Tag: craft

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art

Textile experiments

The pleasure of textiles might be related to the fact we are literally surrounded by them from birth, almost instantly wrapped even before being presented to our mothers. A huge part of human endeavour is to clothe ourselves, keep us warm with bedding, cosseted with cushions. Decorative fabrics and upholstery play large parts in our lives and we expend a goodly portion of our income on all these things.

It’s thought that humans have been using clothing (skins) for at least 500,000 years but when we began decorating those clothes is not yet known. Decorative fabrics were used by ancient civilisations although examples are vanishingly rare, unlike clay pots they mostly cannot usually survive time.

The infinite possibilities of textile art offer a tempting panorama but in order to achieve anything it is necessary to restrict oneself to just a tiny fraction of that view, I think. I posted a little about making this piece last November and I haven’t found a use for it yet but I’m sure it will get used.

Pools, 26 x 21cm, mixed textiles embellished and stitched, 2024

Making this I was inspired by Sarah Ross-Thompson, printmaker of renown and the photographs she often posts on Facebook.

Collagraph print by Sarah Ross-Thompson
Categories
art

Rhythm

“Rhythm in art is the visual or auditory pattern created by repeated shapes, elements, colors, sounds, and movements. It is used to create a sense of flow and connection within a work of art, as well as draw attention to certain areas of the composition. Rhythm can be achieved through repetition and variation, contrast, gradation and echo.” Studiobinder

Studiobinder – a video software house – blog has some useful definitions and practical examples of the creation and use of rhythm in video and they apply to plastic art (and other artistic ideas), most of the examples shown are painting but the same ideas apply everywhere.

In my own work I’m aware of rhythm in the flow of the stitch lines, the juxtaposition of colour and the textural depth, I use these as well as cut-away, embellish, embroider and ink. Mostly an intuitive process, based on the sketch and scrapbook but with larger pieces some planning and sketching is essential.

Work in progress

Categories
art

City

Working on fabric I usually have several pieces on the go, large and small. The smaller pieces sometimes get joined or incorporated into larger work.

This is an example of a series I called City, there are some larger and some smaller, framed and unframed.

City – one of a series – 25 x 25 cm, mixed textiles embellished and stitched

Part of an on-going study of colour.

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art

In Bristol Studio

A short walk from my home In Bristol Studio hosts a wide range of artists and makers – what a city! – “…an artist-led studio and home to over 50 artists and makers who work across multiple disciplines.” There are classes here and occasionally expos, the BS5 Arts Trail event on September 7th and 8th 2024 will be an open studio event.

Categories
art Software

Affinity and Canva

Affinity: Photo 2, Designer 2, Publisher 2.

I have written here before about Affinity apps – now selling for £160 for all three or £68 each – and how useful I have found them, (I have no connection to Affinity or Serif, the parent company) and in a world were many Mac apps seem to be getting worse it’s good that Serif are still producing useful upgrades for all three.

The subscription payment system used by Adobe, Corel and many others means that we pay for ever for a product which barely changes which may be great for the makers of Illustrator, CorelDraw &c. but which drain art and other school coffers year after year.

There are still a few niggles with the Affinity suite – no trace function for instance – but the layout, speed, almost seamless suite integration and excellent functionality more than compensate for any shortcomings.

A couple of weeks ago Affinity was taken over by Canva (a widely used online design house) and they have pledged: “We will provide Affinity free for schools & nonprofits (NFPs)”. This can only be good news, hopefully finally breaking the subscription stranglehold of Adobe etc. Canva are also pledged to invest.

I don’t know anything about Canva other than they are now a huge company but the product seems ok. and very popular.

Categories
art

Hare

I finally got round to putting the Hare – made last year – into the garden, the heavy rain of the last two months has eased and the ground is a little less muddy. Now awaiting some flowers. Not much chance of frost now, there has been very little this winter in southern or western England, but some of the most popular of annual climbers such as Black-Eyed Susan, sweet peas and nasturtiums like it to be a little warmer before being poked into the cold earth.

Hare, mixed fibres, approx 2m – awaiting some flowers

I finished off the hare with several coats of diluted pva, about three water to one glue, allowing it to dry between coats. I’m hoping this will extend the life for a few years, nothing will stop the elements for ever of course. I can’t quite remember all the various fibres, most of them came from Musgrove Willows in Somerset, others from garden centres and craft places, collected over years, includes wool, string, rope, willow and many more. Musgrove have an interesting website gallery

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art

Spring garden

Another machine embroidery and embellish piece, scraps of fabric, mostly natural cotton and silk but with some poly for the shine, this is rather more whimsical than most of my offerings, the bee seems to be popular but the wings need a bit more work.

Spring Garden with bee in progress, 34x34cm, mixed textiles, machine embroider and embellish.

I’ve been finding the dust from the machine embellishing process to be annoying, even using a mask it seems to get in the throat. I now have a small air filter machine that sits on the desk, it seems to help. I also vacuum every few minutes and make sure to wash hands often. The dust is very fine, it gathers around the embellishing needles and guard but also manages to spread around the work area.

Categories
art textiles

Charity shop textiles

Now and then the UK charity shops are just amazing. I was browsing them this rainy morning in Bristol and found, in one shop four huge cotton scarfs in plain colours for just £2 each. Another one was just demanding to be used for doll-making, plaits and braids ready-made. All in good condition, as new. Now I’m reluctant to cut them!

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art

Meltdown series on sale

Artigo, a lovely art gallery and shop on Gloucester Road, Bristol has a full set of my toy and model kits on sale and has a display of working samples which I’m told by proprietor Diego are popular with children and entertain them while adults are shopping.

Diego has kindly agreed to display for sale some of the textile art pieces I have loosely designated the Meltdown series. These are mostly quite small, colourful and heavily textured, I have named the larger pieces.

Artigo, 20.02.24

I’ve mounted these works in box frame without glass, as with impasto painting the texture is lost under glass. I used different sizes of mat at the front of the box frames (cut by Craftworks, Gloucester Rd, Bristol).

Categories
art

Winter Hare

For the first time in several years I thought I might send some seasonal greetings cards. Lots of scrap material and lots of thread awaiting a little effort, as well as plenty of card and dance paper, so here we go. My favourite animal will be the theme, the much persecuted hare, in winter costume.

Embellishing scraps of fabric is fun, but the embellishing needles have become rather costly at around £3 each – they break easily. So it’s important to take care using the embellishing machine, needles move fast but fabric movement must be slow. I also use embellished fabrics for doll costumes.

Once the fabric is available I cut the hares out and began stitching, might have been easier to stitch first then cut out. Hand stitching is kept to a minimum, whiskers and a little finishing. Anyway the results are just about ok, I think.

Winter Hare cards, work in progress (2)

I printed some text onto hand-made paper as a backing for the fabric hares, printed a greeting on A4 card with a small name label on the reverse. Once the hares are complete I stitched them onto the backing paper, then glue the whole piece to the card.

Winter Hare cards, work in progress (1)

I work with both the printers – one laser and one inkjet – the mac computer, a Husqvana/Viking sewing machine, an embellishing machine and many threads, pens, fabric scraps etc. and with music playing, often BBC R3 classical. The pics show the dry work area, I’ll be gluing elsewhere.