Frieda Oxenham and Sketchbook Techniques

My attempt, using collage, stencils, stamps, paint and baby wipes

At the end of November, I had a special birthday treat a couple of days after my birthday.  Frieda Oxenham came to share some of her art journaling techniques for creating backgrounds with my Creative Sketchbooks City and Guilds Group.  

Student work

Frieda doesn't teach often at the moment, so we were especially honoured that she came and shared so much of her work with the Group.  Although I was organising the day, I managed to have a go at some of the techniques too, covering myself and the worktop in lots of paint, gesso and used baby wipes.  In fact, I don't think I've ever used so many baby wipes since we had three kids in nappies!

Frieda (bottom right) explaining her techniques

We added lots of paint and wiped most of it off using stencils.  We used stamps and print blocks on spare paper.  Precious scraps got glued into place and then covered in paint.

Student Work

Frieda showed us her most recent work in her art journal and talked us through the layers of techniques in great detail.  Two things I came away with as useful comments were:

1. Don't believe an artist when they say they 'just throw things on a paper without thinking about the layout'.  What they mean is 'through years of experience, I can just place things in the right place by instinct rather than conscious thought'
2. Don't stop after one or two layers.  It adds to the richness of the piece if there are many layers.  Sometimes Frieda has up to 20 layers of paint on a page.

Student Work

The day went incredibly fast and the students all worked so hard.  I know my head was buzzing by the end with some many possibilities and I have been creating even more mess on my worktop ever since, putting layers of paint on to several sketchbooks and loose pages all at once.

Student Work

You can see much more of Frieda's amazing work on her blog, friedaquilter.blogspot.co.uk

Out & About: Frieda Oxenham and 52 Journals

Memory by Frieda Oxenham

On Friday, I spent a lovely day in the Scottish Borders, visiting Frieda Oxenham and her exhibition ’52 Journals’ at the Tweeddale Museum and Gallery, Peebles.

Thoughts Fly Swift by Frieda Oxenham

For an entire year, Frieda made one journal quilt a week, mainly A4-sized, with one a month 10in square.  They are beautiful little works of art, and as you would expect from Frieda, each one has a lot of care, attention and time given to it.  It is really astounding she managed to make them all in just one year given all the other projects she had on too.  If you can make it to Peebles, it is well worth a visit.  The work is exquisite.

Some of Frieda Oxenham's inspiration photos

As well as the actual quilts, Frieda had a book of the inspirations behind the journal quilts and a little explanation on how she got from the inspiration to the quilt.  When I was there, many visitors were spending lots of time of time reading and enjoying the work.  Frieda was very generous with her time and I have lots of notes now to go and write an article on her amazing work for Popular Patchwork.

Circle of Creation by Frieda Oxenham

Frieda has a great blog at http://friedaquilter.blogspot.co.uk/.  You should visit and say hello!

Doodle by Frieda Oxenham

Out & About: the final Loch Lomond Quilt Show

At the moment, I’m not getting to spend much time in my studio making as I seem to be gallivanting to quilt events all the time (life is really tough!).  Today the last ever Loch Lomond Quilt Show started and I spent the morning enjoying the huge variety of quilts.  In the fact, the variety was so bewildering, I haven’t taken many photos at all!  But there is plenty of time as I am going back tomorrow and Friday.

The Commonwealth Remembers - Coming Home (detail) by Senga Bain 

 Here are some of my favourites from the competition quilts.  Although it is only a detail of Senga Bain’s winning entry, you can see that it is absolutely stunning.  The design and execution are fantastic. 

Greek Island Seas by Marion Robertson

Marion Robertson has mixed a number of different types of fabric to make her quilt, which is all hand printed.  She is having an exhibition with her sister in Carradale, August Bank Holiday Weekend, which will be well worth a visit.  We’re taking our tent.

Colours of Burano by Frieda Oxenham

I love Frieda’s work and this year’s entry looked deceptively simple, but her signature beads are still there and the hand quilting is beautiful, deservedly winning the hand quilting award.

Firelight by Jane Appelbee

Finally, I just love how Jane Appelbee has manipulated and coloured her fabric to give the idea of flames.  It is superbly made.

More to follow from the Loch Lomond Show, when I finally stop talking to people I know (part of the joy of this show is how friendly it is) and hunker down and photograph some quilts.

Inspiration: 10 great blogs to follow

Until recently I have been working on the craft magazine, Homemade with Love as the sub-editor.  I had great fun working with Jane Rae to create a lovely craft magazine.  One of the best bits of the job was crafting a list of blogs to inspire the readers.  I spent far too long researching blogs as it was literally so inspiring.  The brief was general craft, cooking and design blogs and I thought I would share some of my favourite textile/art ones with you.  Not all of these were used in the magazine as some were too textile art based rather than craft, but I think they may be of interest here.  Do you have any other favourites I should check out?
 

Mother-musing.com

Interviews with artists who also happen to be mothers and how they balance life and art.

Talesofastitcher.com

 

Maria Shell is the stitcher telling tales and I just love the front page of her blog, which is so full of colour and impact.

Andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.com

I’m a sucker for an interestingly named blog or website and this one definitely caught my attention.  This blog is full of surface design techniques

Blog.karenbarbe.com

 

Karen is a fantastic photographer and fibre based artist in Chile.  This blog is just beautiful.

Janeville.blogspot.com

 

Jane La Fazio’s blog is full of her inspiration and art quilts.  The sun just shines out from them, which is lovely to read in a rather damp and grey Scottish village!

www.allthingspaper.net

 

Lots and lots of different uses of paper by a variety of artists.  Very inspiring.
 

Ironstef.com

And just because I also adore food, here is one of the foodie ones I recommended.

 

These are some of the new blogs I discovered - I follow plenty of others already.  Three of my favourites (and no offense is meant to anyone I have listed here, I just don't have time to put together more) are:

 

Friedaquilter.blogspot.co.uk

I am just in awe at the amount Frieda does, all beautifully photographed too.  Frieda also does a daily photo blip on Blipfoto, which is well worth a look if you haven’t discovered it yet.  I am a less frequent blipper than Frieda, but add on my images as gilliantextiles.

Margaret-cooter.blogspot.co.uk

Margaret Cooter is another prolific blogger who, in addition to talking about her own work, has an insightful commentary on the work of others.  I love checking it out to find out about artists I would never otherwise have discovered.

Magsramsay.blogspot.co.uk

Mags is a textile artist who also happens to be a Conservational Biotechnologist at Kew Gardens.  Her work is interesting as is the balance of enjoyed paid-work and all-absorbing hobby.

 

So this is ten that I love - what other ones can you recommend?

 

In my studio: this week

This week I’ve spent almost five full days (or at least school days!) in the studio, which has been lovely.  Although nothing is finished, I thought I would share some of the things I have been working on which are still in progress.

Dyeing fabric

 

I have lots of fabric dyeing going on.  Some in bags, some in tubs, some in tubs and some in buckets.  The first round is complete and now I am making paler colours by using up the excess dye.  Ruth Higham suggested using the pure cotton sheets from Asda  as they dye really well and she was right.  The fabric is lovely and it ironed beautifully afterwards.  I did do something rather silly though and bought a fitted sheet rather than a flat one by error.  I thought I had been checking carefully too!

I have also been painting sketchbooks with the dye to create some backgrounds.

Coffee Cup Patchwork

I started developing a new workshop this week about making patterns and 3D paper piecing.  This is the first sample underway.  I now have the pattern ready and can start piecing next week.

The Big Draw 5 October

I have been charged with planning two of our activities for the Big Draw event FAB Arts is running on Saturday 5 October.  If you are in the Balfron area, please come along as it is a fantastic morning – drop in anytime to the McLintock Hall between 10am and 1pm.  We are going to make paper buildings and I was trying out patterns for them.  We are also going to make mosaics using the huge collection of milk bottle tops I have been accumulating over the years.  I am really excited by this one as if it goes well, we can see about making it into a large scale community art project to go outside in Balfron.

Article on Loch Lomond Quilt Show for Popular Patchwork

I finally crafted my piece on the Loch Lomond Quilt Show for Popular Patchwork – a bit later than normal, but the last few months have been really hectic, then followed by the post-hectic migraine cluster slump.  The feature includes this lovely quilt, 'Fire and Ice' by Frieda Oxenham.

Frieda Oxenham, 'Fire and Ice'

These are just the main highlights.  I’ve also cut a stencil, made a papier mache piñata for a birthday party (still to be filled and painted), sketched and written about several ideas and planned next month’s City & Guilds weekend, checking out lots of fun drawing exercises.  I’ve got next week planned out already – let’s hope it is just as productive and who knows something may actually get completed!