Ugly fabric transformation

Barbara from MX Dyers List sent me this fabric as part of a challenge to see how it would be transformed. I've had  alot of fun with it!

Overdyed yellow

Overdyed blues

Screen printed with discharge

And in detail

Talent show banners

The talent show set

The banners looked great on stage. It's always difficult to photograph these things, in artificial light with my little 'point and click' .......but it gives you a feel for evening - which was thoroughly enjoyable!

Youth Club Banners

Over half term , Cary and I worked with the young people from Sutton and Witcham Youth Clubs to make these banners for their talent show which is tomorrow evening. 
If you'd like to see the show or take part in one of the youth club's many wonderful activities the show/ youth clubs go to

 http://communitycarts.co.uk/

Cary did these regional banners with Witcham Youth Club

Detail of B Club banner

And the other youth clubs from the district

Meanwhile I worked with the Talent show Committee to produce this backdrop for the stage. They did a great design and some very skillfull printing. It's hard to show the scale in a photograph but to give you some idea - the central clapper board is about 2.3m square.                 
So....., well done to all the young people who worked so hard to create these  professional looking banners and good luck for the show !

Scenes from a Working Studio

My studio is about to be reorganised.  I like to have all the tools of my trade to be on display and easily accessible- The shelves are only 1 jar deep.  

But things are starting to pile up.  Cary's been building me deeper shelves and some things will be going in boxes into 'deep' storage.

Inks, pigments, dyes colour, sigh......

and through some organza drying on my line

My cleaning rags drying on the rack

And a shelf of silkscreens

Watch this space for my new improved studio!

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

"Granny Anne" cloth screen print

I have these lovely pictures of my grandmother  - one from when she was a child with her hair in ringlets - probably specially done for the photo and her socks falling down her calves; and the other of her on her wedding day.  A while ago I made photoscreens of these and every now and then I print something with them.  This time I had a  cloth that I had dyed and printed with a doily and some lace. It sat folded (well actually crumpled) in my workroom for a year until suddenly I remembered these two screens. And so...............

I felt it needed something else

So I made up this screen with some text in her handwriting.

The cream has been discharged and the brown is printed on with pigment and paste

  The cloth is actually a sort green - it looks blue on some of these photos

Cottenham summer School Screen Print

These are some of the truly fabulous fabrics printed by student on my course at Screen Print Summer School at Cottenham Village College this year.  I have a strong belief that teaching is all about encouraging each person to develop their own style and I think that these prints really do show that.  Everyone in the class, without exception,  did really wonderful work this year.  These are just some examples:

Anna

Debra - photographic screen from her own drawings

Adi - exploring design

Ann's swans - tricky registration!

Annie

A selection of Debra's prints in a pile

David's tree print -A clever alternating of 2 screens to get that long trunk

This is Jean's workstation - lots of room, lots of printing!

I think this was done by the "other Jean"

Other Jean and it's a vilene stencil print taking design into a more serendipitous realm

Photoprint of little drawings

And  a fishy print on paper and on fabric

Nicola

I can't remember who did this one but I like it!

Nicola, creating yardage- looking forward to seeing her wearing this!

Very delicate print from Jean

And Jean again

Sarah & Aika - swapping and sharing screens

Sarah's Africa series

And sarah's kitchen series

Sarah and Debra wearing their prints that made last year - fabulous!

I have no idea who made this but it's simple and charming

Aika made a series of variations on this theme, using different colours for each set

Ann - inspired by Newmarket, screen made by drawing with filler

Well done everyone who took part - your work is absolutely inspirational!   If you are interested in trying out screen printing on textiles I will be running 2 screen print days - both Saturdays at Cottenham VC   see their program at this link
 cvc Saturdays