Hanging goddess

Ancient goddess sculptures continue to fascinate me and I’ve been sampling lots of ideas for new work based on them.  This piece is a small finished hanging piece (about 1.2m long).  It is hanging in my studio, gently rotating round and spooking me whenever I walk into the studio in the dark.  It is transparent, with the markings in the body being opaque.  I want to get hold of some powerful lights to see what shadow effects I can get – but I will need to tidy the studio floor first!

Homemade with Love and other busy-ness

I can’t believe that it is already February this year and even better the sun is shining today.  January just seemed to pass by in a bit of a blur.  I don’t know if this is a sign of old age or whether it is because I’ve been busy.

Of course, it would be good to tell you what I’ve been busy with:

1.      I’ve been subbing a brand new craft magazine, called Homemade with Love.  The first issue went on sale mid January and I think it looks really good.  I love craft magazines and am a real sucker for them whenever I go near a newsagents.  Bizarrely, I never really seem to make anything from them, partly because I don’t have time and partly because when I make time, I want to make my own work. However, this time I was so tempted by these little owls by JoAvery, I couldn’t help myself.  And to keep things fair, I had to make three.  As I had been working on the magazine in December, I was able to get these made in time to be Christmas presents for my three.  They even appreciated them! Work on the second issue is well underway and looks just as good.

2.      I’ve started teaching City & Guilds Patchwork and Quilting at the Studio, run by the Loch Lomond Quilt Show.  It runs one weekend a month, which suits me.  January we looked at colour and some basic free machine quilting.  The next weekend is this Sat and Sun and I’m getting all my things ready just now.  I’m looking forward to using the fantastic dyeing facilities when we start dyeing fabric on Saturday.

 

 

3.     The kids art classes have continued as usual.  So far this term, we have made huge paintings, mini sketchbooks of fishes and last Saturday was felt making.

 

4.      We’ve also been running pre-schoolers’ artclasses and last time we made castles and cars out of boxes.  It’s my turn to run it again tomorrow and I think we are going to use flour and water paste (gloop), but I’m a bit worried about the mess and tidying up involved.  I seem to spend more time cleaning the McLintock Hall after running art classes there than I do my own house.

5.      I was asked by Beavers (scouts for boys aged 6 & &7) to run a session for them, preferably related to animals.  These were the results: cardboard box animals.  Lots of giraffes and pandas for some reason.

 

6.      And, and, and... well, lots more things, but I’m saving them to tell you in more detail soon.!

Facebook page

Do you know I’ve now set up my facebook page as an artist?  Please go over to facebook and have a look and ‘like’ it, if you like it!

Going round in circles

 

 

Made by the third class, aged 6-9

 

Made by the second class aged 6&7

Over a number of weeks at our Saturday morning kids art classes, we have been going round in circles...  It was the longest project we have ever tried and we looked at some fantastic artwork which used circles, then painted ‘targets’, cut them up reassembled them, made circular prints, printed sheets using circles. The kids collaged their individual pieces together so each class made a 1m square piece, which was attached to canvases, kindly funded by Balfron Community Council.

Made by the first class aged 5&6

 

Made by the fourth class aged 9-12

 

I had no real idea how they would turn out.  I knew how it would turn out if I did it and had some fun playing around with the ideas myself.  But these weren’t my artworks, they belonged to the children and so of course they are all very different.  They’ve taken a while for me to finish – I offered to do the final gluing down and varnishing (more fool me – it took ages!).  When they were in my studio being finished, I wasn’t totally convinced by all of them, probably because I had spent too long trying to finish them!  However, now they are up on the walls of the McLintock Hall, I’m really pleased with how they look and think the kids did a great job (they are all aged between 5-14).

in progress

some of our circle prints

Making a print sheet using potatoes and stamps

 

I am very relieved that they are finally in place as it means I can get on with some of my own work now!

 

Threadlines

Susan Ross

Threadlines is a group, which like many others, has grown out a class.  The group enjoyed the class so much that Ruth Higham, the tutor, ran an extra year of classes for them, before deciding to give up and join them as a member of the group.

Gina Watson

 

Although they liked meeting up and making once a month, they decided they needed a goal and so someone had the mad/great idea of creating an exhibition for the West End Festival.  They had started dyeing using indigo and thought this was the way to go.  They got Jane Callender, an indigo and shibori specialist to teach them the finer points of the craft and they couldn’t speak highly enough of her and her teaching. 

Carolyn MacGillivray

 

Their work is well underway and it was fantastic to see some of it on Friday.  I was really impressed by their skill and dedication.  They are all preparing three large hangings, which will be predominately indigo, numerous smaller pieces and a jacket.  I can’t wait to see the finished results!

The indigo vat

Fabric wrapped round a pole, dipped in the indigo

Exhibition at House for an Art Lover - You’re invited!

Detail of Acquari by Gillian Cooper

Yesterday I dropped off some pictures at House for an Art Lover in Glasgow for their next exhibition, which opens on Thursday 29^th November.  The Private View is on Thursday evening and if you’re in Glasgow, it should be worth attending.  As well as my pieces, there is work by lots of other artists which looks really interesting.

 

In some ways it was quite sad dropping off the work as now my mantelpiece looks empty.  It’s not until you take the picture away that you realise what an impact it has on the room!  Still, it will soon be time to put up the Christmas decorations there instead.

 

It was all a bit of a busy day yesterday.  As well as dropping off the pictures, we went to the Studio, running by the Loch Lomond Quilt Show people to see their first City & Guilds Patchwork and Quilting exhibition.  It was very impressive work and as I’m teaching the next C&G course with them which starts in January, it leaves a lot to live up to – which is fantastic.  The children liked the quilts, but were even more impressed by the cakes!

Studio time - new samples

This week has been lovely as I managed to have three days in the studio, just concentrating on my own work (sorry to anyone who was expecting work or tidiness from me this week...!).

Having spent a lot of time mulling ideas over, I finally bit the bullet and got stuck into making.  Nothing big so far, although I have now started some bigger pieces.  These are little samples/pieces.

 

Using a strategy that worked for me in the past, I decided to make do with the materials I had at home rather than obsessing about what materials I really, really needed to make the work.  So rather than buying a screen and screen printing inks and getting some thermofax screens made, I used my runnier fabric paints (Jacquard Dye-Na-Flow, which I love) and the odds and sods of acrylic paint I had lying around.  Before this all sounds too saintly, I have bought more procion dyes to increase the colour range of the background fabric and bought some additional acrylics when I was out on Thursday as I ran out of the colours I used in the samples!

 

 

 

I really like the results of using the acrylics to mark the cloth after more subtly altering it with the fabric paints.  I then added lots of free machine stitching on top.

The other piece uses one of my least favourite fabrics: polyester net curtain fabric. However, the transparency works really well, more so than the silk I have here.  Although I melted it a couple of times, I think I may work with it in the future.

 

Mags Ramsay's Rule the Waves?

A few months ago, I showed Mags Ramsay’s quilt as part of my review of the Festival of Quilts.   As photography is notoriously difficult at the Festival of Quilts due to the lighting, she kindly sent me a better image of ‘Rule the Waves?’.

Margaret Ramsay - Rule the Waves?

 

I have been rather remiss and am only just getting round to posting it on this blog.  I met Mags at a masterclass with Chunghie Lee at the Festival of Quilts a few years ago and I have been following her work ever since.



Margaret Ramsay - Rule the Waves? sample

 

Her work is lovely and she is very prolific given she also has a full time (and interesting) job.  She also writes a great blog, which is well worth a look if you don’t know it already.

Margaret Ramsay - Journal Quilt March 10

 

‘Rule the Waves?’ is a really clever use of indigo as you get a real sense of the sea and of the horizon.  She also has emphasised it by stitching in indigo colours using hand stitch. I also like the long narrow format, because the sea is so vast, you could never portray all of it and by concentrating on a section of it, you have a better sense of the whole.

Margaret Ramsay - Weymouth Waves

 

Mags kindly sent me some other images of related work, all of which is gorgeous.  ‘Weymouth Waves' is included in the SAQA regional exhibition ‘Wide Horizons II’.

Margaret Ramsay - Indigo Waves

 

Indigo must be an up and coming trend again as a number of people I know are beginning to work with it.  Ruth Higham and her group Threadlines are in the process of creating an entire exhibition based on indigo for the West End Festival in Glasgow and I’m going to visit them next week to find out more about it.

 

Big Draw in Balfron

Weaving Secrets at the 2012 Balfron Big Draw

Last weekend we held our third Big Draw event in Balfron.  This year’s theme was ‘2012 in lines’.  We had lots of different activities, from traditional drawing to less obvious interpretations. 

 

Weaving Secrets at the 2012 Balfron Big Draw

The mapping activity using masking tape on the floor was really popular with the children and we went through all our supplies of masking tape and some more!  The adults enjoyed extending out and altering some black and white photographs of Balfron.  Everyone seemed to like building 3D sculptures using paper straws and more masking tape.

Weaving Secrets at the 2012 Balfron Big Draw

 

Of course, we had to have a textile activity and we had ‘Weaving Secrets’.  I had dyed some fabric and torn it into strips.  We asked people to write a ‘secret’ on it and then weave it into the overall tapestry, leaving it up to them just how much or little of their secret they revealed.  The tapestry frame was made from a borrowed quilt frame from the Loch Lomond Quilt Show and Luci of eventsdecor had generously donated some fabric.

Weaving Secrets at the 2012 Balfron Big Draw

 

The finished result was really attractive, especially after I compressed it down to very small.  When I tied it off it wound up beautifully and I’m enjoying having it on the window ledge of my studio to admire.  Dawn, one of my fellow organisers of FAB, our local arts organisation, was suggesting we displayed it in the local library, but .... rather selfishly, I like it where it is!

The Temple of a Thousand Bells

‘The Temple of a Thousand Bells’ by Laura Belém at York St Mary’s

 

One of my favourite things about visiting York is going to YorkSt Mary’s.  A medieval deconsecrated church, it is a beautiful space, which is filled with an annual art installation.  This year is has been ‘The Temple of a Thousand Bells’, made by Laura Belém.  It is based on a legend of The Temple of a Thousand Bells which stood on an island that sunk into the sea.  It’s not a story I had heard before, but it made for a lovely experience.  Each of the bells is hand blown, transparent and silent.

‘The Temple of a Thousand Bells’ by Laura Belém at York St Mary’s

 

Again, the work is made so much more interesting by its interaction with the old building and the silence of the empty bells seems so appropriate for the silence of a former church. 

‘The Temple of a Thousand Bells’ by Laura Belém at York St Mary’s

 

The exhibition is on until this weekend, so if you haven’t had a chance, I would recommend visiting it.  Alternatively, there is a lovely film about the hanging of the show here.