Comfort for the Undomestic Goddesses

There is a real handmade vibe out there right now .. which is excellent news for those of us in the business of making stuff. It also means that magazines, blogs and websites have been full of people making loads of utterly gorgeous stuff for Christmas ... cards, presents, mince pies, tags, cake, gift boxes, decorations ... there has been an awesome outpouring. But not by me, I am so ashamed to say. So here is some comfort for anyone else feeling distinctly inadequate .. I haven't made any pies, cake or puddings; I haven't made my own cards and tags; I haven't made any decorations; I haven't made any presents this year; I haven't printed my own wrapping paper ... truthfully, I haven't even wrapped the presents yet; I haven't finished the food shop  and I haven't got the decorations from the attic, let alone put them up. I hope that makes a few bods feel a bit better. It is not that I am being all bah-humbug (ok - a bit envious maybe) ... I just truthfully have not manged to find the time or extra energy needed. On occasion, I can spray as many cones as the next woman ...  but not this time it seems. I think maybe my new years resolution should be to get a bit more balance into my life! But I'm stopping today for a few days off - and I wanted to wish a very Happy Christmas to all of you, both those who have really flourished in a productive, creative run up to the big day, and those like me, who are only just switching into Christmas mode. Have a wonderful, healthy and happy time - and see you in the New Year - Hilary xx

 

Paint and dye and all things nice

You know how sometimes life is just kind to you? Well I've just had had one of those moments ... I've been starting a new collage and was feeling that despite having spent lots of time painting and dyeing, I didn't seem to have much of what I needed, which was a nuisance and was threatening to mean more painting (not that painting is really a hardship - I am just in rather a hurry). I decided to take a break and get the old blog updated - and thus started by downloading and editing a bunch of photos. Whilst doing this I came across images of just the cloths I wanted and then realised I had left a whole pile round the corner when I started work. Joy!! Cloths found and palette looked a lot better. It is sad that I need photographic evidence these days in order to find stuff - but hey ... whatever it takes. So ... on to blog proper now ...

 

I spent a very happy day last week with my friend Steph at Ineke Berlyn's workshop barn near Bromsgrove. Steph had hired the barn for a couple of days as a birthday treat to herself (what an excellent plan - must remember to tell Stephen about that) - and very kindly asked me along on day two, so we could talk 'book' stuff and work at the same time. Ineke's barn is a fabulously large space and we used it all very happily. I was printing cloth with stencils and thermofax screens, using my favourite Setacolour paints and then squeegeeing dye over the top after the paint had dried to get some wonderful layered effects. Steph was creating psychotic dragonflies ... but that's Steph for you. ... nuff talk - time for some pics ...

 

These two pieces were printed with thermofax screens and then the right hand one was covered with red dye .. amazing how different they now look

 

 

These two images show the front and back of the same cloth - again printed with thermofax screens of text from my journal and then squeegeed over with blue and green dyes. The paint acts as resist to the dye and so you get a gorgeous effect on both front and back

 

 

 Another front and back - honestly! - this time done with a combination of stencils and thermofax - same technique

 

 

And three more images of cloth done with script and image thermofax screens using paint and then scraped over with dye

 

 

Fabrics all ironed and ready to go, together with some lace and tapes I have painted and dyed to go with them ... this stage is always very exciting .. everything ready to go ...

 

 

These four show work getting under way .. top left, clockwise: Felt backing cut to size and photo, plus paper collage ready; sketch and paper collage pinned on wall so I can refer to them without burying them, plus fabric for cliffs put out; trying out fabrics for cliffs; cliff fabric selection made and starting on houses. There is along way to go yet - but having found those fabrics I had lost - I'm itching to get on with it now

 

 

I'm actually going to change one of those cliff fabrics now that I have found the others - it is bothering me a bit ... I wonder of you can guess which one?? Talk soon - Hilary x

 

Thelma hits the road ..

And what a girl she is. Thelma - for those who don't know/can't remember (I find that latter category is nearly always me these days), is my gorgeous thermofax machine. And I have been having such a nice time getting to know her ... I knew she would fit with me, like toast and butter. Excitingly, we went on tour - together with Louise (laser printer) to see the girls at the Midlands contemporary group last Monday. All members had a go or several at burning a screen and there were some gorgeous ones made. Not many got around to printing theirs, so I can't show you the results - hopefully I can photo those at our next meeting. But I, of course did do some printing - lots actually, so I can show you those ...

 

 

I am still working with my theme of coast, so here are some prints from screens featuring shells, crabs and groynes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really love the rather distressed nature of these images - just perfect for my theme. I have been asked why I bought my own thermofax, rather than have screens made. The answer is simple - I tend to do things by multiples, not halves, and I guessed that once I got going I would feel I needed a lot of screens. I came home from the midlands group, feeling very enthused and decided to make some more shell/seaweed screens. So yesterday I adapted some drawings and photographs and made 31 new screens. Yep - 31 .... you see why I need my own machine? Here are just few of the new designs I made ...

 

 

 

I mean - how yummy are those? I have been busy today trying them out on some new pages and paper ... not photographed yet, but they look great.

 

I love printing and painting my own cloth, and at our Region 10 area day last weekend, I demonstrated using stencils to make patterned cloth. I find it always starts off looking a little dull, but if you keep going and keep layering .. it all gets very exciting. Here is an image of large piece of cloth that I stencilled as an example.

 

 

 

 It is not all meant to be used as one piece - I was showing different ways of using the stencils and the differing effects with paint and dye, as well as different colours. But when cut up - I thing I am going to have some very exciting cloths indeed - so here are couple of crops:

 

 

 

 

 

OK - four then ...I can't help myself! And in that spirit, I wondered what would happen if I altered one of these an made a thermofax screen? Answer ....

 

 

 

Ooooh! I can't wait to try this one out.

 

If you like the look of all these, then you might be interested to know that Steph Redefiner and I are having an Open Studio at the Bramble Patch in Weedon next year - 29,30 and 31 August 2013. We both have new thermofax machines and both love printing, so I'm sure there will be some to see. So please do come along. We are also having a joint exhibition there next August and will both be teaching workshops - but I'll tell you all about that another time. I'm off to do some (more) printing - Hilary x

 

Happy Happy Times

There is not much better than doing something you really enjoy with someone you really like ... so no wonder I am happy right now. As mentioned in the last post, my friend Steph Redfern and I are co-authoring a book .. to be called 'In the Studio' which will aim to share the way we both work. So we are both hard at it, amongst other commitments, working on our first subject of Coast. I showed you some of my inspiration last time ... rather a lot actually. Anyway - that was whittled down, some designs drawn up and these are some of the resultant collages I have made:

Sorry if they are rather bright .. everything needs to be in high contrast when it goes on a page. All these, and others, were based on images of boats at Whitby ... and I quite like the idea of 'Messing about in Boats' as a working title for a series of pieces

But I also like the following collage - shown in progress amongst the mess!

This one is based on the images of houses on the cliff at Whitby .. and is my favourite I think ... so will probably be the one I make for the book. I can't wait to get started.

Steph and I will also be having an Open Studio at the Bramble Patch next year (Anne has put us in the messy room - very wise) and a joint exhibition there too. I hope lots of you will be able to visit both. Happy times most definitely! - Hilary x

A new subject .. very excited

I am about to embark on a new project with my friend Steph Redfern (you almost certainly know Steph's work - but if you don't .. have a look at  stephanieredfern.wordpress.com - she does quite beautiful stuff). As part of this project I am starting work with a new (also old) theme of 'Beach'. No hardship this, as I love the coast and have already worked with seaside imagery in Beach Boy and Master Caster. As a start I thought I would rootle around for images and ideas ... and was delighted to find an old(ish) sketchbook I started on a seaside theme. I have literally hundreds if not thousands of photos from various beaches and also collections of shells, pebbles, driftwood and knick knacks. In all honesty I have enough inspiration for a lifetime of work here .. So let me share some of that abundance with you, before I settle down to try and whittle it all down to some working designs:

Firstly just a few views: Filey ....

Whitby......

Boats at Whitby ...

Beautiful gull, also at Whitby ....

Next up - some of those sketchbook pages ......

Nothing very brilliant here .. but loads and loads of ideas:

Beach huts …

On site watercolour at Mablethorpe ... trying to capture the colours and light ..

Closer in ...

Playing with

 filling in magazine images with pastels ..

More beach huts ...

Collage of magazine pages based on photo taken at Mablethorpe ..

Watercolour sketch and photo ...

Acrylics applied very thickly and torn ...

Even a bit of needle felting ....

Collage of images - including painting by Matthew Forster 

Close up drawing of shells ...

Filling in spaces in torn photograph .... I'm a bit better at colour mixing now, but this still looks interesting ..

I am SO pleased I re-found this book - it all feeds in to a wonderful mental library of imagery ..

These next are a few images of some of my collected stuff laid out on the table ...

Look at this lot!! - you have to feel excited don't you ...

Closer in - lovely mixes ...

and again ....

and again ...

My head is now teaming with images and ideas, so the next thing to do is to get some firm ideas down and reduce this lot to just a few ideas ... not so easy!! I haven't even started on my shell and pebble collections, but I think I might just over do it if I try to include any more .. so I'll stick with this lot. I can already see some themes and interests repeating and showing .. and I'm itching to get to my sketchbook now.

Just before I do though - I must show you these images of the John Lewis building in Leicester, from inside the cafe, where Steph and I spent most of the day being very business-like and also slurping tea and yummy cheese scones .. 

How beautiful is this?? ...

I'll keep you in touch with progress - talk soon - Hilary x

Thelma and friends

Well I've finally done it - I unwrapped Thelma and got her set up and ready. For those who don't know - Thelma is my beloved Thermofax machine, which was my 50th birthday pressie from Stephen (yes - I dropped a few hints). She has been waiting since September for me to find time to get her up and running. She has a friend, Louise, who makes nice laser prints for Thelma to eat .. because that is what she likes. So I started with one of my drawings of Dixter:

A tricky choice for a first effort, as it has a lot of shading in it - but hey, why not? I made my laser print and put it in to Thelmas mouth. And out came a Thermofax screen - really did. I ran it on a sort of medium setting and think I should have cooked it a bit longer - but it worked - wow. So out came the quickest and nearest thing - some fabric paint - and I made a few trial prints ...

OK - possibly more than a few - but I don't ever really do just a few of anything ... the brain kicks into 'what if' mode and I just follow. As you can see I tried all over printing, overprinting, paper, fabric, vilene and different colours. These are all from that one small screen. Just imagine what you could do with 10? or 20, or 100??!! I think this technique is going to be so useful for me. Here are a few favourites:

I especially like the overprints on colour and combined fabric, which is fairly typical of my love of as much pattern and layer as I can get away with.

I have to confess that I then ruined my screen by too zealous scrubbing on the wrong side - but I now know not to do that, and I got an awful lot of prints from it anyway. And what is so nice about having your own machine is that I just printed another. Oh happy days.

On a different note, I spent a lovely and very relaxing day in Louth with some friends this week. You know you have those days when there is just no pressure and you can just be you - well it was one of those. We were given a lovely tour of Louth by the local girls, especially the charity shops of the town (and there are just loads) and each of us  collected a little - or in some case, and mentioning no names (Maggy) a rather large - collection of booty. We also ate very well. At the end of the day, we decided that we would all make a book cover using the stuff we had bought. A re-cycling project. Here is my booty:

 
A couple of lovely cotton stripey shirts, napkins, lace and more lace. Will need some paint or dye I think. I have in mind to make another fabric book. rather than just the cover (will need to check this with the girls first mind - rules is rules) and perhaps fill it with leaf images, as there were lots around this time of year. We are all hoping to finish this by our next regional day - a lovely sewing day in November - so we can compare our reminders of a lovely day.

The studio is just about sorted out and tidy - yes, it has taken this long. I will take photos quickly when I finish, before I inevitably start again, which I know I will.

Next up for me is a rather big project, which I will be talking more about over the next few weeks. But suffice to say I am very excited and I think it will be really good! Talk soon - Hilary x