Workshop with Jane Hare

What a brilliant day we all had.  Thanks go to Jane and Linda who put in so much work so that we could have a really good day.  Jane must have spent quite sometime preparing everything so that the day went smoothly and we all took home a pile of samples.  Linda spent all day in the kitchen with steamers and pans of boiling fabric and paper.  We were doing Eco-dyeing, sometimes called Botanical Dyeing, either way, we made some lovely pieces with it.  Everyone was tired at the end of the day but more than happy with what they had done.  I managed to remember to take photographs and have got loads here to show.
Firstly, we dyed pieces of an old pink wool blanket using just vinegar and water.

I photographed mine so I would be able to recognise the button when they all came out of the pans.

Next we did two long strips of wallpaper lining paper and four small squares of another paper which may have been tyvek but Jane wasn't too sure about that.  These were mordanted with an iron solution of ferrous sulphate.  Again I photographed my roll before putting it in the pot.

We had placed one piece of paper over the top of the other with the leaves between and got two copies of the same arrangement.
Next we did a length of cotton fabric with kitchen roll over the top.  This was dyed with an alum mordant. 

Some of the darker images didn't photograph so well because of the shadows in the hall.  Next we did watercolour paper with a vinegar mordant.  We each did 12 squares of these with two images of each leaf.

Our last pieces were 12 pieces of cartridge paper and no mordant was used.  Everything was timed so that the last pieces went into the pot as the first pieces were ready to come out. A really great day, can't recommend it enough.

May Meeting

I am back now from all my holidays and operation on my toe although I am still in a stylish boot and won't be able to drive for a while yet.  Worth it, being pain free.  The girls have all been busy keeping up with their postcards and work for the exhibition as well as other projects.  We are all looking forward to our workshop next month with Jane Hare eco-dying.  I have been busy knitting gansey patterns and translating them into canvas work.  I hope to put them together to make a large canvas work piece.  I have attached a couple of photographs of the work in progress.  I now need to work out how to display them.

Afraid you can't really see the knitting patterns as the wool is too dark but I assure you they are there.

March Meeting

I managed to get the stitching finished for this meeting and so the bookbinding demo went ahead.  I think some thought it a lot of work but it is nice to make yourself a book you can love.

This is the finished book.  The lotus design is taken from a photograph I took of a paving slab in Hong Kong.

Plans are going ahead for a workshop with Jane Hare in June.  We will be doing eco-printing which should be fun.  A quiet meeting this month with everyone getting on with their own projects of which here are a few photographs.

Cath has been doing some work with tea bags and these designs have come out lovely.

Christina made this little fabric book at the Embroiderers' Guild summer school last year and has been busy finishing it off.

February Meeting

Today I was going to demonstrate a bookbinding technique but unfortunately I hadn't finished embroidering the book cover so I have had to defer that to next month.  The embroidery is now finished but I have to mount it onto board and get all the other bits and pieces done.  The book is going to hold lots of patterns and designs that I have traced off so every other page will have a pocket to hold these.
People still had work to do and Ann was recycling her Bomb Craters from our 'Warriors' exhibition and turning them into shells and pebbles.  Caroline was using her new Markel Sticks (she has been to Art Van Go) and making some lovely pages of colour to go into a book. Roma has made her own book of coloured pages and was putting that together. 
We are now all waiting for Spring and some warmer weather to inspire us.

Christina had been on the seafront and taken photographs of lobster pots and fishing nets and was recreating this in these designs.

This is Carolyn's markel and paint papers and some tyvek she has been working with.

Cath has been stitching ammonites.

January Meeting

Just looked at the blog and it seems ages since our workshop with Alice Fox in November.  13 of us had a lovely Christmas lunch at Betton Farm, just up the road from where we meet and the day was enjoyed by everyone.
Now it is January and we are back to normal.  We had a quiet meeting with everyone doing their own thing and getting settled back into routine.  Postcards had been exchanged in December and those who weren't here exchanged today.  There is some coastal work coming along and some poem work too.  I have purchased some 5ply wool and have started knitting samples of Gansey patterns as I am working on a theme of fishing.  Took me a while to work out the pattern but got along fine once I realized the instructions were for knitting on 5 needles and in the round and I am working on two needles from side to side!