9 Top Tips for Getting the Most Out of a Museum Visit

How to make the most of a museum research visit as a quilt artist

Floating heads by Sophie Cave

Following on from the first weekend of the C&G Certificate in Patchwork and Quilting 10 days ago, last weekend was the first weekend of the Diploma (more advanced) class.  It was lovely to see some familiar faces who had undertaken their Certificate with me at the Loch Lomond Studio and to meet the new students.  Our two topics for the weekend were research and playing with mixed media.  Permission to play is very important!

Urn from the Early People's Gallery

As part of the research, we made a visit to the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow.  If you haven’t been, it is well worth a visit.  The breadth of the collection is huge and there is always something I haven’t noticed before that takes my interest.  Which is why we were there.  As part of the Diploma, each student has chosen their own subject matter for research and I was hopeful that the Museum would have something to interest everyone.  I decided I didn’t want to put them off research by taking them to a specialist museum, although I think you can (virtually) always find something of interest no matter how unpromising the museum’s collection sounds.

Part of a very old boat

Although the members of this group, like me, were generally museum junkies, many newbie artists/quilters don’t visit museums regularly and some don’t know how to approach a visit to get the most out of it.  So here is some advice on things to do to get the maximum inspiration from a visit (and yes, quilters should visit museums and art galleries as well as quilt shows – perhaps more so)

From the Early People's Gallery.  I forgot to note down what this was as I was mostly interested in the detail than the whole object

1.   Look for an object or painting that relates to the subject that interests you.  Sketch it in two different ways (ie a line drawing, shading it, drawing with dots rather than lines).  Also you don’t need to draw the whole object – just the bits that matter to you – you’re doing research not trying to recreate someone else’s work.

Have I mentioned I like the Floating Heads by Sophie Cave?!

2.   Try out different media.  Draw an object/painting more than once using different implements such as pencil, pen, felt tip, Inktense, charcoal etc.  Get really adventurous and use several media on one drawing!  Before doing this, do check that the museum allows you to do this – some will only let you use pencils (so don’t forget the pencil sharpener and the eraser).

More Floating Heads

3.   Draw before photographing.  Yes, it can be intimidating, especially if you don’t think your drawing is any good, but remember most of the passers-by can’t draw any better than you, no matter how bad and it is a great way to start a conversation.  You will be asked lots of questions.  Why draw first?  So you commit the artwork to your memory, rather than to your camera’s memory.

4.   Find a work by an artist you haven’t heard of.  Think why you like it and find out more about her/him either at the museum or when you get home to see if you like their other pieces.

The Surprise Find - this is a Lowry and there isn't a matchstick cat or dog in sight

5.   Find an artist who creates work on the subject which interests you and look at how they have approached it – what do you like / don’t like.

Pattern on a Viking stone

6.   Look for five patterns you like.  This could be on the floor, the ceiling or on an ancient pot.  Obviously the number 5 is arbitrary, but having a goal is always useful.

View of the floor down one of the long first floor galleries

7.   Find a work you really dislike and work out what about it has triggered such a negative reaction.

I loved this work by John McLean, but many of my students were less keen on its 'naive' style

8.   Look in the bookshop – you may discover books that you didn’t know about or old exhibition catalogues of interest.

9.   Enjoy the cafe!  You will need a rest – your brain will become saturated, which is another reason to start with drawing first before this happens and before your feet get sore.

A detail of the building

I think that just about sums up how I tackle museum visits... in theory at least!  This time, I spent most of the day in the cafe, making sure that the students could find me if necessary.  When I did finally go for a wander around, I realised I was rather hungry and couldn’t concentrate on drawing, so just photographed instead, thus breaking my own golden rule.  However, I do have some plans to use the photos in the future.  Watch this space!

Starting the C&G Certificate Course

The City & Guilds courses have finally started.  Over the past four days, there have been six very enthusiastic and occasionally bewildered students in my studio starting on their C&G Patchwork and Quilting Certificate.

Chrystine's cake, which was followed by an equally delicious one made by Isobel.  What great students!

The first day started well when Chrystine arrived with freshly baked cake.  Always a good start!  Everyone seemed remarkably relaxed and keen, even when faced with poster paints and hand printing to practice colour mixing.  I would like to report that our activities then became more grown-up, but really, the beauty of this course is having permission to play and experiment and try new things.  Perhaps at a more adult level too, it gives you the structure to make you do things you should do, but never quite get round to, such as trying out different stitches on your sewing machine.  Even reading your sewing machine manual to see how it should work.  I know I am very guilty of this myself – you get a new toy/sewing machine/ camera so you dive straight in, not wanting to waste time.  However I know that both my sewing machine and camera have so much more potential that I still haven’t bothered to find out about.  Even with our new car which has wonderful new gadgets integrated into it, I still haven’t read how to use them beyond the music system.  Perhaps understanding the parallel parking function would have been more useful?

Concentration whilst trying free machine quilting

Anyway, back to the C&G.  The students are lovely and I was really impressed with their attitude and their first results, especially since some of them have little patchwork experience.  After playing with poster paint and colour wheels, we did some basic quilting and piecing and tried out different ways of adding colour to fabric.

Some of the colour onto fabric samples

Our next meeting isn’t until September and I can’t wait to see what they come up with from their homework challenges.

Trying out different ways of adding colour

My next challenge is the C&G Diploma class which starts this Thursday.  I’ve got lots of interesting activities planned out and I’m really excited to get all the students together and to see how their research into their different topics is developing.

Some of my notes, which were embellished by oldest son

In the meantime, less than 24 hours since the students finished, I’ve already managed to turn my studio back into a Gillian bombsite, with tables and fabric all over the place.  Better start tidying again! 

The now not-so-tidy studio - back to normal!

Gelli-plate printing during Open Studios

Printing materials - strawberry and bubblewrap

Open Studios finished last night and today my studio is getting back to normal.  During the week I had some tables set up so visitors could try mono-printing using gelli-plates.  Rachel enjoyed it so much she came twice and got greatly in the spirit of it trying to mark make with strawberries.  It did work, but they tasted so nice, I ate them rather than print with them!

Mark making with the strawberry on the gelli-plate

When I cleared up yesterday evening, there was a lovely pile of prints that I had made as demonstration pieces.  Although they are only on cheap copier paper, I really like some of them and they will make great backgrounds for some artwork or perhaps to be turned into artists books.  I do like the prints on better quality paper, but it is good to see that you can achieve satisfactory results with the basics. 

Rachel with the strawberry print

All three of my children eventually had a go and it was great to see the effects the boys achieved by just drawing very quickly into the paint on the gelli-plate before printing.  Watching the immediacy of the kids printing is very inspiring – sometimes I spend too much time thinking, whereas they just go for it, without caring too much.

Some of my gelli-prints mixed in with the children's

So now, I’m trying to get back to normal and am working on a new big piece which I started last week.  I also have the first C&GCertificate class starting on Thursday, which is very exciting.  I have virtually everything ready for it, just got to get the house tidied now before the students arrive.  I’m sure most times the C&G comes up I’m going to regret running it in my home studio as I need to tidy the house, but secretly that was one of my goals with running it from home to try and force me to be tidier!  I just hope it rubs off on the rest of the family...

Working on the new piece

In my studio: visitors!

Stitching in progress 

It’s Open Studios week here (Forth Valley Open Studios) and after a dismal week last week of migraine, I got everything together just in time.  It’s fun having visitors and sharing my work.  I’ve taken down the wadding I use for my design wall and was dazzled by the white wall behind it – it’s amazing what a difference there is between soft cream and bright white!  The walls and doors now have my artwork hung on them and the worktop has lots of smaller pieces and sketchbooks out too.

White walls in my studio

Part of the joy of reorganising my studio to teach in it is how easy it is to move everything around and configure it in different ways.  So I have a desk set up with my sewing machine so I can carry on stitching at quieter moments and three tables put together in the middle so visitors can have a go at printing.

The little one showing off her stitching skills

I’m not sure if my daughter counts as a ‘visitor’ but she certainly had a go at printing yesterday, using two gelli-plates at once and covering herself, the paper and the floor in paint.  At least she made some interesting prints!  She also spent some time sitting in the corner showing off her stitching skills. 

Sketchbooks and other info

The studio is open until Sunday 14^th June from 12-5 (apart from Tues and Weds), so if you are in the area, please pop in and have a look/chat/go at printing.

More work out at Gillian Cooper Studio

Design Day workshop in the Studio

Susan's piece from kitchen utensils

Last Friday I finally remembered to take photos of the class – hurrah!  It was ‘Design Day’.  It was a great day, painting and dancing at the same time; experimenting with different media and seeing which ones people preferred (not always the ones I expected); making completely random pictures and finding interesting patterns from unpromising material (kitchen utensils!).

Creating random pictures

Many of my friends think I’m a bit nuts, but for me it was a great way to spend a Friday helping to take away the fear of designing and I was really impressed by some of the pieces created.  Fantastic designs for new textile pieces. 

Scaling up and changing media

Tomorrow is ‘Stitch Day’, the last of this session as I need to then get the studio ready for Open Studios, which starts on Saturday 6 June.  I’m going to be demonstrating my working processes as well as having work displayed for sale, especially as I have a couple of pieces I want to get made.  As I write, I’ve got fabric sitting on the radiator drying so it can then be taken to the next stage.  Can’t quite believe that at the end of May it is cold enough to justify having the radiators on!  Still it does make drying my fabric quicker.  Photos of these pieces coming soon.

Louise's drawing from utensils

One of the random pictures

8 easy steps to a wonky-ish log cabin quilt

Friday’s class was all about Inktense and we had an interesting time exploring it on fabric and paper.  Yet again, I forgot to take any pictures.  Oops.  Must add it to my lesson plans to remind me!  This week is a design day, coming up with random ways to make unusual abstract quilts.  It’s going to be entertaining!

Apart from my classes and making new work, I’ve been rather occupied making a new baby quilt.  It is a while since I’ve made one and it was fun to be back making a more traditional quilt.  As you can see from the photos, the new baby is a girl (our great niece), which meant the quilt took a bit longer.  I have lots of blues etc I can use in a quilt, but absolutely no pink.  So a special shopping trip had to be made. 

Lovely view out of the window!

I love log cabin quilts and playing around with the format and this is what I did for this quilt.  It measures 36 x 48in and was made from only 9 fat quarters, including the binding.  Here’s how I did it (in a very quick 8 steps):

1.   Use one fabric for the centres and cut 12 3½in squares

Use one fabric for the binding and cut into as many 2in strips as you can get.  Join these strips together into one long strip, which can then be made into double fold binding.

2.   From the remaining 7 FQs, cut each one into a variety of 1½in, 2½in and 3½in squares.

3.   Choose the 3 lightest FQs and use these for the first two rounds of adding strips and use the remaining 4 for rounds 3&4.

4.   I tried to be organised so that no colour would end up being repeated in the same block, so each of the 3 lightest FQs were used on 4 centres each, varying the width of the strips.  Then each of these 4 centres had a different colour for rounds 3&4.  It sounds a bit complicated, but it is obvious when you are doing it.

5.   I made all the blocks at least 13½in square (I had to join a couple of smaller off cuts for the final rounds).  Some have two complete rounds, others three.  I then placed my 12½in ruler at an angle on the block and trimmed to size.

6.   The blocks were placed on my design wall and moved until I was happy with the arrangement and then I stitched them together.

7.   I followed the shapes of the blocks and free-machine quilted lines within them, before adding the binding.

quilt laid out on the floor

One very cute little baby girl now has her quilt to do with as she wishes, but hopefully she will have as much enjoyment as my kids have from theirs.  Even now, they are still on beds and are used as tents, rugs and princess capes!

Switching exhibition venues

Unsung Muses at Farfield Mill

Yesterday saw the end of my exhibition at Farfield Mill and whilst it was lovely to see it again, it was also sad to take it down as it looked so fantastic in that space.  As I had to be there anyway, I ran a workshop for them called ‘Print, Paint, Play!’ and I had a marvellous day with a wonderful group of ladies who worked incredibly hard using gelli plates and then adding paint on top with Inktense and Markal.  

Gelli plate prints from workshop

It’s great when you learn something on a workshop you are teaching (it happens virtually every time).  The lesson for me yesterday was that metallic paint can be used really well, without over-powering a piece.  I tend to avoid glitz at all costs.  I shudder at gold lame!  However, watching the students yesterday using the copper and gold paint was fantastic and I will definitely have to start trying to use it subtly. 

Great use of gold metallic paint!

So the Unsung Muses are now mainly on the tables in my studio, waiting to be put away until  – apart from the four which are already hanging in their next show.  As part of Forth Valley Open Studios, they are in the Pop Up exhibition at the Tolbooth,Stirling.  

Unsung Muses at the Tolbooth

The exhibition opens on Saturday and if you are in the area on Friday night, please come to the Private View from 6-8pm.  I’m intending to be there – three little monsters permitting!

Unsung Muses at the Tolbooth

Last Friday’s class in the studio was also on gelli plate printing and, again, there were some amazing results, particularly from using leaves.  However, I was so busy, I forgot to take any photos of their work.  Mental note for this Friday’s class on Inktense!  [small plug – there are still some places available on the next three Fridays if you live nearby and fancy trying Inktense or improving your design or stitching skills...]

Printing in action

More gelli plate printed fabric

How to: ice dye fabric

Iced dyed cotton

I’m sure that like me, most of us just want to see summer and enjoy some sun.  We’ve had some bizarre weather here recently: last week it was warm, dry and sunny; this week it is sleeting and pretty miserable.  I was too busy taking the kids sledging when we had a small amount of snow this winter to do any snow dyeing and as I was teaching a dyeing class last week, I thought it would be fun to try ice dyeing.  I know – it would have been more optimistic to do sun printing!

Iced dyed cotton muslin

I found a little bit on the web about ice dyeing, but not a huge amount of detail, so I thought I would share my experiences with you to add to the general knowledge out there.

Iced dyed cotton

You need a container to hold the fabric and ice and then something underneath for the excess dye water to run into so it doesn’t muddy the fabric.  Most people use some kind of rack over a sink, but I didn’t have a rack, so I used a foil tray bake tray in which I punched some holes with a scalpel knife.  It worked really well.  I balanced it over an Ikea storage box.

Iced dyed cotton

First I soda-ashed the fabric and it seemed to work better if you left the fabric wet rather than using dried fabric.  I placed this in the bottom of the tray, all scrunched up.  I poured a bag of ice over the top, making sure that the fabric was covered.  Some people use crushed ice, but these were cubes and I didn’t break them down.  Finally, gently pour some concentrated dye liquid over the ice cubes.  For one of the experiments, I sprinkled dye powder directly onto the ice, but I’m not particularly comfortable with having the dye particles floating around my studio and even after the ice had dissolved there were still some lumps of powder left.  I also don’t think the result was that different, so it is better to use the safer method.

Iced dyed cotton muslin using dye powder

And that’s it!  You just leave it overnight until all the ice cubes have melted and the excess dye has dripped through.  Wash the fabric out in cold water.  The excess dye is still good for dipping another fabric in and it already has soda ash in it.  That’s what I used for my original shibori dyeing.

Iced dyed cotton

The students on Friday also had a go and some of their results were fantastic.  I can’t wait to show them.  The next couple of Friday classes are Screen Printing on 1 May and Gelli Plate Printing on 8 May.  There are still a couple of places left so if you are in the area and want to join, please drop me an email or leave a comment.

Dyeing Day: 1st Workshop at Gillian Cooper Studio

Adding dye to the group ice dyeing pieces

‘Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start’ and what a better place to inaugurate my new home studio classes than with fabric dyeing – the start of most of my projects.

Shibori using elastic bands

We spent today experimenting with procion and cotton fabric.  We tried colour mixing, toning fabrics, dyeing in cups, over-dyeing fabric, shibori using elastic bands and set up ice dyeing.  I certainly enjoyed myself and I think the students did too!  It was lovely to have textile enthusiasts in my studio and to share my knowledge with them.  What’s so exciting about teaching any class in person is that it is a circular process - the students learn from me; they learn from each other and I learn from them.   I’m really pleased with how my demonstration samples turned out and I can’t wait to see how the students’ pieces work out after they have been washed out.  Most of them are doing next week’s class too (though there are still a few spaces available!) and so I will get to see the results then.

Twice dyed

Even better is I still have some dyes made up so I can do some more over the weekend.  Also the tidying up wasn’t as painful as I expected and I didn’t have to cook dinner for the family as we had the leftover soup and homemade bread from the lunch.  I think I am going to enjoy teaching from home!

Dyed in a cup

Working hard

Some of the ice dyeing melting away