January blobs of yellow

Hello, well here we are 2021 and it's good to be back here posting again.  

Today is about making a fresh start and finding I needed a refresher in both photo processing and website editing.  After a lengthy absence, so much has changed on my website platform.  I'm not sure that I'm able to update the layout very much now, for fear of disturbing what is already there, but I'm happy with the overall look of it so I shall be content to "tweak" and post.  At least it seems familiar and will help me to ease back into work again.

I'm looking forward to sharing new work in the making, new ideas and new ways of recording.  I'm also looking forward to sharing work from the past couple of years when I was working privately, just making art as and when I needed to.  There is still a lot to sort out and process.  It's been a long journey of healing and processing. So I'm not too sure yet in what manner it will all come tumbling out ...

So, there has to be a beginning and I don't know about about you but I really needed some blobs of yellow for cheer today.  It's very cold here in this part of Cornwall, much of the rest of the country has had snow.  I'm glad to not have snow at the moment.  I have had no heating or hot water since 19 December.  Talk about bad timing.  Funny how you acclimatize slowly ... and I'm coping, till I get a new boiler next week, by spending more time hibernating under my electric blanket.  It's utter bliss right now!

with best wishes to you all x

Cornwall colours and textures

We are almost done with February and I'm so glad to see the back of it.  Apart from one or two days it's been nothing but rain, hailstones, storms and news of Coronavirus spreading quickly round our beautiful Earth home!  And as I sit writing this now the rain is streaming down the window panes ...

I'm cosy indoors by the window looking through raindrops and I've had a lovely time going through photos, coming across work I had forgotten about.  At the moment, most of my art materials, fabrics, paints, sketchbooks and samples have been packed away in storage containers for over a year.  This house moving lark has been a long haul and I am going to be very excited to get it all out again.  No dates yet but soon - I hope!

I will have so many art projects and little works in progress to revisit.  So today I thought I would share some of the inspiration I find from my part of Cornwall, where I get my colours from and what inspires my textures.  I hope you may enjoy a few photos …

The last few photos are of recent textile work.  I've been enjoying working these very small hand stitched barnacles which I use with real shells, beads and little stitches on silk.  It's nice to be working on new things and I have more new work on my table which I hope to share soon.  Thank you for visiting me today.

Surface Treatment Workshop - weeks 7 and 10

I got a little behind with the Surface Treatment Workshop last week

I did work on various samples but struggled with my fibro, headaches and asthma

and generally felt under the weather through exhaustion from preparing for Stitch St. Ives

it meant such a lot to me to be able to take part in the show and to meet people

and afterwards I felt I was ok at first but it caught up with me ... so I had to give in and rest

if you follow along ... you will be used to me disappearing without warning now and again

but it is my intention to push through it this year and get back to a working routine in my studio

and this project - The Surface Treatment Workshop - has really helped me

to get in the studio, to develop my art practice and work with new products

we also got a little out of sequence

because, sometimes, we have to order new products in specially

and have to wait for them to turn up in the mail

so you may have noticed that we skipped to week 8 to work with gesso
while we were waiting for gels and fiber paste to arrive

for these samples we decided to combine week 7 (gels)
with week 10 (making our own speciality gels)

as a lot of the prompts for gels were quite similar

and as there were quite a few ideas for using gels I decided to work smaller samples

and created a series of hand made tags to help me contain them

for the tag below I used Golden medium gel mixed with a little gold acrylic paint

to embed tissue paper and paper lace onto a collaged background

I covered the collaged tag with quite a thick layer of transparent matte gel
and added pressed flowers into the gel

the gel acts like a glue and a sealer in one
and after using it to secure placed paper or objects
the excess gel medium can be wiped away for a neat finish

it was a particularly good product to use with the delicate flower petals

you can see I have applied the gel really thickly on the tag / sample below

using the gel to adhere a green sweetie wrapper and some scrim

I also used the gel to collage a tapestry yarn wrapper

and sprinkled gold mica powder into the wet gel

the gel dried transparent and then I added a pressed flower
and you can just make out subtle hints of shimmery mica on top of the tag

I also discovered that gels over collage (when dried)

make excellent drawing grounds with pencil or artist pen

but we cover drawing grounds next week ... so more on that another time ...

gels can be mixed with paints for colour

and thick molding pastes for extra texture (below)

and here I'm using up excess paint from my palette
mixed into the gel for my tag backgrounds

I used a palette knife to apply the paint and gel

feathers embed in gel quite easily and lay nice and flat
and I added an extra layer of gel to seal ... so I could paint over if I wanted ...

now moving on to speciality gels ...

these are really just shop bought textured gels or
hand made gels made by adding "bits" to the gel to create texture

this one below is broken egg shell pieces stuck down with lots of gel

and I also used fine sawdust for one sample

this is Golden glass bead gel below ... a rather fun product to try

Golden glass bead gel looks like quite a runny white / semi-transparent paste

which can be applied as thickly or thinly as you wish ...

it has tiny little glass beads already mixed in ...

as the gel dries it turns transparent but with a sort of wet look

which really enhances the shimmery little glass beads

before it dried out ... I sprinkled mica powder into the gel

and, because it is basically a glue, I embedded a shell and a little piece of lace

in summary I would say gels are a lot of fun to play with
and are useful for layering and acting as a glue and a sealer in one
that's not to say that there may be cheaper products out there that are just as efficient

also this week ... I got some transparent Powertex liquid to play with

it's basically a product that stiffens and hardens fabrics and threads

so that they can be moulded and sculpted into vessels or art forms

I've had my first play with it and created a small bowl

(which, I have to say, I'm not enamoured with)

and I'm not sure I'm all that keen on the smell of Powertex either

but that may be muted when the vessel is painted

however, I have also applied it to this piece of metallic lace

which did interest me greatly for the project I have in mind

I'm looking for a lacy fine art texture with distressed holes and threads

to which I can add some stitched barnacles and/or seaweed for vessels for exhibition

next up ... I will share week 9 - fiber paste samples (by way of catch up)

Evelyn has already posted hers if you would like to see

then we are back on track again

thank you for following along

with the Surface Treatment Workshop

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