Using the leftover creative pages - creatively ...

 

I shared my workshop doing mixed media work for a nature inspired collage. I left it overnight to dry on the table at home. 

This morning I looked at it with fresh eyes & truth be told, I am happy with the arrangement. 

I added in a seedpod from my plant pot next to the conservatory door because the colours & triangular shape fitted in well. 

I glued it on to of the curved bark that was somehow lost in the design.

I decided to stamp 'AUTUMN' on one of the papers & that was added. 

I looked at the black thread & needle but do not feel that it needs anything additional, at this moment in time. 

It feels finished to me. 

I looked at the collection of marked papers we had made to use & then I decided to cut some in to strips & do a paper weaving strip with them. I laid them on a thicker card on a plastic mat, arranged them & then taped the top down at the top to form the warp base. 

The remaining papers were woven through as weft threads, mixing them up to create a pattern that was pleasing to the eye.  The sepia pages were quite dominant in the weaving so I mixed them with the clear or lighter ones where possible. It did not take many sheets but it was good to use some of the pages in a different way. 

It might end up as just random paper work. 

I also made a little collection of fabric & paper from the stash as a simple tag to perhaps go on the woven papers. 

An interesting interlude just for the sake of playing with the papers we made marks on.

Thank you for stopping by, do leave a comment, 

Dee 🖼️🖌️🎨🍂🧵

An afternoon exploring mixed media nature collage ...

 

When I stepped away from a lifetime in various educational settings in July, I set my mind on doing more of the things that interest me. 

I am a firm believer in lifelong education. 

I have always been a creative person, filling my time with activities that interest me or advance my skills via workshops.

A local one came up for mixed media nature collage. I have not done a lot of mixed media, this one in covid times was interesting & I enjoyed it. 

I am always happy to just have a go at new things, taking advantage of the skills of the tutor to guide through the processes. 

I have visited this shop recently which is how I came to know of her courses. She has only been open since the summer but her varied workshops appeal to me. 

I  arrived & the work table was set up for 7 of us ladies. We settled in with a cup of tea & some biscuits, before getting down to the guided workshop by Netty. Most of us had limited experience in mixed media so we were without expectations that hold you back.

We prepped our canvas to work on the inside of it as a frame - gesso & matt medium mixed with plaster of Paris powder to give it texture. 

These were set aside to dry while we explored the lovely selection of papers, card & fabrics in our pack.  

Using paints, pens & selection of objects, we covered the sheets in marks that would be used in our final collage. 

I restricted myself to just black & white paints & markers so I could concentrate on the marks rather than colours which can be distracting. 

We then used plaster of Paris & gesso with the lace on our marked sheets to give a texture. Some of our  sheets were a little wet but it worked fine. We used our sheets to make banners / strips around twigs / make paper beads to use in our nature collage. 

Then came the assembly / artistic part. We looked at Netty's examples for guidance but I do tend to overthink so I got to it, tearing, gluing, arranging my papers, twigs & paper beads in a way I liked. 

Because I had limited my colour palette, I found it surprisingly easy to arrange the mixed media in to a design that I liked.  

The gesso base was tacky so the papers stuck & this meant I had to be decisive in the placements which really helped to galvanise the thought process. 

We overran time wise, soon 3 hours was past & I must say, I am rather pleased with this first effort using these techniques. 

The table certainly showed our creative efforts with things out everywhere. 

What I always find fascinating in workshops is that we all started with a very similar pack of papers & fabrics, yet the finished items are always very different. 

It really shows how creativity works. 

I will still add some accent stitches on once the canvas is completely dried. 

This will need my awl to pierce the canvas - another decisive move because you have to be certain where you want the hole. 

That helps to combat analysis paralysis that often happens. 

I am already eyeing up some of the other workshops. 

However, I have two very different ones booked already for October elsewhere ... 

Lifelong learning continues, as it should. 

Thank you for stopping by, it is always appreciated. 

Dee 🎨🖌️🖼️🍁🍂🧵🪡

An unexpected Whistler glass engraving ...

 

I shared the beautiful glass engravings I visited in the church of St Nicholas in Moreton, Dorset, where the two Laurence / Lawrence's are celebrated. The church where Lawrence of Arabia, TE Lawrence worshipped & was buried from & it has the beautiful Laurence Whistler window engravings that are a stunning sight on the 12 windows. It is strange, to me at least, that the two Laurence name variations collided in this small unassuming Dorset church.

While out in the Shropshire countryside, visiting small villages connected to my Shropshire born great great grandfather Thomas, we revisited the church in the village where he was born. 

Lydbury North is a small village, near a big manor house of Walcot Hall. 

The Walcot's have their own side chapel in the church. 

The church is dedicated to St Michael & All Angels & there is a stained glass window to this effect behind the organ.   

In 780AD Egwin Shakehead was the owner of the parish. 

There was a parish in Lydbury in Saxon times.

The oldest part of the church was built in the time of the Normans & William the Clerk was the priest at the time of the Doomsday Book in 1086.

The church is in the shape of a cross, the central part is made up of the nave, choir & chancel. 

To the north is the Roman Catholic Plowden Chapel, to the south, the Walcot Chapel. 

The beautiful carved pews that line the central part are Jacobean,.

There is an oak Rood Screen near the Altar with the painted words of The Creed & the Ten Commandments. 

They are signed - Charles Bright, Churchwarden 1615. 

There was once a Roode Loft in 1623 above the screen but the door to the screen was blocked off at some time. 

The heavy oak church doors is supported by a beautiful pair of 15th century hinges. The door has holes thought to be made by musket balls or shells about that time. 

An information note near the door says that the door bears traces of bullets, probably from the civil war.

I find the history fascinating in these spaces. These sacred spaces survived through centuries, the floors worn by the footsteps of all those who have trod the same path as we did today. 

They sat in the same carved Jacobean pews we admired, passed under the same oak rood screen then knelt at the same altar we photographed. 

This unbroken line of time is humbling - we are really insignificant in the greater scheme of things. 

On the door to the bell tower, there is a glass engraved circular window panel up above the door. 

To my horror, my photo of the details did not come out clearly due to its height, so the postcard I purchased will have to do. 

Once home, I looked carefully at the details & the name Simon WHISTLER came up as the engraver. 

I immediately researched to see if he is connected to the engravings I had seen in Dorset & it turns out that he was the son of Laurence. 

Simon's Times obituary online is a fascinating insight in to this very talented family. He was not just an engraver, but a talented musician too. This is a good overview of his fascinating life. 

This is the door in the church with his engraving on it, and a postcard of the engraving.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope this has been of interest .I must return to the church to view it more closely, 

Dee 

Exploring layering & hands ...

I participate in the online Making Zen retreats several times a year for the inspiration & new techniques it offers over the week of the 30 workshops. 

I always look out for the ones I think will be of interest & just glance over the ones that are not my thing. However, there are some techniques I have never tried that are worth watching just for the background on them. You never know if you will like something until you try it.  

Several tutors are regulars on the platform & I have got to know which ones I align more with so I look out for their workshops. 

Last year, I experimented with the reverse applique technique taught by Rebekah Johnston 

Her Making Zen workshop looked at using reverse applique / cut away technique then using hand outline in positive & negative outline. 

The background is made up of layered fabrics on  a  background fabric, stitched in lines through all the layers.

It is then cut between the layers to reveal some of the layers underneath, varying the depth of the cuts gives different effects through the layers of fabrics. 

When laying down the initial layer, you are conscious of the colours that are in the various layers - this is where you can be quite creative.  

As you can see at the bottom, my machine did not like all the layers but that bunching up was cut away so it was of no consequence. 

The initial preparation took longer than I thought because of looking at various fabrics, weights, colours, textures etc until I decided to just get on with it. 

It is too easy to get bogged down in the prep rather than start. I turned the top layer to the reverse because it was fitted in better, the colours were more suited to the overall colours.

These layers were sandwiched under a top layer, pinned, & trimmed to the back layer size. 

I marked sewing lines on the top fabric, I should have made them slightly closer but they worked fine. 

The lines were machine stitched as the holding shape between all the layers. 

Then for the fun part - using an embroidery scissors, I cut between the sewn lines - some through more layers, others just through one to reveal the colours underneath. 

The cut pieces were brushed - I used a bone flattener for paper to brush across the surface to open up the layers. 

My top layer frayed a lot & I had to pull out lots of threads & bits to neaten it up. I trimmed some of the open layers a little to reveal the lower layers better. 

I traced my left hand on some freezer paper that was then ironed on to the fabric I wanted to use for the hand. The benefit being that it was firmer to cut to get a neat positive & negative shape. 

The negative cut out shape was tricky to pin because it was quite wobbly in places but I used the freezer paper of the positive hand to reshape it as I pinned. 

This pinning stage is important if you want a clean outline that is not too distorted. 

Because some of my background layers were greens, florals, purples & yellows, I opted to cut out my hand in a batik  fabric that had those colours too so it worked across the whole piece. 

After pinning, I used tiny bits of hemming web in places on the negative outline to give it a bit more stability - just very little pieces that held the outline firmly in place when ironed. This certainly helped. 

The positive hand was whip stitched along the outside edge, easier to sew this hand because of the good shape. 

The negative - cut out hand shape, was straight stitched in 3 strand embroidery cotton which worked well. The edge of the outline shape also had a row of running stitches, just smaller ones & further apart. 

Once completed, I think it is an interesting use of cut away / reverse applique technique & it has opened up many possibilities to use it again. The background is made up of layered fabrics on  a  background fabric, stitched in lines through all the layers then cut between the layers to reveal some of the layers underneath, varying the depth of the cuts gives different effects through the layers. The effects could be changed by layering horizontally, or by stitching in closer lines, or by having the design drift off the background layers. The possibilities are exciting. 

I rather like having my hand immortalised for posterity. 

As always I am extremely grateful to the Making Zen tutors who inspire us to step out of our comfort zone & try something new. 

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you are inspired to try something different too. 

Dee 

Preparing honesty for vases at home

 

I mentioned on a blog post earlier this year, that I grow honesty to use as dry branches in various vases around the house. 

Their iridescent, translucent seed pods of lunaria are much prized & they fill spaces nicely over the darker months when they come in to their own when backlit by low lights. 

The large green glass vase in our kitchen window has a generous bunch of these lovely stems. 

At night, the string of lights gives it an ethereal feel, the delicate seed pods let the light through. 

However, don't you love that word, to get the beautiful iridescent pods, you have to rub off the outer pod on each side. 

If they stay outside long enough, the wind will often loosen it, but then the delicate pods are often damaged by the wind. 

Mine were dry with the pods a dirty brown but the hot summer has given us good stems & lots of pods so I cut the stems & brought them in to the conservatory.

It is one of those very time consuming jobs because each pod must have the 2 outer pods gently rubbed or picked off. I lit a candle, put some things on you tube & settled down in the conservatory over several afternoons to do this. 

The seeds are contained in the outer pod disks so I saved those each time I took off the outer shells. Some pods had 2 seeds, others had 5 or more. Any pods that were damaged were cut away to tidy up the stems. 

The effort was worth it because I have a very good stem with lots of pods & some smaller ones from less impressive plants. 

The tiny pods look good in low light, amongst festive greenery & backlit in windowsills. 

I need to plant some seeds in the patio pots because honesty is a biennial plant - they only form the pods in the second year, after their stunning purple blooms. 

Who else grows these for their pretty flowers but more importantly for their seed pods? Thank you for stopping by, you are always welcome. 

Dee 🪴🌺