TRISKELION HARES

For my birthday earlier in the Autumn my lovely sister treated me to a mystery 2 days out.

Having picked me up at an agreed time with the instruction to wear sturdy shoes, 'layers' and to bring my compression gloves we headed off in a westerly direction.  It turned out to be not a very far westerly direction as 25 minutes later we reached our destination.  The 

Richard Jefferies Museum

in Swindon.  I cannot tell you how many times I have driven past this museum and not noticed it was there. Richard Jefferies was a Victorian writer with a passion for the English countryside.

However we were not there to look at Richard Jefferies books.  There in the woodland clearing,  a fire gently burned in the middle and around it sat 6 Bankers (wooden tables) each topped off with a square of Maltese limestone.  With my excitement levels rising we were greeted by Maya and Wolfie, our tutors for the day.  

And what a day it was......it was a choice between a Green Man and the Triskelion Hares, the Hares of course won out.  So began a day of drawing, hammering, learning, endless cups of tea and the most delicious home made soup for lunch made by Jamie from the museum.

This was a two day workshop and by the end of day one I really doubted that I would have anything resembling the beautiful hares Myra had carved.  

 

 The design drawn onto the stone and I am beginning to chase out the design.

Holding the mallet and chisel took some getting used to as they need to be held loosely

rather than be gripped firmly, something we all struggled with at first!

Action shot!  It looks as if I am holding the mallet wrong, but in carving

stone like this the head is held in the palm of the hand.

 End result of day 1

By the end of day one I was feeling quite chuffed with myself....the end result was that I had three hares, all lacking detail of course and the depth of the cutaway was not yet deep enough.  All in all a good result.

On to Day two and once again the fire was lit and more home made soup was on offer.  very welcome as although the sun was out it wasn't that warm.

More hammering  and refining today to give our hares more shape . 

 I have to admit that come 3pm I had to give up.  I could no longer hold the mallet.  Happy with my achievements I had a cuppa whilst admiring everyone else's  efforts.  There was still a lot of refining to do but I was happy to take it away and work on it at home.

  

The end of day 2 and me looking very chuffed with my work!

                                                     

During the afternoon we were visited by a wandering poet who started walking among us and penned  this poem.

 

 

STONE LOVE

 

Dappled Forest Light

Dappled Tapping

The Stone Carvers Are In

Heads & Shoulders Forward

The Gentle Hammers Tap

The Toy Train Taps its Sleepers

As It Waving Trundles By

Six Limestone Blocks Square

Become Green Men and Hare

Our group of stone carvers with Maya & Wolfie in front.

 

In fact, I didn't finish my hares at home.  My sister and I took ourselves off to St Ives in Cornwall for a week away and we both took our stones with us.  It is still not finished completly but there is no rush.  

 

 My Hares at the end of day 4 working on it.  I am happy with the 

shape so now I need to put the eyes in and texture the background area

around the hares and finish facing the block.  I would also like to add some words 

to the outside side edges of the block.

Hiatus and Lost Mojo

Well, it has been a long two years since the last post!

The arrival of our two teenage nieces coming to live with us and surgery 

on my hand as meant there has been no time  or ability for creativity.

Now with the household running smoothly and the hand back to 

full mobility I can once again venture into the long neglected studio

to reacquaint myself with my mojo!

I have been experimenting with rust dyeing and eco dyeing of late and

have been using the unique fabrics produced for my latest series of works.

'ROCKS & FOSSILS'

We are fortunate to live not too far from the Jurassic Coast and have 

over the years spent many days picking amongst the

fallen rocks for fossils, not always successfully! 

It is these fossils that have been my inspiration for these works.

 A small section of the Ammonites piece.

A small section of the fish skeleton piece.

I have used a lot of free machining and hand stitching within

these pieces as well as some mixed media.

These works, along with others can be see in my Studio during

West Berks Open Studios 2019.

More details to follow.

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.