Sort of sad

This is the piece of work I made on India Flint's course a few years ago in Horsley, Gloucestershire. It was a lovely time with good companions and an amazing teacher in a beautiful peaceful setting. This cloth is important to me as a reminder of that time. There is also a photo of it in the Blurb book India put together of students work 'On a Wandering Wind'. The little beastie clothes moths have been feasting on it, this upset me but it also gives me an opportunity to work on the cloth again and add some remnants to make it whole again and maybe to bring back memories.

Bristol Whales and some weaving

Recently I passed these amazing whale sculptures in the Millenium Square in Bristol, the waves are made out of recyled plastic water bottles, read more about here - bristolwhales.tumblr.com

 Last week I went on a wonderful two day course with the talented Susie Gillespie in
Devon www.susiegillespie.com. Her work is a mix of fabric and tapestry weaving, this is the piece I made,
I have to say I am very pleased with it and have learnt lots of new techniques to incorporate into my own work.
There were four people on the course, one local woman and the rest of us stayed us stayed in
 beautiful accomadation in the barn. I would call Susie's style of decor minimalist rustic, anyway very 
comfortable with linen sheets on the beds and all mod cons.
Ok blogger is acting a bit strange, hope this all appears.

Alice Fox last day

Today was a day of unbundling and collating our work, printed and rusted papers were collected together and made into books. I forgot to take photos of a lot of work before it ended up in a book but I have some photos of some of the fabric pieces.

Rusted papers

Pamphlet book with plan paper and waxes rusted paper cover

Practise book with no sew binding

Pamphlets ready to be stitched

Spines

Rusted fabric

The pamphlets have now been stitched and the cover waxed.
This was a great course, if any of you in the UK get a chance to do it I would highly recommend it.

Alice Fox Part 3

A somewhat delayed part 3, things going on.

 It was really windy on this our third day, so a decision was made not to go for a walk. Most of us spent the day weaving, it was very quiet everybody was concentrating so hard. These weavings were all made with stuff found on the beach.

Alice Fox workshop day 2

On the beach again in the morning up at the end where the fishing boats are kept, lots of interesting finds, in the afternoon printing, something I haven't done before. There was a printing press available which I didn't use but I had lots of fun printing using rollers. Something I can do easily at home.

More rusty bits

Sea weed and rusty nails

Prints from sea weed and pampas grass

Prints from bits of found metal

Prints from a drinking straw and rubbings from shells

Alice Fox workshop day 1

Close up of Groyne (sea defences)

I have just got back from a four day workshop with Alice Fox,  http://www.alicefox.co.uk/ She was amazingly patient and calm with us all, we learnt loads about lots of different process and had a great if exhausting time.
Our day started with coffee and tea and then a walk on the beach collecting rusty metal and other flotsam and jetsam.

Rusty bracket on Groyne

I

Eastbourne beach

Collecting Day One

Rusty bits

More collecting day one

Wrapping and dyeing rusty bits

more rusty bits

and even more

In the afternoon we wrapped fabric and made marks on paper with the rusty bits we had collected which were thoroughy wetted with tea.
I had driven down the previous day and visited Charleston House near Lewes. I have been wanting to see this for years but somehow never managed it, it is a fascinating house where Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant lived. They were members of the Bloomsbury Group, Vanessa being Virginia Woolf's sister. The house is full of paintings by members of the group, even the walls and fireplaces are painted. I stayed with my good friend Liz (also taking part in the workshop)and her husband in a house we had rented on the marina, so great accomadation and company as well.

Rust dyeing with Alice Fox

From left, on silk, cotton, linen

These are the results of the one day workshop I did with Alice Fox in Stroud. I am slightly disappointed with the results as she usually ends up with lovely soft shades whereas mine are predominately tea coloured. These were stitched first and then dyed due to shortage of time. Alice usually dyes and then stitches but not always. The silk sample was stitched and then wetted with tea and left on top of rusty nails.
The middle one had a rusty chain attached to it and the third has rust stitched in between two layers of fabric. Surprisingly most of the metal in this one did not make marks, the rust on the two larger areas of grey were from a different source than the others. All three were wetted with tea and then rewetted for seven days. These have been washed but not neutralised yet. I will probably then do some further stitching on them.
For those of you who commented on my entry about this workshop, I invited Alice to leave her thoughts which she has done so you may wish to check back a few entries to that post. I also got her address wrong and she has corrected it if any of you wish you look at her work.

Workshop with Alice Fox

The work table

Rusty items

Dyeing in progress

On Thursday I was very lucky to attend a workshop with Alice Fox Alicefox-textiles.blogspot.com as part of the Stroud International Festival.http://www.stroudinternationaltextiles.org.uk/
It was a fantastic day, lots of chat, lots of sewing and loads learnt.
Although I have done rust dyeing before I have not done it with tea which produces greyer tones which I like. I now have pieces soaking in tea in my studio, I will publish the results next week.

My work next to purple scissors

Finally

Close up a bit bright

The whole piece but rather dark

Close up

 I have given up trying to get a good image of the whole piece, but here it is anyway. None of the images are actual colours of the cloth but overall I hope you can get some idea of the whole.

I am thrilled with it, the cloth has become very personal to me, a reminder of a special time and place. Also the first good result I have had from eco dyeing with plants.

Close up

Close up with my initial, pure coincidence

This photo isn't too bad, I am very happy to have created my initial, this is right in the centre of the piece.

Not quite yet

Ok I know, no images of the final piece, I am having real trouble getting a good photo of the it and I'd like to get it right as I am very pleased with it.

India Flint 3rd installment

Prunus and rusty nails on velvet

Dead leaves bundled corner to corner

 The rusty nails completely changed the feel of this viscose/silk mix velvet, it is now quite rough but I still like the colour effects.  All the individual pieces are approx 10x10cms. We were working in a fairly restricted area but these were a good size to sample different effects.

My favourite but can't remember what I used in it, it did have clematis and crocosmia flowers in it. as you can see this was folded.

This was the first piece front

and back, I like the string effect but to get a good print it should have been tied tighter

Lots of bundles out of the pot

Tin lids and cloth wrapped round small paper book

unwrapped cloth

I haven't photographed the book as I don't consider it very good but I love the tin lid impressions.
Final piece tomorrow, it is pouring with rain here and too dark to get a decent photo.

India Flint workshop, next installment

Our first bundle picked by India

 We had regular forages around the grounds to collect leaves and flowers for our bundles.
Ruskin Mill is in the most beautiful setting with many cultivated areas but still with a sense of wildness about.

They grown a lot of their own produce and have amazing food in the cafe, especially the cakes.

All wrapped up and ready to go

All leaves and flowers were collected from the ground

Another bundle

Prunus, eucalptyus and rusty nails

Dead leaves work very well