Screen Printed teXtile

I did this little sketch collage at a brilliant design workshop with Sue Dove this summer.  I decided to see how I could translate it into a screen printed textile

So here it is in stages...................layers

I'm planning to do a photoscreen version next.

Transitions

And some other summer projects- The transition programs for young people moving from primary to secondary school.  I worked with a couple of different groups.  One group produced a banner for their new school.

For the Aspire project, young people printed T-shirts  which they wore for the rest of the week and a bag which they used to collect the various books and other bits and pieces they collected as part of the program

Australasia Art Primary Textiles

Last term I was asked to do this project at Duxford Primary School.  7 Primary Schools in the area do a special day which they call "Worldwide and Wonderful".  Each school hosts a year group from all the other schools and each school has a theme from somewhere in the world.  So at Duxford, it was year 3 children, the theme was Australasia and we wanted to make some big banners which involved as many children as possible and which could easily be transported around the different schools for a flexible display in the months  that followed.  And it all had to happen in a day.........

So here are the banners.  The "dot painting" circles obviously referenced Australian Aborigonal paintings but they also symbolised the coming together of all the children from the 7 schools on that day and the connections that linked them as they worked together.

Each group had a different animal name to identify them during the day and so we used those animals as the theme for the banners

All in alll there were 6 banners- that's a lot of spots for a single day!

That's me spraying them with flame bar

See Stapleford school's websites for their report on this wonderful day :  Stapleford Sch

Felt like felt

There's something about felt being called 'felt' - the whole process is just so.......... feltual.   I think I like it so much because it's an antidote to the crisp graphic edges of screen printing.  This is a quick little design that I've been thinking of screen printing - but it just seemed so much easier to do it in felt.

That's the sketch

And the nasturtiums are still blooming in my garden despite the grey weather!

New felting class starting Cottenham Village College starting in November CVC Felt class

Felt for Beginners Class

On the subject of scarves and winter,  I am also teaching a beginners felting course at Cottenham Village College. It starts in November after half term and runs for 4 weeks, then it continues for another 4 weeks in January. This is a daytime class on Wed mornings.  For more details see the college's site:  CVC felting

Here are some of the things that you can expect to learn about:

Beads and baubles

Necklace

Sumptuous surfaces

Nuno Scarves

and bags

Devore

With winter starting to creep up on us, it seems to be time to start thinking about scarves again.  With that in mind, on Wed 17th Oct , I'll be running a special workshop: Devoré in a Day at Art van Go.   see link:
Art Van Go workshops page

In the course of the day, you will be screen printing your own design onto the fabric with devore paste, burning out the fibres, rinsing and finally, dyeing the scarf. The screen printing process is very simple but it enables you to achieve an amazingly professional - dare I say, expensive - looking finish. You will be able to choose whether to dye your scarf with acid or reactive dyes depending on the effect you would like to achieve - and by the end of the day you will have a truly luxurious scarf to take home with you.
It is a very reasonably priced workshop at £43.00 (inc £5.00 materials charge) but you will have to provide (or buy from the shop or tutor) your own velvet.  Contact Art van Go for more details and to book a place.  Art Van Go workshops page