New Bundles Awaiting the Big Reveal!

Ooo the anticipation. I do hope I am not disappointed ….

Wrapped Dye Bundles

Creating Collograph Plates

Have really enjoyed making these Collograph plates based on my French landscapes. Hope they work when printed. Fingers crossed.

Landscape Collograph Plate

Can I Borrow Your Boro?

Fabulous Japanese Boro on show at Somerset House. Very rare opportunity to see so many of these unique textiles in one place.

Boro is a traditional method of patching used by poor people who increased the longevity of bed covers etc by repairing them with small patches of cotton. Dealers collected such scraps from shipped deliveries and sold them on to those who needed them. The limited colour range is due to the restriction of hues people were allowed to wear. Only the rich and the high ranking we entitled to brighter coloured clothing.

Solar Printing Fun

Great fun with Susan Erskine-Jones making Solar Prints from one of my water-colour sketches in Surieu, France.

Will be good to see how I can use these with my naturally-dyed textiles.

Woof Woof – Samples Inspired by my Bark Studies

Knitted Bark

Patchwork Bark

Couched Bark

Discharge Printed Bark

Machine Embroidered Bark

Big Girls Can Spirograph Too – 2

Systems Project – layers of printed Spirograph Designs!

Big Girls Can Spirograph Too!

Problem – soooo many pics that my backup external hard drive is getting perilously full.
Solution – a new hard drive to store just my photos (you thought I was going to have a massive cull didn’t you?}
Confession – did delete a few but not enough to create significant additional space!
Confession 2 – Magpie tendencies run in the family – my Sister, Mum and Dad developed this to Degree Level!

JOY – have discovered some of my early Spirograph Designs which led to the pieces I have been sharing with you
Problem 2 – more Spirography now added to my To Do List!

Spirograph for Grown Ups

HAPPY ACCIDENTS

My Foundation Diploma show developed from designs I made using a Spirograph and the wonderful discovery that ‘mistakes’ can be beautiful too.  My Tutor, Lee, was pleased that I had finally broken my Virgo-led tendency towards perfection!

These versions are created using a range of string and twine.

String and Twine Spiral

String and Twine Spirals

String and Twine Spiral Display

Eco Dyeing Heaven

Spent a fantastic morning with Jenny Leslie improving my Eco Dyeing techniques. Jenny was extremely helpful and had lots of advice (some of it direct from her course with India Flint – sooo jealous).

The anticipation during unwrapping is great!

Unwrapping the bundles

More unwrapping

Anyway here are the initial results – not yet washed out so hope they don’t fade too much – very happy with them, although may need to re-dye to turquoise scarf for more contrast/colour.

Cotton with copper mordant and Eucalypus overdyed

Cotton with milk mordant and Blackberry Leaves

Dyed scarf with Blackberry Leaf overdyed

Silk scarf with ornamental eucalyptus

More Drawings from France

Here are some more of the drawings I produced on my painting holiday to Sutrieu in the Ain Mountains, near to the Swiss border.

You can view the results at my shows during the Bedfordshire Arts Trail and Hertfordshire Open Studios, during September.

I look forward to seeing you.

More textures

French Fields near Sutrieu

More fields near Sutrieu

French Fields near to Sutrieu