The Summer Of Buzz art exhibition at the Art House in Southampton opened yesterday. and my bee embroidery is there, which is exciting! It's on until the 28th September and is well worth a visit (I can also recommend the Beany Nachos and the spicy rum....).
If you want to download a free pattern for my bee, it's available on Craftsy and Payhip. Let me know if you make it and I'll feature your version in a future blog post.
A tale of crafty endeavours, garden battles and feline intrigue
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label art. Show all posts
Art House Summer Exhibition
I was so excited when I got two of my textile art pieces into the Southampton Art House Summer Exhibition. These were pieces that I originally made during my City & Guilds Level 2 Machine Embroidery. Here they are hanging in the exhibition.
"Castles" - inspired by moss, plants and weathering of ancient castle walls after visits to Chepstowe and Corfe Castle. I created printing blocks using giant pencil erasers and lino cutters, then used a heat transfer press to create the pattern on the fabric. I added batting and thick calico backing, then I quilted using dense machine stitching to suggest moss, adding some hand embroidery in places using different types of threads (including buffalo wool!). I couched various wool to create vines, and used soluble fabric to embroider leaves to hang at various points from the vines.
"Falling" - a large piece combining tea-dyed calico, organza, satin and scrim. I machine embroidered leaves in various neutral tones onto the calico, and created individual leaves using satin and organza, singeing the edges with an incense stick! I shredded holes in the organza and scrim to create a tattered effect and strung it from a large twig.
The exhibition is on until the 28th September and includes lots of lovely pieces in many styles and mediums. The Art House hosts a huge variation of live acts, workshops and other events and serves gorgeous chocolate cake!
"Castles" - inspired by moss, plants and weathering of ancient castle walls after visits to Chepstowe and Corfe Castle. I created printing blocks using giant pencil erasers and lino cutters, then used a heat transfer press to create the pattern on the fabric. I added batting and thick calico backing, then I quilted using dense machine stitching to suggest moss, adding some hand embroidery in places using different types of threads (including buffalo wool!). I couched various wool to create vines, and used soluble fabric to embroider leaves to hang at various points from the vines.
"Falling" - a large piece combining tea-dyed calico, organza, satin and scrim. I machine embroidered leaves in various neutral tones onto the calico, and created individual leaves using satin and organza, singeing the edges with an incense stick! I shredded holes in the organza and scrim to create a tattered effect and strung it from a large twig.
The exhibition is on until the 28th September and includes lots of lovely pieces in many styles and mediums. The Art House hosts a huge variation of live acts, workshops and other events and serves gorgeous chocolate cake!
Random Stuff
There are some really cute things made from supplies and tutorials sold/written by Laura "Lupin" Howard on her blog, including Phylisss as her wings were made from the super-soft felt that she used to sell.
I went to the First Cut exhibition at Southampton's Sea City museum on Saturday to see a talk by Su Blackwell who is one of my favourite artists (I love the fragility of her work). There are some amazing pieces in the exhibition, and they've reduced the price until Christmas. I haven't been to the actual Sea City museum, but if you're interested in things Titanic-y, entrance to that is also cheaper at the moment. There's a life-size paper motorbike in the art gallery, which is free entry.
There are also a couple of pieces from First Cut at the Tudor House Museum, where I shared a stall at a craft fair yesterday (I have now decided that my "target demographic" isn't to be found at normal Southampton craft fairs, although if children were allowed to spend their parents' money I suspect I would have done much better. I wish Southampton was more like Brighton). I didn't see most of the museum, but it looks quite interesting, and I think it's free to go to the Tudor Garden and the café. Everyone got very excited at one point as a giant container ship sailed past... Sadly something about the building kicked off a 12 hour asthma attack which was a bit alarming. I thought it would go away when I got home but it took another 8 hours to calm down. My asthma is usually completely under control so it's all a bit odd :(
I went to the First Cut exhibition at Southampton's Sea City museum on Saturday to see a talk by Su Blackwell who is one of my favourite artists (I love the fragility of her work). There are some amazing pieces in the exhibition, and they've reduced the price until Christmas. I haven't been to the actual Sea City museum, but if you're interested in things Titanic-y, entrance to that is also cheaper at the moment. There's a life-size paper motorbike in the art gallery, which is free entry.
There are also a couple of pieces from First Cut at the Tudor House Museum, where I shared a stall at a craft fair yesterday (I have now decided that my "target demographic" isn't to be found at normal Southampton craft fairs, although if children were allowed to spend their parents' money I suspect I would have done much better. I wish Southampton was more like Brighton). I didn't see most of the museum, but it looks quite interesting, and I think it's free to go to the Tudor Garden and the café. Everyone got very excited at one point as a giant container ship sailed past... Sadly something about the building kicked off a 12 hour asthma attack which was a bit alarming. I thought it would go away when I got home but it took another 8 hours to calm down. My asthma is usually completely under control so it's all a bit odd :(
Attempting Watercolours
I'm getting better at drawing (am quite good at copying existing images), but I can't paint at all. I am very jealous of those that can, so I took an afternoon watercolour class with Kate Woodley-Smith. I am totally in awe of her flower and butterfly paintings. It was a lot of fun, I still can't paint, but I can make pretty textured backgrounds using lemon, tea and salt.
We had to choose colours to paint a cut onion - mine is far too dark but is a basic onion shape... The purple thing at the bottom is supposed to be a sea creature/monster thing.
I can't remember how I did this background, probably with salt to make the textured areas and lemon to bleach bits out. I'm pleased with the trees and the spots on the creature thing, and the "flicking" technique for the splatters came out quite well. This is probably my favourite.
I didn't really think the resist through when I added it which is why the bird is missing some of its face. It's supposed to sort of signify wind, I guess.
I had time left over so I painted some flowers and drew over them with biro. My comparey-monster had thoroughly kicked in by this point as some other people in the class did some stunning work.
I'm booked in with Kate for an ink class next week - I am frantically practising sketching so I can get some ideas beforehand. I should be able to make an impressive mess with inks...
We had to choose colours to paint a cut onion - mine is far too dark but is a basic onion shape... The purple thing at the bottom is supposed to be a sea creature/monster thing.
I can't remember how I did this background, probably with salt to make the textured areas and lemon to bleach bits out. I'm pleased with the trees and the spots on the creature thing, and the "flicking" technique for the splatters came out quite well. This is probably my favourite.
I didn't really think the resist through when I added it which is why the bird is missing some of its face. It's supposed to sort of signify wind, I guess.
I had time left over so I painted some flowers and drew over them with biro. My comparey-monster had thoroughly kicked in by this point as some other people in the class did some stunning work.
I'm booked in with Kate for an ink class next week - I am frantically practising sketching so I can get some ideas beforehand. I should be able to make an impressive mess with inks...
Printing Workshops
I've recently been to a couple of workshops at Red Hot Press in Southampton. First was a screenprinting course which was really fun but involved SO MUCH CLEANING! I'd love to do it again but cleaning the screens to change colour involved more cleaning than I do in my house in a year. Below is the main piece I did (inspired by this picture which I can't find any credits for - anyone know?).
A few weeks later I did a letterpress course, where I added the "Kitty" to the picture. I now want to collect all the printing block things in the world.
Showing my major Buffy geekiness...
Slightly wonky but I like the placement and the unevenness of the ink.
Red Hot Press have loads of interesting courses, I'd really recommend them. They also do longer courses that cover different sorts of printing. I'm very tempted by the papercuts day course. Or the etching weekend...
Encaustic Art
I tried an Encaustic art workshop this morning, and am really pleased with the result. I'm trying to stop myself from buying all the equipment...
Doodling
I've recently finished an e-course to help me kick-start my creativity (UnEarth Your Creative Nature - the latest run started this weekend) which involved me doing daily doodles and starting and finishing a project in one evening.
This is one of my doodles:
And this is the finished project based on it, which took just under 3 hours:
I've never finished a project based on my own design that quickly before, I tend to get part of the way through then give up and leave it in a pile. This was a really good exercise in getting over my perfectionist and procrastinating tendancies, and I'm pretty pleased with the results.
This is one of my doodles:
And this is the finished project based on it, which took just under 3 hours:
I've never finished a project based on my own design that quickly before, I tend to get part of the way through then give up and leave it in a pile. This was a really good exercise in getting over my perfectionist and procrastinating tendancies, and I'm pretty pleased with the results.
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