Brandon Ferry Tales

I've been working with the very talented and extremely hard working members of the Brandon Arts Society to do some screen printing.  These fabulous festoons will be displayed down the High Street on Sunday 18 September as part of a really special event:   

Ferry Tales.

If you are in the area,  come along - this will be an amazing day with theatre, art, story telling, poetry, dance and, of course, an opportunity to screen print your very own Ferry Tales shopping  bag.

 Thanks to Terry Kimpton who took these action shots of the screen printing workshops.

First day, learning to print.

By the second day everyone was printing for themselves.

The Methodist Hall transformed into Print Studio.

Everyone lends a hand!

And of course there was tea and cake! Although we didn't have much time to drink it!

 

 

 

Never too old to screen print

T-shirts printed by residents of Cottenham Court Care Home  to sell at their Open Day marking their 20th anniversary.

Next time I go there, I hope to see everyone wearing these!

Print Projects, Pilgrim Pru

Just before we broke up for vacation last year I spent a week working with a really interesting school - Pilgrim Pru

The Pilgrim PRU is a medical needs Pupil Referral Unit containing four distinct centres. Each centre designed and printed a hanging for their own space. The banners/ strings of bunting represent the group made up of many individuals.

The Phoenix is a school attached to a NHS inpatient eating disorders unit for young people.  They decided to make these lovely lengths of bunting.

The Darwin is based in an acute psychiatric adolescent unit. They made this banner reflecting the various interests of each young person and includes the 'hospital dog

And The Croft is a specialist child and Family unit for children under 13.



Here's a closer view of a very complicated rocket/ robot?... Whatever it is, I like it a lot!






On the final day we did screen printing with Addenbrookes Hospital School. This time the children printed black onto a predyed fabric because the classroom space was very limitted and this is always a good way to get great effects using a minimum of equipment.





We printed these on individual squares so that they could fit on a wheelchair tray if necessary and I sewed them up afterwards. I had to do a lot of unpicking to get them all the right way up!





The Pilgrim Pru has an Artsmark award and you can see more of their amazing artwork on their website at http://www.thepilgrimpru.co.uk/


Well done to all the young people who contributed to these banners and buntings. I really enjoyed working with you all.

Summer School for Teenagers

We had a funderful (ie fun and wonderful) day printing multicoloured T-shirts at Melbourn Village College Summer School with young people transitioning from primary to secondary school.

T-shirt Print Workshop

Did a workshop with Soham Well Being Group, printing T-shirts on a very hot summer's evening.  What was really nice about the group was the friendliness across the age range - from 16 to 40 (you can probably see that in the variety of designs).  It was a small group so we had lots of time to really play with the repeats and make these unique and personal T-shirts.  I hope you're all wearing them!

Quiltlet

I keep returning to these images of my beloved grandparents for my artwork.  This little quiltlet is printed on scraps of cloth which I dyed using various natural dyes and stitched onto a blanket.  You can probably tell from the close-up that I'm more of an embroiderer than a quiltmaker.  I like the tatty, worn look of the textiles although, thinking about it, my grandmother would probably have hated that. She liked things to be neat as a pin! (to use a textile metaphor).

 

Arbury carnival costumes, puppets

More from Arbury Carnival:

Fishy hats - (this one's Nemo) and Alfred Wallace style placard paintings

This year's giant!  It's an octopus!

Dawn, Cary and Hugh with lots of help made this seagull - currently having an emergency repair just before the parade!

Watch out for those chips!

Thanks to Karen from Kettles Yard for raising funds and being such a great hands on organiser.  And to my 2 co-artists - Sandra and Cary.  And to all the kids and parents who took part in the making and wearing and general blowing of bubbles!

Arbury Carnival 2016

YES, it was Arbury Carnival on Saturday.  And NO, for once, it did not rain on our parade!

Arbury Carnival Workshops

It's the carnival season again!  We're all getting pretty excited as 11 June and Arbury Carnival draw nearer.

This year's theme is "Beach Party". Thanks to Kettle's Yard, who are sponsoring our work with community groups in the Arbury, we had a great day with year 2 children from the Grove Primary school making crazy sunglasses.

See  Cambridge Evening News
for some more pictures by Richard Patterson of the 'spec-tacular' work. 

 The next open session for making costumes at Nunn's Way Pavilion is on half Term Friday 3 May '16 at 3.30pm and we have a banner making afternoon with giant octopus on Saturday 4 May '16 from 1.00- 3.30pm. Everyone welcome - come along, it's fun!

My Dear Life

Secret Life of Ely Cathedral:  our exhibition is entering it's final week.  Come along and have a look if you are in the area.  It's been really popular- we've had some great feedback.  This is not specifically a textiles show - it's a mix of paintings, sculpture, book arts, installation, photography and of course some textiles.

Here is one of my other printed pieces in the show.  It's based on a  love letter that was found in the ceiling of the Almonary from a young clockmaker's apprentice to a Miss Peacock of Ely. A handpainted playing card with 2 hearts was found with the letter. It is beautifully written, both in it's language and in the handwriting. It begins: 

" My Dear Life,.........."

Secret Life of Ely Cathedral

I think I have hinted that I've been making some work for an exhibition  but I didn't want to give anything away until the work went up.  Well it's finally happened- I'm exhibiting as part of "The Secret Life of Ely Cathedral"  

There are 19 artists from Ouse Life  and the show has now been up for a week.  If you are anywhere in or near Ely, come and see it- it's really worth while.  There are sculptures, paintings, prints, hand made books and of course textiles exhibited throughout the Cathedral. My fellow artists have done some amazing work and we've had some great comments.

For me, one of the the most exciting 'secrets' of the cathedral is the archive which is held by Cambridge University. When I first started to look at the documents I was attracted by the beauty and patterning of the scripts themselves and I started to use these in the textiles. But as I progressed to looking at more recent documents I found the content really fascinating.  When I say 'recent', I am talking about documents from about 1630 onwards.  About that time, everyday texts begin to be written in English rather than Latin and the writing becomes more legible to the modern eye. 

The audit books and accounts were really fascinating - bills paid to workmen, grocery shopping, taxes and charity payments were all itemised and receipts signed on scraps of paper. 

I chose St Catherine's chapel for the siting of the work - a beautiful peaceful place which is accessible to anyone  for silent prayer and meditation at any time.

And I printed 18 banners - one for each of the archways which curve round the chapel. I wanted the banners to read as a single artwork.

Each banner is different. The designs are a combination of sketches I did of architectural elements and the archive texts. 

It felt like I was 'dressing' the chapel

So here's a detail across 3 of the banners showing texts from an audit book - payments for  labour and workmanship. The music is written instructions for the choir.

The altar cloth started as a print of the choir music texts.  But I wanted to add more to this central fabric. So I decided to overprint using texts that related to the giving of charity.  I thought this might be pertinent to the altar being a place of high holiness and an example of  charity to strangers that is still relevant today. "For a poor soldier come from the sea"  "Given to Widow (name not legible) for Michaelmas to Midsummer" and "Given to Christian poor travaillors (ie workers not travelers) on making  their vows at Michaelmas".  The symbol used for the Christian Poor is a central motif and some of the texts caused me to wonder  how much charity was conditional on being a Christian and making your vows in1640. 

Textile Screen Print Day School

Textile Screen Print Day School


Sat 14 May 10.00am - 4.00pm
I am not teaching many day schools at the moment because I've been concentrating on doing some of my own work for a change. 

However I am tutoring a day for adults on screen printing on textiles.  It’s at Cottenham Village College and it's the only day I’m teaching in the next couple of months (other than Summer School which is now fully booked).


The day is open to beginners or those with some experience. Beginners will be introduced to equipment and materials and will be guided in making their first prints using paper as stencils. For more experienced people, the day school is an opportunity to work in a studio atmosphere with support.

Screen printing is colourful, fast and fun.  The emphasis is on the experimental. So come along with a pile of plain cottons and leave with a great pile of colourful prints to wear, to give as gifts or to cut up and stitch. 

For more information contact 
Cottenham VC Adult Learning   
and ask for an information sheet.

Felted Liquorice Allsorts

I recently rediscovered liquorice allsorts while I was doing a reminiscence project and was choosing some nostalgic sweets from those wonderful jars in an old fashioned sweet shop.  My grandmother always had a bowl of them and they bring back very happy memories for me.  

So when Lorna contacted me to do a short workshop at Textiles in Focus
I thought I'd do some felted sweets. And I've been making liquorice allsorts ever since.  Of course, I had to eat quite a few in the interests of research........

No, you can't eat these!

A liquorice hair clip

And an Allsorts necklace.

.

1950's Textile Inspiration

Wonderful 1950's textiles.....what can I say?  Perfect inspiration for some simple screen printing.  I had some fun with these.......and then I just couldn't resist sharing the fun by teaching a class on it.  

Here are my prints:

They are actually printed as single motifs on calico shopping bags - I've zoomed in for the photos

I think because so many of those textile designs were done with cut paper, they work really well as simple paper stencils.  And so easy to register the different colours - if you get it wrong, it really doesn't matter. (On the matter of registration I seem to have picked up a line of text from my previous blog entry and I have no idea how to get rid of it)

I'm sure you recognise  the elements in these designs from the wonderful 1950's designers: Marian Mahler, Lucienne Day,  Mary White etc. Just line, plane and colour. So nice to play with.

And here are some interpretations by students at Textiles in Focus on Sunday:

Don't Stand By Art Project

Last week it was Holocaust Memorial Day
Alongside remembering  and honouring the people who suffered and are still suffering in the genocides of recent history is this year's theme:   'Don't stand by."

The Holocaust and subsequent genocides took place because the local populations allowed insidious persecution to take root. Whilst some actively supported or facilitated state policies of persecution, the vast majority stood by silently – at best, afraid to speak out; at worst, indifferent. Bystanders enabled the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and subsequent genocides. - See more at: http://hmd.org.uk/resources/theme-papers/hmd-2016-dont-stand#sthash.M63law1a.dpuf

The Holocaust and subsequent genocides took place because the local populations allowed insidious persecution to take root. Whilst some actively supported or facilitated state policies of persecution, the vast majority stood by silently – at best, afraid to speak out; at worst, indifferent. Bystanders enabled the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and subsequent genocides. - See more at: http://hmd.org.uk/resources/theme-papers/hmd-2016-dont-stand#sthash.M63law1a.dpuf

The Holocaust and subsequent genocides took place because the local populations allowed insidious persecution to take root. Whilst some actively supported or facilitated state policies of persecution, the vast majority stood by silently – at best, afraid to speak out; at worst, indifferent. Bystanders enabled the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and subsequent genocides. - See more at: http://hmd.org.uk/resources/theme-papers/hmd-2016-dont-stand#sthash.M63law1a.dpuf

The Holocaust and subsequent genocides took place because the local populations allowed insidious persecution to take root. Whilst some actively supported or facilitated state policies of persecution, the vast majority stood by silently – at best, afraid to speak out; at worst, indifferent. Bystanders enabled the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and subsequent genocides. - See more at: http://hmd.org.uk/resources/theme-papers/hmd-2016-dont-stand#sthash.M63law1a.dpuf

This artwork on the theme of Flames for Humanity's heroes is by a group of  year 7, 8 and 9 students at Sawston Village College. The textile piece was inspired by Carl and Teresa Wilkens, who refused to stand by during the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

The students brainstormed ideas and I helped them to dye and print textiles for the final piece which you can also see here:   Flame for Carl & Teresa

3 interlinked panels viewed from the front

We dyed the fabrics and screen printed a background with photo screens

Foreground: prints with Carl's story and quotes from his talks about genocide.

Quotes and some shocking statistics

And screened words on the back panels that the young people chose  to describe Carl and Teresa's acts of heroism

 For more information about the inspirational Carl Wilkens see
http://www.worldoutsidemyshoes.org/

For me, this was the very best of community art projects.The process of making the art work added another dimension to  the young people's engagement with the subject. 

The project was facilitated by Leslie Morgan, Arts Development Officer, Helen Day, Head of Art and James Woodcock, Assistant Principal, Sawston Village College