TVCT workshop

On Saturday we had three different workshops. Jo had people using unique things to connect and to weave. Lisa focused on using ephemera to make compositions to stitch into. And my focus was metal, piercing it, embossing it and stitching on it. Basically taster sessions to give some ideas.
We divided the group into three and then they rotated around so that by the end of the day, everyone had been able to have a go.
Each person was given a little piece of aluminium shim, some thin and thick wire, and springs or bits of pot scrubbers. I did a little spiel showing them a variety of ways I have used metal in my work as well as a variety of metal things I used, like my beading onto springs, metal bobbins, washers and so on.

Here are some of the pieces in development from my workshop.

Aluminium

on Saturday, I will be teaching a workshop about using metal as a textile.
So I have been getting ready this week. I ordered some aluminium shim sheeting.

Then I chopped it up so I can give a piece to each of those of those attending.
I also gathered materials and samples. And I think I am just about ready!

Thankful Thursday

I have taken some time out to try to catch up on some of the photos from the Thames Valley Contemporary Textiles January meeting.

I am so thankful for this group. We celebrated our 10th anniversary! and now Jo Saunders is taking on the role of co-ordinator. I will still be doing my favourite part which is booking speakers.

Look what the members did for me to say thank you!

A wonderful basket from the African Fabric Shop.

With a large plant and full of textile flowers members had made for me! Amazing.

Most of the flowers have a tag that has a message. Such lovely work! It is hard to say which would be a favourite. Sizes and shapes go from a wee tiny lily-of-the-valley (in the first photo near the bottom left) to huge flowers, one of which has bells in the centre! I am not going to list everything because I might forget someone. 😅

I left the flowers as they were for sometime, not wanting to spoil the look. But eventually I had to get the plant out to water it. So I took some photos with the hope of seeing each flower more clearly.
Please excuse the fuzzy photos. I was seeing double at the time and had to have faith in the camera.

 At the meeting some of the members arranged for us to have 'afternoon tea'. Very lovely tea sets and tea pots, plus yummy cakes to have along with our pack lunch! There were 3 party balloons proclaiming "10"!  I tied one to the basket handle for me and gave the other 2 to Merete Hawkins and Jane Glennie who helped me to start the group all those years ago. Although mine has become a bit shapeless, it is still staying up in the air.

And then another photo with the basket in front and the plant to the side. It was happy to get water, but had, seemingly, felt at home because it had new leaves trying to make their way to the light.

So, finally, I have been able to share with you a very big like!
If you want to see some of the other likes, go to Lee Anna's blog. Even her Poodle Milo talks about what life is like from his point of view!

I like Thankful Thursday

I am rather exhausted...but for good reason. (Sorry, I was that tired, that this post didn't happen!)

I like that this pile in my studio

became this!

Thames Valley Contemporary Textiles Gallery at West Country Quilt and Textile Show.
The exhibition was already getting good comments before we even got most of it up!
Thank you to Jane B and Carol N who worked together with me to get it up. It was a long day. I left here around 8am for the 2hr drive to Bristol. I didn't get home til 8pm!

Also, another like - cheese twills or crisps. Inspired by some of the cooking shows and using up some dairy free cheese which even the men around here think was Very Smelly. When they have been baked, the smell is much more tolerable and they taste very good.
This was a lactose free mature cheddar. You can do this with normal cheddar, too. That is where the original idea started.
before - piles of shredded cheese

after - baked!

Because it was more like normal cheese, it still had a lot of fat that rendered out of it. These have been given to the men who like mature cheese because it is still tooooo strong for me.

The Thoughtful Man has been gardening. These are Hollyhock seeds.

But why they have to hang about by the cooker, I don't know.

I like words and finding out about them. So, palimpsest - this word intrigues me. I know what it means - in a sense - because people use it a lot.

and then it came to mind when I discovered this at the back of one of the rows of galleries at the Bristol Show.
It actually means, according to Wikipedia, a manuscript page, either from a scroll or a book, from which the text has been scraped or washed off so that the page can be reused for another document. I knew about that, too, but I didn't know it had a specific word to describe it. So, now I know about the old meaning and about what the word now describes.

I like getting a chance to meet up with friends we haven't seen for a Long Time! Our friends, visiting from Australia, are here just a short time in the UK, so we decided to share their time with other friends together at church.

No, no one has any connection to potatoes, but I forgot to take a photo! These photos are about making potato salad for the shared meal.
Because it was the day after the exhibition set up you saw at the top, I ended up sitting on the seat of my walker to peel and cut these. I normally don't peel - takes too much time and peelings don't kill you. But this was a special event as we hadn't seen these friends for 7 years!

And so, Friday became the rest day. Including considering some of the ideas which have been coming forward during the summer.

As usual go to LeeAnna's blog to see what others like this week.

4th Plinth - Forced to Flee - Nowhere to Hide

I have finished! (Last week) The little houses made with my adapted box template are stitched together and done!

Inspired by the Artwork: Model for a Hotel (Hotel for Birds) by Thomas Schutte
click on the link to see a variety of images of the sculpture from different sides.

Reason for choosing the art work as inspiration:
The transparent, overlapping colours and the impracticality attracted me.

Forced to Flee - Nowhere to Hide
I am burdened for refugees – South Sudan, Myanmar, etc.
“Here is a tarp and poles. Make your home.”

Documentaries show us people in their desperation. Focus camera on flimsy tents.
Yes, the story must be told!

So, what about their privacy?

Materials and Techniques:
Plastic Document folders used for colour and transparency. Hand quilting thread, hand stitch through layers of the plastic

Adapted box template to resemble my Ramshackle house series. Flimsy house joined together like refugee camps. Open to the elements, transparent. Hiding nothing, revealing all.

-I also added a piece of foam core under the foundation in order to keep the brilliance of the colours. Otherwise, the colour of tables, cloths and so on show through the transparent foundation.

Little boxes

back to making progress on these little boxes.
some times you have to take a bit of time to get brave enough to take the next step!

so... now I am sewing things together.

Green boxes

Green boxes have been cut out.

And a deconstructed template - I decided I like the overlaying of colours, so I am making some boxes that are made up of 2 different colours.

red boxes

Slow but sure.

red cubes cut out.

yellow boxes

more little plastic boxes

yellow

You can begin to see the changes in colour with overlapping. I am not sure how or if I am going to make that a part of this work.

Just to show you my set up to cut the cubes with the scalpel.

Beginning on the red. (and you know I am keeping the popper closures for something they will be just right for in the future!)

I had a question about which Fourth Plinth Sculpture I was using for inspiration.

Here is a photo collection of the ones we could choose from

And now you can perhaps guess.
Model for a Hotel - 2007 designed by the German artist Thomas Schutte
(the architectural model was called Hotel for Birds)

I am glad I read this. Going by the images I have seen, I thought it was just blue, red, yellow. But I also wanted to include green. And it seems this article at least says the piece included green glass.

more boxes

Beginning to cut out more of the little plastic boxes. This time in colour.

I need to make some up properly now so I can figure out the next step for display. I know what is in my head, but I am not sure that is the best solution.

plastic boxes

I have done a bit of sampling to come up with a template that works for what I have in mind using the plastic wallets I showed the other day.

As i said, The next TVCT exhibition will be work inspired by one of the sculptures which has been exhibited on the Fourth Plinth in London's Trafalgar Square.

first a thick card cube using the original template

Next step to lengthen the side opposite to the original long one.

and eventually the proper length

and trying it out in clear plastic

One is nearly right and one is right. I scored the foldlines with the scalpel I used to cut the boxes.
Now to get on with making the rest.
I also need to sample ideas for display
and to see if there would be a door or window,
and if it wants someone or something inside.

I like Thankful Thursday

I like that I can just go back to bed when the fibro weariness takes over. and even better that I actually feel up to doing stuff since I got up again!

I like TVCT.
I run a large textile art group. We meet 4 times a year. So, on Saturday the Thames Valley Contemporary Textile group met up. So lovely to chat with different ones and catch up.
Also, a good talk from Hazel and Terry from InStitches. I had asked them to talk about the professional journey they have taken to develop the business and get a studio space for delivering the In Stitches Creative Textile Courses.

I like that they actually hit the brief! I have all ranges of ladies at different levels of the artistic journey. I want to challenge the ladies who are more experienced. But up to now, most of the speakers I ask to talk about the business side end up talking more about their work because they think the members would be bored. Ok, generally their artistic journey is interesting and inspiring. But not what I asked for!

And it wasn't boring! wow, gives you a different perspective to what is behind their wonderful teaching studio. Some, like me, decide to be content not to go that route at all. But I have already had one lady say that she eventually wants to do a business, so found the talk very helpful. But also then asked me for advice on how to get going on the learning and experience of the type of textile work she wants to do. I like being an encourager! She has a young son and limited income now, but I was able to tell her how I 'gathered' info and experience when I was in a similar situation...like you would gather materials for something you wanted to make.

So, also I liked watching people as they got excited about the workshop. With a group this size, it is usually only a taster sort of workshop, but I had asked for something about design. This being one of the things most people feel they don't know enough about. So, the members loved it!

Doing a bit of mark making

  

a bit of colour added

and then folded into a booklet.

The booklet was a brilliant idea because having a page of marks and colour is one thing, but where to go from there. So, to have it cut and folded down into a book means the marks made look totally different and more inspiring.
Cool!

To see more of what others like check out LeeAnna's blog.