Sunday 5 December 2010

Plans ruined!

I spent the whole November preparing for the Advent Fairs I planned to attend, just be become very ill before the first one would have taken place. But not only that, also the weather crossed my plans and all the events got cancelled. Good thing is that this gave me time to recover without feeling too bad about my lost opportunity to exhibit my work. Oh well, that's life!

On the other side I had the great possibility to attend two courses with the local arts development team. The first course was 'Printed ceramics' and we had lots of techniques to try out. I loved it a lot. I made some work with clay which I have done in the past but I'm always surprised about the effect it has on me. I feel so calm and content while working with clay. Superb! The second course was a bookbinding course over a week end. I managed to do around 10 books altogether. I learned some different techniques of stab binding. And we properly bound a book, working with buckram and hand printed end papers from 1940's. This work is so addictive, unbelievable! So you see I had a fabulous time with these courses. I think part of the fun was that there was no pressure and I did it just because I love to learn new things and have my hands busy. Some of the other group members have been difficult to bear for me. There have been a few individuals who used the courses to exhibit themselves without really contributing to the course content itself. Me who mostly works alone or tries not to boast about her work because it's just silly. I found that very distracting during the course because it feels that these people waste precious time. But well, that's life again, I guess!

Monday 1 November 2010

First assignment back

I got my first assignment back on Saturday. My tutor was very positive which was nice. She encouraged me to sketch more bold. At first I didn't know what she meant but then I looked again at my work from her perspective and understood where she was coming from. I tend to sketch very lightly, sometimes going over a line more than once. She liked my final sample! All in all I think I got a fairly good feedback so I'm pleased!

On another note I'm busy with lots of felting right now as there is Christmas coming up. Also I got another commission from Germany. I will send some sketches first as the lady has already some really good ideas.

Wednesday 1 September 2010

Finding inspiration on holiday


We stayed in an old french country house and they preserved some of the original windows and tiles.

Tuesday 31 August 2010

Finding inspiration on holiday








We have been to France and enjoyed the High Alps. These pictures are taken during walks. There are rocks, stones and boulders. Interesting moss and the torrent coming from the glacier. Rocks and stones.

Friday 18 June 2010

Project 2 - Stage 1


Now my attempts at hand embroidery. I tried to include as many different embroidery stitches as possible as well as different types of materials of thread like yarn, embroidery yarn, silk and cord. I know the flowers and butterfly motif isn't really creative but I started very unintentionally and that is what was flowing out of my needle. Some of the stitches have been new to me and I had to practice first. This was really fun and such a calming and feel good thing to do!

Monday 14 June 2010

Book Review


This book is beautiful. The layout, the pictures, the inspirations. It is divided in three parts for the different colours red, white and blue. This is traditional french embroidery explained and simplified. Loads of small project, beautiful little craft gems. The instructions are clear and easy to follow and the presentation helps along. The only minus point I would have is that some of the motifs are just plain or inappropriate, like Father Christmas for example. There is nothing french heirloom about that.

So when I bought this book (online, therefore I didn't really know what to expect) I was very much looking forward to some traditional embroidery patterns and motifs. It's not quite like that but really the colour combinations and the play with plain is most beautiful. I think I will use this as an inspiration and will work it out with mixed media like print and stitch.

Saturday 29 May 2010

Friday 28 May 2010

Project 2 - Stage 1


Stitches! The theme of the project will be to translate our marks into stitches. We got the task to raid our material first and sort it into colour themed bags - red, blue and greens, white, earth colours, yellows and orange, white, black. I have loads of material and everything is in a special order so I skipped this task for now. I just can't afford the time to rearrange my work place and can't afford to occupy even more space in the study without risking a major row with my dear ones. Anyway, I started with stitches with the sewing machine. To be honest, even that was a decision I made with my tight time schedule in mind. But I got carried away and made some nice little embroideries or drawings on fabric or doodles. I used a few decorative stitches from my machine but love the normal stitch the most.

The yellow shape is said normal stitch. I need to find out hoe it will be to do loads of rows beside each other, maybe altering the colour or change direction ever so slightly. Exciting!
The red shape is free machine embroidery with the special foot and no transport. You can see how the fabric is puckering which is nicest effect. I didn't use a loop but my hands so the fabric was not that tight. I really like the pulling of fabric and the texture I achieved (unexpectedly!).

Thursday 27 May 2010

Project 1 - Stage 4


This is the last part of project 1 and will be finished with this evaluation of my progress so far. There is a set of questions I had to contemplate - my achievements, about the work and the medias used, about new skills, about fears, questions that rose and things that I discovered or want to develop more.

Wednesday 26 May 2010

Project 1 - Stage 4


Still finding different ways to express textures...

Saturday 22 May 2010

Project 1 - Stage 4

For this stage I have to work from my sketchbooks and works up till now. I chose a few of them and did some exercise of the texture of my work.



Inspiring Photos - Textures



Friday 21 May 2010

Project 1 - Stage 2 - Exercise 1 and 2


The task was to create surface texture with marks. First of all choose an image, then apply a viewing frame 8cm by 8cm and choose an area of the image. I chose a painting of Friedensreich Hundertwasser and tried to re-create the texture with different medias like wax crayons and blocks and lead pencils. I looked at the picture and concentrated on different aspects: left top was colour distribution, below left the dark light contribution, top right the texture on a first sight like direction and strength, right below the overall colour scheme.


Then we have been asked to look around and find interesting textures and sketch them down. No lingering! You see a glass lamp, basketry in two pictures and the regular pattern of our radiators.

Thursday 20 May 2010

Project 1 - Stage 2 - Exercise 4


The last one for this stage. I played around with my materials again. I used the plant colours again, but added cornstarch to thicken it. That looked nice, but once it dried it started peeling off. Then underneath was a surprise - unexpected new colours! I did some wax resist, blowing the paint with a straw, made soap bubbles and used salt to create interesting surfaces.

Wednesday 19 May 2010

Thoughts

The sample of Project 1 will be done with embroidery. I have a fairly good idea what exercise from my work I want to do and it's with machine embroidery. Though today I did some more research and came across a fantastic textile art webpage - one of the best resources I have seen so far. I would like to incorporate some couching and some hand embroidery. Just fabulous what's possible, even more now that I have a proper reason to play with my materials. Ha!

Tuesday 18 May 2010

Project 1 - Stage 2 - Exercise 4


The mentioned book about flowers in water colours on one side and some beloved company on the other I attempted to do some painting exercises. Now I really love flowers and I make them out of textiles but not really so much in paintings. The six images on the left are done with water colours, the ones on the right with acrylic colours. This was my least favourite exercise by far. Still I think I learned a lot. You need to have a good eye for form and colour nuances to bring flowers to life. The water colours are better to work with as you can layer them to bring depths and natural shades. It was difficult not to make it too symmetric for example. So is was hard work but worth it.

Thursday 13 May 2010

Thoughts

At the end of the course there will be a theme book I have to create and I'm already collecting ideas and inspirations. For example two weeks ago I was driving down to Edinburgh and it was quite a nice day with blue sky and sunshine. On this long drive and during a traffic jam just before the Forth Road Bridge allowed me to admire all kind of clouds and cloud formations. So 'clouds' ended up in my notes amongst others.

Tuesday 11 May 2010

Book Review

I bought the book that's mostly recommended in the course materials - 'The New Textiles' by Chloe Colchester.
This book is firstly printed 1991 and then re-printed a few times. I think some of the textile art appears a bit outdated though. Nevertheless quite amazing pictures. I wish they would describe how they made some of the effects. This book is more about art history and the artists. I do believe that it will come in handy when I'm further with course if alone to use it as source of inspiration.

Saturday 8 May 2010

Thoughts

I went to the library to get a scoop of craft books. Unfortunately there wasn't much. I will need to go to the main library in town then. I have seen on their catalogue that they have loads of what I could need. Anyway, I brought back one book about painting flowers with water colours and decided to do one A3 sheet with flowers only.

Thursday 6 May 2010

Thoughts

I really like this exercises. Playing with paints and all the materials is very fun. I feel like I could go on and on. I can really imagine using this later as inspirations for textile samples. Exciting!

Wednesday 5 May 2010

Project 1 - Stage 2 - Exercise 3 and 4


Exercise 3 and 4 - continues from the last post. I played with all materials that came to my mind: Plant colours, wax crayons, water paintable wax crayon, ink, water colours, soft pastels, oil pastels, handmade paper, tissue paper, glue, thread, felting wool, felted wool, acrylic paint.

I tried different techniques: painting, printing, sponging, finger painting, ink writing, rubbing, scratching, splashing, rub throughs, resist, collages with materials, printing with tissue paper, bubble wrap, cling foil, colour blowing, coloured soap bubbles... and still going on!

Tuesday 4 May 2010

Project 1 - Stage 2 - Exercise 3 and 4


Exercise 3 and 4 - continues from the last post. I played with all materials that came to my mind: Plant colours, wax crayons, water paintable wax crayon, ink, water colours, soft pastels, oil pastels, handmade paper, tissue paper, glue, thread, felting wool, felted wool, acrylic paint.


I tried different techniques: painting, printing, sponging, finger painting, ink writing, rubbing, scratching, splashing, rub throughs, resist, feathers, stencils, collages with materials, printing with tissue paper, bubble wrap, cling foil, colour blowing, coloured soap bubbles... and still going on!


Sunday 2 May 2010

Project 1 - Stage 2 - Exercise 2 and 3

Exercise 2 was about light - dark drawings. Again I used the stencil and different pencils.


Exercise 3 is a big one. It's a repetition of the first one but this time we can use every material we like: all kinds of pens, colours, crayons, sponges, etc and all kinds of paper. That should be very exciting. I started with colour crayons.

Saturday 1 May 2010

Thoughts

I'm still not much further with my decisions what kind of learning documentation to choose, really! So far I document as much as I think is appropriate here, then I collect my exercises in a dedicated sketchbook, I write a personal diary with thoughts and scribbles, I will make big scale sketches on A3 paper, I will probably have another sketchbook for daily use and ...? It's seems so much and different kinds that I fear to loose a cohesive way of work. Then again as we have to send our work away I quite fancy the idea of not mixing course work and all my other work.

I really need someone taking my hand for some first steps.

Thursday 29 April 2010

Thoughts

I'm struggling a bit with this learning log thingy...

What am I supposed to do? Which way is the better way? Which way is my way?

As the instructions give much room for working out your own way of working I'm inclined to just do how I would do it normally but I feel I should give myself a scheme to hold on: for better practice, for discipline, for bad times, for too bubbly times.

Now this blog seemed such a good idea to preserve and present my work, but I miss the easy scribbling and jotting down you can do in a notebook. Then again I really have to put thoughts and form into it when I publish here. Any thoughts from you?

Wednesday 28 April 2010

Project 1 - Stage 2 - Exercise 1

I'm busy with project 1 - Making marks.

Stage 1 - make a stencil with a cut out 8 cm by 8cm. I chose a rough circle. With a HB2 pencil I was creating marks with a list of given words in mind. I just went on doing different things with the pen. That's was a nice thing to do, very relaxing somehow.



Tuesday 27 April 2010

Why am I doing Texile 1?

Why do I want to do Textile 1 and what do I hope to achieve?

I'm working with textile since a long time and I enjoy it thoroughly. Starting a proper art course is mainly meant to challenge myself and to widen my horizon. It's pure interest in learning and gaining more or better skills.

I would like to achieve a certain lightness in trying things without having this urge to find a practicable use for it. So one could say a more artistic approach to my textile work.

Saturday 24 April 2010

Open College of Arts

This is where I'm studying: OCA
and this is the course I'm doing right now: Textiles 1

The next thing will be to gather all my materials and working books, researching the catalog of the library for some of the recommended books or otherwise purchase some and most important get in touch with my tutor.

Friday 23 April 2010

Particolo's premiere

This is particolo's premiere and my first step as a Textile Arts student with OCA. Fabrics, fibres, threads and trash - here I come!