Falling behind!

Oh dear, our blog is falling behind our activities! Just too many things happening in our lives lately. Nola and Bev have been organising an exhibition, Carol was making costumes for the local Gang Show, Tricia and Bev have been travelling and we've all been struggling with colds and other things that real life throws at us. It seems Blogger has also been suffering from a winter virus, since it didn't want to load images! But we have still been creating interesting things. Here's a summary of our activities in June and July.

Maz was able to attend a playday held by ATASDA at Primrose Paperworks in late May, and she brought along the beautiful paper she made. The Primrose Paperworks Co-op meets at Primrose Park Art & Craft Centre at North Sydney, and they were happy to prepare paper pulp and provide eager volunteers to show ATASDA members just how to make paper. Here are some of Maz's papers:

...and some more...

Of course, paper is hard to photograph nicely but it really is luscious! She made more than two dozen papers that will be brilliant in her future work.

She's also continuing to make Dorset buttons. Here are some in progress:

Carol brought along a scarf she bought at the Easter Show. It's an example of fusion - made in India from Australian wool, with fine elastic incorporated into the weave to imitate the collapsed weave look.

It's absolutely gorgeous! Here are some detail shots:

She also brought along a beautiful knitted lace scarf, which she'd bought from the EWES (Epping Weavers Embroiderers and Spinners) sale at Dence Park. It was made by Brenda Hall.

She's also been doing some knitting from this cute slippers kit.

Can you see the picture? They're rather fun, aren't they?

At our meeting,  Carol was making more cards from paper serviettes.

But most of the time, she spent sewing Scout badges onto this amazing blanket coat.

It looks incredibly warm!

Nola finished her Lost Treasures challenge book cover.

She used quite a few differnt techniques on this one. Remember she was making the jewels back here? The orange background in a serviette, whicih has been stitched down using the lines of the stamped elements on the fabric section on top of it. The gold flowers of the serviette have been extended onto the fabric, to tie the two together. The ribbon fastening can be unties through the D-riungs, but fussy fastenings make a journal difficult to use so there is also a hidden snap fastening under the turn back near the D-rings. The island and title were drawn freehand and painted withg Setacolor paints. The copper gold edging was painted by painting over the edge of torn paper. The gold side and bottom edges are cotton dressmaking tape, also painted with Setacolor paint.

Nola has also been working on her Past Life challenge. She hauled out her sample folders, full of "paint rags" and other treasures.

She chose several "paint rags" as pages and covers for a book, and cut them to size. It was a great way to start the project so it's obviously worthwhile collecting together all those samples and bits and pieces we all have, in one place.

The book is intended to show Nola at different decades of her "past life" with some words about what was happening at that time. She had printed some images onto Transfer Artist Papers, to transfer to quilters' muslin. (TIP: never use new media directly onto the pages of your book, since they may behave differently than you expect!). In this case, the precaution was sensible, as the TAPs really didn't behave as they should have. Some images printed and transferred well:

but some really didn't...

She got good and bad images from the same sheet of TAP. Bizarre! I think she'll be going back to acrylic media transfers for the remaining images.

Helen brought along a front of the jacket she is embroidering. It's on black wool and looks absolutely stunning.

She also showed us her finished Past Life challenge. It was a small book, with images of the area of Scotland where she grew up.

The cover is made from Helen's favourite medium - rug canvas.

It's a wonderful memento of her youth!

Helen was particularly busy in June. She also made these vessels:

Remember she was working on it here and here? Here's another view of it:

She's obviously been having a three-dimensional time, since she also made this vessel:

Helen also brought along a book cover she'd made as a gift.

That's all like a small gallery of what you can do with rug canvas, isn't it? The wonderful thing about rug canvas, in addition to it having lovely holes to stitch through, is that the glue used to hold the strands in place is soluble in water. So you can stitch your embroidery, wet it a little and shape it into a vessel quite easily. The strands don't come apart, if you just dampen them, but the glue dries it into the new shape, which is quite firm and robust.

We've also continued to make postcards to swap. This one was Helen's...

Maz made this one from a paper serviette:

... and Nola made this one:

This one is from our playday using paper serviettes, back in May.
So, as you can see, we have been busy! This is just a skip through the past two months. If you'd like more details about how we made these things, just ask!

Our own work

Phew, running a little behind with updates on our activities! Our second May playday had no particular theme, so we were all working on different things.

Bev was doodling, with the idea of making small framed pieces for sale.

I love pattern-making like this!
Carol was working with  more paper serviettes, mounted onto mat board.

This one had been adhered with diluted PVA glue, and then she painted it with watercolour paints.

These ones were laid down over moulding paste.

 They are all intended as the base for future work.

Carol was also cheering up some very basic Masonite clipboards with some paint:

Helen was embroidering as usual:

Nola was painting some bits she'd made from glue and dimensional paint, for her Lost Treasures challenge.

She used her hot glue gun to make some shapes. When she painted them with Lumiere paints, they behaved as if the paint would rub off, so she coloured them with Sharpie pens and then painted over them with Lumiere and Setacolor paints. The first two coins were fabric, adhered together with fusible web and satin stitched. They really didn't look much like coins, even after she stamped on them with Setacolor paints, so she added Pebeo Expandable paint and painted them with Setacolor paints before heating with the heat gun. Some areas puffed to white, so she added more paint and Treasure Gold. Later coins were made from circles of medium weight card, painted with the expandable paint and over painted with Lumiere and Setacolor paints.

We also swapped postcards as usual. Bev's postcard was made from fabric snippets, free-motion stitches and beaded.

Carol made doodle patterns using the programmed stitches of her sewing machine:

Helen's postcard used fabric scraps, pieced together and embroidered.

Playing with paper serviettes

Our second meeting in April was right after Orange Fibre Forum. Usually members come back full of exciting news and thoroughly inspired for another year. This year was a little different because for various reasons, most members couldn't come, and there were just three of us. Our plan was to play around with paper napkins (serviettes) We all have a decent collection of paper serviettes for Artistic Purposes, so we brought along our treasures to swap. The first May meeting was also devoted to paper serviettes, for those who missed out initially.

Carol brought along this postcard for us to admire. It was made in Dale Rollerson's Ratty Tatty online workshop a while back. Carol really recommends Dale's online workshops as great value and full of interesting ideas to explore. The postcard uses layers of the same serviette, a base layer, fused to felt, and then subsequent layers, stitched and frayed. It adds a real depth to the work.
Then we started work. Carol had brought along some mat board offcuts, cut into a variety of sizes, including ATCs and postcards. We had PVC (white) glue and card or old credit cards as spreaders. Nola brought along an old phone directory as a base to glue on. It's an ideal base because, after each time, you can turn the page and prevent glue transferring to places where you don't want it!

When you're working with paper serviettes, it's important to remember that they are usually two- or three-ply. That means there's a layer of printed paper and at least one more layer of plain paper. You can use the serviettes as they are, but you need to ensure that the medium you're using to adhere the paper goes through all layers. Using all the layers results in a more opaque image; using just the top layer allows you to play with layers a little, since the layers below may show through. Sometimes the second layer has a shadow image of the main image, which can be useful. As you can see with Carol's postcard, you can use images from the same serviette, or multiple serviettes with the same image, several times, on top of one another, to achieve shadow or texture.

Carol made this cute cat postcard:

She used a modelling medium under the cats, to make them stand out from the background. The medium takes a long time to dry but the effects are interesting. Nola used the same medium on two similar postcards. You can manipulate the wet medium once the image is added:

This one has quite a lot of texture, especially in the sky for wind effects, but it needed some extra details. She added more layers of the same serviette, to deepen the colours, and some Treasure Gold to tone back the brightness of the colours and pick up the highlights. The wind effects are much more pronounced, aren't they? She also added stronger outlines in some places, to make it look less flat.

For Nola's second one using the modelling medium, she laid the medium down in a grid pattern, before adding the serviette. The grid pattern isn't very marked, although it's still present. It was outlined and rubbed with Treasure Gold, as well.

Helen was more interested in adhering the serviettes to fabric. She made several  fabric pieces, on calico:

She also adhered one to card:

I'm sure we'll see these again, in works to come!

Carol used the same serviette as Helen to make an ATC background.

She later added a Chinese teapot and cups from a second serviette, but hasn't photographed it yet. It was a good illustration of how these serviettes can be used as the basis for other things. She used the same serviette as the basis of a bookmark:

And here are some tiny cards she made, using the scraps of serviettes as a colour palette. Again these make an interesting background to other media. I hope we'll see what she does with these!

Nola used two layers of a simple serviette to make an elegant book cover.

But, once it dried, she wasn't very happy with it, as it just seemed dull and dirty. So she added some

colour with Carol's tiny set of kids' watercolours, bought in a cheap store. Very handy for taking on the road!

It probably will have more exciting things done to it, but it's certainly a good basis for a book cover.

Nola also liked this image of a Fifties housewife and added it to a postcard base.

The shadow behind her looked ominous, so she added borders of tissue paper to emphasise the sense of foreboding.

I'm not sure it's a postcard for swapping, though!
Speaking of swap postcards, Helen brought along this one for swapping:

She looks gloriously ditsy, doesn't she? The stitching really works to set the mood.

Helen also brought along a book she made, from pseudo-vellum. The paper was coated with Shellac, giving it a gorgeous leathery feel and look.

Meanwhile, our absent members returned, with treasures from their week at Orange Fibre Forum. Maz took a workshop with Barbara Schey, specialising in Dorset buttons. During the week, she made this very clever box.

As you can see, the decoration includes the Dorset buttons, but the box is very cleverly constructed as well. Maz also made a brooch from a Dorset button.

 She has several more underway.

Dorset buttons were made in a cottage industry in East Dorset from the late 1600s. "Cottage industry" is a bit misleading, since it suggests a small scale industry. But as many as a thousand people were involved in their manufacture in the heyday of the industry, when the buttons were fashionable and sold world-wide. Many of the button makers were children but, like the spinning and weaving cottage industries, whole families were employed making buttons. The buttons are made by stitching over rings, these days made of metal but probably bone, horn or other natural materials were originally used. You can see some brilliant examples of different styles of button at the British Button Society.

Beverley was also at Forum, and her week was spent with Isobel Hall, making amazing complex layered media. A typical piece might have layers of Crash with fusible web, coated with Gesso, decorated with soft pastels, layered with Mod Podge, painted with alcohol inks, sealed and then coated with encaustic wax. Or tea stained media with acrylic wax, embroidery, and beading. Amazing! You can see her latest books, with Maggie Grey, Mixed Media: new studio techniques, here and a brief bio on the same site, here.

Bev made this beautiful book in the class:

She made a complicated layered & textured background, and added hand stitching. It's absolutely gorgeous! She also made this handbag, yet to be finished,

This book cover included cocoon strippings made into a kind of paper, tea staining and acrylic wax.

 She also made this sheet of mixed media work for later use:

So I guess she had a pretty busy week!