Coming up

Good to see you all today.

Coming up in the next few months:

June            - Abstract design using mixed fabrics with architecture as the inspiration.
July             - 'Flower power'.
August        - Own work,  FOQ de-brief, plan for The BTS.
September  - Naïve stitch.
October      - 'Cut and stretch'.
Wednesday 21st October - Gillian Travis workshop.
November  - Follow up to Gillian Travis workshop.

Lots to look forward to.......................

Cloth for Art pt. 2

Here are the photos from Monday's excellent collaborating to produce  five Art Cloths.

We started with  five hand dyed lengths of fabric, three of which are below.

We then worked in pairs  taking twenty minutes to add marks to one of the cloths.

At this point we all moved on the the next cloth for a further twenty minutes.

Round three meant that we moved on again to the next cloth.

A final round :

We then returned to the cloths we started with and which we would take a section of away to work on to add anything else we wanted or just contemplate "what next..."

Cloth for Art

If you want to make your own screens you need 43T mesh.

A good supplier is Hunt the Moon - scroll down and click on the image,

where you see 'mesh count' click and scroll down to find 43T, click to 

select to view price.

Reminder:

May - using the Cloth for Art produced today.

June - Abstract design using mixed fabrics.

 

Screen printing

Wow, what a day.

Some fantastic screen printing.

No team leader today but lots of learning from each other.

Learning about different print mediums and techniques.

It's so interesting watching people work and

seeing their fabric develop.

I can't wait to see what happens to these fabrics.

Screen printing in March

Our next session is 'Screen printing' - a favourite and another
messy session.

Requirements:

Screens - with resists, including thermofax

              - without resists and preferred resist making materials
Squeegees
Preferred print mediums - thickened dyes, acrylics, fabric medium
Fabric - treated appropriately if necessary, dyed
Materials/equipment for keeping your workspace clean, eg plastic sheet or newspaper to put your work on to dry and doing a final clean up.
Hairdryer - if you want to hurry any drying
Think about getting wet work and equipment home.

Looking forward to having fun..........................

Paste Grain Papers - the results!

Thanks to Sally for a brilliant day and for providing the raw materials for our day. It was a chance to play with a new technique and see its potential. 

Materials assenbled. Rice flour paste, potato starch paste and gram flour paste available for us to try.

Acrylic paint is mixed into a pit of paste.

A fabulous space for us all to work in. Below are examples of work in progress.

Now we have to consider how we make best use of these lovely papers.

PasteGrain Paper. Feb9th Session

PASTE GRAIN DECORATED PAPER.

Decorated papers have been used over many centuries to enhance items and turn them into something of beauty. Books , furniture, boxes and screens have all had the paper treatment over the years. When visiting museums or historic houses keep your eyes peeled for papers used in this way, you will be surprised how much you will spot. And of course these papers are still made and used by artists and book binders today.

Traditional marbling on paper ( a technique of laying pigment on water or size and transferring to paper) had been used in the book binding process to create interesting end papers since the very first books.  Discovered in China and then highly developed in Italy the art of decorated papers soon become something of a skilled and valued art form. Another old traditional process to decorate paper was developed at around the same time – that of paste grain.

 This technique involves mixing up a flour ( grain that is ground to a fine powder) , adding water, cooking it into a paste, ( this forms a glue)  adding pigment , spreading the coloured paste onto a sheet of paper and  making impressions with combs or any kind of mark maker. This process of decoration when done correctly creates a 3 dimensional pattern on a 2 dimensional  surface.

 

It’s a great fun process to play with and although appearing easy to do, it takes time and skill to achieve a more complex pattern.

Although intended for use on paper, pastegrain can be altered and adapted for use on fabric. Come along and have a go.

 Here is what you will need to bring along :

Essential requirements for Paste Grain Papers

·        PAPER Selection of plain papers A4 &A3 – cartridge/brown/lining/black

Selection of coloured papers – wallpaper/wrapping/novelty.

Old maps/ old books.

Beforehand put initials on back of each sheet please.

·        PAINT  Watercolour tubes/ acrylic/poster. This can be cheap stuff from the Works. Better coverage is achieved if using Artists quality but is not essential.

Metallic colour or iridescent is really nice to use if you have any.  

·        MARK MAKERS anything to make impressions into the paste. Comb/ rollers/bottle tops/ old credit cards/ forks/knives/ rubber stamps. Collect what you can. I will bring loads.

·        You will also need:

Selection of household brushes 1” or more wide. About 5 – I have some you can borrow.

Plastic cups (or glass jars)  if you have them.

Plastic table covering.

Apron or old shirt.

Small towel or dishcloth/ j cloth for wiping hands.

·        OPTIONAL  you might want to bring:

Foils, gold/dutch leaf/glitter glue/any shiny stuff.

Some white or dyed fabric to try pastegrain on.

Small cutting mat/ scalpel/ scissors/ glue/small boxes/ cards. We might get time to make something with our papers.

I will bring:

Pastes, mixing bowls, plastic cups, buckets , and lots of other things we might need. I will also have sample packs of interesting papers if needed.

Please email or phone me if have any problems of questions.  Feb 9^th. Kislingbury  village Hall.

Sally Hutson

stitchywoowoo@talktalk.net                   01908 265725