I'll be back

Have not been 'arting' or 'crafting' much lately but will be back soon.

Journaling

I'm loving my journaling explorations. Spent the weekend at AFTH with Dyan and had a great time messing with paints, inks, images and pens - I have made a few pages but will upload later. In the meantime here are some pages from my Kelly Kilmer class Memories and Reflections which is all of the above but without the paints (so far!). These are more collaged based.

Just need to journal on them now ...

Fabrics and Dyes

The Bramble Patch run lots of workshops - if you live in the Midlands and enjoy textiles, quilting and mixed media they are worth a look.

On one of my recent Saturdays there we did a bit of fabric dying - great fun. This is what I completed hung out to dry when I got home after a thorough rinsing.

Last Saturday was Batiq Waxing and Discharging colour - here are my samples ...

Eventually these samples will all become 'something else' - I hope!

Lutrador

On my latest Saturday class at The Bramble Patch we were experimenting with Lutrador, spray inks, fabric dyes and paints and printing phoographs onto fabric. The Lutrador was coloured to 'go with' a chosen photograph and then the printed photos were placed on the Lutrador and machine embroidered in as free a way as you wished.

This was my photograph

And this was my embroidered piece

I didn't really like it but I did like the offcuts of coloured Lutrador and completed a couple of 'sample' pieces at home. These are 6 x 4 inches and have been coloured with Adirondack Color Wash inks, gessoed and sprayed again. As the inks dry they lighten considerably creating a very subtle background.

This piece was gessoed and texture added to the gesso with a spatula. It was then 'painted' with fountain pen ink and sprinkled with salt grains. The salt grains were shaken off when the piece was dry. I then added some brighter spots of acrylic paint and backed the Lutrador with felt before machine embroidering over the painted sections with varigated matching threads.

This piece was just coloured with the spray inks then free machine embroidered with metallic thread. Toning beads were added in one section and the same metallic thread used to satin stitch one section and to fill another with french knots. If you click on the picture you should be able to see more detail although the colours don't show up very well.

Workshops

I love workshops - online and 'for real'. Some months ago I went on a 'real' workshop with Angie Hughes where we made woven bookwraps. I never really finished mine at the time but have just 'found' them and would like to to complete them - it's a cool idea. The idea was to weave strips of torn cloth, stamp and foil them, cover with organza and free machine over the top.

This is the first 'weaving stage

and here's one with some stamping and foiling added.

The finished piece below has been machined with gold thread and made into a book wrap.

I got quite carried away with these and have another ready to finish off ...

and here it is with red organza over - may decide to change this though - it's a bit too red for my liking!

Gorgeous painty backgrounds ...

... well I think so anyway. These 'postcards' are an amalgamation of lots of techniques gleaned from people like Kelly Kilmer, Mary Ann Moss, Dina Wakely, Tracy Bautista, Michelle Ward and probably many others - thank you to all of them! They are (mainly) collaged backgrounds, gesso, acrylic paints, spray inks, stencils and stamps. There are lots of layers. I have added a little collage to one or two - the idea being to use them as journaling cards at some point ...

More ATCs

These ATCs are made using packing tape transfers