Almost creative!

 I am feeling a bit chuffed because I am having some creative thoughts!! 

I belong to a group of people who meet fortnightly to do paper collage. I got into it sort of accidentally because I had met the person who runs it - Anne Warren- several years ago at the Alphington Open Studios. 

Years later, we had some books to throw out and, being unable to just put them in the rubbish, I contacted her to see if she thought she could use them. The answer was yes!! 

She was just starting up a social get-together of interested people and invited me to attend. I went along, thinking I would only go the once but it has been a great social and creative meeting. We are very fortunate that the cafe that we meet at allows us to take over quite a few tables and do our thing. 

Anne has mentioned that we come from different backgrounds (artistically) and whether we could share some new ideas. I have been thinking about it and would like to contribute. Then I remembered a workshop I did with Kim Thittichai, years ago, and have been going through the notes from the class and the book that is related to what we did. (experimental textiles by Kim Thittichai). 

So this evening I have been trying some basic stuff. So far, I have used a stamp I made at the workshop and have printed with it, using acrylic paint, onto cartridge paper. 

I have then found some ink dye and gone over the background. Not great art but something to play with. I will probably tear it up into strips to make a new piece of paper. 

And I have done another piece of cartridge paper, also with acrylic paint and may try some Procyon dye on it tomorrow, when it has dried out enough. Don't want to push too hard tonight! 

I used the remains of the paint on the stamp, on the left, and it is much fainter. But I don't think it matters as I will be tearing or cutting the paper later. I think. 

Workshop at Ballarat 2014 - part one.

I am finally getting around to posting about the Fibre Arts Forum at Ballarat this year. It was great, as usual. Lots of lovely people doing textile work, designing, making and discussing textile art. No news, newspapers, television, etc. (I will admit to checking the football scores.) It is like a retreat. It would be great even if the workshops weren't - but they are.

I did the Kim Thittichai workshop - it was advertised as a workshop in two parts. The first part was about finding a design to work with. I must admit that I didn't take much notice of what the second part was, I was more interested in learning about designing.
Fortunately, the notes did say that you might only do samples, no finished article to produce at the end. Just what I wanted.

Kim got us to do three design exercises to start with. She kept telling us that they are simple design exercises, not new developments, etc. But it was a chance to spend several days doing it!! No phone calls, no deciding what to cook, no cooking, nothing but the work. Fabulous.

She didn't give us any notes, we just had to do our own work, make our own decisions. Apparently it is all in her book, Experimental Textiles, but I hadn't seen it. Anyway, I am a person who prefers to be shown, and work with others and see what they are doing, rather than read notes or books, not that I don't have my fair share of books.

The first one was to paint a journey. We were to ignore the fact that most of use think we can't draw, we just had to paint images that meant something to us. Then, because we had to fill the paper to at least 80% with black (all the design work was with black and white only), I had to make up some images. They had nothing to do with the journey, they were just images to fill the space. I was even reduced to writing letters of the alphabet to fill in some space - must be the teacher in me, the alphabet is always a good bet.

Here are a few of the journey painting, laid out together.

We then got some L-shaped cards and chose an area that appealed to us. Guess what?  The letter 'e' got into my more intricate design.

We traced the part of the image that interested us the most, transferred it onto some foam core board and some sort of self-adhesive foam stuff. Then we cut the foam and stuck it to the foam core. You can see that we cut the positive and negative images out to make two blocks. We than printed them, using acrylic paint. After the paint dried, we painted the newspaper with procion dye solution.
All this took a bit of time but I loved it.

Workshop at Ballarat 2014 - part 2

Continuing the Kim Thittichai workshop report:
The second design exercise we did was simple.
You cut a piece of card (black in this case) to a rectangular shape. Then you cut out pieces and flip them out from the shape, so they will flip back exactly.

I found a few places where I could continue the flipping, not from the rectangle but from the pieces that projected out.

I enjoyed this activity so much that I tried another, using a squarer shape and flipping out from all sides. (Kim called this exercise Flipping Out - very appropriate.)

You have a look at the design, using the L shapes, and choose a part that appeals to you to make a print block. I traced the design onto foam core and onto the funky foam stuff, making sure to colour the negative and positive spaces.  Then you cut the funky foam and attach it to the foam core board.  This is when you realise that it is a VERY GOOD IDEA to mark your positive and negative design  where you are going to stick it - for all the designs you make.  The more complicated the design, the more important it is.
I had actually done something similar with children in Prep and Grade One as part of the maths course.  It is part of the course where you learn flip, slide, turn.

Here is the design I ended up with.

Sorry about the fuzzy picture! 

And here it is printed onto newspaper, using one of the printing blocks only.

Continuing on from the workshop.

I have been away from home for a few days. I took bits and pieces that we used at the Kim Thittichai workshop so I could play a bit more.

Actually, I only went away for four nights and I took a heap of things to do - way too much. I am having thoughts about melding ideas from Kim's workshop and Kay Kahn's one too.  So, not knowing how it might all develop, and not knowing what I might want to try, I have brought quite a lot of things. 

So far all I have done is play around with the preparation of the papers - the printing and dyeing of the papers, the painting of the Vliesofix, and the playing with sparkly bits. I even found some old Angelina Fibres to sprinkle onto one piece. 

  

I have made some pieces, about four layers on each. 

Now I have to decide what to do with them, how to use them. 

We didn't have time to put the final layer, acrylic wax or some other varnish type stuff, on any of our pieces at Ballarat, so I will have to see what effect that has. I assume that I should do this last, after I have made my vessel, or whatever I am going to make. 

I did try something else too. I worked on the back of one of my pieces of paper. This was partly due to the usual dilemma of liking what I have done with the printing and dyeing and not really wanting to tear it up. So I had the bright idea of doing both sides, so that the interior of whatever I might make will be looking good too. I will only find out if this was a good idea if I ever get around to finishing off the process. 

The first side, destined to be the interior.

This one has some Angelina Fibres shining brightly.

The reverse side. I also played around with the laying out. I had the vague idea that crossing the laid out strips of paper might strengthen it, make it less likely to tear along the lines of the thicker layers of paper. This is because, it seems to me, that the final layer will be quite thick in some areas but will still have only one layer of paper in places, being the background. Admittedly, it will be strengthened with some Vliesofix.  It may also be bonded onto some interfacing too. More to experiment with! We didn't get around to all you can do, even with such a long workshop. 

Experimenting with the two workshop processes.

I'm still working on combining my Kay Kahn and Kim Thittichai workshops.
I had a book of furniture fabric samples that I got years ago and I took a couple of pieces out to use in the support layers of Kay Kahn's technique.. I also had some felt from several years ago -no wonder I find it hard to throw things out!! I sewed them together, as we had been shown in the workshop. The size was determined by the sample pieces of fabric which were the same width as the newspaper page - very convenient. They were roughly square, so that is the shape I have ended up with.

Two layers of commercial felt sandwiched between two layers of furniture fabric. 

                                                    

The paper layer ready to be sewn on.

So I cut my paper 'fabric' to size and sewed it onto the four-layered background.  The paper layers stood up to the sewing, I had wondered  if it would cause perforations that might weaken it but so far so  good.

            

Ideas drifting up in the mind.

 How could I not post today? 12/11/21. 

So ... what to post about?

I am still in the doldrums a bit but am slowly seeing some ideas emerge. 

We have a newish puppy (6 and a bit months old now) and we have had to put some cardboard boxes in places to keep her from investigating the electric cords too closely. I have been asked if I could make a piece to take the place of the boxes. 

It will be reasonably large and will need at least 3 panels. So I will have to devise how to do it and an image or images. Finally, a challenge that interests me - and has a place to go.  (Although I hate that question people ask about textiles But What is it FOR?? I tend to ask it of myself at times.)

I am thinking of doing something along the lines of work I have done arising from the Kim Thittichai workshop I did years ago as well as one by Kay Khan. 

Both classes were several years ago and are not precisely what I want but they did have reasonably thick bases that could be converted into a standing piece. They can be my inspiration. 

I also have ideas surfacing from some Olga Walters classes I did. Here's hoping something comes of these rather vague ideas. 

On another note, the AQIPP exhibition opened today. I have a piece in it, is a small wall hanging. I hope to get there in the next few days to see it in situ. And to see all the other works. I have seen the exhibition in other years and have loved it. But I have never entered it. I was very chuffed to have my piece accepted. 

The title was Where is the World? and I was inspired by the flowers in our garden! Silver Princess. Very Australian image, I think. 

Reviewing past workshops for new ideas

The Embroiderers Guild, Victoria, is having an exhibition in October, called A Secret Garden.
I have had ideas swimming around in the murky recesses of my mind, not really developing.

Today I decided that, as I cannot do my weaving once the daylight has gone, I should use the non-weaving time to be developing my ideas with some experimentation. As it is just after the winter solstice, there is quite a bit of non-daylight time at the moment. And today was particularly dark, due to rain clouds. Still, I can't complain about rain, we still need it.

I have looked at some Pinterest sites - too many things to look at!!

Then I came across a You Tube video of Kim Thittichai doing some painting of what she calls Bondaweb and we call Vliesofix, here in Australia.

It reminded me of the wonderful workshop I did with her at Ballarat a few years ago. I loved the workshop, did some more playing around once I got home and then forgot all about it - as is my wont.

So now I feel inspired to have a go again. I will have to tidy the studio again - it gets tidied reasonably regularly recently. I must admit that it makes it easier to keep track of things if I actually put them away properly - amazing.

I loved the process of tearing up paper, dyeing or painting it, tearing it up again, etc. I am hoping to make a background that will either be a door or a wall that is hiding the secret garden - a bit obvious, I know, but that is where my thinking is at the moment.

Then I had the thought of looking through a keyhole. I found some images on 123RF and have more ideas floating around, not really connected to previous ideas. I really need to actually start, then things might gel better.

Anyway, ideas are floating around - that is an improvement.
I am thinking of using some gardening type books as my base, maybe I can paint on the paper, rip it up, etc.
I will need to find all the equipment that is involved, that will make a bit of a mess, but it will be a productive mess, hopefully.

Here's hoping something comes to me.

Semi-successful day

Well, if I am a half-glass full person, I could say I had a semi- successful day.  Not sure if I feel that positive.
It started with me deciding to play with some tyvek that I had, so I tried to remember what we did at the workshop with Neroli Henderson a few weeks ago.  I am glad that I haven't left it too long, as I often do.  I could actually remember most of what she told us.  And I cheated a little and looked it up in Hot Textiles by Kim Thittichai.
I painted the tyvek on both sides with Lumiere paint.  Then I ironed them all to see what would happen.

One piece had some small slits.

Another had some Angelina Fibre. 

The Angelina Fibre stopped a lot of the distortion (as the book had said it would).

One was was only painted.

One was sewn by machine before heating.

After that, I decided that I would like to continue playing with some of the Hot Stuff ideas.  The next thing I tried was to paint bonding web with silk painting dye.  I have had this dye for YEARS and am not game to try it for actual dyeing.  The book said I could use water soluble inks or dyes, so I decided to give these old dyes a go.
I had an old roll of Vleisofix that had started coming off the backing paper.  I thought that I could use this and it wouldn't be too much of a waste if it didn't work.  Old dye, old bonding web.

I painted several pieces and allowed them to dry.  The book said it would take ages, so I took the dog for her daily walk.  I took some more pictures of bark - I may have the world's best collection of bark pictures.  Perhaps I will post some of them later.

When I got home I was all excited about trying this technique.  I have some small pieces of kunin felt and the web just had to be ironed on and then I could use the heat gun to distress it all.  I carefully laid the sandwich paper over it all and ironed away.
The paper was firmly stuck to the felt!!  Obviously, we use the paper as a last protection, not the first.  I might have to invest in some teflon sheeting to do this.  I soaked the felt in water and managed to scrape off the paper.  The dye works.  The felt is now multicoloured.
I will have to try this another time.
Then I will have to decide what I am going to use these new techniques for, how I will use the new fabrics that I make. If I make any that I like.