day 13 on the Distant Stitch website.

Sketchbook Day 12 - colouring-in

2011-07-26T02:49:00.000-07:00

I've always liked to 'colour-in' as a child - in those books of cute outline pics and as a teenager in those 'painting by numbers' kits (yes, I did do those!).These days, it's a pleasure to draw my own shapes and make my own colours to match what I see. Today I've used my Koh-i-Noor paint box which has brilliantly strong colours so it's easy to get a rich colour. They all look a bit dark in this photograph as I've been dabbing at different colour blocks to get 'just the right' colour and not cleaned them up yet. The different colours are then mixed in the shallow sections on the lid with a wet brush.

Although I didn't use it here, as I'm working at home, I have to show you my little collapsable water pot which is wonderful when using my paints on my travels. Yes, it works and is water-tight!

TODAY'S TASK - is to colour in the background areas of your group of objects. (Tomorrow we add colour to the objects.) Make this a similar colour to your objects, it could be flat paper or undulating fabric, but advise that it should be plain rather than patterned.

Start by arranging a collection of your similarly coloured objects onto the coloured ground. Place a frame around this arrangement that is the same size or in proportion to your sketchbook page. I've used a double page spread here as my sketchbook is only A6 as you will need more area for this task.

TODAY'S TIPS - Lightly draw the outline of these shapes.

Mix just the right colour for the ground colour, noting if there are any slight variations due to well lit areas and shaded areas where the objects cast a shadow or where there is an undulation of the surface. Your explorations yesterday will have shown you what colours you need to mix this colour and what media you'd like to choose.

Colour-in around the outline of your objects. If you are using a wet medium, dab a darker colour to denote the shadow areas.

Sketchbook Day 11 - mixing colours

2011-07-25T01:33:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the colour week. Here are a few of the objects I collected that seemed to relate well to my original plum colours. I chose just a few - tea shirt, a hollyhock flower, gone-to-seed lettuce, grasses and leaves of a flower I can't name.

I decided to limit the colours even further, choosing the hollyhock flower, the plum and tea shirt and gathered my favourite colouring media - chunky Stabilo pencils that are water soluble and a Koh-i-Noor paint set. I experimented to find the different colours that I needed to mix to get the correct colours so these could be kept ready to hand for the rest of this week.

The close-up image below shows the richer colours on one page and the lighter ones on the other. I built the colours up in layers, quite thickly to get the darker ones and found it tricky to get just the right range. I used a wet paint brush to blend the colours on the right page, but used the white crayon to blend in the lighter colours on the left. I also scratched back through the layers with a scalpel - idea seen at the Water Colour exhibition at Tate Britain last weekend.

An accidental discovery was made when the wet area on the right was closed down onto the left page, giving a pale 'print' - just perfect in this case.

TODAY'S TASK - Cover a couple of pages with colours that relate to your chosen objects. Use any media you like including fragments of fabrics and a few stitches perhaps? You can separate your colours onto the two pages by either placing all the dark, rich colours to one page and the lighter colours on another or placing all warm colours (reds, browns, oranges, together and all cold colours (blues, greens) together.

To get 'just the right colour' build up layers on the page rather than in a palette. This will enable you to 'scratch back' for texture and patterning.

TODAY'S TIPS - Limit your chosen colours as you will find that there is a huge range even within something that looks very limited on close study.

Experiment with what order you stack your colours. Can one colour be used as a blender or can you do this with a wet paint brush?

Softer colours might be better added to a damp page.

Colour study based on the colours in poppies - now long disappeared from the garden of course, but still recorded in a previous sketchbook.

Sketchbook Day 10 - day of rest

2011-07-24T03:49:00.000-07:00

No new tasks today except to tidy up your worktable and get ready for bursting into COLOUR tomorrow. I thought you might like to see the corner of my workroom where I've been working on my sketchbook. My sleeping 'apprentice' in her basket likes to feel close by.
My table is a lovely solid oak refectory table one of several discarded by Urchfont Manor a few years ago when they up-dated their dining room furniture. I love this table as it is so sturdy and big. Mike(Urchfont's night watchman) and Rosie brought it to Wind Whistle Cottage in the Urchfont minibus. We nearly didn't get it in through the sliding doors, but one final push from Mike and it was in.
It's very helpful if you can set up your own 'corner' even if it's just a large tray which can be moved away when you need the table for something else.

Put some covering onto your 'table' ready for the next sketchbook task and look out all your colouring media - dry and wet and find an old pot for water. Collect a few objects all in the same colour range. My plum is still around so I'm going to collect some reds and other 'plum' coloured objects.

See you tomorrow!

Sketchbook Day 9 - puzzling pattern

2011-07-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

The previous day's exercise is quite challenging so I thought it would be a good idea to look at a simple pattern on a flat surface such as fabric and then to create 3D forms with it.

TODAY'S TASK - Choose a surface that has a very simple pattern such as stripes or large checks. It could be a piece of newspaper text, a piece of wall-paper or wrapping paper, a piece of fabric. I've chosen a tea towel in the first drawing and decided on repeating the exercise with an even simpler pattern - a stripy fabric.
Manipulate your surface so that it undulates, perhaps gently pleat, scrunch - but not too much as you'll regret it! Note how the pattern is distorted by the way the surface undulates; you are now going to record this pattern - only the pattern.
Use any drawing medium you think would be appropriate to make the pattern. I've used my favourite fine pen to draw the narrow lines of the 'tea towel' and a card strip dipped in writing ink for the wider stripes of the second fabric.
A second idea was to paint the whole page with ink and when dry, to draw the white bands, leaving the darker bands as the lines on the tea towel. This didn't entirely work out as the bleach just kept spreading, making some areas too white. So I added some pen lines to define the undulating surface better.

Left - Fine pen, Centre - 'Framed' tea towel, Right - Bleach drawing with some pen lines

TODAY'S TIPS - Place a frame around your chosen area of crumple that reflects the size/proportion of your page.
Lightly draw the edges of the main manipulated shapes dividing up your page into simple sections. Look at the rhythm of the pattern within each section and notice how it changes as it crosses into the next section. You could either follow one line of pattern across your page OR complete each section one at a time.- I found this the easier option but see what works for you.
Lastly, if you have used a soluble medium use a wet paint brush to sweep along the 'dips' to smudge the inks a bit to add some shade to imply depth. If you have used a dry medium perhaps you can smudge with your finger instead or drag the crayon lightly along the 'dip'.

Sketchbook Day 8 - 'drawing between the lines' Tracey Emin

2011-07-22T02:31:00.000-07:00

I've taken another quote from Tracey Emin 'drawing between the lines' for today's task. Not entirely sure what her reference was but perhaps the idea of looking at things with a different 'eye' might relate to this idea - of drawing of an object without drawing the actual form of the object but just recording its surface details to suggest its form.
You will need to choose an object that has surface pattern. My smooth plum has started to develop some wrinkles but not quite enough, although I did try the top area around the stalk as you can see in the centre top, straddling the spiral binding!
Other objects I looked at had more obvious pattern - the pine cone and cockle shell. I realised that I was drawing the individual segments of the pine cone with lines along the edges, where I should have been looking at the fine ripples along each segment.Too obvious for words so please ignore this as a good example of this task. I was probably too eager to place this onto a page to use the perfectly shaped collaged newsprint - firmly glued down (note Jenn's tip). I also discarded the oyster shell as this was too flat.
Then I looked at an interesting piece of stone with subtle lines along each surface. I don't think the photo shows this up so you have to believe me!

TODAY'S TASK - Using only line and any medium or combination of media, describe a 3D form using only its internal patterning.The undulations of your lines will allow the eye to be able to see the 3D form. The shell below was drawn using a dryish paint brush, producing bands of multiple lines. I wish I'd placed this drawing so the the spiral binding was part of the drawing.

TODAY'S TIP - Use different markers to suggest different width of line. Press harder to suggest a surface that is in shade.

I thought you might like to see this example of a scraper-board method by my father. This shows how he used lines, dots to describe the 3D forms of the landscape and of course the shell.
Anyone guess the famous Welsh landmark?

Visit other blogs listed at the bottom of this one to see the interesting sketchbooks by others. Let me know if you'd like yours added too.

Sketchbook Day 7 - getting bigger

2011-07-20T23:57:00.000-07:00

You might need to spread over two pages for this; I was irritated initally by the spiral binding in my sketchbook that stopped the sweep of the marker, but managed to manoevre it around and onto the next page. The pink 'wash' from my Tracey Emin' page has seeped through, giving an extra bit of interest to the left page. My plum is getting a bit wrinkled which will make for added detail from now on.

TODAY'S TASK - Choose a wide marker so that you can make a narrow and wide line. I choose the side of a short length of charcoal in the drawing above. Make a much larger drawing to fill as much og a double page span as you can and do your best over the hinge.

TODAY'S TIP - Experiment with your medium to find out how you can handle it first - see marks on the right. Remember not to use too many lines - just enough to suggest the form and not too many to make it look 'dirty'. You might like to do more than one drawing to get the hang of this - but it is quick!
Leave me a comment or email to add your blog list to those below.

Sketchbook Day 6 - If only there was sunshine!

2011-07-20T01:39:00.000-07:00

I was hoping for strong sunlight for today's task but it was not to be in Somerset. If you're lucky enough to find a ray of sun to cast over your object you won't need to place a lamp to cast shadows for you! A reminder that if you'd like a link to your blog at the bottom of this one, please let me know you're doing the sketchbook project.

TODAYS' TASK - Take a look at the shadows your objects casts and also any internal changes of tone as each bump or undulation will react to the direction of light. We're not looking at light and dark colouring here so if your object has a range of colours - ignore these. A shadow is not a reflection so look carefully at the shape it makes. Is the edge soft or sharp?
You can choose to use a soft marker, such as a soft pencil or pastel and use small finger or rubber to smudge it lightly. Or you can use a fine pen like the right hand drawing, building up groups of straght lines to create the darker tones. This is called 'cross-hatching' and used a lot in pen and ink drawings to suggest a 3D surface, depth and shadow.
For the adventurous - place more than one object together to create extra shadow where one object effects another by casting a shadow over it. Note how interesting a shadow over an undulating surface is as it taes the form of the surface.

TODAY'S TIP - In fact it's much easier to do this on a one-colour object and also note that slight shading within the object's surface is more noticable in a light coloured object. (FASHION TIP - Dark clothes make us look trim because you can't see the 'undulations'!)
Choose to work on a smooth page rather than one with texture - note the page below - I made the mistake so you don't need to!
Try out a simple tonal column to practice how you can build up tone with your chosen marker.
Easy on the smudging - as too much can make your object look dirty. Make a note that it's important to always keep an area that does not have any marker on it to avoid this

Sketchbook Day 5 - 'learning your lines'

2011-07-19T00:28:00.000-07:00

My plums are getting riper! I couldn't resist putting two together after looking at Tracey Emin's work on Sunday. Ripped pieces of ticket to the exhibition made a collaged ground which was then stained with coloured inks - which turned out a bit too vividly but possibly, in context, OK? She called her gran, 'Plum' which made a connection for me with one of my chosen objects. "You call me Plum and I'll call you 'Pudding". Her stitched upholstered chair was called 'Plum'. It was good to see evidence of real love and affection in her life.

TODAY'S TASK - Create a personalised ground that relates to the object you wish to draw. This allows you to put your object within a context, either related or alien. Use, humour, wit, irony or perhaps make a point of view.You can ignore the background surface when drawing or perhaps place your object within it as if it becomes part of the surface. For instance you might choose to draw an egg onto a newspaper article about battery hens or a recipe for an eggy dish (Urchfont's cheesy egg for instance)

TODAY'S TIP - 'Learning your lines'. If you have chosen a new object today - draw it several times on a plainish sketchbook page to get to know it - 'learn your lines'. Drawing onto a 'busy' background needs you to concentrate on drawing your object. If you have been drawing your object for the last few days, you can skip this preliminary exercise.

I shall add blog addresses to this blog site if you'd like to share your own sketchbook pages on your blog. I like your banana Jane!

Sketchbook Day 4

2011-07-18T02:51:00.000-07:00

Further drawing ideas after seeing the Tracey Emin exhibition (and the Watercolour exhibition - again) yesterday, including adding text and drawing on patterned grounds. I also loved the way she used monoprinting as a method of drawing so more about these idea later. I loved her enormous stitched applique blankets and noticed that close up, the tiny regular stitching around the edges of the applied shapes did not reflect the 'spontaneous' way in which the shapes were cut, the rather flamboyant fabrics chosen and and the sentiments expressed. I wonder if this indicates a gentler, more meditative mood when she actually stitches - her own therapy. Perhaps we all might identify with that.

In the meantime, I hope you are all making progress with drawing some simple objects - just one a day will give you a gradual sense of progress. If you can manage more than that would be wonderful, so don't just stop at one.

TODAY'S TASK - Continue using lines to suggest the form of your shapes. Be sensitive to the type of line you need to convey. Notice the difference between the sharp broken edges of the egg shell and the lines which are needed to suggest the outside curve of the form which is no line at all really, just the 'horizon' of the curve. When you have lightly drafted the overall shape onto your page (see yesterdays 'tip') draw your lines with more attention to the character of the lines. Keep your eye going back and fore between the object and the sketchbook page to note all the little 'hiccups' that make this a line which is specific to this part of the object. Some lines I've recorded today are wide, soft lines as they denote shadows that extend from the edge I was drawing.

TODAY'S TIP - To help you record these differences to the lines, you could change the way in which you make your mark or change the type of marker. If lazily using the same pen, as I have here, try holding it in different ways as you draw to suggest the craggy line compared with the smooth, almost invisible line. Consider drawing onto a wet surface if your marker reacts to it. I discovered a new 'toy' at Urchfont's Open Day - a paint brush that holds its own water - you just squeeze it to release a drop of water - such fun. There are different sized brush heads and of course I had to have them all. This one below (yellow) is a fine point and has been used to smudge some of the pen lines and to make a damp line on which to draw with the pen.

I have continued drawing my egg shell and love the simplicity of the sparse lines that suggest its form. It's interesting to note that you think you are being objective about the drawing when you start to find it suggests associated thoughts. Write these thoughts down and perhaps make them part of your drawing. My favourite quote from Tracey Emin which is so appropriate to this stage of the Sketchbook project - 'just where do you draw the line?' Perhaps she wasn't actually referring to the activity of drawing at the time!

Sketchbook Day 3

2011-07-16T23:58:00.000-07:00

TODAY'S TASK - Make another drawing either of the same object using a different marker or a different object with the same marker. Or maybe change both object and marker. Keep the shapes simple ones for this first set of drawings. I've chosen to draw an egg shell and am using a fine black pen. I'll finish the drawing tomorrow as I'm off to London today to see the Tracey Ermin exhibition at the Hayward Gallery. I'm determined to discover what makes this woman so fascinating to the art world! I'm taking my sketchbook with me so you might see more than an egg tomorrow.

TODAY'S TIP - To help you gauge the accurate shape of your object, place it on a sheet of paper the same size as your sketchbook page or a sheet that is larger but the same proportion. Mark points on your sketchbook page to give you an idea of its outline and main edges and you're off!

Left: Egg placed on paper same size as sketchbook page. Right: Mug of tea placed on larger paper but same proportions as sketchbook page which this photo doesn't show, but the length and width are one and a half times larger.

Sketchbook Day 2

2011-07-16T04:40:00.000-07:00

It's great to see so many of you have committed yourselves and joined the Summer Sketchbook Project with apologies for those of you in the southern hemisphere who might like to rename it the Winter Sketchbook Project! I enjoyed reading all your extra ideas in your comments. How did the coffee stain Anne? Thanks for the idea of using a 'wash' of Brusho Jenn. Hope you'll do the exercise as well as drawing every day Daniela.

I stained several pages, careful not to burst the bag (thank you Meg) with tea and bits of added texture - enjoyed these doing this - unchallenging! So now to add drawings to each page.

OUR TASK FOR WEEK ONE - Choose a smallish object that has a simple form - not too many complex lines as the plant I chose initially on the left hand page. (I'll save that for later when I'm 'warmed up'). The plum, ripening on the kitchen window sill seemed to fit the bill, although perhaps it seemed to have too few lines - until I started looking at it of course: all those reflected patches, the slight indents - the more I looked the more I found.

ADVICE FOR THE COMPLETE BEGINNER - Choose something organic rather than man-made as its easier to make it look good if you're slightly inaccurate.

Draw, using only lines in any dry media. I used a graphite stick (like a soft pencil). I like this because you can vary the pressure, sharpen the point, smudge the line.

Use your marker to make lines on your page (ignoring any added textural fragments already on the page) to record the outline form and any other major edges. These lines might be external (outline) or internal (surface detail).

Do not be tempted to rub out or remove any lines, just let your marker move across the paper to describe your object as best you can, making adjustments and improving the shapes as you look hard at your object. It feels a bit like caressing the shape using just your eyes and the marker.

When you feel the lines you make are more accurate, press a bit harder to make these lines show more clearly.

HAPPY DRAWING - do more than one page if you like!! TIP- Leave your sketchbook and drawing stuff out on a table if that is possible as this makes it much easier to settle to it next time.

Summer Sketchbook Project - stages 1, 2 and 3

2011-07-15T03:34:00.000-07:00

Join in the Distant Stitch Summer Sketchbook Project and get into the habit of enjoying drawing to record interesting things for our designing. Most people find this difficult, as I do, as it's difficult to establish a habit of something you feel you're not good at. But you know what they say.........the reason you're not good at it is that you don't do it........! So join the club and get started this weekend. Melanie and I are already committed.

First stage - find a small sketchbook - about A6 (postcard size or less) so its not too intimidating a size.
Second stage - make yourself a strong cup of tea and save the tea bag. Walk around house, garden, street to find a few objects you'd like to draw - a small stone, a leaf, a piece of 'litter', a flower, a cup, a stick, a shell, a bottle.
Third stage - Squeeze tea bag out and use it to add a stained colour to the first few of your pages. This takes the blankness off the page and adds interest in an easy, incidental sort of way. You can sponge smoothly or with texture; you could add a bit of surface interest too by adding this before your dab the tea bag over - small scraps of tissue paper, ripped strips of masking tape, dabs of white emulsion paint, dabs of glue. Let these surfaces dry while you're drinking your tea and then sponge with tea bag. Have another cup of tea and admire your work. Drawing starts tomorrow when your pages are dry.

The Joy of Ice and Rust

2011-07-14T09:26:00.000-07:00

Please take a look at the details of the book by Sally Sparks - 'The Joy of Ice and Rust' in the 'pages' section of my blog - on the right here. You can now buy this super book directly from Sally's website www.sallysparks.co.uk

Distant Stitch Summer School 2011

2011-07-11T13:07:00.000-07:00

A special posting for Maggie B and all who missed this year's Summer School.

Sunshine and clouds over Urchfont Manor but all was bright inside the studios and dining room for the 2012 Distant Stitch Summer School, where tutors, Jan Evans and Mary Sleigh lead the participants through two wonderful workshops that kept everyone inspired and productive between the meals.

Urchfont Manor, viewed from the rear of the main house.

Jane, Alison R and Alison G, from UK, studying Mary Sleigh's extensive collection of African textiles.

Daniela, from Italy,working with hand stitching and beads inspired by African textiles.

Jan's busy studio in the coach house: Eila from NZ, left, Margaret from USA, right, Kaye from UK, standing

Carrie, left, and Sheila, both from UK, enjoy adding stitching to their pieces of work.

Workshop tutor, Jan Evans, right, chats to Evelyne, from France, about progress on her super work.

Breakfast sunshine in the dining room.

As usual, we were so well looked after by the staff at Urchfont. Lunches were a delight for us all, including Betty, from UK, with this colourful array of lunchtime salads decorated with edible flowers.

Part of the walled gardens at Urchfont, where a lot of the veg, fruit and herbs are grown.

Sian, centre right, tutors Mary Sleigh, Jan Evans and Lizzy Lewis seated right.

A gathering of Distant Stitch students from many countries, outside the main door of Urchfont Manor.

Please right click on this if you'd like to save it onto your own computer.

Visit the Distant Stitch website for more photos and please 'post' your own Summer School work on your own blogs.

Working in Three Dimensions - a workshop with Shuna Rendel

2011-06-13T01:51:00.000-07:00

'Continous Line' - a drawing in willow.

The willow 'drawing' under construction.

A thread wrapped form using PVA (- a cheat's method), split into two halves.

Cane wrapped form with inter-weave and looped 'stitching'.

URCHFONT MANOR OPEN DAY

2011-05-20T23:43:00.000-07:00

A frosty morning in this pic, belies the warm welcome you get at Urchfont Manor, particularly in July!

A typical buffet lunch at Urchfont Manor.

Visit the Distant Stitch exhibition and meet the team of tutors at Urchfont's Open Day.

Sunday 3rd July, 10.00-15.00

This year Urchfont Manor is hosting Machine Embroidery, Textile and Craft Open day to showcase the work in a range of disciplines and to celebrate City and Guilds Student Graduations. Come along and meet the tutors and current students and discover why studying at Urchfont Manor is so special.

Textile Traders

Refreshments

Lunches £14 (by prior booking) 01380 840495 urchfontmanor@wiltshire.gov.uk

For Alison

2011-05-16T02:41:00.001-07:00

Looking through the train window at the road bridge running parallel whilst passing over the River Tamar at Plymouth. Cropped patterns, reflections in the window and in the water and shadows of the rail bridge all create interesting and unusual shapes in these images.

Message to Distant Stitch Students

2011-05-15T10:49:00.000-07:00

Tonal Contemplations by Jan Evans

Travel Tokens by Mary Sleigh

Summer School will soon be full so you have a very short time to decide to book. It is at Urchfont Manor College, Wiltshire from 3rd to 6th June. If you are studying on the Embroidery Certificate or Diploma, come and enjoy the fun of working with fellow students and with two very inspiring tutors, Mary Sleigh and Jan Evans. See examples of their work above. Take a look at the Distant Stitch website for details and how to book.

Easter walk

2011-05-07T09:49:00.001-07:00

Summer came so early so good to enjoy being outside gardening and walking. One of our favourite walks, close to home, is along the north Somerset coast at Kilve, known for its wonderful rock formations and fossils. Husband Roy has a chat with some friendly beasts we met along the coatsal path.

The cliffs end at Minehead in the distance - but we didn't walk that far!

What pattern! The cliffs seem to 'melt' into the sea.

50/50 exhibition in Bath

2011-03-15T04:34:00.001-07:00

A great exhibition to see if you can get to Bath before 3rd April. It is a joint exhibition by Matthew Harris (embroiderer) and partner Cleo Mussi (mosaic artist) at Victoria Art Gallery, Bridge Street (near Pultney Bridge). It was a virtual sell-out when I visited it on Saturday - I've never seen so many red spots!

A piece by Matthew Harris that I'm pleased to have had on my studio wall for a few years. It is unmounted and unframed but I've pinned it to the wall and placed an old frame around it - so you see, I did frame it Matt!

Greetings from Swansea on International Women's Day

2011-03-12T00:14:00.000-08:00

It was a walk down memory lane for me on my recent visit to Swansea where I was born and brought up. Fellow 'Wonderful Welsh Women', besides my mother and myself of course, were actresses Catherine Zeta Jones and Joanna Page, opera singer Katherine Jenkins, para-athlete Tammy Grey-Thompson, authors, academics and other women of note. Their images, biographies and news clippings adorned the display boards. Iris Martin, my mother, was included for her contribution to the cultural life of Swansea and Wales in general with her design and embroidery teaching and work in churches, cathedrals and large public buildings. My work was included as 'daughter of Iris' and you can see a sample piece from 'Tread Softly' in the glass case behind me in this photo. It was lovely to meet up with Gwen Soomre (Distant Stitch student) and Jackie (ex Distant Stitch student) who came from Cardiff for the day to meet me; also Margaret, chair of the Swansea Embroiderers' Guild.
A bonus was a quick visit to the wonderful fresh produce Swansea Market to buy lava bread (seaweed) and Welsh cakes.

If you live in the South West

2011-03-02T23:50:00.000-08:00

MAPPING THE FUTURE:WHERE ARE YOU NOW?
This year's annual conference, organised by 'Textile Forum South West' is being held at Somerset College on 26th March 2011. There are four exciting speakers, an excellent buffet lunch and a super book stall. I can email you the booking form and details or you can visit the website http://www.tfsw.org/. I shall be there so will be pleased to meet you if you are interested in joining me for the day.

A lovely exhibition at in the Lutyens Gallery at Hestercombe Gardens by Viv White, textile artist and Distant Stitch tutor, featuring themes of 'the garden of Eden' and flora and fauna with fun chickens, swooping starlings, elegant herons in exciting combinations of print, paper and stitch. Visit the magical Gertrude Jekyll designed gardens and the newly discovered valley as an extra bonus. The gallery is in a converted stable block, which explains the interesting wooden screen in the photo of Viv below. This exhibition finishes on Sunday 8th March.

Happy Saint David's Day to all my Welsh friends and students

2011-03-01T09:38:00.000-08:00

Yes, this is me, a new hair colour and new glasses! A whole weekend of drawing at Hawkwood College in the Cotswolds, with my wonderful colleagues in the Textile Study Group and Audrey Walker as tutor. Time to think about ideas towards the TSG's new exhibition at the Knitting and Stitching Shows this autumn; photos for the catalogue by the end of May - so you can see that we all have tight deadlines to work to.

Drawings of edges of cloth fragments using pens, masking fluid and inks. Watch out for further developments of the lovely curved edge, top right below in future postings.

Pages from my sketchbook with small prints taken from fragments of cloth - positive and negative in my search for the 'unexpected'.

Ruth and Bobby in conversation.

Drawings line the walls in a thoughtfully active studio at Hawkwood College set in the lovely Cotswold countryside.

International Women's Day in Swansea

2011-02-24T02:08:00.000-08:00

An exhibition of 'Wonderful Welsh Women' at the Waterfront Museum, Swansea includes images and small pieces of work by Iris Martin, my mother, and myself (as well as Catherine Zeta-Jones!) Come and join me there on 8th March and for a Peace Rally on the LC2 bridge at 11.45.

More on masking fluid

2011-02-10T09:24:00.001-08:00

Does anyone recognise this group of islands? I've just spent several days on one with my masking fluid and my koh-i-noor paint box - a long way from the grey skies of Somerset.

Last pages

2011-02-01T06:41:00.000-08:00

I've enjoyed playing with masking fluid in this final section of my sketchbook. It's great fun to build up layers of colour a bit like you would with wax resist. My model continued to enjoy being the centre of attention although the smell of the masking fluid was not always agreeable.

Cat in a basket - above.

Cat on a sunny window sill.

Zen life drawing workshop

2011-01-18T05:43:00.000-08:00

A wall of my drawings - a small selection produced during the Zen workshop. Notice how much interest my model for my sketchbook drawings takes in these new ones.

We were limited to six drawing implements - three dry and three wet. These were given a number - 1 to 6. The appropriate implement was used when the number was called out, taking away the need for decision-making and rather liberating.

The model posed for a series of short poses (2, 3 or 4 minutes) and one or two longer one - (10, 15 minutes), changing position after each one. Some drawings were done on top of previous one.

Drawing with an implement in both hands!

Drawing with left hand and wet material!

Holding implement in mouth!

Sketchbook pages

2011-01-11T08:01:00.000-08:00

For all students in my Urchfont Masterclass (and any interested Distant Stitch student). I've set myself (and challenged others) to keep and fill a sketchbook before our next meeting at Urchfont in March. I think I took the easy option as my model was always available and hardly moved during the last month! I wanted to work with just one idea to keep drawing the same thing, testing my own perception and drawing skills. I was very 'rusty' initially but feel I've got into it now and just love a short drawing session each day.
Splash, the 15 year old, has kept herself tucked up in her basket on my work table by a warm radiator. The basket is lined with a plain wool blanket which created a sort of negative shape with the cat's body partially covered by an edge of blanket.In one drawings she looks an odd silhouette - more like the Lock Ness monster.
Plans for the second half of the sketchbook are to use resist methods such as wax crayon and masking fluid. .
I'm booked in to a 'Zen' Drawing Workshop on Saturday so there might be interesting developments later. Watch this space!

Finally, the middle pages!

Wishing Everyone a Happy Christmas

2010-12-18T07:14:00.000-08:00

If you haven't had snow yet or aren't even expecting to see any this Christmas, I'll share a view of my garden at sunrise this morning; viewed as if through a shiny sphere or even a Christmas tree bauble, the snow making a magical scene in the British mid-winter.

I hope you will all enjoy your mid-winter break, or maybe your mid-summer break in the southern hemisphere! I look forward to hearing from you in the New Year and to welcoming new students on the Machine Embroidery and Creative Sketchbooks Courses we are now offering at Distant Stitch. Tell your friends to look at www.distantstitch.co.uk

Email restored

2010-12-11T02:39:00.000-08:00

If you have sent me an email in the last few days and not received a reply, please email again. My sian@distantstitch.co.uk address is now fully restored. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Colour in the snow

2010-11-29T07:16:00.000-08:00

A sprinkling of snow over Urchfont Manor.

The 'Stitched Textiles' Masterclass had a colourful experience at Urchfont Manor recently despite the fall of snow which covered the grounds and trees with a blanket of white. We warmed ourselves with the strong colours of this still life and used different aspects as a basis for design work during the weekend. Thank you to Carol Griffin for the lovely photos.

Life Line

2010-11-19T05:31:00.001-08:00

At last, a new piece of work from my own hands rather than passively enjoying all the wonderful things my students produce! This piece is a development of my 'assemblage' theme of threading small shapes together. The inspiration for 'Life Line' is drawn from watching and reading about the rescue of the 33 Chilean miners from their entrapment deep in the earth. The central hole in all the shapes denotes the long tunnel that was drilled to bring them to the surface. Please scroll down for detailed close-ups. It is 200 cms long, although the curled area at the bottom makes it an installation of about 130 cms high. Each square is 6 cms and are made of perforated vellum and collected newspapers recording the event.
See this and other textile pieces by members of the 62 Group at Gallery Oldham, Oldham, www.galleryoldham.org.uk from 22nd January to 10th April 2011.

'AVEC OU SANS L'EAU' in Quebec

2010-09-19T23:53:00.000-07:00

Images for my Canadian friends of my entry for the Mini-Textiles' - 'Secheresse' (translated as 'Drought' - I hope!).
This exhibition is in Gatineau, Quebec during September and finishes on 10th October 2010.

Contact details: Maison du Citoyen, Gatineau, Quebec, J8X, 3Y9, 819 595/7488 galeriemontcalm1@gatineau.ca

Help To Save the Arts!

2010-09-15T09:53:00.000-07:00

To everyone involved in the arts, please consider signing this petition.

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-the-arts.html

Enjoy this little video.

http://savethearts-uk.blogspot.com/

Thank you.

Happy Memories!

2010-09-03T12:52:00.000-07:00

Holiday this year was floating down a gentle Canal du Midi in the south of France, away from not only the computer but any electrical supply! Just enough time between locks to throw some Koh-i-noor paint from my new little paint box onto long, narrow sheets of paper that now comprises my sketchbook for this holiday.

This piece of folded card was used as a 'drawing board' for all my paintings done on separate sheets of folded papers.

Sketchbook pages placed side by side which will be folded and tied into the folded card cover.

Still time to see 'Face to Face'

2010-08-23T11:15:00.000-07:00

This exhibition finishes next Sunday at 16.00, so you still have a few days to see it at Walcot Chapel, Walcott Street, Bath.

An exhibition invitation in Bath

2010-08-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

Hope to see you on 'Meet the Artist Day' 21st August between 11.00 and 16.00.

Work and Fun at Summer School

2010-07-31T01:21:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all summer School students for allowing me to use these photos of themselves and their work on my blog.

A 3D construction by Viv Estill

Betty generously serves out the delicious dessert for her table.

Distant Stitch Summer School 2010

2010-07-12T00:32:00.000-07:00

"WORKING TOGETHER"
This years Summer School involved nearly 30 Distant Stitch students in a superb workshop run by Ruth Issett, supported by Lizzy Lewis. We missed Bobby Britnell as planned co-tutor with Ruth and hope all is improving for you now Bobby. Sending you all our good wishes and our smiley faces below. We're crowded onto the main stairs in the Manor - hope you can identify all those at the back.

Sian, front centre with workshop tutor, Ruth straight above her and Lizzy with the lovely pink fringe.

We all made 'ATCs' (Artists Trading Cards) to swap on the first evening. Finding your unknown swap partner by looking for a clue on that person created lots of hilarious questions and laughter. An excellent way of getting to know a lot of people at the beginning of the Summer School. (Thank you Hazel for your suggeston). So we each possess a little embroidered gem to treasure made by someone else.

One was inadvertantly left after borrowing them back for this 'group' photograph. So if anyone has missed the second one from the left on the bottom row, please let me know so I can send it on to them.

For Val

2010-06-21T00:57:00.000-07:00

Four images for you Val - I hope these are irises! In the comment below, Jenn says she thinks these are 'canna'. Sorry Val.

A little bit of red goes a long way

2010-06-09T11:02:00.000-07:00

A recent workshop led by Cas Holmes at Hawkwood College allowed me time and space to think about my own textile work.

Traces of a journey, marks to record my path, following a line - with red.

Edges, lines, continuing pattern - and red.

Papers, printed imagery, stitched holes and red paint.

Batsford are publishing a book by Cas Holmes in September called 'The Found Object in Textile Art' ISBN 97819 06388461.

For Anne: 'How to Make a Tomato Dress'

2010-05-12T00:05:00.000-07:00

A mock-up of the actual item as most were given away during the exhibition to children who entered a quiz to guess the 'ingredients'. The beads ceratinly weren't added to the originals! See more images of the exhibition on the TSG website -
http://www.practicalstudygroup.co.uk/gallery/ironbridge/index.php

A large old iron cauldron was an inspiration for this installation. Tomato 'ingredients' were 'cooked' together in the cauldron to create these 'tomato' dresses made of shibori'd silk organza.

Shown in 'Material Works - off the wall' with the PSG (now the TSG) in 2003 at Enginuity, The Museum of Iron, Ironbridge.

Rows of tiny tomato trees were arranged on the pallets made of the up-turned lids of the tomato puree tubes as flower pots with a painted cocktail and fabric tomato as the 'tree'.

TSG at the HUB Symposium

2010-04-26T23:36:00.000-07:00

WORKSHOP - LOOPING SOMETHING FROM NOTHING.
with David Littler (artist, curator and DJ; involved with Sampler-Cultureclash, http://sampler-cultureclash.blogspot.com) and Berit Greinke (textile and surface designer, NOBELini prize winner to investigate 'laboratory disaster').
Both David and Berit lead us through activities to examine the connections between sound, the word, drawing and stitching.

We all recorded our voices on a continous sound recording loop, describing our favourite working tool and how we use it. To the sound of these continous words which became a pattern of audio shapes and textures, a continous canvas is stitched with 'tape' pulled from old audio tape cassettes. This tape is conductive so will respond to the audio sensors rubbed over it later.

Communal drawing on our own patch and extending into our neighbours. The continuous length of paper kept moving and we kept drawing with graphite sticks and powder.

Put your sound on for these two movies below.

Berit Greinke holds the sensor over samples of her woven textiles made with conductive fibres to pick up the pattern of the different weaves which are converted into sounds.

Mary Sleigh 'tries her hand' at making music by connecting with the conductive graphite drawing and holding hands with Berit who, in turn, holds the hand-held sensor on another part of the drawing, thus forming a conductive loop.

Easter sunshine - at last!

2010-04-05T08:06:00.000-07:00

Easter bonnet and brass band parades in sunny Lyme Regis, Dorset made a good day out on Easter Sunday. A bonus 'find' (besides the fish and chips and ice cream) was this fascinating 'stone balancing' exhibition on the pebble beach. Adrian Grey was balancing huge pebbles to create heart-stopping sculptures. His website is www.stonebalancing.com A good lesson in the art of 'less is more'.

Landscape - Let Us Travel

2010-03-24T01:53:00.000-07:00

The lovely mediaval building called Hotel du Sens houses the Bibliotheque du Forney, 1 Rue du Figuier 75004 Paris. The exhibition 'Landscape-Let Us Travel' is showing there until 19th June 2010 when it moves to a gallery in Brittany then onto Sweden, the home of the sponsors, Pfaff.

I went to Paris for a couple of days to attend the opening. I met Evelyne Ouillon, a Distant Stitch student, for the first time which was delightful - I'm sorry I meant to take a photo of you Evelyne. Below I'm standing with Janice Myers, a previous student at Urchfont Manor, now a fellow exhibitor in this exhibition.

The opening event was a grand champagne affair in the company of over 500 others including the mayor of Paris. 'Tread Softly' caused a lot of interest and Janice and I pose near it in quiet moments. Janice's work - 'Way Out', using the Pfaff embroidery machine digital software to stitch into layers of plastic and paper maps - seen in the photo above to the right of Janice. The large hanging to the left is 'Man On The Moon' by Alice Kettle.

We stayed in a lovely little hotel near le Canal S Martin (of course) called the Hotel du Nord. http://www.hoteldunord-leparivelo.com/hotel.html

Getting ready

2010-03-03T08:57:00.001-08:00

I've been gathering and checking over the different design development ideas before packing up to send to the Hub for the 'Visual Thinking - Unpicked' exhibition and Symposium. I'll be there and contributing to the presentations of the Symposium. Put 24th April in your diary and join us. Download a booking form and book your place - use this link http://www.practicalstudygroup.co.uk/gallery/visualthinking/

West and East - Exhibitions

2010-02-18T11:56:00.000-08:00

If you live in the East/North of the UK, you will be interested in this exhibition and symposium.

National Centre for Craft & Design
Press release 10.01.2010

Textile Study Group
Visual Thinking – Unpicked

HUB Roof Gallery 24th April – 6th June

This dynamic and experimental exhibition is the result of a year long collaboration between the Hub and the Textile Study Group. Visual Thinking – Unpicked, is an exhibition exploring the creative process of 14 textile practitioners who are pioneering in the field of textile practice and education.
Film, artefacts, photographs, installations, textile and drawings are exhibited, exploring the causes and influences behind the unique and often very private creative process. As such, this exhibition will open the door to artist’s studios, inviting audiences to consider the process and thinking behind the work.
This exhibition and associated events is a rare opportunity to engage in dialogue and exchange with the artists and experience a conceptual approach to textile practice, process and making.
It is planned that a symposium will accompany the exhibition, details available soon.
The selected artists are:
Sarah Burgess, Mary Sleigh, Ann Wheeler, Rosemary Campbell, Jan Miller, Siân Martin, Mary Youles, Jenny Blackburn, Kay Greenlees, Gavin Fry, Shelley Rhodes, Ros Chilcot, Janina Evans and Alison King.

*********************

IN THE WEST/SOUTH

If you live in the West/South of the UK, this exhibition will be of interest. You are invited to the Opening at Ginger Fig on April 8th between 6 and 8 pm for a glass of wine and to meet the artists who are all students of my Masterclass at Urchfont Manor.

Email restored!

2010-02-09T07:52:00.000-08:00

I feel wanted again! Messages have come pouring in to my inbox. Jacqui has worked her magic again and has revived my email address - sian@distantstitch.co.uk so I look forward to hearing from everyone who might have had their messages returned last week. Please feel free to use windwhistle@tiscali.co.uk whenever you think there might be a problem in the future.

Email problem

2010-01-27T00:59:00.000-08:00

If your emails to me on my 'sian@.........' email address have been returned to you, please use this one - windwhistle@tiscali.co.uk

I hope it will only be temporary fault. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Sian

A Somerset Winter

2010-01-09T00:51:00.000-08:00

Wind Whistle Cottage

Tea for two, but only for the birds.

Viewing the distant Mendips Hills.

With plenty of inspirational surfaces!

Christmas Message

2009-12-22T04:41:00.000-08:00

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, especially all my students. Here's to a productive and creative 2010!

Amelie with her own new baby and Granty Sian

2009-12-19T08:56:00.000-08:00

The new born baby and the foetal scan you might remember seeing featured in my textile work a couple of years ago is now over two years old. Amelie shows her own new baby here and how she carries it around in its own 'embroidered' carrycot.

Happy Birthday John!

2009-12-19T08:33:00.000-08:00

How does your 'baby' brother get to look so grown up?

A train journey to Cornwall on a beautiful sunny day to have lunch with brother John in Truro. Taking some photos through the window on the Brunel Bridge over the River Tamar I noticed the extra shapes in the reflective surfaces and thought how intriguing they looked. Will look out for more of these.

Anish Kapoor at the Royal Academy

2009-11-08T06:45:00.000-08:00

Spot the photographer!

Photos of the amazing reflective spheres outside the Royal Academy of Arts while queueing for the Anish Kapoor exhibition. It's on until 11th December if you're in London near Piccadilly Circus, you can see these spheres in the courtyard without going into the exhibition. An interesting way of creating distorted images - ideas for designing perhaps?

Goodbye SpIishy

2009-10-05T23:57:00.000-07:00

Splish died during August. She was my constant studio companion of 14 years who knew just the right background to enhance her colouring. Below, Splish poses with the ever growing length of the 'path' for my 'Tread Softly' exhibit.

The Knitting and Stitching show opens at Alexandra Palace on Thursday 8th October and I shall be there if anyone wants to say hello. I'm not attached to a particular show or stand this year but I shall be spending some time at the Pfaff Art Embroidery exhibition if you'd like to seek me out. Look out, also for 'Thread Softly', my piece of work in this exhibition. An image of this was posted on 16th May 2009.

Distant Stitch Summer School 2009

2009-07-26T12:46:00.000-07:00

Candid shots in the Stableyard Studio - lots more on www.distantstitch.co.uk

Making 3D shapes from Solufleece

2009-07-16T00:08:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a chosen artist, everyone made pieces of machine stitched water-soluble 'solufleece'. This was then genlty sponged onto a 3 D shape such as a bottle, head or shoe form to dry into a stiff shape. The Summer School finished with a show of these pieces along with the named badges everyone had stitched on the first evening - also inspired by the same artist.

Betty and Avis in photo below, Helen and Karen below that and Julie, Alison and Meg in the bottom photo.

Another Day - with Banksy

2009-07-13T00:40:00.001-07:00

It was a pleasant ninety minute queue in the sunshine outside Bristol Museum to see the Banksy exhibition after spotting an original on a wall down the road. Banksy was asked to respond to exhibits within the museum. It was a fabulous exhibition. As well as the main foyer and rooms specifically to show his new work/installations, we were encouraged to 'spot the Banksy' amoungst the other galleries showing collections of ceramics, silverware, rocks and minerals, Egypt, dinasaurs etc. It was great fun. here are a few of my favourite ones that are 'printable! The leopard in the cage was a fur coat, whose belt 'twitched'.

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. - Albert Einstein

2009-07-11T00:17:00.000-07:00

View of the hill just outside Cannington, called Cannington Park.

I hope you like this quote which Kathy Johnson puts at the bottom of her emails. Thank you Kathryn for your message left here, but I couldn't find a way of replying to it other than saying here that I hope all goes peacefully for you.

Today is the funeral of my friend Jenny who died last week at 55 just before her youngest son's 18th birthday. Jenny was a gentle soul who grew native species trees and shrubs in her small nursery around her cottage, just along the narrow lane from me. She also had a strength and determination to fight injustice. She encouraged a group of us neighbours to protest about the expansion of a nearby quarry which is eating away at a small wooded hill on the outskirts of Cannington; the site of an historical iron-age fort as well as a local beauty spot. Jenny organised us, wrote letters and walked experts from English Heritage around the hill. The battle is not won as too many motorways and runways call for the limestone from this hill. I expect the whole village will be at the church.

More photos from the Summer School tomorrow.

A Final Wave

2009-07-10T10:20:00.000-07:00

The whole class of 2009, wave from the steps outside the dining room at Urchfont Manor. Everyone looks very happy at the end of a very successful Summer School. Who is that person wearing those very loud patterned trousers in the front? Surely it can't be your tutor!

A huge thank you to all the staff at Urchfont who provided us with such cheerful and helpful hospitality and meals that seemed more delicious than ever.

On to Ontario

2009-06-15T11:33:00.000-07:00

Johnnene and Gail against a wonderful cottonwood tree alongside the River Thames in London, Ontario.

Daisy May, left, and Bobbins, right helped to make my stay with Johnnene Maddison and Dave in London, Ontario, a very pleasant and comfortable 'home from home'.

A decorative house in the town of Stratford, (Ontario) which has several theatres, a statue of Shakespsear and a River Avon.

Jackie and Eleanor on the pebble shore of Lake Erie. 60 miles across to the other shore!

An 'assemblage' on the shore.

A ground hog 'mom' enjoying the sun in the unniversity. Her three babies sometimes joined her for a run around on the grass.

A few examples of the resolved textile pieces as a result of the 'Assemblage' workshop from Susan, Johnnene, Gail, Maggie, Kathy, Leanne, Jackie, Betty and Ruth Ann. There were many other exciting pieces, too numerous to add here that used different methods of attachment to create assembled textiles, combining old and new materials, some dipped in a dye bath of potassium permanganate solution to help to unify the different parts.

Rael, a bursary student from the University Textiles Course, arranges her work for the evaluation session.

Students attending the Embroiderers' Guild Summer School in the 'Assemblage' class in one of the spacious workshop rooms in Western Ontario University. The 19 students gather to discuss their work at the last session of the workshop. Do any of you have any other photos?

'Assemblage' workshop, Colorado

2009-06-01T17:04:00.000-07:00

A concentrating time in the 'dry' studio; Rain in centre.

Paper collage, coloured with potassium permanganate and discharged with lemon juic e by Cynde. A fragment of paper lace in the centre.

Terri's colourful painted design idea relating to her stitched paper lace pieces.

Fabulous meals were prepared by Rain and Gary to replace the calories we lost in all the energetic creative work in the studios. I never got to take a photo of full plates!!!

Colorado Class

2009-05-31T17:32:00.000-07:00

A happy bunch of students and tutor at Rain Klepper's wonderful studios in Paonia, Colorado.
Top from left: Cynde, Sian, Terri and Georgia: seated in front, Rain (left) and Cathy.