Class Suggestions

Remember the piece I did not like and played about with in Photoshop? This is how it is now. It is only pinned into place and is hanging up at the end of the corridor.  The class reaction was interesting. Quite a few people liked the 'slice and displace vertically' one. Nobody liked the 'cut into quarters and add window frames'. So I cut out three sections from the original and spent a lot of time this morning placing these pieces on different colours of  background. The one I liked best was blue grey but the piece was not big enough so I hunted in the stash when back home and found this piece which sometime last year was crumpled up, tied tightly with string and put in an indigo dye bath.

Quite changed in character.


I need to write up my sketch book and will do that now.

Tomorrow is Weaving Class Day 2. I have rewritten the Lace Weave Handout, adding more detail on Spot Bronson and printed out nine copies.  

Dorothy's Suggestions (2)

Another suggestion from Dorothy was, that if I felt I was looking through something , why not add some window panes. I tried four - looks very odd but six is okay and maybe 8 would be better. I can lay out ribbon or bias binding on it - if I ever cut it up!!!

I have done lots of weaving today, and am now about halfway through the yellow lace scarf. I have got the calculations wrong though. It is using a lot more yarn than I thought. I don't often get it so badly wrong but I will have to dye some more yarn yellow for trh log cabin scarf.

This started out as trees in flower woven in Summer and Winter. I pinned it up at the end of the corridor, then added the flowers and put it back for a few days. Today I added the fence and then a few bits of grass. It is pinned up again waiting for a decision as to whether or not it is finished. Title is 'April Rain in the Orchard'. At one point, I fancied two hens and a cock beneath the trees but decided I was not expert enough to make them small and recognisable!!

Added later - I fancy the idea of a rook in one of the trees. I think I could manage that in black felt.

Book Design

I have been reading the book on Art Deco etc Bookbinding and thinking about it. I always thought I liked Art Nouveau but - -. Perhaps it is not a technique which fits a four-square object like a book.  Many of the Art Nouveau designs in this book look quite Victorian and I think this is because they are still using raised cords on the spine and the front and back of the book are separately designed. Whereas by the time it gets to Art Deco, raised cords on the spine have gone and it is usual to design the front, back and spine as one so that the design flows over the spine and any titling is included in the decorative design.

At any rate, I am all for Art Deco and off Art Nouveau.

Yesterday we went to see the BBC Wildlife Photography Exhibition. Passing over in silence the problems we had with the van, the exhibition, though interesting, was not as good as last year or 2009 which was even better. I remember Michael grumbling many years ago about 'art-films', and describing the Japanese version of Macbeth as 'subtitled in Serbo-Croat and shot against the light in a dense fog'. Well much the same here. It is as if this year's fashion is for fog plus being out of focus. However the winning photo, 'Leaf-cutting Ants' is spectacular. See it here

Dorothy's Suggestions

What would we do without Photoshop? My sister, Dorothy thought the problem with the Doilies piece was that it was too heavy in the centre. Why not cut it up and re-arrange the pieces? Quilters do that all the time. 

With the aid of Photoshop I tried it out. Definitely an improvement.

Slice it up and shuffle the slices up and down. No way. Still heavy in the middle.

I tried this out with different colours of background and with shuffling the slices around. Maybe.

But I quite like the first one. I am well and truly out of my comfort zone here. I will consult with the tutor on Friday.

I have finished my lace samples and washed one piece - the lower one in photo on the left. Because the yarn was dyed by me, most of the shrinkage has happened already. The appearance of the  lace has not changed much. There are three patterns in the bottom one and two in the top.  I have already woven more than 12 inches on the scarf itself.

This afternoon I am taking Michael to see the BBC Wildlife Photography Exhibition at Twigworth which is just north of Gloucester.

Fishes - and Defiance

I do not like the final result of my sewing which was shown here yesterday. It is pinned up at the end of the corridor and I just get gloomier every time I see it. I can think of nothing to improve it.

So I decided to take the taste out of my mouth  by doing something different and had a hunt through pieces of fabric which I have created at the Bourneville. I ended up with this one of printed fishes and seaweed plus a larger fish in Mola work.

This is how it is now. I am defiant about this.- trivial? yes, fun? yes, artistic merit?  none. Tough.


I have finished weaving a lace sample for the Guild records and am weaving a sample for my records. Then I shall set about weaving the scarf for the October Exhibition.

I have also revised the handout for the lace weave class ready for next Saturday. A reasonably productive day.

Teaching Lace Weave

I got caught on the hop earlier this week by being asked questions about the drafting of  lace weave. Kennet Valley Guild runs a weavers course for 6 weeks in the spring and the 'improvers' are all doing lace weave. Everyone had selected their pattern and yarn and the first day was on Saturday - yesterday. I was looking forward to a day answering questions and generally helping out. Instead of which I realised when asked these questions that I needed to give a talk about drafts for lace weaves because they are not standard and Atwater-Bronson can be difficult to understand. I prepared a handout and more than an hour first thing on Saturday was taken up with discoursing on this topic. I am not entirely sure that I was very clear. Anyway they all spent the rest of the time, getting to grips with their looms. Half of them are now weaving, some will be weaving by next Saturday and two had just finished designing their weaving. So on the whole progress. Meanwhile Rosie and the beginners got on like a house on fire. They all made enormous progress.

My only gripe about the day had to do with lunch. My daughter Anne came over for the day to look after Michael and I knew of their plans to cook a Japanese meal. They were cooking something I rather like - ekonomiyaki. So I told them to keep me some. But they ate it all!!! So no lunch and a very miffed Pat who had gone without lunch at the class for the sake of this treat!

The combination of a class at Bourneville on Friday, taking Michael to Worcester Royal on Friday afternoon and going to Newbury for the weaving course on Saturday meant that the downstairs part of the house was littered with bags and boxes so I spent part of this morning tidying up. I rather think that what has happened is that the litter has gone upstairs!!

These are the washed cottolin towels in Summer and Winter. It is a cold grey day today and I decided to try taking a photo outside. The colours have come out well. The shrinkage in width was 10% and in length was 16% which amounts to 5 inches in 30. A lot.

I have not been happy about photos for some time  and have been told that an overcast day and outside is the best. Certainly the colours have come out realistic.

Our tutor, Annette lucas, at Bourneville has insisted that we stop doing samples of varied techniques and deal with one piece only, developing it into a finished piece.

So this is my piece which contains a great variety of techniques. The starting point was a screen print of paper doilies onto the back of a piece of scrap furnishing fabric. This was cut out and Bondawebbed onto a piece of red  tweedy fabric. I also did some individual prints of the same motif onto another scrap of fabric. I added wire round the edge and machine stitching in the middle to make 3D motifs when cut out. There is also a place where I have used Mola work to cut through the printed layer of fabric to the red fabric backing. In the lower right hand corner, the same shape has been stitched on Aquafilm and then the film washed away.  The violet piece in the upper left is a piece of cotton dyed by me and appliqued on. So that's it. The loose motifs are just tacked on in case I change my mind. At the moment, it is pinned up at the end of the corridor for me to ruminate about.

I am not at sure about this piece. One of Michael's carers said (very shrewdly, I thought). 'You don't like it because you can't see what to use it for'. Well yes , it can only be hung on the wall and we have better things around than that. I have had a great idea for decorating one of the calico shoppers and have started by dyeing one brown.  I can see Annette disapproving of this so I had better incorporate some of the fabric I have created at Bourneville!!

 

A Long-Awaited Book

Three years ago, I became aware of a book entitled 'Art Deco and Art Nouveau Book bBnding' By Duncan and de Bartha (ISBN0-8109-1881-1, 1988). What I read about it made me anxious to see it but there were no copies on Amazon.co.uk and one on the US Amazon at a price which translated into £145.00. So I kept an eye on the price. After about a year, there were five or six copies on offer by different booksellers, none less than £80.00. But slowly, slowly, the cost decreased to £40.00 at which point I gave in and bought it. It is fantastic. It is a book to read  and read again.  I can quite see why it was so expensive and it is worth every penny of £145.00.

On the left is one example of a bound book. There are 252 photos of different bookbindings - all French!!!!! The trouble is they are 95% leather inlay which is difficult  and I have no hope of remotely emulating but I can still sigh over the photos.

This is a photo (rather poor) of an acrylic painting by Michael of Abigail who is our great-niece. 

He is now working on a set of paintings and drawings of morning glories for a book which I intend to submit to a local exhibition in March. I have collected together a lot of haiku about morning glories and will create a book with a Japanese binding from all this material.

On the weaving front, I have warped up and started a scarf in Atwater-Bronson lace or to be precise, I am weaving a sample for the Guild records first. I have also wound a warp for the concertina double weave book.

I did go to my Bourneville class this morning and am manufacturing little individual motifs to attach to a bigger item. But I had to rush back as Michael went to hospital this afternoon to have a transfusion of some fancy chemical.