Knitted Memories-Melissa Ryland

We visited Jane Austen's house in Chawton today. I was very taken with the exhibition there by students from Farnham University of Creative Arts. I particularly liked Melissa Ryland's work which features knitted pieces cast in bone china. I think that knitted textiles lend themselves well to solidifying in ceramics.

I have been working from this exciting book, Journal Spilling by Diana Trout. The book has a lot of different ideas for laying down colour and covering pages. I don't think I will do any journalling, but I would like to use some of the techniques for sketchbooking. I had fun playing around with the acrylic inks I just got from Jacksons mail order. I haven't used these inks before and found them enjoyable to work with.

Paper folded and painted with water, ink in red and yellow dropped on. I like the effect of the ink in the ridges.

Pearlescent acrylic ink in pink and blue. The page was brushed with water to allow the ink to soak in and the colours to blend.

Wet paper with 2 colours of ink dropped on, then printed onto a sheet of cartridge paper.

Wet paper crumpled and red and blue ink dropped on.

This sample is a bit different. I was experimenting with wax resist, and put wax crayon onto the pad which is made of brown paper. Then I grated some wax crayon and heated it with a heat gun. Lots of lovely blots and splodges, which come out the other side of the paper too.

Experimental sample:-bonding

I have finished my experimental bonding sample. It has taken me ages, but I blame life getting in the way! This time it is because of the school holidays, and although I have taken a lot of photos, I am not getting much textiles work done.

Hambledon Lock

We had a lovely walk at Hambledon. Look at the textures of the water!