Arbury carnival

Some more active pictures of the carnival! I hope these capture the happy spirit of the day:

Arbury carnival

And  a couple of pictures from the making workshops for the carnival which I've shamelessly lifted from the Arbury Carnival Facebook site

Dyeing fabric for bunting

Wonderful  Sandra Scott helped the children with making this wonderful mask - see her blog for details of her current exhibition in Cambridge

And now the banners:

As you can see these were truly community banners done by the children with just a little bit of cutting out help from the grown -ups;

and very festive they were, to suit the spirit of the occasion!

Arbury Carnival

Sandra Scott, Cary Outis and myself have been working on the Arbury Carnival Parade.  It's community project organised by Kettles Yard.  We made costumes, masks, banners, standards and a giant lion king puppet.

The kids were great and they worked really hard over weeks to make all the bits that went into the parade.  But the real stars were the volunteers who got together determined to make this event a success.

see Arbury Carnival  to see some great pictures ofthe event.

Meanwhile here is one of our own more amateur photos:

Lion King Puppet

I just realised that although we have lots of pictures of the wonderful costumes we made, I don't want to put them up on the blog because I don't have photo permissions.  So you'll just have to trust me that they looked brilliant!

Ely Eel

Cary has been having fun!

Building the new eel for the Ely Eel Day Parade.

Working with ADEC and a wonderful group of volunteers to create a friend for Ellie.......yet to be named!

Yes, the lower jaw and fins are on a  pivot so they move up and down

How to get an eel to Ely!

Lining up

This way!

And on the big day.... Cary's in the head and you can see me - I'm the 4th bump in the eel's belly!

Tiny T-shirts

You're never too young to design and print your own T-shirt (and shout about it)!

T-shirts - Youth Festival

As well as working with Community Carts youth clubs on their banners for the annual Talent Show,  Cary and I did a "Print your own T-shirts" workshop at the "Jump into Spring" Youth Festival. The great thing about T-shirt printing is that it gets peole involved who don't usually 'do art', or textiles for that matter- like boys..........

I always spell it "t-shirt" but apparently both are correct.

I think that pretty much sums up what being a 13 year old boy is all about!

Umm, sorry, I forgot about football

Screen filler tutorial

A little demo to show how the oval spots on the last were post were applied to the screen:

I stuck these 'good work' stickers to the underside of the screen

Squeegeed over some pink (mmmm!) screen filler

Stickers removed

And printed (confusingly)  in pink and blue over some other prints - I like that they're not perfect!

Screen Print Layers

I have lots of scraps of fabric that I 've used for demonstrating a technique in class or for doing a test print.  I usually use these as rags, but I decided to set a challenge for myself. So, I've been saving these and printing over them. These have happened over a couple of weeks - whenever I am printing something, I just look and see if it will work on the test cloth.  Actually,  I'm really excited about them - it's been really good for freeing up my graphic side.  Can't wait to do more!

This one and the image below are 2 bits of the same fabric - you can probably tell

Don't bother with reading the text , it's not real writing.

And this is a polycotton pillow slip torn open- you know how I'm always saying you can't print on polycottons?....well once again I've proved myself wrong.  But what is really interesting is the lovely muted colours from the procion dyes which I guess dyed the cotton but not the poly.

Amnesty banner

 A cause close to my heart at Saturdays' regional conference

So , here's why- and I quote from Amnesty's info:

Push-backs are collective expulsions of a group of people without making an assessment of the circumstances of each person. This practice puts lives of people, including children, at risk and is against the law. People described how their inflatable boats were rammed or knifed, or how they nearly capsized while they were being towed or circled by a Greek coastguard boat. Almost every person who claimed to have been pushed back said that they either experienced or witnessed violence and ill-treatment. They reported being slapped and beaten. Their belongings were taken away, or thrown into the sea.
The alarming number of testimonies collected by Amnesty International suggests that push-back practices are regularly employed by the Greek border police and coastguards.

Cottenham Summer School 2014

Hooray, Cottenham summer school brochure is now out.  Book early because courses fill up VERY quickly!  See http://community.cvcweb.net  
When you get to the page, click on the logo in the right hand column to view the contents of the brochure

Spectacular Screen Printing

Ricki Outis

A week of discovery as you learn different

techniques for creative screen printing

onto textiles. This medium is colourful,

adaptable and amazingly fast. The

emphasis is on the experimental and you

can print lengths of fabric, T-shirts, bags

or tablecloths. The studio atmosphere

makes this course suitable both for

beginners and more experienced printers.

5 Days (Mon–Fri), 10am – 4pm

Don't forget there are lots of other wonderful creative courses - something for everyone!

Stitching nature

I'm not usually an environmental artist but I saw these lovely bits of eucalyptus bark from a tree that came down in in a friend's garden.  They reminded me of the incredibly beautiful barks I saw in Tasmania a few years ago.  The bark is so soft and supple I couldn't resist stitching into it.

Stitched Photo Transfer Banners

I know I've blogged about these before but these banners are finally going up in the Norris museum- the place where the project first started. They'll be on tour to different museums in the region over the next 2 years.  a special mention goes to the girls from The Ivo school who took part in the project.

Here is the Norris invitation:

Our new exhibition, ‘Trading Stories’, opens tomorrow until 22^nd March and invites you to recall the crafts, shops, trades and tools of the past...

For most of human history, making things by hand has been the norm.  The names of the tools used and the talents and skills needed for different crafts and trades were passed from one generation to the next.   The tools of these trades are often carefully crafted pieces of art in themselves and a wide variety are on show.  In particular the display focuses on the tools used and baskets made by the Harrison family of St Ives, who grew willow and wove baskets in the town for over 200 years. Unique and lasting, these handmade objects seem to contain something of the spirit and personality of their makers in the way that mass-produced items never will.

This exhibition also features textile art work, created by talented Year 9 pupils from St Ivo School. 

In workshops led by artist Ricki Outis, students researched and created wall hangings to depict different trades.  They used a variety of techniques, including using light sensitive fabric onto which archive photographs and drawings were developed, screen printing and different forms of stitching and appliqué work to produce a truly beautiful result.

‘Trading Stories’ was produced in collaboration with the Fens Museum Partnership as part of the Heritage Lottery Funded and Arts Council Funded Fenland Lives and Land programme. To find out more about this project visit www.fensmuseums.org.uk

Opening hours:   Monday to Saturday, 10am – 4pm Admission FREE

Simple screen print quilt

It's been very cold and draughty in my attic studio lately so I've resorted to doing some hand stitching in the cosiness of the telivision room.  Yes, I'm afraid I've been watching a lot of telly....  

For a long time I've been wanting to explore ways that stitch screen print ineract.  I love to do both but I don't often work with them together.

So, I screen printed these very simple squares on to calico using the most basic cut and torn paper stencils. 

  Then I set myself the task of stitching each square with a different stitch design.  Initially I thought I would really ladle on the decoration but as it progresses I've decided that it works best with very simple stitches - straight stitch, cross stitch and the odd french knot.  

I have padded it with some cotton flannel but  I am an embroiderer rather than a quilter...  the padding does means that it keeps me nice and warm while I'm working on it.  I still have many hours of television to go before it will be finished!

School banners

Last term I worked with a group of  young people from  the Challney High School for Girls in Luton to make these banners for their school entrance. The titles are drawn from the names given to each year group and these inspired the imagery.  The students researched and selected the imagery and divided into small groups each of whom took responsibility for producing a banner. They look fantastic on the wall and the young artists deserve to be very proud of their lovely work!

These are they on the washing line where they get sprayed with fire proofing before they go up in the school.

Screen Printed Cloth

A while ago I did a sketch and worked up some printed cloth from it.  see blog  31 October 2012  ( Oh crumbs! That was almost a year ago)  Recently I  made up a  photoscreen from the same sketch and printed a length of cloth. This time I allowed it to develop in it's own direction rather than trying to replicate the colours from the original sketch.

The sketch

First layer of printing

Multi layered

The whole cloth - now I just have to sew it up  into something!