Dislocation is Done!
27 June 2014
So, let me present Dislocation: Abscission III
But - golly it's difficult to photograph a quilt!
And I have to submit a photo because there is not going to be enough space in the gallery at Festival of Quilts to hold all the quilts submitted - so there is going to be a selection process.
Which means I need to present Dislocation in all it's glory - by photo! (I also had to send a sample off for the quilt police to examine. Hmm - well the back doesn't look too bad!)
So which do you think is the best? The top or the bottom piccie?
And here is how I was trying to photograph it.
An old damask table cloth suspended over the cupboard doors (held in place with a couple of drawing pins)
The quilt on a batten suspended on the cupboard doors.
How do other people do this?
A bit of a distraction - an early morning pile of dogs!
But - golly it's difficult to photograph a quilt!
And I have to submit a photo because there is not going to be enough space in the gallery at Festival of Quilts to hold all the quilts submitted - so there is going to be a selection process.
Which means I need to present Dislocation in all it's glory - by photo! (I also had to send a sample off for the quilt police to examine. Hmm - well the back doesn't look too bad!)
So which do you think is the best? The top or the bottom piccie?
And here is how I was trying to photograph it.
An old damask table cloth suspended over the cupboard doors (held in place with a couple of drawing pins)
The quilt on a batten suspended on the cupboard doors.
How do other people do this?
A bit of a distraction - an early morning pile of dogs!
Dislocation: technical issues!
24 June 2014
I was right!
Getting the 4 panels joined together and hanging straight is going to be a challenge. I should have experimented before assembling the final piece.
Getting the 4 panels joined together and hanging straight is going to be a challenge. I should have experimented before assembling the final piece.
I have got the hanging sleeve attached and I'm using an embroidered leaf to act as a spacer. It looks good but there is no stability to keep the panels rigid. I think I'm going to have to go to a DIY store tomorrow to buy some very small strips of wood to attach to the back of the panels.
As I was wrestling with the problem this evening I was thinking about the batons that are used in the sails on yachts. On the mainsail the batons are inserted into little pockets along the leading edge of the sail so that the edge retains some rigidity (the mast and boom provide the rigidity for the other two sides of the triangular sail).
But I'm not in a sailing area at the moment, and even if I was at home I'm not sure that the sail lofts in Gosport would be able to assist! In fact, as I type this, I can see the quizzical look that I would get if I was asking for sail battens to stiffen a quilt.
So, the DIY store and some small pieces of timber are going to have to be the answer. I can hide the timber behind little embroidered leaves. Just as an aside, I embroidered the leaves, which are made using a flimsy silk, by sandwiching them between two sheets of dissolvable film. The dissolvable film has two purposes. One is that it enables me to embroider flimsy bits of silk at all, and the other is that when it dissolves it does leave a residue which stiffens up the fabric, a bit like a starch. So my leaves have a bit of oomph to them.
But I am on target. I will finish this in time, skidding to the deadline as always!
Full photos will follow on the next post. But here's a couple of WIP to give you a flavour.
Full photos will follow on the next post. But here's a couple of WIP to give you a flavour.
Oh, I've just had a brainwave! Rigolene! Stiffening for corsets! If I can get some that might be the answer. John Lewis here I come.
Dislocation: Beading
23 June 2014
The beading is done. Much frantic hand stitching later and the beads are all on.
Now I just have to assemble the thing. It's in 4 pieces - one long hanging strip and three side panels. Getting it to hand square is going to be a challenge!
Has anyone ever added beads using the machine? Does it work?
Dislocation
11 June 2014
My Dislocation quilt has begun!
Here is a small sample of one of the panels before stitching showing the painted tissue paper together with some stamped squares and a little gold square of paper stuck on with adhesive. This gold paper is recycled chocolate wrapper.
For this quilt I printed it out on an artificial paper/fabric which I got from the online shop called crafty computer paper. Stupidly I didn't make a note of the fabric - it feels like but isn't bamboo.
It actually started Weeks ago but somehow I have neglected to share the process with you. So to make amends let me share with you where I have got to and how I got here.
The quilt is actually going to be made up of four separate panels – three panels on the right hand side of the same size and one long straight on the left hand side. The quilt will be portrait and has to be 50 cm x 120 cm.
Actually, assembling it in small pieces like this is making it very easy to stitch all the pieces are very easy to manhandled through the machine and I'm not struggling with bending the panels under the body of the machine.
As you would expect with a quilt from me I'm using tissue paper. Many weeks ago now (and I'm sorry I did not share this with you at the time) I had a gay old time one Saturday morning spray-painting sheets of tissue paper. You may remember a little while ago I was auditioning paint on this blog well it was that the size that determined the colour that I chose.
As you would expect with a quilt from me I'm using tissue paper. Many weeks ago now (and I'm sorry I did not share this with you at the time) I had a gay old time one Saturday morning spray-painting sheets of tissue paper. You may remember a little while ago I was auditioning paint on this blog well it was that the size that determined the colour that I chose.
I list my favourite Fresco Finish Acrylic Paints watered down in a spray bottle.
Of course doing it like this makes the tissue paper very wet. Handling wet tissue paper is a mare!
So the process was a bit laborious - I would spray a couple of sheets, then leave them to dry on the painting table for about 24 hours.
But the effect was worth it!
Here is a small sample of one of the panels before stitching showing the painted tissue paper together with some stamped squares and a little gold square of paper stuck on with adhesive. This gold paper is recycled chocolate wrapper.
Rather than using batting I am using acrylic felt. I cut the acrylic felt to size, allowing for a small space between each panel, then using temporary spray adhesive stuck the tissue paper onto the felt.
I folded the tissue paper neatly onto the back. Then to finish the back I have used plain calico which I cut to size and then folded in a hair so that the calico piece was slightly smaller than the felt panel.
You can see the back of one panel above (a few tension issues there!) And hopefully can see what I mean about the neat finish with the calico.
I have used an image which I have used on a number of pieces several times before. This original image was printed with inks onto rag paper using one of the first ever print blocks I experimented with which was made entirely of cardboard.
I have scanned and saved the image on the computer, manipulated it a few times in paint.net and it has appeared in a few pieces.
For this quilt I printed it out on an artificial paper/fabric which I got from the online shop called crafty computer paper. Stupidly I didn't make a note of the fabric - it feels like but isn't bamboo.
As I mentioned above I've also printed using inks and acrylic paint onto the panels and stuck little squares of chocolate wrapping paper.
And now I'm quilting. I'm using one embroidery stitch from the machine catalogue but mostly it is free motion embroidery.
There will be some beading, and there will be much stress as I use a technique that I've only dabbled with to join the panels together.
I'm On-Target! It should be finished on time.
I'm On-Target! It should be finished on time.
Art as therapy
6 June 2014
I should be stitching my dislocation quilt for the Festival of quilts in August. Actually the deadline isn't August- the deadline is 1 July. I have to have my finished quilt delivered by 1 July.
But there is nothing like a deadline to distract you!
But there is nothing like a deadline to distract you!
So instead of stitching I've been fiddling about with more home-made stencils. Actually there is a reason for this because I have been asked to design some little place settings for a wedding at the beginning of August – the wedding reception is an afternoon tea.
Now I read somewhere, but I cannot remember where, that you can make very good stencil is by using Lutrador. I have no idea where I read that, or indeed what the technique is, but I found some scraps of this stuff which I think is lutrador when I was unpacking the studio - so I thought "what the heck! let's have a go!"
I cut with a craft knife and then used a white acrylic paint to stiffen the fabric. (Teacups above, a random design below)
In the photograph below are used a teacup stencil and applied to the paint with a sponge, not a cosmetic sponge but a washing up sponge. The paint used was a heavy bodied black acrylic. The results are not very successful.
Here I had another go this time applying fluid acrylic - a fresco finish paint from Paper Artsy – using my favourite flat brush to apply the paint through the stencil. This was a bit more successful.
It's a sketchbook, so things don't have to go to plan! That's okay! Because in this case things didn't go to plan!
That second stencil, which looks so lovely before you apply any paint, just made a bit of a random mess on the page. Again I had applied a heavy bodied acrylic with a sponge. I think these stencils probably work better with a brush and a fluid acrylic.
That second stencil, which looks so lovely before you apply any paint, just made a bit of a random mess on the page. Again I had applied a heavy bodied acrylic with a sponge. I think these stencils probably work better with a brush and a fluid acrylic.
But it's a sketchbook so you can just trundle along. So with absolutely no idea where I was heading but venting some of the weeks frustrations from the day job (it's been a bad week!) and using my lovely fresco finish paints, off I set.
I worked until I realised it was almost dark – you can tell from this last photograph that the light had faded. To be honest, I don't like the page at all. I like some of the techniques, I love the way some of the translucent paints allow you to see what's going on underneath (that's the magic of these paints) but the page? Well it's just a page in the sketchbook.
But as therapy it worked wonders. I went to bed much more relaxed than when I had started the evening and that is why I'm sharing this page with you - not for its artistic quality but for its therapeutic quality.
But as therapy it worked wonders. I went to bed much more relaxed than when I had started the evening and that is why I'm sharing this page with you - not for its artistic quality but for its therapeutic quality.
Let me introduce Jessica Sporn ( drum roll)
4 June 2014
The day job has overtaken me this week.
Sometimes I have weeks like this. At the beginning of the week everything looks very organised and well paced but by the middle of the week it's clear that the best laid plans of mice and men have somewhat gone awry.
When that happens I have a little meander around the Internet world and absorb other people's creativity in place of my own.
Sometime ago,on one of these little jaunts, I discovered a lovely American lady called Jessica Sporn. She is a mixed media artist, I think based in New York, and she produces lovely journal pages and mixed media canvases. She also designed stencils for an American company called Stencil Girl.
What's great about Jessica is that she produces really clear videos which she publishes on YouTube and on her blog which show her creative process. She positions the camera very clearly and she is very generous in sharing her techniques and explaining what she does. I particularly like the way she takes a commercial stencil and puts her own stamp on it.
Sometime ago,on one of these little jaunts, I discovered a lovely American lady called Jessica Sporn. She is a mixed media artist, I think based in New York, and she produces lovely journal pages and mixed media canvases. She also designed stencils for an American company called Stencil Girl.
What's great about Jessica is that she produces really clear videos which she publishes on YouTube and on her blog which show her creative process. She positions the camera very clearly and she is very generous in sharing her techniques and explaining what she does. I particularly like the way she takes a commercial stencil and puts her own stamp on it.
Now I'm not a great one for using commercial stencils because I always feel that they are somebody else's design and I want to use my own design, but it has to be said that there are some advantages to using them, not least of which you don't have to sit for ages with a craft knife painstakingly cutting out thin lines!
So it is very useful to get tips on how you can use a commercial stencil and use it in your own art.
Here is a very nifty recent example – a video that Jessica published on YouTube on 3 June.
It is worth watching for the painting tip alone – the way she creates lighting shade on a flower petal very very simply.
Enjoy!
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