more course results.

One of Pat's pieces-nice to see that the print and devore and cut out areas all link together.

This  is Valerie's very subtle avocado dyed piece,still in progress as witnessed by the pins.It is amazing how each person has a different take on the same basic technique.

Devore lace sample ,felted to fine pre-felt by Daphne,then dyed with rhubarb root extract-amzing how this picks out the pattern even with all that texture.The end of another really successful day with masses of work achieved and alcohol at the end to round it off before a relaxing evening.What more could we want?

more work,more internet problems!

We are having lots of prblems with the net at the moment so this is a quick post while it lasts.The weather continues glorious so rusting and woad dyeing are the order of the day,and i'm busy making a book with prints made from natural materials picked up on my daily walks-more of this later.

 This waterfall waistcoat is now waiting to be dyed-sorry about the car in the background!

This is my wrap,made from old lace from a Brocante,scrim,silk scraps and ,finally,printed with a lace screen to pull it all together.I love lace, but not quite in the same way as others.More below.

back in France

Can't believe it's so long since i had time to blog,but now we are back in France there will be time to think and work creatively again.Have already made some monoprints,after a very inspiring course at Glos print co-op before driving down here.Cat is settled in and did the journey like a pro.Have also started work on more lace/felt combinations-taster below.

Still adding to this one and will probably kill it,but enjoying all the processes.It's a bit like making soup,sometimes the final ingredient ruins it.

I.m trying out combinations of heavy and light,creating layers and frills and generally trying to avoid finishing my final Snow Queen piece for the exhibition in Denmark.

slow cloth progress

Two new patches one waiting to be attached,one already in place.It's almost addictive,putting the latest little piece in place-certainly won't want to part with this one,The next patch is already to go on,but where?This one is a thcermofax printed definition of Fabric which seems appropriate,but a bit solid in terms of the weight of the fabric,so it needs very careful placement.I have also two printed rust fabric samples waiting,both printed with gum tragacanth and Lac natural dye extract.A digger arrives tomorrow as part of the new build plan so I shall be hiding in my studio away from the noise and mess-plenty of time to do lots of work on the lace kimono-watch this space!  

Thinking of the lace kimono

These are my lace mood boards which I,m hoping will inspire me to great things.The picture on the right shows the devored sample which I'm certain I'll use in combination with a felt version for part of the fronts.It has been screened based on a piece of lace which I drew a while ago,from my collection of old French lace & I think that the scale of the design will need to be changed for the felt version-that is still to come,but will certainly make use of my new sharp scissors!

Staring at thes boards is a legitimate displacement activity but can only be justified for so long.The trial fabric kimono is going to be dip dyed over the weekend,weather permitting.More of that later.

Loads of lace

Finally conquered the virus and manging to do more work on my lace experiments-see design sheet above.It's always a good thing to have a new technique to battle with ,but in the cold studio, things don't always go as smoothly as they might.It has been a challenge finding the right raw materials-very fine Merino didn't work, but 100s has given me what I want,so now I can write up the techniques and add it to my teaching list.

Back to rainy U.K

 

I've  been experimenting with felt lace techniques whilst in France.Very unusually,the weather has been around freezing some of the time and we even had snow, but the studio was cosy,so had time to do quite a lot of work.When I have sorted the technique to my satisfaction,I'll teach it to others, but currently I'm enjoying trying out different methods.

Also making large flowers (this one balanced on the top of a felt/silk vessel) as I'm teaching a workshop at the Country Living Spring Fiar on March 26th.Don't usually do flowers etc but really enjoyed this ,so maybe I'll go into production!!