results of eco printing on fabric

 these bundles of leaves had been stewing for 4 to 5 weeks so I had great expectations I used red acer leaves red prunus green acer and sycamore.

 these photos are as I unwrapped them

 The results were very disappointing  not much colour and poor prints

 The prunus which had a tannic and alum gave some colour red

 this had a tin mordant which gives it the blue colour

 iron mordant which does work well but is always a blackish print

 the acers did not keep there red colour

The green acer left quite a good print with an alum and soya milk mordant all in all I was disappointed with the results I think I might have steamed them too much .

rusted fabric and paper and Lynn Chadwick

 Two pieces of rusted paper using the tea and rusty metal process, and below is my sewn piece done at  Alice Fox's workshop, I don't think she will have to worry about any competion.

 Lynn Chadwick lived at Lypiatt Manor about 5 miles away from me, he was the first sculptor to use welded rods on the outside of his sculptures.They are very dramatic with a somewhat menacing look and seeing them at Lypiatt in a natural setting was fantastic, in  a natural fold of the hills on a glorious  sunny day.I have only put up a few photos as they are protected by copyright unless they also show part of the landscape.

 A chance to find out more about Chadwick with events at museum in the park.

 We also visited the Pangolin gallery at Chalford which is the foundry   which produced his sculptures as well as Damien Hirsts,Ralph Browns and Anthony Adams to name but a few.The piece below is by Daniel Chadwick his son.

 This sculpture outside of the pangolin I thought was brilliant ,reminded me of the Auks  from Harry Potter,It was made to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Chalfords scarecrow trail which happens every Eastertime and the whole village takes part well worth going to see.This piece was made by the Ladies in the gallery and is called the scary crow

Alice Fox

 I was so pleased to find that Alice Fox was showing Tide Marks at the SIT I have been following her blog which I enjoy  and I love her work it is very melodic and somehow soothing.These two pieces are very long panels of manipulated fabric rust dyed with tea which gives it that muted colour.

 She also uses rust dyeing on paper with chine colle and collagraphs prints to great effect.

And Yipee I managed to get into her workshop so had  a great day with a lovely tutor and some great fellow workers stitching and chatting the Alice Fox way.The piece below is one of Alice's 2 layers with rusty metal inside all stitched up.

 This piece has been dunked in the tea

 Metal items sewn on the top of the fabric

 These pieces below are by the students on the workshop some have laid the metal on top some between the layers with embroidery .

 two of Alice's notebooks

It was a most enjoyable day and I shall be having another go and I have soaked my two pieces in tea and when the magic has taken place I will post the photos

felting workshop with Dagmar Binder

 what a great opportunity a workshop with Dagmar at Felt in the Factory she is a fantastic Tutor and luckily very patient. All the photos below are of her work. She excels at pockets and layers.

 The piece below was inspired by the sight of a shepherd leading his sheep down a rocky path

 She showed us how to make a base of prefect  and a couple of layers of wool before laying down the plastic to keep the layers separate

these are samples of Dagmars layers .

 These are Dagmar's felted layers all to do with the way the wool is layed down.

 It was a 3 day workshop on the first day we were shown how to make the layered piece which was fun the next two days we made a piece from a picture we had chosen

 This one was based on the sea beautiful waves.

 this is a bunch of elm seeds

 Tree bark splitting open

mine was taken from this picture off the web which I thought was of lichen we decided that it was coral

 my finished piece pleased with the interpretation but was rather thick on the hanging pieces.

 Below some of the groups work I must remember to keep it small and un complicated  I am calling my piece "Insomnia" as  it was 3 sleepless nights worrying about getting it done.