a hello from Cornwall

Just popping by to say hello.  I'll be catching up here in a couple of days.  A family visit followed by a mild recurrence of my illness (not connected lol) have had a slight impact on what I've been able to achieve in the last couple of weeks.  I've finished my samples for week 20 (glazes) and week 21 (embedding) for the Surface Treatment Workshop and have also started on week 22 (pours).  I just need to have a little photo session but here is an "in progress" shot from my phone ...

Meanwhile, talking of "pours" ... I found my neighbours' decorators' paint can rather interesting ...

and this lovely view started my day off beautifully this morning ... love that sky!

See you soon ... x

the joy of colour

Time for a gathering of recent work, thoughts and doings from the last few weeks.  I may be a few days late with week 20 of The Surface Treatment Workshop but I have begun working on the backgrounds.  I'm looking forward to seeing how glazing medium mixed with acrylics will alter this little painting.

I also started a collage base using small pieces of left over artwork.  I always save these snippets whether they have come from paintings, textiles or hand dyeing sessions.

I plan to use the glazing medium mixed with acrylics over the top, particularly covering over the white spaces, then cut up into smaller pieces for my sketchbook.  I'm hoping to get 6 interesting squares from this.

Half of these pieces are fabric so I may add some little stitches too, time permitting.  I say "time permitting" because, currently, my main focus is my sketchbook and finished work for exhibition in September as well as admin things for the group St. Ives Textiles.  

Colour is such a joy isn't it!

golden moons with indigo and umber clouds

it was such a beautiful moon last night

the brightest full moon I've seen for a while

with occasional midnight blue and umber clouds passing over shrouding it in mist

it was mesmerising and I watched for ages ...

I count my blessings ...

that I'm able to lay in bed and look up at the moon and star light over the sea

even if it does take me longer to drift off ...

the early morning shimmer is breathtaking too

I've had a very busy couple of weeks ...

with the Surface Design Treatment Workshop samples

a new erosion bundle, St. Ives Textiles and the cyanotype workshop

I put together this mosaic ...

which is a gathering of everything I managed to squeeze into my week

you can just make out a new collage there which I have been working on ...

it's inspired by that optimistic feeling that spring is just around the corner

that promise of bright spring days ... and longer, golden, summer days to come

when days are very warm in the sunshine but the wind is chilly and fresh

and when wet sand can be very cold between the toes ...

this charming old photo is one from my collection which I love

for the sheer joyfulness of engrossed sand castle building and smiling faces

I've used a mix of papers, sheer fabrics, silk, lace, netting and the old photo

decorated with shells, beads, real seaweed and pressed flowers (from my garden)

I added a touch of gold to the tiny flowers

I quite adore the natural organic edge of ripped and frayed fabrics

and tangles of loose flying threads finding their own place

also in the mosaic I included some rusty peeling paint found on St. Ives boats

I like the crustiness of the rust and the crackle of the aging white paint

with worn and rubbed layers showing the boats history

who chose to paint sunny yellow over blue layers?

I think yellow must be one of the most joyful and uplifting colours in the palette

"colour is a means to exert a direct influence on the soul"
-Wassily Kandinsky-

this week ... I've begun to stitch seaside inspired hearts again

and subconsciously (or not) I've been favouring this palette

of spring yellows, gold and indigo blues

this one features yellow and gold moons and circles

inspired by that big ol' moon up there again tonight

at the moment ... I'm just layering up pretty fabrics and lace

and securing with stab stitches and running stitches

I have to say that I'm probably at my most happiest when I'm stitching hearts

and I'm especially enjoying a slower way of working at the moment

while I catch my breath after the show at the weekend

so over the next few weeks and months you will see more of my hearts developing

as I create a new body of work for exhibition in September

(Cornwall and seaside inspired ... beach scenes, rock pools and Cornish cottages)

I shall begin work for exhibition in earnest at the beginning of June

meanwhile ... I'm clearing the decks, so to speak, in preparation for that

Stitch St. Ives was a great success last weekend ... I had so much fun

mainly thanks to so many of my St. Ives friends popping in to see me

 and visitors, blog and facebook friends coming along to say hello and talk textiles

so a huge thank you to all of you who came to the show ... it was great to meet you!

many, many thanks also to St. Ives artist Angela Diggle
for trusting me with her grandmother's vintage sewing "notions"
everything is rather precious especially the well worn darning mushroom
and I will take great care of them as the new "keeper" - thank you x

inevitably I made a few purchases myself  …

so ... now that I have recovered following the show

(these days my auto immune illness necessitates this!)

I will be getting my samples finished off for The Surface Treatment Workshop

we are combining week 7 (gels) with week 10 (speciality gels)

I hope to share my samples some time over the weekend

and thereafter get back to posting the Workshop on Wednesdays

and Snippets on Saturdays/Sundays

Evelyn has already posted her samples if you would like to see
(always interesting and different to mine)

thank you so much for visiting ... take care ... see you soon x

the mystery of indigo moons ...

back in November 2016 I attended a workshop on indigo dyeing
with maker Sarah Johnson at The Exchange Gallery in Penzance

before we got going with the dye...

Sarah gave us a short talk on the history of dyeing with indigo

a bit about the plant leaves and how to make up the dye bath ... "dos" and "don'ts"

and showed us various ways of creating patterns on cloth and paper with resists

to save time, Sarah had already made up the dye bath in preparation for the workshop

and kept it warm in a large vat so it was ready for us to use

here she is stirring the dye very carefully so as not to get too many air bubbles in it ...

I'm used to dyeing and experimenting with different methods using resists etc.

but I had never used a clamp as a resist before ...

a long strip of cotton fabric was folded concertina style and clamped together

before dipping in the indigo dye ... the longer you leave it in the vat the deeper the colour

(some people also use blocks or disks before clamping)

so ... now I know how all those perfect indigo moons are created that I see around the net

these are my indigo moons ...

and other cotton fabrics with folded, tied and waxed resists

resists with wax on cotton and paper

tied resists with elastic bands

squares created with pressure resist using wooden blocks and rubber bands

we each dyed a large pile of cotton fabrics and a calico bag to take our samples home in

I used all the techniques of folding, wax resist and tie dye resist to decorate my bag

dipping the bag in the dye at each resist stage

and this is the back of my bag ...

I lined the bag with greaseproof papers before applying the wax to the bag

and was rather pleased when I discovered that, not only did it serve it's purpose of

preventing the design on one side of the bag ruining the design on the other side,

but also had the potential to take the dye itself ...

so I experimented with creating waxed indigo patterns on the greaseproof paper ...

it was a fun, playful day with friends

we all went home happy with beautiful bags full of useful samples

that will come out one day for just the right project

at the moment ... I'm enjoying having them hanging up in my studio for inspiration

back to the Surface Treatment Workshop ...

I've finished up my samples (pretty much) working with aluminium foil

just to prove to myself that the last samples weren't a "fluke"

I painted another seascape on the foil using the pva glue and acrylics

I think I like this one even more ...

for the crackle, layers of paint and movement of the sea

like beach streams ...

in the last post I talked about drawing on the reverse of the foil instead of embossing

this creates great possibilities for working your own designs

I tried it with really simple pebble shapes to see how it would work out ...

I gave it a colour wash and then painted in some of the pebble shapes

using watercolours / h2o paints ... but zapping with a heat gun between applications

it's interesting and has potential as a technique

above ... I embossed the foil with pieces of real seaweed

before applying watercolour and h2o paints

and finally (with the foil) ... here are my limpets

a 3D piece capturing the texture of the limpet shells

and painting into the foil

(not finished yet ... in progress ... I've still got to add markings with artist pen)

1. silver and shell necklace 2. shells of all shapes 3. prehistoric

4. natural collage 5. conch 6. shell fragments embroidered brooch

7. spiral 8. ying/yang 9. limpet colony 3 10. seaside shells 11. shell 12. shells 13. shells

some seaside inspiration from my flickr page and favourite artists / images

1. sneak 2. seaweed watercolour,A4 aprox 3. these are the places I call home 4. shells 5. old and new 6. acrylic ink 7. vintage monogram stamp  8. name tags 9. porthminster point 10. . 11. lost dolls and her second helping 12. the pigeons - 2009 13. blue shells on ice - land 14. tinted child as the tide comes in 15. lari's inkpot 16. sanctuaire 17. old 18. aperture 19. ink 20. tiny portrait series - a group 21. seaweed Isle of Wight 22. . 23. . 24. cromer beach137 25. shells of all Shapes

I've worked on covering my sketchbook and can now spend a happy afternoon

gluing in my samples for The Surface Treatment Workshop

I look forward to posting the next workshop samples

on Wednesday - experiments with masking tape

thank you for reading and for all kind comments x