Some work we've been doing

The things we make in our time together and the things we make on our own at home are always interesting to see. You can see how different we all are, in the things we like to make.

You know Helen will be embroidering, probably on rug canvas.

 

She was working on this a few weeks back.  She said, "just don't ask me what it will be when it's finished". So we didn't. I  guess we'll find out in due course.

 



It was Robin's last meeting with us, as she's moving away soon. We'll miss her!

She was knitting, as she loves to do. This time, it was an intarsia jacket from the Jane Slicer-Smith book, Swing Swagger Drape.

Cindy was embroidering on paper. She likes to work in a mixed media kind of way, often involving paper. 

The piece is part of a collaborative work we're making for an exhibition. You'll see the various parts in due course, when they come in to us in March, and then the finished work. in April.

Carol loves all things shiny. This time, she was incising metal shim as an experiment.

She thinks it might be a book cover later on. Or maybe just a sample.

It certainly gives a gorgeous effect!





Nola was putting together her journal for the exhibition work she made late last year. Yes, usually you would do the journal as you go! But she had been keeping an online log throughout the process, and this was assembling the log and her samples into a visual record of her process. It's more useful to use in the future in this format than as a computer log, though the log is easier to keep as she goes.

Cindy brought along some sketchbooks she's using for an online course with Linda and Laura Kemshall. It's strongly focused on drawing but in a mixed media context.

They're gorgeous, aren't they?

Nola showed us some sample prints she'd made, on paper and cloth, exploring the possibilities of the foam board print plate.

This one was a three-colour print on cloth, experimenting with overlays to create shadows. The weave of the cloth is also a visible feature, as the print is only about 15cm x 10xm (6in x 4in).

We had very few postcards to swap, because we were all working hard on our collaborative work.

This one was made by Maz. 
 
It's hand stitched onto a cloth background, with the edges turned over a card base.

Cindy layered fabric strips and machine- stitched them down with fancy stitches. She added an applique butterfly created wit hand stitch.

The edges were machine satin stitched with variegated thread.

Next time, more about Habitation...

Australia Day

Fibrecircle's second meeting fell the day before the Australia Day holiday. We went ahead anyway but quite a few members were away making the most of the extra-long weekend.

Nola showed us the Flying Geese quilt she's been making for quite a while, from signature blocks she swapped with Southern Cross Quilters back in the late nineties. The top is about 2/3 done and will be a queen size quilt when it's finished.

What a great piece of her history!

Helen was working on a piece of canvas embroidery. Yes, that's such a surprise, isn't it? We love these gorgeous birds!

It's for a challenge in another group she belongs to. She's just at the start, so I expect you'll see more of it later.

We didn't take a photo of what Maz was working on this time, sorry!

Maz and Helen swapped postcards, as we usually do.  Here's Maz's:

She thinks the background fabric was probably coloured with transfer printing. which she embellished with hand embroidery. She added wadding behind it and a piece of card, with a backing of calico.

And here's Helen's:

Helen made it late last year, and she said, "it's so long since I made it, I haven't the faintest idea what I did!" The thinks the background was probably a monoprint with acrylic paint on cotton fabric, which she embroidered "to embellish it". The acrylic paint made is quite hard to stitch through, but made the cloth itself quite robust. She added card for extra stiffening, with a paper backing.

They actually look a little bit similar, don't they?

We talked about how any cards we now have, and decided we needed to have a playday making or extending our postcard storage. I'm sure you'll see the wonderful ideas we come up with!

Our next meeting is... tomorrow, when we'll be sharing our first journals or works of the year based on our 2016 theme, Habitation. We hope to be blogging a bit more promptly from now on this year.

And a few more things we've been doing...

Cindy has been drawing  a lot recently. She's been doing an online class but, as we all know, the trick to being this good is to draw a lot and keep on drawing!

Aren't these wonderful?

Helen has been stitching things for Lateral Stitchers challenges:

The Laterals challenges have all been in this square format for a while now. I guess it makes them easy to display!

Here's a book that Robin made, in a Linda Green workshop recently:

 

 

It has maps for some pages - very interesting memento of her travels!

She also took a Chinese Brush Painting class with Maggie Cross at West Dean College, in West Sussex, UK.

Very interesting possibilities!

She also brought along a quilt she's been working on. This is the centre of a queen-sized bed quilt.

We love blue and white quilts, but we love this one particularly for its intricacy! It's going to be just amazing when it's done.

Our next meeting is our last for the year so we'll be having a yummy lunch! See you then.

October is a distant memory but...

...due to various complications, our blogger didn't blog at all last month. So here's what we were making back then:

Carol was working on some paper cutouts called Kirigami, from this calendar, which she's been saving for a while.

 

They start with easy ones and get progressively harder. She decided to make them in bright colours to  use as Christmas decorations.












If these are the easy ones, I'd hate to try the hard ones!

Nola was working on a postcard for later in the month. It's one she pulls out of her postcards basket to work on periodically but it never seems to be just right. It's a painted background with various other media used, mostly Inktense pencils.

 

 

 

Later in the month, she was back working on her version of the cereal box book, which we started way back here. Her book was made from a fat biscuit box so it's needed a lot of pages. She's just about ready to star putting in images and memorabilia from her trip to southern Africa last year.



Helen was working on one of her embroidered stones.

They're cute little things and people grab them as soon as she makes them!

Maz has been working on a lot of concept drawings for her work for ATASDA's biannual Palm House exhibition in the Sydney Botanic Gardens, in May next year. The theme of the exhibition is façade, because 2016 is the 200th birthday of the Gardens and artist Jonathan Jones will create an artwork celebrating The Garden Palace, a structure from the Gardens' history. Built for the Sydney International Exhibition of 1879, this massive structure burnt to the ground in 1882. It should be very interesting to see his "ghost building"!

Here are some of Maz's drawings for her work in façade:

Looks very interesting! I'm sure we'll see more of this in due course.

Maz was also working on her piece for the Miniature Round Treasures challenge for ATASDA. The works will be on display at the Epping Creative Centre in December and January.

Isn't it pretty? It's going to be an interesting exhibition.



And what we were working on

 



Nola was working on her work for the same out of hand exhibition as Cindy's work in the last post. Her work is called wanton, a word used about women who were "out of hand". Her main interest is how we label people and the power those labels can have. You'll see a full picture once it's finished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maz was working on future postcards. She had this beautiful fabric as a base and was adding stitch.

 

 

 

This is the scrap remaining after she'd cut two postcards:

 

 

Very pretty and delicate!

 

This is the first postcard finished..

 

Love it!

 

Meanwhile, Helen was working on a little something, just so she had some work to do. She thinks it will become, " a notebook or something"!

 

She's also brought along the circle work for Lateral Stitchers that she was making last time.. Plus two more! That display is going to be great!

 

See you later this month!



Exhibitions, workshops, travels and all the fun stuff!

Lately, Cindy has been making works for the extraTexture group exhibition. If you wanted to see it... too late, you missed it! But it was well worth seeing. You can see some posts about their exhibition and their works over on their blog and on Cindy's own blog. But here's another of Cindy's works, J'adore, which was in the exhibition.

Just gorgeous! Cindy sold a lot of her work at the exhibition - well done!

Helen was working on an embroidery-in-a-hoop for a display for Lateral Stitchers.

The background is painted, and Helen was embroidering on it by hand. They're all going to be displayed together at a meeting, so that's going to be a great display!

Cindy also did the ATASDA workshop with Cas Holmes and showed us some interesting samples from the class:

It looks like a fantastic workshop!

Maz has been travelling overseas but she brought us all back a little memento of her travels in Italy.

Isn't it gorgeous? Now to find something special to put it in...