Creative workshops: what do you think?

Socrates said “I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think”.  

Today I have a question for you.  

There's always a catch. You have to read this post before you get to it!

I ran a new hand embroidery workshop last Saturday, based around the technique I call 'Stitch Doodling'.
 

It's a concept of using a simple shape, then building up the design within it, step by step. This is the sample I designed, a vintage themed version of my original bunny, (which you can see below.)

I try and give as much as I can to help people get the maximum out of their day. My favourite workshop joke is that I only have one rule, 'There are no rules'! 

It's true though - and it's up to me to help each person to think - and find the way that works for them. That's quite hard work. Brilliant fun, but not always easy. (Any tutors reading this, I know you're with me here!)

With this new class, there was a lot of content for the participants to get to grips with. There's always a certain amount of trial and error delivering a new workshop, regardless of how much preparation has gone into the day. You can never tell how people will relate to the content; sometimes you need to make speedy changes on the hoof. I had one or two panicky moments, but I think I got away with it, and I think everyone went away happy!

Okay then; taking into account:

• coming up with an achievable concept and a plan 
• creating samples
• drafting (and often endless re-writing) numerous handouts 
• putting kits together 
• and then making sure there is a friendly, relaxed and supportive environment (and of course, cake)

Is it worth it? 

Personally, I feel there is nothing quite like interacting face to face. I get a huge buzz from sharing knowledge, and helping people discover how creative they can be. 

It's a powerful thing. 

Watching people's delight when they achieve something they've never done before, and knowing you helped, well, it's pretty amazing. 

Plus, it's a two way process; I learn so much from students - about life, the universe and everything!   

So fellow creative tutors, and those of you who come to our classes; what do you think makes a great workshop?

Original thread doodle bunny

Fun at the West of England Quilt and Textiles Show 2017!

I just had the most brilliant three days at the  West of England Quilt and Textiles Show sharing a stand with my dear friend, the talented quilter, Sallieann Harrison of Christmas Goose Stitches.

Sallie was on the walls, and I was on the table  :) with my embroidered and mixed media books!

We both had a fantastic time, and for me it was sheer joy to able to talk about books and nature and stitching and mixed media to lovely, like minded people!  These are some of the books I took along:

The cover of  'Briarside Lane' a current WIP which is based around The Raspberry Rabbits project of the same name....

  'A  Little Book of Stamps'  

The pages are simply painted, and enhanced with a variety of handmade stamps and simple stitch.

'Tiny Garden'  - meander book, came about from a sample class I created, making simple garden flowers from only three stitches. |A little book seemed the perfect format to  keep them in!

'

Whatever the size, or the mediums used, the one thing my books  have in common is hand stitch, and my favourite threads from Valdani  of course!

I'm very excited to be offering Saturday workshops this autumn, sharing some of the techniques I have developed! Details of these are on the Classes and Workshops tab, and I'll be talking about them more here soon.

So finally here we are setting up on Day 1, with a backdrop of Sallie's amazing Tumbler Quilt, which attracted a lot of attention! You can see more of Sallie's lovely work and find out about classes she offers on her website.

We were also proud to be representing The Raspberry Rabbits in the UK, with Michelle's original stunning quilt The Adventures of Harrington and Hannah, all the way from North Carolina, on display!  

My 1920's Book- WIP

Well, here it is, as far as I've got.  As I said, this was a challenge. The 20's would not be my personal decade of choice for a subject, so I found it hard to get my head into  the right place.

My cover was originally, going to be some sort of geometric flowery thing, then Frances mentioned the silk I'd dyed for my cover looked like stockings! Light bulb moment and complete re-think! I did a sort of reverse applique with some tea dyed sheeting and ......

.....What's this you say, lace, and beads, and girly type things? What has happened to Jules, and her traditional austerity!?  Luckily, having decided to be completely 'not me', there are lots of wonderful laces and beads to be had  at Frances' workshops!

As luck would have it I had some thread which was also the colour of stockings! I embellished the laces with Chinese Knots,  added buttons - (which are old, probably 1920/30s) made a teeny 'pearl necklace' and  used rose petals  hoarded from some dried buds. I bonded the silk  cover to pelmet vilene for support.

Frances gave me some vintage blue lace and  1920's little matte sequins, so I could make the garter.

Now the inside is another story! I'd already made my pages in paper,  convinced I'd want lots of straight lines. You guessed it, as soon as I saw everyone else's books and ideas,  I wanted  to do fabric, but  alas, it was too late, so  I pressed on.

Here are the pages  I've started so far, they aren't complete,  I want to add more stitching and fabrics.
The inside cover is lined with tea dyed sheeting, and the pages are painted wallpaper lining paper.

I did do a lot of reading up  beforehand, and found out some interesting things which I didn't know. My idea was to create a sort of scrap/sketch  book progressing  through the decade, showing how embellishment changed through cultural influences.

 So, in  the very early 20's, organic design and Art Noveau was still very much in vogue, and the Great War was still  uppermost in minds.

Beading  was everywhere, be it clothes, accessories or household items. It became really popular, with lots of magazines devoted to it.

 I made the tiny bag previously, but it didn't 'fit' my book- so I've hidden it in the envelope!

When Howard Carter opened Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922, 'Egyptmania or Tutmania' took hold  of the West and had a major influence on styles through most of the decade. The picture on the left is my interpretation of a Palmolive advert,  headlined 'The Re-incarnation of Beauty'!

 The infamous bob was also a result of the passion for all things Egyptian!

 It wasn't until 1925  that the Paris Exhibition heralded the onset of Art Deco and the Age of Chic.

 

I had to include the Year of the Flapper - as those radical styles influenced the embellishment of the popular - especially the passion for pearls.  The inventions of new plastics and fake pearls meant now that jewellery could be worn and afforded by many women,  not just the rich.

This is an interpretation of a Vogue cover,  it just says 20's to me so I put it in!

That's it so far. I suspect this one will get put away for a bit, but it has been an interesting challenge. I learnt quite a bit about myself and what I want to do through the process of creating it, plus of course having a wonderful time!x

Daisy Scrap Journal

Fabric books are much on my mind  as next Friday I'm off  to 'Late Summer at Hawkwood' with Frances Pickering.

So I thought I'd share the last sample I made for my December workshop, which is this Daisy Scrap Journal.

Daisies say 'neat and tidy' to me. To represent the feel of a smart, fresh little flower, I made the cover from bonded scraps of  a crisp striped  red cotton. The centre panel is painted abaca tissue, and hand dyed vintage lace. I wanted to keep a simple feel - the stitching is in hand dyed rayon threads and  vintage pearl cotton. The little daisy tag is cut from pelmet vilene - a great tip I  picked up from Frances.

 
 Inside the covers I went for a scrap book effect.

I used  brown paper for my pages, scrunched and re-ironed - which gives a nice textured effect to  make marks on. A simple daisy stamp was used to mark all the odd pages for a bit of interest..

The back  has a panel with a bit more detailed stitching. 
  
I enjoyed putting this piece together very much, and I think it's because it has lots of small parts. However hard I try I am always drawn back to the little details. Sometimes it is the obvious things about yourself that you don't see for ages!

Thread doodling with bullion knots

Another little doodle, just for fun. I'm really drawn to this colour combination lately.

Poppy Seedhead Writing folder

This is the second sample for my winter mixed media workshop, and it's very different from my usual approach. I had fun with this one!

 I wanted a particular effect,  which I could see in my head!  I drew a poppy head stamp and used Koh-I -Nor paints to stamp on the fabric. When dry I sponged and splattered the background so it would partly merge and cover the images. Then I took back some of the coloured areas with bleach. I free machined around the poppies and finished  the image using  a little hand embroidery. It was fused onto some hand dyed silk and a piece of vintage lace added for some texture/overlay.

Inside I used some of my naturally dyed cotton to line the case. An unbound strip of silk with more vintage lace holds the hand made notelets in place. They are made from recycling wallpaper lining paper, which has been painted and stamped with another poppy head image.

Finally there's a simple tie with painted wooden beads to finish it off!

Mini Art Quilt - Winter Melody

Last week I finished my samples for my mixed media workshop and they are now waiting to go on display. This is the first one, a simply structured mini art quilt  with a winter theme.  Loving seedheads as I do this was a great chance to use some of my favourite images.

I  made some simple stamps, then used a variety of of fabrics to show the effects  of the paint on different weights/types. I made pearlised paints to give a sparkle of frost and ice.

 

After preparing the fabrics and stamping them I set out the images in a collage, and then fused them to wool felt.

They were then re sectioned, simply embellished, using  a variety of  threads/ stitches and some beading, and  hand stitched together with a variegated pearl cotton.

Some are overprinted on already patterned fabrics -

some onto heavier weight linen, and  fine, hand dyed silk.

As the workshop is about approaching mixed media without the need to use lots of products and expense, everything was found in my supply stash and around the house. I do  feel that limiting yourself also extends your creativity. Having decided on my colour palette there were a few challenging moments -  which stretched me - but these were the things I liked best when I'd finished. What do you think - does anyone have any projects where constraints meant success?

Where's the hare? Thread doodling a negative shape

 Still playing about with doodles on a bit of unbleached calico. This little fellow started to emerge as a negative shape.

He pricked up his ears -

and sat stock still

Deep in the forest,  

beneath the dark hill.

 I used some of my precious Valdani subtly variegated threads. What a joy to stitch with.

This is the actual size, shown against my favourite, bunny scissors!

More natural dyeing/tinting

Flushed with success, I continue my kitchen dyeing experiments. All my original fabrics were pretty much white - so if you compare them with the page background it's a good indication of the tone.  This time I didn't mordant the fabric.  As I couldn't wait (typical) I followed Alex's tips and tried using avocado skins and stones (I had to  rescue some from the compost caddy!) She got some gorgeous shades here. Note to self - get more avocados! I got a very pale copper-pink colour on the old tea tray cloth and cotton . On the silk though it's much more gold brown -  interesting......

Had a bit of an upset with the black beans. Janice got a really, really lovely shade with these here.  I dipped the fabrics, but following the car accident I left them damp and squished up  over night.

You can see more clearly on the silk below I got these brown marbled bits where the fabric was squashed together - but  dry they look  much more subtle. I like it! The linen produced a  grey rather than blue, not so keen on that. Next time I'll user more beans to achieve a darker blue -and might try the soy milk mordant.

Finally, I went rusty! I folded and tied some sheeting around an old rasp  and left it out in the rain for a few days, which produced some interesting marks. I'll try this again.The crocheted lace - (a charity shop find) is just dyed with coffee.

Here's a little Floweri- pop doodle on some of the black bean dyed cotton, which was an old  pillow case - gorgeous for stitching on! x

In a Blue Mood

Last week didn't end well. Our car was hit by an out of control vehicle on the motorway. We're ok now, but it was a horrible shock and we are still going through all the hassle with insurance etc,  and hoping the car isn't written off. Amazingly, no one was seriously injured for which I am devoutly thankful.

As you can imagine, this has put me out of sorts for a few days, and not much work has been done. I did have a lovely  relaxing afternoon sketching with the Urban Sketchers Bristol/South West  (if you're on Face Book, apologies to  those who aren't) on Saturday, when the sun shone,  but did more chatting than sketching. I haven't been able to settle  to complete my workshop sample, but I have started thread doodling again.

Although I don't consider myself a 'blue' person, this slate blue hue calls to me and its now one of my favourite colours.

Originally, I  drew the flower as a motif on some tea dyed calico, but felt I needed to go on with the process after stitching it.
I used just plain stranded cotton in different shades of this grey blue colour.

 

I didn't use beads or objects to accentuate the stitching, but just described the texture by using different stitches.

  

It did give me a lot of opportunity for knots too :) 

Thanks to everyone for the dyeing tips and info, which has been so helpful.  I plan to tint more fabric as soon as I don't feel quite so tired and achy, and when it finally stops raining!  

Taking A Stitch Tuesday - TAST

Some of you will remember that I attempted TAST a few years ago. I'm delighted to say that  it's running again, and started on  - Tuesday! :) It's all explained here. Whether or not you're an embroiderer I  thoroughly recommend popping over to Sharon's wonderful blog Pintangle , for a visual feast  - and lots of interesting articles about creativity.

Oddly enough, this re-run of TAST has come just at a time when I have been focusing on how I use thread -  and where I'm going with my embroidery.  Plus, my embroidery ladies have been asking about making samplers! There is no such thing as coincidence, eh?

I'll be dipping in and out of the challenge to get inspiration, and stretch myself a bit. The lovely thing about this is that embroiderers at all stages can join in and learn from each other.

Here's my mini project for Week 1,  Fly stitch

Embracing the wonkiness as it had to be done free hand - but never mind!  I enjoyed being stretched   having to focus on a stitch I  rarely use. I'd never realised the couching/overlaying possibilities of Fly stitch before -  I almost never do borders, but  had great fun with the variations.  I'm not quite sure what I'll do with any samples, but suspect I'll opt for a book.

Had to add Chinese Knots of course  - love them sooooo much. 

Brown Paper and Stitch Book

Another  experiment - working with recycled material. Inspired by my workshop at the end of last summer with  Frances Pickering  I wanted to make a simple book using paint and stitch. This little prototype is made entirely from the brown paper packing material used by a well known on-line company (other brown papers are available!) :)

 I've been  playing about with the momigami, (paper kneading) technique, I found in Cas Holmes
 ' The Found Object in Textile Art'. I'd love to know if anyone else has used it?  The cover was molded and bonded  to stiffen it - and hopefully make it durable! It gave a nice, leathery effect.

Inside colour pencil worked  quite effectively  on the dyed paper. 

On the right are a couple of blank notebooks I put together with momigami covers.

 This is my favourite page. I have a thing about the arum family!

 I'm happy with this and learnt a lot of useful things making it!

One of the good things about being a curious bumblebee is that  you can buzz back to the same flower. Over the last few weeks, I find myself being drawn back more strongly to embroidery.

Isn't it odd though, that when you feel the need for a change,  the past rears its head?
Last week I had three separate enquirers asking me if they could see my dolls - and would I run a doll class again?  It was  lovely to be asked - then I realised I hadn't actually got one single place with my photos  - so I decided to add some new pages here. It did seem strange to put them back on my blog, after all!