Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everybody!

Here is a delightful vintage image from The Graphics Fairy showing Victorian children dancing round a hen with eggs.

Tag Tuesday-Letter L

L is for London



 For Tag Tuesday this week we are on the Letter L.

My tag this week is quite a simple one, but I wanted to use this fabric I had in my stash.

 I have chosen L is for London , as London is very significant in my life. We live about 30 miles away, so near enough to pop up for the day, but away from the hustle and bustle. The fabric has St Paul's Cathedral on it, and which me of when I first came to London to do my nurse training (a long time ago now!) and my husband , Richard,( in those days he was my boyfriend)  started work as a trainee accountant, with his office right by St Paul's. I  looked round the cathedral before meeting him one day, and when I went upstairs I found myself on a small balcony suspended over the city!  He still works in the City, but has moved a short distance to a new office.

I coloured in the fabric with Inktense pencils, which I then painted with water to bring out the colour.

Finished sashiko

I have finished the sashiko sampler that I have been working on, working repeats of some designs in different colour ways. It just needs binding now!

More about Kantha quilting

 Since my previous post about the alphabet theme I am playing along with for
Tag Tuesday , which was K is for Kantha, I have been looking for more information about Kantha quilting, as one of my Tag friends was asking about it. This is for you Mo!

This is what I found:-

The Quilter's and Patchworker's Stitch Bible by Nikki Tinkler

This book gives a clear and concise explanation off the origins of Kantha quilting, suggested designs suitable for Kantha  and some  photos of examples.

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Swedish designer, Gudrun Sjoden uses influences from all over the world in her colourful clothing and textiles for the home.  I came across some wonderful examples of Kantha in a range of hers inspired by a trip to India. If you haven't come across Gudrun, her web site is well worth a look, as she travels widely for her fashion shoots, and writes about the things that have inspired her. 

 This photo is a close-up 

 I took of the front of one of Gudrun Sjoden's catalogues.

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http://www.sashaworld.com/kantha/kantha.htm

This web site has some good photographic examples of stitches used in Kantha

I learned that Kantha started as a form of recycled textiles, a way of re-using old saris, which were then layered and the coloured threads taken from the old saris used for stitching.

I thought this was interesting, as I have been reading up about Sashiko, the Japanese form of embroidery I have been working on recently, and found the origins very similar,as Sashiko started with layers of kimonos held together with decorative running stitch .

Tag Tuesday-Letter K

This week on Tag Tuesday we are on Letter K of our alphabet theme.

K is for kantha

Kantha is an embroidery stitch from the Bengal region in India. It is based on simple running stitch and stitched into layers of fabric for a quilted effect. 

I used an Indian wooden stamp for my design and copied the pattern.

Doorways in Henley

I came across these lovely doorways in Henley, and thought they would look nice in a post together. I like the mixture of architectural styles and periods that can be found in Henley.

Warm and Cool Collage

Here are the warm and cool collages I have made for the course I have been doing with Jane Davies called Unlocking the Secrets of Colour.

Warm Collage

Cool Collage

I used a selection of magazine papers and other paper scraps for both collages.  The composition of the first one is not very strong, and I am not happy with it, but I tried to do a landscape out of my head! The composition of the second is much stronger, and I am pleased with it. This one came from a drawing I did in the summer of mountains in Spain. However, I feel I have managed to use only warm colours in the first and cool in the second. Although I like doing collage, I have never done this kind of thing before, I usually just make whatever I want to. I hadn't done a landscape or used warm/cool colours. There are so many possibilities with this exercise and I plan to play around and produce some more work.

Beading Books

I have started doing a beading workshop run by a very talented lady from my art class. The jewellery class I was going to take last term was cancelled, but luckily this opportunity popped up. I haven't much to show for the beading, other than two 1 inch samples of Peyote stitch, but now I have cracked it I should be a lot faster!

These are the library books on beading that I am looking at. The one by Linda Peterson, I had out before. There are lots of ideas and techniques in all three books, and the photos are very eye-catching with a lot of texture. I am going to study them closely and do my homework, then hope I will have something to show you after the next class next month!

Chic and Unique Beaded Jewellery by Naomi Abeykoon

Beading In No Time by Linda Peterson

The Beaded Bracelet by Carole Rodgers

Tag Tuesday- Letter J

This week on Tag Tuesday we are on letter J.

For my tag I used images from The Graphics Fairy taken from an old cookery book of the 1860s by Mrs Beeton. The original pictures were of desserts which I converted to jellies. 

The large one has been coloured with acrylic inks and collaged. For the smaller ones round the edge I found a way of recreating the translucence of jelly using tracing paper and acrylic ink. The background is handmade Indian paper, painted with yellow ink, maybe to suggest custard? Or just because the yellow was a good background colour.

Henley-on-Thames ; The Chantry House

The Chantry House is a late medieval listed building in Henley, dated from about 1400. It  is now used as a church hall. I found it very striking, and love the textures of the timbered frame. It is a very peculiar sensation photographing a building with so many curves in it, as the eye is more used to seeing straight lines.

More Painted Papers

I have been making quite a lot of painted papers recently. As posted last week, which you can see here, I have been doing a course with Jane Davies and have painted some papers following some of Jane's suggestions.  

Burnt umber over white acrylic applied with roller (brayer)

Mixture of burnt umber, burnt sienna with white, stamped over with black and burnt sienna.

Black applied with dry brush over white

Paper bag (very thin paper, gave an interesting texture) Burnt sienna and burnt umber over white and printed.

Burnt umber, burnt sienna, fluorescent pink applied with roller onto crinkled brown paper.I knew those veg box bags would come in handy! I love this effect and can't wait to try other colour combinations.

Library Books

These are the library books I am looking at this week. 

Calligraphy Studio, The Ultimate Introduction to the Art of Hand Lettering  by Christopher Calderhead is a very informative introduction to calligraphy. In addition to teaching the basic strokes, there is an interesting piece about an afternoon he spent looking at a medieval manuscript and how he used the visual clues in front of him to interpret it.

 

MACHINE EMBROIDERED Flowers, Woodlands and Landscapes, The Art of Alison Holt is a delightful book for those interesting in stitched textile art. I find Alison's work amazing in detail, and she says it is often mistaken for painting or photography, but it is all machine stitched, as if she is painting with the sewing machine.

Co-incidentally, Alison appeared on Show me the Monet on BBC 2 this week, but  unfortunately didn't win.

Tag Tuesday-Letter I

Continuing with the alphabet theme over on Tag Tuesday, we are on letter I this week

I is for Illuminated letter.

For my I tag I have made an illuminated letter I using photos from Lindisfarne Priory, which were taken by C &G tutor Shelagh Folgate. I played around with them and coloured them in with gel pens. I knew I would never be able to copy the Celtic patterns myself, they are so complicated! I would like to make an embroidered textile from this one day, as I think it would work well in embroidery.

Hidden Henley

Henley is a delightful little town, with many old buildings. I always enjoy going there, and each time see something I haven't seen before. Yesterday I kept coming upon hidden entrances, set back from the main roads. I like the way the walls are bowed, and straight lines are hard to find, due to age!

Painted Papers

 I have been doing an on-line course with Jane Davies called Unlocking the Secrets of Colour. Here are some painted papers I did for the course, following suggestions made by Jane. I enjoyed this activity very much, it is one of my favourites! Watch this space, as I shall probably be doing some more, there are so many possibilities!

  Knitting needle

 Brayer (Roller) and credit card

 Bubble wrap 

Knitting needle and sponge

Printed