Basket Case?

Baskets are on my mind at present...mainly because I'm having a Domestic Goddess moment...or two... I'm tired of being so disorganised.  So, instead of a clutter beside my chair in the living room, I now have two large baskets.  One of them is full of wool tops, yarn and threads, all of which have been untangled (so there!); the other has all sorts of bits and pieces, including the things I'm finishing off at the moment, mainly phone cases and felt things like little brooches.  And an increasing amount of hand work.  Propped up beside them are a couple of large lino blocks, which I intend to carve over the next day or so, to make hand printed Christmas cards, and perhaps little books, too.  So, I'm tidied; just need the discipline to make myself tidy up every night before bed.  I'm thoroughly looking forward to being able to find things.  Well, okay...some things, sometimes...

As we get towards the end of the year, I find myself wondering what's next.  After a lot of careful thought, I've decided not to teach at Festival of Quilts next year, though I have signed up to do a couple of shows with Grosvenor (Spalding and Harrogate, if you were wondering).  Basically, I just can't afford to subsidise my attendance there.   I'm seriously thinking about giving up art for public consumption.  It's great being considered inspirational, and all that, but it doesn't pay for paint.  People tell me they love my workshops, take the information away and ... nothing happens...  I've given this my best shot, and perhaps now, it's time to recognise that I've failed.

The One That Got Away...

... or OTGA, as it is likely to be known forever, now, complete with crease, which I'll have to iron out.  I love the shape, though, so it got to be a small piece all by itself.  I was working on a piece to demonstrate just how interesting it is to work with a single shape, to get to know it (part of the FOQ workshop I've been banging on about here.  This is the actual piece;

The OTGA should have been in the top motif, but somehow I missed it.  I'm actually rather glad I did, because the other two motifs have three elements, and it would have been unbalanced if the top one had had four.  This will be one of the exercises we work through during the workshop.

I have a very simple rule in my workshops... participants can't get anything 'wrong'.  I'm really looking forward to seeing the variants that will come out of this exercise.  It's very much unfinished; it desperately needs stitch, and the addition of line.  But that's something we'll talk about in the workshop, I think...though I will probably work today on the OTGA, just so that we can see that it's possible!  I've been thinking about working in this way for some time, as I have masses of drawings that are really lines creating shapes.  (Yes, I know, that's how drawing usually works... but I'm talking about non representational drawing, random lines creating random shapes.  These pieces are coming out of that thought process, albeit in an altered way.  I love it when that happens.

If you would like to come and play with us at FOQ, there are still spaces available; check out the timetable here 

PS.  The background of both pieces is made from hand dyed cotton; the motif, from hand dyed lutradur.

More To Monoprinting...

...than meets the eye.  I usually monoprint with ink, fabric paint or transfer paints, but today, for some unknown reason, I decided to monoprint with transfer dye, instead.  In case you're wondering, the difference (as they used to say on a long defunct advert) is in the thickness; transfer paints are thicker than transfer dyes.  I'm really rather pleased with the results.  The paper I'm using is newsprint, my paper of choice for working with transfer dyes and paints, as it is thin and therefore doesn't hold onto as much of the dye as a thicker paper might.  And here are the end results, with one or two painted papers mixed in.

These are, as you can see, fairly large papers, so the monoprinting process was done, not on glass, or my favourite plastic, but direct onto the surface of a picnic table; worked a treat.  Here's a closer look at one of the prints.

Monoprinting has to be the simplest form of printing, and the most direct.  However, there is, I believe, more to it than meets the eye when you're working in textile.  The six million dollar question for me is, where is the stitch going to go?  There has to be room for stitch in your design; if it looks absolutely perfect without stitch, then it probably is, and you should leave it be.  If it's really ornate and fiddly, there might also not be room for stitch.  So I like to keep my monoprinting simple, and try to remember that this is not the end of the process, but rather, the beginning.

The other half-day workshop I'm teaching at FOQ is on monoprinting (Friday and Sunday).  I've been working on some small samples to show my pupils, and to hang on the stand, as well as making up monoprint kits to sell.  The workshop is called 'Monoprint Magic'.  So, what's the magic?  Well, that would be telling...you'll just have to come and take part, to find out!

The One .err...Two...That Got Away...

No, I haven't been fishing.  Heaven forfend.  But I have been transfer dyeing lutradur to turn it into samples for my workshops and stand at Festival Of Quilts.  Yes, it's a bit late in the day, but as you know, I've been battling demons for the past two years.  The good news seems to be that I've turned a corner, and feel well for the first time in a long time.  So, I'm applying myself with gusto, to make sure that I'm really well prepared to teach and demonstrate.  It's the first time I've done this under my own steam, having demonstrated for Colourcraft in the past.  It's scary, and a big risk.  This kind of thing is Very Expensive, and I haven't been making much in the way of money recently; illness will do that to one, especially a self employed one.  But I'll be bringing books, kits and myself, to show you what I'm up to, and hopefully encourage you to try some of it for yourself.

Anyway.... yesterday, I painted a lot of papers.  Some of them are monoprints, like the red heart shape, others are painted pretty much at random, mostly intended for colouring lutradur for beads.  So far so good, huh?   The monoprints are fine.  It was when I looked at the results of the random painting, that the trouble started.  I liked them.  They were interesting.  This is the first one;

And what I saw, was a landscape.  Rats.  Fortunately, I was able to cut off one of the prints (I got four, which I merged into each other to make a long piece of cloth).  Well, okay, it was really two of the prints, because I saw a landscape with a tree in it.  So far so good, huh?  The second piece of cloth, I thought, was much simpler.  I saw a sunset, in an individual print, so I cut it off, thinking that I now had lots of multicolour cloth to cut up for beads...good, right?  So I squared up to it on the cutting mat and.... couldn't...  

Now those of you who have met me in person will know that one of my mantras is, cut it, there will be a better bit along in a minute....   But I really can't bring myself to cut this up...so I'll have to see what it suggests.  I usually have Much More Willpower Than This when it comes to cloth.  Clearly I'm Going Soft.  Telling myself I can hang it in my booth, doesn't really help, either....  Ah well. These things happen.  Sometimes.  Cough.  Oh well, back to the beads...

ps in case you're wondering what I'm teaching, it involves pretty postcards, lutradur beads, monoprinting and a wee bit of appliqué (or cloth) design...  hope I'll get to meet some of you in Birmingham this year.