More Habitation

It's always interesting to see how each of us approaches a theme.

Yvonne brought alone some drawings she had made for our collaborative work for the Façade exhibition. They fitted very nicely with our theme.

She was focusing on castles and forts, which are also a kind of human habitation.

Maz likes to define first and then do a lot of research on specific things that take her interest. This month, she was still in her defining stage. She found lots of words about habitations..

... and definitions.

Then she started to think about human habitations...











...and animal habitats.

Then she began to research Japanese Macaques. These animals are the northernmost primates that aren't human and they live in a very harsh environment.

 

 

They  look like they're wearing fluffy parkas, don't they?

She's also thinking about façade as a theme. As well as our collaborative work, she's also making a personal work for the Façade exhibition.

Nola likes to use our themes as a way of working out technique issues or trying out new techniques. This month, she had some sample prints from making her section of the Façade work.










Cindy likes to work in mixed media, combining all kinds of art techniques. her pages are always a delight! This month, she had gone back to the cover of her book.

She had also added a flap from the back cover. As well as a marker, it protects the underneath pages as she works, so over time, it will build up colour of its own.



 

She also added an image behind the door on her front page.

 
This month she continued her fascination with doors by creating a "Moroccan Fantasy".

 Next time - some images of our Façade pieces! (Maybe)



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...

Habitation

February passed us by in a blur! There seems to be so much happening at the moment, so blogging has gone to the back of the queue. But we have still be busily making things.

I promised to show you the beginnings of our monthly theme, Habitation. Most of us are working in sketchbooks, but Helen decided to make another kind of book. Here is the cover of her Habitation book.

Yes, it's about birds. That's all I can say at this point - you will hear the story as she makes her book.









Cindy's sketchbook began with a door.

At this stage, what's behind the door is a mystery.

But she went on to make up a story about a particular habitation. It's actually the house her mother lived in as a child, but the story isn't about the real family who lived there. It's the story of the Baker family, John, Brenda and their children.

 And this is the door of their house.

First, Maz made a cover and title page for her sketchbook.

Then she began by researching the word Habitation.

Nola's Habitation sketchbook continued on from her Trees book last year.

 
She has been making prints with foam board as the print plate. These prints were experimenting with changing the texture of the printing medium.

The print design was based on an image of Eguisheim in Alsace.

More Habitation coming soon!

 

 

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.

Happy New Year

Kinda late, we know, to be wishing anyone HNY but we finally met for the first time in 2016. As always, it was a quiet meeting, since January is holiday season here in Oz. But it was great to catch up with each others' news and share what we'd been making.

Over the break, Helen made this quirky book, just for fun.

 It's full of shapes of all kinds and references to places and people Helen has known.

As always, clever and beautiful!









The rest of us have mostly been drawing.

Nola was working on sketches for her section of our collaborative work for the façade exhibition in the Palm House at the Botanic gardens in May. Each of us is making a postcard-sized work about a fictional holiday resort called Fibriccerre.

 

Her section is "posh houses" in the area. That looks pretty posh, doesn't it?

 

Cindy has also been drawing a lot. Here are some of her drawings:



Those cherries are luscious enough to eat, aren't they?

Helen was working on a small piece of canvas work.

As always her work just glows. She has an amazing way with colour.

Maz was working on items for sale in the sales area of the façade exhibition.

I'm not sure what it's going to be but I'm sure it will be gorgeous!

That's it for this time. Sorry it's brief, I think we were all in holiday mode - too busy chatting to be technical! See you next time.

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.