Rust Retreat

With a month since my last post you won't be surprised to learn that we have been away.  The leisure part of being away featured our annual pilgrimage to St Ives, more of which in a later post.   The less leisurely but equally enjoyable part was a weekend working retreat with Alice Fox organised by the Contemporary Quilt Group of the Quilters Guild.  Winter School, as it was called, was based at Alston Hall in a beautiful part of Lancashire.  

The venue was ideal, comfortable, bright rooms and excellent food.  I think we all came away a few pounds heavier.

There were two workshops going on, Philippa Naylor with machine quilting and Alice Fox exploring rusting on fabric and paper.  In addition a group of ladies came to concentrate on their own work as a retreat.  

Alice Fox was my chosen tutor and she proved to be a supportive and inspiring tutor.  We started by exploring rusting with various agents but most particularly tea of various types and red wine.  

Very quickly we accumulated a growing collection of fabrics wrapped around rusty objects of all shapes and sizes.  Papers were also treated and in some cases used as drip sheets for the damp parcels.

You can probably imagine the sense of impatience we all felt waiting for the packages to dry and the rust reaction to happen.  In some cases wet parcels were brought home and several days allowed to elapse before they were unwrapped.

Where the fabrics had dried we unwrapped with bated breath.

 Above, prints on cartridge paper.

This piece above had been previously dyed with seaweed and was wrapped around an old ratchet.  The biggest effect is the sculptural creasing that has happened.  
 

 I am delighted with this lovely vintage hanky which was folded around washers.  There are some beautiful marks from the washers and some delicate flow marks from the liquid.

 I think the piece above was hacksaw blades.

 Silk noil wrapped round a chain-linked necklace.

 These strong marks have been formed where a strip of fabric was wrapped round a strip of metal and clamped with mini bulldog clips.

This piece is very delicately marked after red wine was dribbled over old cotton wrapped round an exhaust pipe.  

After dyeing various fabrics we looked at applying stitch both before and after dyeing.

 This piece above is all paper and still requires more stitch.

 This piece above frayings of thread couched down and then the piece rust dyed.

Finally we explored concertina book making incorporating the dyed papers and scraps of fabric and stitch.

I really like this little book, which needs further work but has lots of potential.  The patterning on the paper came from fine wire wool arranged on the paper.  

I have previously worked with rust and always got the strong orangey marks from it but rust promoted by tea gives softer marks and a range of colours is achievable.  It is also likely to be less toxic than the orangey kind.  Alice's workshop gave the illusion of running at a very sedate pace but we achieved a lot and had time to think where this technique might lead.  I've alreadybeen shopping for some wired wool and rustable hardware. I've got a good collection of rusty bits found in the street, on the beach and in gardens but I am always on the lookout for more.  It will be very pleasant too, to sit and stitch into some of the pieces made at the weekend.  Thank you, Alice and all my classmates for a great working weekend.

St Ives again and Erosion Bundles

You don't need to panic, I'm not going to post yet more pictures to turn you green with Cornish envy ;-)  At the last minute before Christmas I decided that I should make my good friend a St Ives based wall hanging, partly because she is a very special friend and partly because she is about to move away from just around the corner to the other side of the Pennines.  Why is it we always have these good ideas at the very last minute when we have had weeks or months to think of it?  Must be the creative mind (that's my excuse anyway).

Despite the pressures of working at full tilt and fighting with my machine I managed to complete my self imposed challenge.

You have probably seen a smaller version of this before in a workshop I did with Gina Ferrari down at Art & Stitch some time ago but this piece is about A3 size.  I used many of the processes we used with Gina to make the various textures in this piece and I'm happy to say my friend was delighted with it.  She has it hanging above her bed.  You can read more about the process from the original workshop here.

While we were down in St Ives we met up with the very lovely and talented Carolyn Saxby for a lunch of toasted cheese crumpets (my DH's speciality when in St Ives) and cream cakes supplied very naughtily by Carolyn.  Carolyn and I always like to have a beach ramble when we get together but this time our ramble was cut very short by a great deal of liquid sunshine, otherwise known as pouring rain.  As a result we decided to meet up another day and have a look round some galleries and try for another beachcomb.  In the event it was too cold for a beachcomb and the light was fading by the time we left the Millenium Gallery (sadly their website seems to be down at the moment) but we did agree to start a joint project with the items we had collected previously.

A couple of years ago we both took part in the Erosion Bundle project run by Seth Apter and Carolyn made another Erosion Bundle last year which she opened when we were in St Ives in April.  This year as there is no longer an official Erosion Bundle Project (last year's was run from this blog) Carolyn and I are making our own bundles and opening them on 1 April.  I prepared part of the bundle while I was in St Ives using seaweed and various papers and since I've been home I'veadded to it and made 3 more.

I've used an assortment of papers including failed computer printouts,

fabrics of all types and paper marked with watersoluble wax crayons,

photographs, rusty nails, cutoffs including hand made papers from old projects and various painted papers and fabrics.

All 4 bundles are now sitting in various positions in the garden with great hopes for their disintegration over the coming months but hopefully not for too many creepy crawlies!  Since I've made the bundles I've thought of lots more things I could have put in them so there could well be another one going out there soon.  At least they won't need weeding!  Or maybe they will!

Rust Play (again)

After setting up the sundyeing the other day I also set up a collection of fabrics with rust dyeing. We recently took down a very old shed for a friend of ours and she kindly allowed me to scavange lots of interesting rusty bits for my collection! Yum! The warm weather was the ideal time to have a play.


~

I wet the fabric first and then shook white vinegar all over it (in a cat litter tray) and wrapped each fabric with a collection of metal. You may be able to see that one of the objects was a metal wheel on a stem (top left) along with washers and nuts. I also threw in a handful of salt crystals to see what effect that had. Once wrapped the parcels were placed in a sealable plastic bag and a little more vinegar and small amount of water added. Not very scientific but I can never remember what you're supposed to do and luckily this time it worked fine. I think the salt resulted in a quicker reaction than would have been the case without it.

~



~

As you can see I've got some exciting results! If you click on the image and enlarge you may be able to see that I used wing nuts, nuts and bolts, washers, nails, screws and some flat angled pieces of metal. The fabric in the bottom left corner is bamboo cloth which I bought from a well known doorstep household sale company. (Ok It's Betterware! No affiliation).


~

As usual I don't yet know what I will use this fabric for but I may have a go at overdyeing some of it. Some of the marks are reminiscent of landscape textures so they may well be incorporated into that type of work.

Sun Dyeing

Well, here are the results of my sun dyeing from yesterday. I didn't take any photos of my procedure but I soaked the cotton in water to wet it through thoroughly and then sprayed it again to keep it wet before I painted it. I used silk paints and either squirted the paint on or brushed it on and then sprayed with water again to make sure the whole piece was covered in paint.

~


~

This first piece as you can see, had ferns laid on it but, as my ferns are young I didn't have enough leaves so I placed bizzy lizzy flowers and geranium leaves on it too. The ferns didn't all lay flat so some of the images are a bit ghostly but I rather like that. The flowers and geranium leaves have left a crisper image and I may add a very light wash to knock them back a bit once I have heat set the fabric.

~


~

This second piece I really like! I prepared the fabric as before and then laid on a plastic doilly, the sort Mum used to put cakes on, a metal heart shaped ornamental hanger-thingy and then sprinkled drawing pins all over. As an afterthought I lay a number and letter stencil on top and this has partially worked. It would have been better if it had been completely flat, I think it was cockled up on some drawing pins. Finally I scattered sea salt crystals everywhere. ~

~ This is one corner of the fabric and I can see echoes of landscape here. Actually, the reverse of this fabric is really lovely and looks similar to this area but I've forgotten to photograph it. I'll put it in my flickr file in the next day or two.

~


~

This box of loveliness (potentially) is rust dyeing. I have wrapped various fabrics, cotton, calico, bamboo cloth around all manner of rusty bits and soaked it all in white vinegar, a handfull of salt and a little water - very scientific! You can see it's cooking very well in the sunshine but I shall have to be patient till about Monday as I have a busy weekend ahead if I can keep up with the pace. It's our Embroiderer's Guild meeting tomorrow and Jane Davies is the guest speaker. Hopefully I will be doing a workshop with her on Sunday. I may be a lifeless wreck by Monday! But it will be worth it!

Take it Further Challenge September

The subject for the September TIF challenge was 'lists'. As you will see from the photo below I am a great list maker! I make shopping lists, which I either lose or leave at home; lists of which present came from who, if I can read the label before my DH throws all the wrappings out; to do lists, which I then forget to consult as I dash from one creative moment to another; exciting lists of things to buy at exhibitions, people whose work I don't want to miss, and then do because I've got toally distracted by all the other wonderful things on offer! Then there's the lists I make when my brain doesn't want to work for me, the lists that remind me to do the absolutely vital and carry forward the less vital to the next day.
~

~

How to translate 'lists' into a piece of textile work? I started by scanning a selection of lists into Photoshop and then isolated just one list.

~

~

The next step was to play around with some of the filters. Unfortunately I didn't write down which I used but I think they included cutout and spatter. While I was thinking about maybe printing this onto fabric and embellishing I was thinking about fabric with lines in it and remembered I had some rusted fabric that I had dyed.

~

~

These lines were actually on the diagonal on the fabric as the cotton had been wrapped around hacksaw blades. This piece of fabric will give me 4 ATCs.

~

~

So, here we have the first ATC on a theme of lists. I have used some of the annealed tin that Anna gave me last year and I've sewn on some fancy trim and yarn. the colours are slightly stronger in reality - slightly more orange. Hopefully I will get the other 3 ATCs made. I have already done some machine embroidery on one but it needs some beads added.

Lovely Rust

A few days ago my friend Grace gave me some tools which had unfortunately become rusty. She found it very amusing that I should want to take these things home rather than throw them away!

There are some lovely shapes amongst these old tools, triangular rasps, hacksaw blades, hinges, screwdrivers, bolts, jubilee clips.

~

On a sunny day last week I wrapped various fabrics around selections of the tools and soaked them in a 50/50 ish solution of water and white vinegar and put them into plastic bags to 'cook'. It didn't take too long for the rust to appear on the fabric but I left it until the following morning to rinse the vinegar water away. You can see the results below,

I think this is a type of polyester material, it is very soft and has taken the rust beautifully.

You can see the marks of the pliers on this cotton.

This is my favourite piece, actually it is the reverse side and the marks are lovely.

~

The next question is what to make with it! Some dottee dolls maybe?

Take it Further April

~

I am pleased to say that I have actually managed to complete the April challenge on time! Yay! I kept to the postcard format I had decided on at the beginning of the month and chose to use the brown paper fabric that I had made for the Fibre & Stitch challenge previously.

~

All the materials used in the postcard have been changed from their original appearance or purpose :

*The brown paper has been painted in many layers with acrylic paint, inks and metallic paint

*The leaf has been painted with gesso and then copper acrylic paint

* The key has been changed by rusting

* The lace has been changed by dying with inks

* Beneath the lace is a copper garden label which has been rusted and the spiral metal piece is rusted copper wire from the copper tag.

~

In keeping with thoughts about change, which can be for good or not so good, I have free-motion embroidered over the surface of the card to suggest the path that change can lead you on in your life. Some of that change, and its effects, may not be obvious initially and I think that's why I wanted the copper label to be partially hidden and only hinted at under the lace.

~

Change is a funny thing. Life is full of change. We change as we grow, and we grow as we change. Our outlook changes as we develop and as we meet other people on our journey. Sometimes we are not aware, at the time, that we are changing or that change is affecting us. Other times, change is obvious and overwhelming. During my life I have experienced all kinds of change, some of which I resisted and which made life very difficult for me. Other change has been a joy and has happened without any conscious decision on my part. I have just gone with the flow. Other change has been a definite decision on my part.

~

I would never have dreamt a year ago that my art interests would have changed so much and that I would be so involved with experimental and textile art and meeting people all over the world who share my interests. It seems appropriate to say thank you here to everybody I have met over the last year and to everyone who has left comments here. Thank you for sharing my journey of change.

Goodies in the Post

A few weeks ago I received an email from Nadia Bekker who lives in the Netherlands. She had found me through the Cyberfyber Exhibition site. Nadia collects ATCs and invited me to swap with her which I was delighted to do. When I got back from Ireland Nadia's envelope was on the mat and I am thrilled to find that she has sent me not one but two ATCs. Both are beautifully made and I love them both but I am particularly pleased to have the rust-dyed fabric one as I had admired it on Nadia's blog.

I keep seeing faces in the rust dyed ATC. Now all I have to do is make Nadia's ATC in exchange! Life is conspiring against me since I got back from our hols but I hope to have some crafting time in a couple of days. So far all I've done is washing, shopping and paperwork for a friend.