Sunday 27 February 2011

A successful workshop

I've got to say I'm delighted with how well my first public workshop went yesterday. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, made a variety of notebook covers, cuffs, bookmarks, a needle case, ipod cover, a piece for a cushion & were happy with what they  achieved. So was I! Thanks for coming everybody ;)

You can see below one of the inspiration books I took, Jan Beany & Jean Littlejohn's of course, "Seductive Surfaces"  The cover features work by Louise Baldwin, someone I've admired for a long time, when I came across an article, possibly in Country Living mag when she said she painted, ripped & stitched brown paper & 'mundane' bits & pieces. She's a little elusive - the link is just to the first google entry. Work your way thru a few entries & you get a variety of her work. I'd love a workshop with her.


7 lovely ladies work






I could NOT have done it without Rag Tag's wonderful girl, Beth who volenteered to come & help, mainly with the 7 different machines, & rewinding bobbins etc but she was worth her weight in gold! I'm so tired but so glad I've done it ;)

This weeks collage was meant to be a wonderful monoprint, inspired by the fabulous book "The Painted Quilt" by Linda & Laura Kemshall. What a feast for the eyes. It's another book I've had for a long time but not quite sure what to do with. Over time I find, when I've tried a few things out, then go back to a book, I understand a little more, lovely. I started a Printmaking short course 5 weeks ago at the  West Highland College up the Island in Portree. We started with linocutting & were going to move on to monoprinting then collography, my favorite part. My lino block was of drawings of the last few seedheads clinging on in my garden; poppies, honesty & fennel & some lovely grasses down the road. But the tutor had a horrific car accident, broken leg, hips/pelvis, ribs, arm & cheeks. What can you say but wish her a speedy recovery; she is walking a bit on a frame but what a life changing thing.

My friend & I are carrying on ourselves until they can restart the course one day - she has a baby printing press, well, the kind you roll the work thru. So there's more to monoprinting than meets the eye, I discovered but I had fun trying! As I was doing poppies at college I thoought I'd continue before Spring is really here as the Kemshalls do them so well -  I love Ro Bruhn's poppies too!


That's DH's birthday card on the right



The idea is you can draw in the paint, cut out a shape to resist the paint & paint thru a stencil . As the monoprint wasn't clear & the painted stencil smudged i drew into them.



Then I markal paint sticked a stencil into a resist ('scuse the English!)


Then you can carefully peel up the resist shape & stick that down - far right above & in the top 2 pics - by the time I cut out 3 shapes my joints were falling off! I will make a stencil to keep out of my newly aquired freezer paper but I enjoyed adding the newspaper ones to the mix. These samples will go into my sketchcbook & for the actual collage, once the joints had a nights rest ;)  I made these two.





Might add these to the Sketchbook Challenge, just realised they are 'opposites' :) Crooked, I know.....tired! & I will get them mounted!

20 comments:

Heloise said...

Great collection of work achieved yesterday, so glad you enjoyed the day. Lovely array of printing.

Julie said...

Fabulous work Emma, I loved the effect of the newsprint coloured poppies against the blue print background.

Lynda Howells said...

love the work my friend. well done for taking the workshops..fun but hard work l know. L love Ro's work too.x lynda

http://tyringto createarteveryday.blogspot.com

Fenland Textile Studio said...

Well done on your first workshop. Sounds like you had a fantastic time but tiring time. I love your poppy images and use of colour.

Anne Huskey-Lockard said...

Congrats on the workshop going well~~And I am totally loving the poppy seed heads!
What a cool idea; the use of the paper stencil. I always thought I had to have a silk screen set up to do printwork, though I have done a few monoprints years ago.
Very very nice!

XXOO~~♥
Anne

Ro Bruhn said...

Congratulations Emma the first workshop is always the hardest, from now on it's plain sailing. The work created looks fabulous. I love your poppies, always one of my favourites, thanks for the mention too.

Kim Dellow said...

Congratulations on the workshop! Sounds great. Lovely work. Kim

Suztats said...

Ooooh lovely! Sounds like a wonderful time.

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear your class went so well and by the looks of what the ladies made I would say you are a definite hit!!! Your poppies came out beautifully. Every time I look at that Kemshall book I just sigh and Ro's pieces too. Now you are right up there with your wonderful piece. xox Corrine

sweetypie said...

well done you! delighted to hear your class went so well, and more repurposed raggeddy book covers yes! hurrah you have really got your mojo going.... love tina

bois-fleurie said...

When I read your blog your enthusiasm and the things I see make me want to go straight to my workroom and try something. Brilliant! thanks.

ju-north said...

Great work - pleased the workshop went well for you!

Unknown said...

Glad your workshop went so well! The seed head prints look great, I really love the look of printing! :) x

Linda’s Textiles said...

Congrats on your successful W/S! first of many?
Nice to have such good results to share.

layers said...

Glad your workshop went so well-- looks like tons of fun and creativity. Thanks for sharing some tips too.

Jill said...

Congrats on the workshop, I'm popping back later to take a closer look at that work.

mano said...

thank you for your last walk - great landscape!! and the results of your workshop are beautiful - I love the last two poppy pictures, they are fabulous! have a good time! mano

Lynda Howells said...

ps..hope you didn't cut your finger too badly with rotary cutter!!xlynda

Laura said...

beautiful work Emma...congratulations on your workshop!

jackie said...

I'm sorry about your tutor, but what a shame for you too, as it sounds to be an exciting course. The results are looking good. Well done about the workshop too.