Zhen Xian Bao Chinese Thread Box

These beautiful little paper boxes hail from the remote south west of
 China and are used by the Miao women to store threads.  They are 

usually decorated by hand and have an indigo dyed cover.

Here is my first attempt in paper, the next one will be in fabric!

Outside cover

The first layer of boxes which twist to open and close.

The first and second layer, each side mirrors each other.  Lifting up the diamonds

opens up the second layer of boxes. 

 Second and third layer together, again, lifting up the second layer

opens up the third box underneath.

Fourth layer of boxes

Fifth layer of boxes

And finally, the big box at the bottom is revealed.

This looks incredibly complicated.  The hardest part was the twist opening

 box that you see first.  The rest of the boxes are very simple to fold.

I followed the instructions in Ruth Smiths

Folded Secrets Books.

The instructions were clear, concise and it was

great fun to make.

ROOK LANE EXHIBITION

What a brilliant 2 weeks we have had at Rook Lane Chapel in Frome.

The walk up the steep hill to get to us didn't seem to deter people

and we had some lovely visitors through the door.

Just some of the pieces that were on show!

Mandi Bainbridge

Angela Knapp

 Angela Knapp

 Chrissie Seager

 Claire Passmore

 Alicia Merrett

 Dot Carter

 Eileen

 Jane Brooks

 Judy Stephens

 K3n

 Kay Swancutt

 Liz Hewitt

Maria Harryman

 

Stephanie Crawford

Exhibition Time

Contemporary Quilters West 

Our next exhibition, Unfolding Stories 2 

Come and meet the artists, we 

love to chat about what we do!

Fossils

I haven't posted for a while because I have been busy finishing my pieces

for our upcoming exhibition at Rook Lane Gallery in Frome.

Below is just a little taster of the pieces all inspired

by Hagstones.

Each piece measures 10" square

There are 9 in total and when hung will

form a 3x3 tile measuring

32" square with the spacing inbetween 

each one.

 

So now they are done I have been playing with Xpandaprint

and some stencils of fossils and fish.

I followed the technique shown by 

Lynda Monk 

I used EZ screens and exposed them using my 

own designs.  I find I have better results exposing them

using sunlight rather than an exposure lamp.

With the weather we've had here in the UK lately 

I had to wait a while!

Two of the screens exposed and drying on the washing line!

 

Xpandaprint printed through the screen ready for heating.

I think there is a little too much Xpandaprint on the fabric.

 

Two of the ammonite fragments on a stitched

grid on the Tyvek, the one on the left

didn't need to be on on the grid as it has connecting lines.

The one on the right has lost some of it's definition as too

much paste was applied.

 

 

I love the fragments left over from the heating/melting

process, these have the potential to turn into pieces of rock!

 

As well as using Tyvek I decided to try out the Xpandaprint on

soluble paper.  Above is the fish stencil, the one on the left is the 

soluble paper.

 

After heating I popped the paper into water and as you can

see from the above picture the result wasn't what I had hoped for!

Xpandaprint doesn't gel well together on its own, it

definitley needs a stabiliser behind it.

Finally I wanted to add some colour to the fossils.

For these two I used Adirondack Inks with a 

little bit of  bronze acrylic brushed over the top when dry.

 

Am fairly pleased with the results for a first go.  Ideally

I would like to try and get the Xpandaprint a little thinner 

when printing through the screen.