Looking into the nest

'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

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!

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

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

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

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.

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!