ArtWorks Exhibition

 

After a fantastic year of Saturday morning kids' art classes, the term came to a close yesterday with our annual exhibition.  It is really satisfying as the tutor (as well as one of the parents!) to see all the work on display and realise just how much the children have achieved over the past year and how some of them have really blossomed artistically.

 

One of our aims is to offer the kids opportunities to try out things they may not be offered at school and so we have used lots of different materials, including clay, charcoal, collage, painting, drawing, sculpture, inks, printing, weaving, felting and stitching (can you see my textile influences coming through?)

 

The exhibition was a great success. The kids loved showing off their work to their parents and their parents were suitably impressed.  And Dawn and I as tutors were happy and ready to face doing it all again next year, which wasn't necessarily the situation at half past midnight the evening before when we were still trying to hang all the work!

 

In addition (as you know how good I am at keeping things simple for myself...), we also had some free art activities for people to try, making spinners, adding to a paper mosaic or making a kinetic foam sculpture as well as running an Art + Craft Fair.  The Art + Craft Fair was a positive addition to the day and it was fantastic to meet so many local artists and makers who had come to display their art.

 

When it was all over, I collapsed for the remainder of yesterday, but it was all worthwhile.  The local school summer holidays start on Friday and so we have no more art classes until 1 September and I have to admit, I'm looking forward to a break and not having to get up so early on a Saturday for a few weeks!  I also need to start thinking up ideas of things for us to do next year...

Saturday 16th June



Felt made by Ellen Kao

I'm currently working hard pulling together the work for our annual kids art exhibition. The children have created some brilliant work and now it is up to Dawn and I as the tutors to mould it into a great show.

This year we are also having an Art + Craft Fair at the same time. Lots of local artists and makers will be there selling their work, including me. So if you are in the Balfron area next Saturday, please do come by: it's at the McLintock Hall from 10-1. There are also some free activities to try.
Unfortunately as I will be at the exhibition, it means I can't go to the World Textile Day at Bridge of Allan, run by Magie and Bob Relph. It also looks fun. However, it does mean I'll save money as I won't be tempted by their amazing African fabrics or antique embroideries sold by John Gillow!

Creative Handbags Special

Over the last few months, I have been subbing the magazine, Creative Handbags, which goes on sale at WHSmiths on 8th June.  Having taxed my brain in working through the projects to check that they work and are understandable, I fancied having a go at making some.  Here are the three bags I made from one pattern, which really appealed to me.

The fabric for these bags is all from Ikea.  It is cheap and bright and I bought it specially for trying out bags so it doesn't matter if I mess up.  But happily, as I was following the pattern, the bags worked beautifully.  I'm quite tempted to work my way through the Creative Handbag magazine as there are so many lovely bags to choose from and I may not be into high fashion, I do love my bags!

Reasons my own work has been neglected recently ... 1

I've just cut and stitched sleeves on 120 pieces of fabric for people to paint as flags on Tuesday at our village jubilee party.

Loch Lomond Quilt Show - more favourites

Liz Ferguson - Still Life with Souvenirs

Here are some of my favourites from the competition quilts at the 2012 Loch Lomond Show.  

Senga Bain - The Mermaid's Lament (Singing the Blues)

I'll be writing a review of the show for Popular Patchwork which will hopefully appear sometime over the summer.

Rosalie Furlong - White Horses

Mark Shields, Lewis Currie and Ryan Conlan - Mission Impossible - Agents

Glyn Molyneux - Good Luck Jim (this tape will destruct in 5 seconds)

Other non quilt highlights included as always the amazing home baking at West Kirk, where my children were treated to extra cakes, just because they remember them visiting as babies upwards.  Thank you ladies.  And a special thank you to Marjory McKinven and her sister Marion who were demonstrating themofax screen printing on the Saturday and let my second son have a go.   He was really proud of his efforts and it was something that his siblings haven't done, which made it even better!

Loch Lomond Quilt Show 2012 - my favourites

Irene Craik Watson (untitled)

The annual Loch Lomond Quilt Show was held last week before the sunshine arrived in Scotland. The weather was probably the worst ever for the Show (which is quite an achievement!), but it didn't matter as the quilts were beautiful as ever. These are a few of my favourites from the non-competition galleries. I'll post the competition ones in the next few days.

Irene at the top had a lovely selection of her quilts, including many featuring bugs, all beautifully embroidered on.  I know her as Irene the quilter, but apparently she has another life as a 'bug lady' (this is not a technical term!).

Cora Ham (untitled)

Cora is part of the Filanderers group.  I wrote about them recently in Popular Patchwork and work by the other four were featured, but not work by Cora.  Sorry Cora, it wasn't on purpose!

Helen Cowans - Swallows

Helen Cowans has a lovely selection of work about Goddesses, which given my current preoccupations was fascinating.  I also liked her heavily painted pieces, like this one.  Helen also has a blog, where you can follow her work.

Jane Appelbee - Turbulence

I loved the work by the former City and Guilds students, Off the Wall.  Unfortunately the lighting in their venue is awful for photography, so it doesn't show their work to the best advantage.

Ruth Higham - Greenfingers

The sun finally shone on Saturday and I nipped out to the outdoor exhibition.  Ruth is one of the organisers of the show and still she finds time to make these lovely sunny pieces.  Wow.

And now for something more successful

Waves of Time
Gillian Cooper, 2012
110 x 120cm

As well as making the journal quilts, over the past few months, I have also been making this new piece,Waves of Time.  It is quite a bit bigger than A4, just over a metre in each direction.  On the figure are lots of other little figures all embroidered on using my Pfaff Embroidery Unit.  I wanted them all to be similar, but there are deliberate subtle variations, just as we are all different.

Waves of Time (detail)
Gillian Cooper, 2012
110 x 120cm

I also kept away from regular shaped edges, as I didn't want a binding to frame the piece, I wanted it to go its own way.

I think it is more successful than the journal quilts - what do you think?

the unsuccessful journal quilt ...4

Actually, I think this is my favourite of them.  It somehow feels less sterile than the other three - perhaps due to the loopy machine quilting or that I stuck less rigidly to my prescribed shapes of rectangles, circles and triangles.

I'm glad they are finished. But I have learned lessons.  Much as I like playing with basic design, mixing that with journal quilts is not a happy combination for me! I hope the next colour is more exciting, I can't remember if it is to be blue or yellow, but either way, I can integrate it more into my main work, so hopefully it will be a more fruitful exercise!

the unsuccessful journal quilts ... 3

So having felt so-so about the first two journal quilts for the Contemporary Quilt Group Challenge, I think a sense of boredom was setting in by the time I made the third.  If I was getting bored by them, then I can't really expect anyone else to like them! 

I can't remember which colour the next group of four is meant to be, but I have definitely decided that I don't want to continue with the basic shapes - it doesn't really strike a chord for me and making a series of work away from my main work has been a distraction rather than a way of refreshing my work.  So being positive, I'm looking forward to making some new relevant work!

the unsuccessful journal quilts ... 2

I think the first one is my favourite and as I went on, they become less successful.  This is the second.

final

Originally, I designed it to be the other way up, but when I saw it lying on my table the other way up, I liked it better this way.  Which way do you think is better?

original way up