Habitations

Here are some of our latest images on the Habitations theme.

Maz has been researching landscape design - outdoor human habitations. 

Maz isn't sure if this is taking her anywhere she wants to go. We'll see what happens next.

Nola was drawing this month, in an effort to improve her drawing skills. She decided to draw a house she lived in years ago, in Samoa.

She says she's not really happy with the shadows but it was good drawing practice!

Helen is continuing with her storybook but she didn't have pages to show last month. We'll be seeing more Habitation work on Monday....

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)



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!

 

 

Trees trees trees trees...

... and yet more trees...

We were a small group last time, between flu season and travel season! But, perhaps inspire by spring in the air, we all had trees to share in our journals.

Maz was inspired to investigate leaf shapes this month. A lot of Australian trees look very similar to one another at a casual glance, so finding the small details that distinguish them can be quite important, especially for those of us interested in dyeing with them!

 

 

First she had words for the different shapes. Isn't "oblanceolate" a wonderful word?

 

Then she drew pictures of the shapes. So now we know what oblanceolate leaves look like!

 



 

Her next pages looked at the shapes of the tips of leaves and the way they're arranged on the stem.  Specific Australian trees species are mentioned, which is really handy if they happen to be good for dyeing!

 

Then we have a specific kind of leaf cluster called compound palmate leaves, like you get on Umbrella Trees.

Last of all, she looked at the veins in the leaves, which can have distinctive patterns, and at structures in the leaf called domatia. A lot of Australian trees have specific domatia, such as bumps, hollows or bristles on the surface of the leaves. The kind of domatia and their location can be an identifying characteristic.

 
So now you know! With your leaf guide in one hand and a tree twig in the other, you're well on the way to identifying the tree species, and that will tell you whether it's likely to give you wonderful colour in your dye pot.

Meanwhile, Helen was continuing with her fantasy trees. She's inspired by the gorgeous trees you find in medieval tapestries. This one is a Tree of Life, which she drew with Aquarelle pencils. These trees are fascinating because they always had many different fruits on them, something even the most ardent grafter couldn't achieve!

Nola's trees showed more of her experimentation with techniques. This month, she was working with  different kinds of collagraphs. Her first tree was a print from a craft foam plate stitched with embroidery thread and printed with Permaset printing inks.

Her next prints were leaf prints, made by impressing a leaf into a piece of foam meat tray, using a marble rolling pin. This is what she got when she printed the plate.

Then she created an impression plate by putting objects on a piece of foam core sheet and running it through a press. These plates are all very low relief. 





While she was printing , she accidentally over-inked the plate. She took a very wet print to clean the plate and then took a monotype from the wet print.

She liked this one much better than the prints she'd been getting, as the wet inks gave interesting patterns that were very natural. She also liked the second print she took from the wet plate.

Sometimes these accidental prints are the best!

Cindy didn't create anything in her journal this month but she did bring a tree to show us.

Isn't it gorgeous? It's called "Can't see the wood for the trees" and she made it for the untethered exhibition out of hand, in November this year. The background is made from her prints, many from gelliplates. The canvas on which its mounted is also printed with white textural media. The tree itself is beautifully three-dimensional, made from couched yarn.





August

Our apologies, there were a few hiccups with blogging this month!

So what have we been doing since you last saw us? Well, yes, we are still continuing with our trees theme in our journals.
Nola has been making rubbings. "The council came and trimmed one of our trees, and left a slice of tree trunk behind. It had interesting markings on both sides from the circular saw." Nola used watercolour crayon, dry...

 
... Inktense pencils, dry and watercolour pencils, wet...

 

...Inktense pencils, in two colours, wet, and wet watercolour crayon with an Inktense pencil overlay. It's interesting how each medium or combination gives a different amount of detail, enhancing or obliterating the natural wood grain.



 

Maz is coming to the end of her top Australian eucalypts. This time she focuses on Silver Dollar Gum Eucalyptus cinerea, beloved by Australian eco-dyers for its brilliant orange colour; Scribbly Gum,  Eucalyptus haemastoma, which has wonderful scribble marks on its bark left by moth larvae; and Spotted Gum Corymbia maculata.

 

 Cindy made some tree drawings with watercolour pencil in her journal.  

 They'll be the basis of some wonderful work one of these days!