Camp Creative

 Tee shirt printed from the silk-screen

 Prints from the silk-screen onto white cotton.

Prints onto a blue/grey fabric that once were curtains in my campervan.

The group of us who were camping all decorated a silk-screen that we then printed from, using gorgeous gold ink, onto bright pink tee shirts!

It's like we've all joined a cult!

The fabric I printed will be used in future textile collages; probably appear in an August/September Moon piece. And some others, I imagine. 

Collogaphy Prints on re-purposed silks

Using the silk from a sample book I rescued from a skip, I printed from one of my collography plates. 
A recent experiment of mine was to make a direct print from a chunk of wood in my garden. It's drying in the studio.  

Tee-shirt commission

So I was asked to print a tee-shirt; a paid commission. Course, it's done on 'mate's rates' which means the cost in no way came close to the amount of time it took me; but that doesn't matter.
Above is the completed design...sideways on. All hand stitched...I couldn't get to my sewing machine, due to various furniture being moved around. And hand-printed.

Close-up of the print, and some stitching detail. I printed from a collagraph plate I made a while ago. It had feather, and seed-heads on it, which you can see has been picked out in the foreground of this photo.

This blue fabric is from a pack of rather wierd and wonderful fabric....which is somehow impregnated by chemicals that make 'photograms'. You place objects, or made stencils, on top of the fabric; leave out in the sun, and you get this change of colour. Solar printing I believe it's called. Took me back to the days of doing black and white photography in my loft!
The tee has ended up with 2 methods of printing; and hand-stitching used on it. I have more pieces of this fabric, so I'll be making some stencils, that I can use on them, in different permutations.  

seeds

A collograph print on silk. Fabric paint.
This was used by Arts Hub Wakefield as their FaceBook banner picture earlier in March. They're using a series of different artists' work each week, to display the range of creativity around Wakefield.
Positive comments; which is always nice!
I'm still in the process of feeding my creative soul at the moment, so not much going on. But the pomegranate dye-pot I made before xmas, to use with a group of young people, is not quite exhausted yet, so I keep popping bits of fabric in. And I put a folded and clamped piece of silk into a dye-pot of tea/bags...easy-peasy to do. Will show the results of that later.
Currently, I have a white cotton top that I was given, bound up, and straddling both dye-pots.....should be an interesting result! If it comes out a disaster, I can simply cut it up, and not bother wearing it. However....I'm hoping it comes out some kind of pattern that is wearable. I love these experiments in the alchemical kitchen!
Meantime; there's art to look at!

Happy New Year - 2015

The Christmas Cactus came out on Christmas Day, so that was a good harbinger.
I spent a lovely xmas and New Year with family and friends.
And I'm still in the place of 'resting'.
Of letting things settle; of feeding my creative soul before I start the next artwork.
I am hoping to continue with my ideas of making collagraphy 'plates', and printing them in the mangle I was given in the summer. I've done one experimental print; below.

For speed I used acrylic paint, rather than printing inks. I just wanted a quick result, to see how the mangle would work.
I think it's worked quite well; and there's a lot of potential. My friend Berenice and I went to Spurn Point on the coast, earlier in the year (2014) and collected bags of found treasures! I hope to use these to make collography plates; and experiment with prints made from them. 
In the meantime, the stitching won't end. There'll just be a different direction. I'm looking forward to it. It feels like the recent past is wrapped up and boxed away. But things are different. My life is moving in another direction. So this is a good time to post this print.
And wish you all the best for 2015. X 

'bandaged heart'

 Close up; the 'heart' with loose threads.

 The complete piece. It's turned out like a small cushion.....so for the exhibition in November, I'm thinking to put it onto a chair, and just hope no-one sits on it!

I printed onto a bandage, and stitched the fabric/s together.

Layers; and stuffed with quilting fibre.

Then stitched onto denim, as the background fabric. 

This was one day in spring, in the very early stages of making, when the sun shone in through the studio door, and illuminated the procian dyed polyester! You can see the texture of the bandage more clearly in this photo.

the mother-of-all-dye

Silk dyed with cow-parsley flowers, from last summer. A delicate yellow. Hard to remember the beautiful hot summer we had in 2013, when we're having such a wet, dreary winter.
I've printed onto it, using the collography plate I've made; I'm using it on a lot of the 'samples' I'm stitching currently. The darker area, has come from some bleeding through from a fabric I dyed with procian dye. I like the random-ness of it. It's just sitting there, waiting for the next idea. It's unknown; a mystery.

Dug out from the pile of detritus behind the compost bins.....a lovely post finial; at least I think that's what it is? I've nowt to attach it to, so it's sitting beside the door to my studio, looking pretty. It's ceramic, and a wee bit chipped at the top, but still looks nice.

rend & mend #4

Completed.

rend & mend #3

This is just about completed now. The close-ups show the stitching nicely I think.

rend & mend #2

Throughout December I've been stitching this. I cut up the Rend & Mend collography print (printed on rust and woad dyed cotton), and added black reclaimed silk and plant-dyed silk pieces. Then proceeded to seed stitch over the surface. 
I've also been thinking and designing some small pieces. They're still in the early stages.
I may incorporate some beautiful wool fabric (tweed?) that came to me from my dad, via Rob. It's old; my dad was going to have it made up into a suit, many decades ago. He never did get that suit, so mum gave it to Rob when my dad died. And Rob never got that suit; so it's come to me. There's loads of it, so I've given some away; and could quite fancy a skirt, or pair of trousers made from the remainder! Meantime; I've got a lot of wool to use for my fabric work.

'Irene's Emporium'

Last weekend I spent the day on a stall, selling hand-printed cards, prints, postcards, Xmas tree decorations; plus various bric-a-brac items. Some of the bric-a-brac I'd carried home with me from mum's house, perfumes etc.....not opened or used I hasten to add!

And I made a wee 'tree' to hang my fabric tree decorations onto; trying to make for a festive atmosphere! What I didn't sell, I'm sending to people instead of Xmas cards. Some are in the post right now.
My friend Jill had a stall; and I spent my takings on some lovely 'croched bunting'! Which will go in campervan Blanche soon.

rend and mend

I've been playing with creating another collograph plate; this time printed onto the fabric I wrapped around the rusty pole, then over-dyed with woad. There's plenty of cotton fabric; it's an old, worn, sheet. So this is the first print; a small experimental print.
Now, I have to think what to do with it next. My feeling is to cut it into strips, and stitch other fabrics in between the strips.
Rend, and mend.
I've printed this onto some wallpaper from a sample book; that's come out interesting too. Just done that today, so I'm waiting for them to dry.
It's lovely sitting in my studio with the light going, and dusk drawing in. Sometimes Poppy, one of the cats, comes and sits outside, crying at me to let her in. And we sit there, enjoying being together, and watching the light fall.
I was out in the garden over the weekend, clearing round, sweeping up the leaves; and I'm on with the big houseclean all ready for the xmas holidays. It's going to be a strange one this year; no Lucy; no mum; no Ann. I'm trying to have no expectations, and just go with whatever happens. The weather forecast says snow is on the way. Oh well; go with the snow/flow.

printing

Collography; playing with paper, water, plate ink. Experiment. Tentative steps.

sample #2

The second sample I've completed for the City & Guilds course. It's made on a piece of re-cycled silk, a sleeve from a shirt. It was dyed with tea-bags, then printed onto it by transfer paint. Further embellishments were wool corded on (at the top) seed stitching (in the centre) and a strip of rust-dyed silk (at the bottom).

And here is a close up of those seed stitches. I seem to be quite obsessed with this stitch! Not sure why; but I suspect I like the way I can almost freewheel stitch! Can put the needle where I want, then step back, and add, or remove. In this way, it feels a bit like painting? Mark-making.

collograph & water colour

I decided to colour one of my collograph prints on paper using water colours. I'm thinking about whether to add stitches later. Undecided as yet.