Thursday 26 April 2012

Another long gap!

Time is flying by,not helped by ill health and a family crisis,plus preparing to travel to France for 6 months.There are piles of 'vital supplies' lying in every room and barely any time to do creative stuff.The IFA conference was a really excellent experience-time to talk to people I hadn't seen for ages and to do some very good workshops.We all had one full day class and two half days and all of mine made me think about my own work in a different way,which couldn't be better.
My full day was with Sue Bradley, using a needle felt machine and transfer printing press.This is some of the work Sue showed us.

I started to de construct a charity shop cardy, but haven't had time to finish it yet, so more of that in France,I hope.My aim is to wet felt the items using the rolling machine,rather than using an embellisher,becuase somehow, I don't seem to get on very well with them,but it was interesting to have a go.I'm also reading and sampling from Alabama Chanin's wonderful book ALABAMA STUDIO SEWING AND DESIGN,aiming to adapt some of the ideas for my felt.It really is a glorious book and very inspiring,plus it has patterns to use and adapt.
My half day workshops were equally as inspiring, with Chris Lines and Sheila Smith, both of whom added to my felting arsenal.

Friday 6 April 2012

dancing hares

Close up of some of my hares,dancing across scrim.Am taking a breather and thinking where to go next.We have hare visitors to our field in France and I can watch them whilst ironing,so maybe a curtain, but maybe not-who knows?

Thursday 5 April 2012

Not much work being done

I'm currently working on a new piece based on the sacred hare-no photographs yet, because it isn't working out as I wanted so far.Isn't it always the case that when you have a strong idea in your head,it's hard to make the work equal the idea? My screen print on scrim was a failure,so now I'll have to try a new approach, over the Easter weekend.Some days are good,some are not so!Maybe the change in the weather has blunted my creative  juices.