Last weekend I was in Belfast and got to see 'Fabrication' exhibition from Girli Concrete. The samples shown were a hybrid of textiles and concrete. Some even reminded me of fossils! Great to see something that is usually thought of as dull and ugly (concrete) take on real beauty when combined with textiles. Definitely worth a visit if you can!Also I have just posted my knitted strip for the Yarn Forward project in Manchester. They aim to cover the banister of the Manchester Craft and Design with knitted & crocheted strips from around the world. I picked some neon brights from my yarn stash to create a stripey strip reminiscent of opal fruits! (... or should I say starbursts :)
Yesterday I attended the Creative Stitches show at the SECC. I saw a lot of inspiring works, met some very talented people and had to resist the temptation to spend far too much money! I brought World Textiles: a visual guide to traditional techniques book that I had been lusting after. I attended a Lucet workshop, and brought an advanced luceting pack - I do like a traditional viking craft! I saw the wonderful work from the National Needlework Archive's Poetry in Stitches 2 exhibition. This has made me start thinking of a poem that I could interpret through stitch... the deadline isn't till 2011! And finally I got to see the fantastic Shaun the Sheep Great British Pic-Knit!
I have been looking at my sketchbook to create design ideas from my drawings. One sketch I did was of an Indian elephant that a friend gave me. Further to the original sketch I created a black elephant silhouette and placed it on a pastel background, based on the patterns on the elephant. I then played around with this image in paint.net. It is interesting to see how the effects change the mood.
I particularly like the first one (inverted colours) and the psychedelic feel of the last one (polar inversion).
My aim for February is to draw everyday. So far, so good, I have really noticed an improvement already. However tonight I really didn't feel like getting out the pencils. Instead I had a play around on a Bamboo one tablet. This really is quite a fancy gadget. It comes with a drawing program called Art Rage, which is quite simple to use (you can use it with other applications of course). Art Rage has surprisingly realistic spray paint, oil paint, watercolour etc functions, which are certainly good fun to use (and no brushes to clean either!). For the picture above I drew a reed leaf hieroglyphic shape, creating a stencil, and used the spray painting icon. The gold foil background was chosen to suit. Obviously much more complex work can be done on it, this is only the beginning!
I have just finished reading this book '5000 years of textiles' edited by Jennifer Harris. This book has over 300 pages, with fascinating pictures, of textiles from all over the world, from prehistory to the 1990s. The photos show examples of varied, intricate and inspiring work. Whilst the text explains how the textiles were made, traded and valued. A great resource that I'm sure I will use time and time again.
Today is my partners 30th Birthday! I had seen this cross stitch chair pattern in the magazine Sew Hip, and thought it could make a great card for him. The cross stitch was quite simple to do, with clear instructions and it only required 3 colours (although it did require me to cross stitch in secret!). I then brought some blue stiff paper, cut a hole and voila... the card is finished!
I particularly like the first one (inverted colours) and the psychedelic feel of the last one (polar inversion).
Hello, I have been busy drawing, everything & anything. I am starting to see real improvements in the quality of my drawing (and so modest too!). Here are some preliminary sketches, notes & even some mocked up paper beads I made on based three necklaces.
I then worked up a few larger pictures in different media. The picture above is using watercolour paints, coloured pencils and oil pastels.
And here is a collage I made based on one of the necklaces. This is probably my favorite recent piece, though excuse the dodgy camera work! It is made from coloured paper, tissue paper and oil pastels. Still lots more to do before the next posting (as ever!), am looking forward to playing (and getting very messy) with textile paints in the next week of two!
I have just finished reading this book '5000 years of textiles' edited by Jennifer Harris. This book has over 300 pages, with fascinating pictures, of textiles from all over the world, from prehistory to the 1990s. The photos show examples of varied, intricate and inspiring work. Whilst the text explains how the textiles were made, traded and valued. A great resource that I'm sure I will use time and time again.
Today is my partners 30th Birthday! I had seen this cross stitch chair pattern in the magazine Sew Hip, and thought it could make a great card for him. The cross stitch was quite simple to do, with clear instructions and it only required 3 colours (although it did require me to cross stitch in secret!). I then brought some blue stiff paper, cut a hole and voila... the card is finished!
