My Dotee Doll

She's a bit of a plain Jane trying to look posh, so I've called her Jingles. She's my first doll and I made her using some acrylic fleece I transfer dyed a while back. She's quite nice and soft, but didn't like to have her photo taken. I've heard people saying that these dolls tell you what they want to look like, well, she did anyway. She told me she wanted a side parting and turn her head slightly sideways, so I listened to her.

Lutradur and Lace

I've been having some fun the last few days. Every 5 minutes I could find I have been popping up to my workroom to paint some Lutradur and Pelmet Vilene. I have two pieces of work going at the same time. These are for the Fibre and Stitch group challenge and the deadline is tomorrow. After following all the beautiful work done by all the group using the article by Carol McFee in Issue 1 of Fibre & Stitch I have been really inspired to have a go at this and its giving me a lot of pleasure.


This was Lutradur and lace and will eventually be made into a bag.


Here is a detail of the work. I think it needs a bit of FME in lime green perhaps to finish it off?


This is Pelmet Vilene and lace and is WIP, it needs a lot more paint and perhaps some stitching on it.
Tomorrow I'm hoping to make a couple of Dotee Dolls for my Textile Challenge Yahoo group. I'm really keen to have a go at these too and of course this deadline is also tomorrow. I persuade myself I work better under pressure.

Women and Cloth 2 (Replacement)

I had to replace the whole of this post as blogger did not like it for some unknown reason. So here it is again. -:-:-:-

Here are some more photos from the Women and Cloth course at Bodelwyddan Castle and you will find Part 1 here.


Eleri having a bit of help to hold the silk painting screen as she showed us how to screen print over our images.



Eleri developed this from her collage and below is the work Chloe developed from hers.

This course was very different to some of the others we have had. We usually start with some kind of object or image to inspire and then after developing art work from it, this is developed into a stitched piece. On this course it was the other way around, we used a stitched piece to create a new piece of art.


We were asked to bring the photograph of a favourite corner in the house along with an object which we felt sentimental about, so far it follows the usual pattern. But this time we were asked to make a fabric collage using these. We did not have a large choice of fabrics for this, but it is surprising how we all managed to create a collage that looked like our photo. Both Chloe and Eleri then discussed their own mark making ideas with us, using black Indian Ink with 2 brushes, 1 thin, 1 thick, a pencil to dip in the ink and a black handwriting pen. We drew quick straight lines using the various implements, then various curves using the same method. We filled 3 large sheets with these marks and we all enjoyed the exercise. The next process was a practice piece, drawing whatever we liked, looking at our marks to remind us of all the different ways we could sketch.


My practice piece overlaid with a screenprint.


The development of my actual photo into a screen printed image.






Here are some photos I took of the class in the process of creating their collages.

A Textured Vessel

This vessel is called The Autumn Vessel and is the work of Moya McCarthy, she's the present Chairman of the North Wales Embroiderers' Guild and I think she has just finished her City and Guilds and yesterday she retired from her job as a nurse. Have a wonderful retirement Moya. Your vessel is beautiful and now that you are retired you will have plenty of time on your hands to create more beautiful objects for us to see.
I'm sorry I had to take a photo of this one in the back of Moya's estate car.



Below I could not resist putting up two photos taken on consecutive evenings. What a difference?

Women and Cloth 1

This is how my morning began. I arrived early at Bodelwyddan Castle in North Wales for a course that I hadn't much idea of what we would be doing. I knew it was being taken by young trained artists, Eleri Jones and Chloe Needham. I knew Eleri had specialised in Printing and that Chloe is a watercolourist. The topic was Women and Cloth. We had been told to bring a photo of a favourite corner in our house, an ornament or object of sentimental value and an interesting piece of fabric.


The two artist were very different in style but both interested in the same things. Eleri likes movement and was a very exuberant artist often working in black and white, Indian Ink, charcoal, thick graphite pencils and chalk and some of the work was very big. She had many sketches and drawings of her mother in the kitchen of the farm which is her home. Her memories and the closeness to her mother is always strongest in this room folding and helping her mother with the dried washing, the smell of clean clothes, ironing and hanging to air above the fireplace. She had also visited India and had many drawings of Indian women working. Looking at the gracefulness of their movements.

Chloe on the other hand painted very delicate looking watercolours like the one they are both showing above. Chloe likes painting patterns, not stiff patterns, but the patterns on wallpaper and fabrics. Being the mother of a baby boy, she had paintings of her baby, always on a baby blanket. She had so many blankets as gifts when her baby was born she made a series of paintings using the different blankets for the baby paintings. They were a good foil for each other.

Both were new to textile art, but they had prepared collages using a photo of a corner in their houses. below is Eleri with a corner of the bedroom which used to be her grandmother's.

Chloe also chose the photo of a bedroom for her collage below.




Here is a photo of my effort at collage and the corner of a room in my house. My chosen sentimental object belonged to my father and it was one of the first things he managed to buy second hand for himself as a young farmhand. A Metronome. He was being taught by a neighbour to play a little harmonium and he thought the world of it. He also taught me to play the piano and we used this to keep a regular tempo, so I love it too.

Below is the work of some of the others in the class. I have far too many photos for one post, so I will continue tomorrow if I'm not too tired.

Autumn portent and textured Vessels WIP

What a difference a bit of sun and 50 yards distance can make. I was sent the top one by John a kind neighbour and we only live about 50 yards apart. This was obviously taken in the sun. Below is mine taken early morning when it was still slightly damp and misty.


I can just imagine this one finished, the fabric Gill used was wonderful and she took great care with placing it on each base to make sure it looked good. the butterflies were very important. If she had turned her back for minute I would have been tempted to take this one with me (smile) Not really Gill!


I'm sorry this has a background of newspaper, but it had to be carried to the show and tell table like this.

Textured Vessels

Here is a reminder of what Marcia's vessels look like, just fantastic!
I also have some very good news for those of you who have subscribed to Fibre & Stitch, Marcia will have an article in Issue 5. Isn't that wonderful?

Here is some of the students work at the workshop, these are all WIP (work in progress)but I can just imagine them made up.



I hope to have photos of the finished work at the Exhibition of the North Wales Members' work at the Methodist Church Hall, Rhos on Sea, 2nd - 3rd November 2007.





I will post some more images of the work soon and I'm putting photos of the group at work in my photos here with DG's Photos and Digital Art

Textured Vessels 2

These are the vessels that Marcia Crookes brought with her to the workshop. What wonderful inspirational work. I agree with all those people who have written to say how lucky I am to be able to go to so many wonderful workshops. I will sign up for any workshop that's going almost before I know what they are and I have never been disappointed.
I would like to tell you that Marcia is free to give workshops, but she is a very busy lady. Have a look at her website here to find a simple explanation why she does not do workshops that are more than about 40 miles from home.
This is her Website Marcia Crookes She taught City and Guilds embroidery and will give workshops on any aspect of embroidery within that 40 mile limit. Go and have a look at her beautiful handbags on the website, she is preparing for the Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch show at Harrogate from the 5th to the 7th of October. do go and have a look at her work if you get the chance.
Tomorrow I will share the WIP's of the other students in the group. They were much more adventurous than I was.

Textured Vessels

We are in the middle of alterations to our flat and the whole place is full of dust and I am unable to get to my studio in the loft. You can see I don't have much time to blog just now. Here though is a little taster of my weekend course with Marcia Crookes, a very clever lady. Below is some of her work. I will be posting better images of her vessels soon.




Here is a photo of the crowd of us with Marcia, with one standing on a chair taking the photo.


Here is the vessel I made in class and finished after going home the same night as I really enjoyed making it.


This is what it looked like before lacing it together.

My felted piece

A very short post tonight as I must catch up with myself once more. I forgot to mention that all the felted work I showed here last night were 'wet felted' and a lot of hard work and fun went into those beautiful pieces of art.

I thought I'd show you one I 'made earlier' as they say. This was 'wet felted' at one of Mary's workshops and then stitched into. My young grandson of 6 months will not pass this on the wall without being allowed to stroke it for the past 2 months, so I call it Charlie's Red Felt now.


Below is a close-up.


This clock I believe is a Viennese clock and it was my husband's grandparents wedding gift to his parents. We have had this clock on the wall a long time now, but with our new alterations we are going to become modern and the antiques are going to be put away. I have a few things from my parents and grandparents too. I am also getting rid of a load of junk that I have collected over the years. This is going to be a new beginning for us. Maybe I will post a photo when we are finished. Did I say a short post?