Toads and wax

Our dog usually called the terrier from hell, spent the weekend at our daughters,I think that they spent the W>E partying and carousing as she has laid dormant for the last twelve hours. I met up with 2 friends from City & guild days and we tried out encaustic wax,not something I have been dying to try but it was more fun than I thought. You melt the wax on a flat iron and then swoop it across paper which has a shiny finish,you can have more than one swoop but two many and the end result can be a muddy colour.Wax can be dripped on and spread with the point of the iron, or spread with a special heat tool.when it has cooled you can polish it to get a great shine,some of my attempts are shown below

This work was in the latest Quilting Arts and it is by Deborah Kruger who uses the wax on fabric to great effect.

I bought these nuno felted mittens and scarf plus linen jacket from a local charity shop,a real bargain.beautifully modelled here by Olive the colour really suits her.

This was the inspiration for this months card chosen by Doreen from OZ. it is a Monet when I see lily pads I think of toads

so my card this month is one little toad begging to be kissed I just hope that Sandy likes it .

Textle festival.

I am so lucky to live in a very beautiful part of the country with lovely hills and scenery, and on top of that we have a textile festival every year.It is now in its fourth year and thanks to Lizzi Walton it just gets better and better,we have workshops gallery displays and talks from Hilary Bower,Michael Brennand-Wood,Matthew Harris, Mary Butcher to name a few.You can visit all the gallery displays for free and one by Studio Seven is an on going exhibition as the public are invited to contribute , it is called Cut 2 on the fold, last year it was make do and mend. they are a very inventive group and the display this year was fascinating exploring the journey from flat pattern to calico toile to finished garment, I added a piece to the collar of Anne Rogers`nuno felted jacket it was very fine and gave me the urge to rush home and start felting. The costumes/finished pieces will be used with some large dolls in a contemporary dance piece to be held at The old Rectory Quennington. The necklace below was made by Yoko Izawa she wraps acrylic shapes in tubular elastic knitting,in real life it was surprisingly stunning. The piece below is by Matthew Harris whose pieces were inspired by a visit to Japan where he saw large lanterns hanging over wet pavements.He states that he is not interested in perfect textiles.what excites him is the interruption of the perfect surface by tears and darns.He works on basic cotton twill which has the dye dribbled across and is then folded pleated and cut.He has been commissioned to make apiece for the new Colston Hall in Bristol, as has Michael Brennand -Wood.

Matthew`s pieces I found intriguing the colours were beautiful and I thought they were the best in the entire textile festival.He apparently lives locally.

This piece is by Jacy Wall. mainly know for her woven tapestry work this piece depicting mending and darning.

Hilary Bower, well Angie Hughes raves about her I know she is regarded as a great mentor, but I am not familiar with her work she has 2 pieces in the festival,one made of brushes that looks like a boot scrapper and the one below which is made of metal and wood and fabric,it reminded me of vacuum cleaner bags, I am going to her talk on her gathering of information for her solo exhibition at Halifax, so maybe this will help me see clearer.

Two pictures by a local artist Louise Cannon.

These textile pieces are by Tanya Stanyer and they have a lovely quirkiness to them

Detail of 1943.

1943

Picnic

Cupcakes. Priced at only £60 which I thought was very reasonable considering the work in it.

These pieces by Michael Brennand - Wood were on show, I have never lusted after one of his pieces but having heard his lecture I can now appreciate the thought processes behind them, my favourite piece is the small black and white one below which is entitled Babel,which in is talk he said was also his favourite,great minds think alike! I should be so lucky!

He talked about his life he studied Fine art and then embroidery at Manchester he said that patterning was a form of language and that ideas and design come when working on a piece which I completely agree with.He mentioned Carl Andre as an inspiration he of the Turner bricks fame,and Rachenburg.His flower pieces started with photos of flowers which he then stitched on an industrial machine,but they incorporate some macabre additions some are sewn over hundreds of plastic soldiers. he said that at one time he bought bags & bags of them,from John Lewis, the checkout lady said to him " someones going to have a nice time " he replied " I am an artist" she tapping him on the shoulder said" that's all right then". He came across as a very interesting ,unpretentious amusing person and his work to me is so more enjoyable because I now know what it is about. One of his quotes was " relationship with a piece of work is like a love affair" I thought how true this is .

Can ducks count?

This lovely duck was hiding in the rushes on our local canal with 10 baby ducklings.She came out when I threw in some bread the ducklings swim around like clockwork toys little legs swimming like mad.When she went to swim off she quacked like mad until all 10 came out of the reeds,so can she count or is it instinct that tells her when some are missing,makes it even sadder knowing that not even half will survive.

This is the Stroud water canal and the trust has just been given the go ahead plus money to clear it and make it navigable,at the moment it is choked with weeds and fallen trees, it is going to be a hard task.

I went to a local gallery to see Theresa Poole`s work she is a local artist working from an old mill in Chalford.She trained in paint finishes and trompe l`oeil,her pictures have an oriental feel and she uses metal leaf and mica in her work.I loved the one of her ornamental chicken with great flowing feathers .but it is a very large canvas and would need a huge room,it was also well out of my price range.

I did buy this picture of a branch of cherry blossom hanging over the sun, it is a golder colour in real life,I sneaked it into our bedroom and it is up on the wall and my lovely husband has not even notced yet maybe I could have got away with the big picture!!

Aprils card

This was our card for April I love trees and especially birch trees but I could not get inspired. This was an image from photoshop.

Jenny from feltedfibres sent me this lovely one the bark really stands out, but still no inspiration.I have a load of birch bark that my sister gave me about 6 years ago and I wanted to use that but how. Well this is the result after many failures I do not think I will be using the bark again, so it is all real birch bark with some painted kozo fibre,I am finding the kozo very useful.

This superb bridge is at Monmouth, we went at the weekend to see the temple at the Kymin, my husband belongs to the 1805 club a Nelson society and they put some money towards restoring this temple which commemorates England's finest admirals.

Unfortunately Britannia has had her trident taken someone must have climbed up and removed it. The names of the Admirals are on the plaques around the temple.

The Kymin is named after these massive rocks which are strewn around the place, it was built in 1800 and Nelson visited Monmouth by boat and was impressed with its scenery

This building adjacent to the temple was built in 1794 and was used weekly for dining by a select club it has the most fantastic views.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to you all and may the great Easter Chicken bring you lots of eggs and good health and happiness.

I went down to the Severn and this photo is to try and show how wide it is here

I got plastered in mud but I had a wonderful time, one of my favourite pastimes looking for fossils.Angie had suggested that as I was using fossils as my focal point I should think about what they meant to me and why I liked them so much.So I trekked off to Fretherne on the Severn

This is the church where I park the car and walk over 3 fields and down to the Severn

We used to see this flower a lot in my childhood but down here is the only place I see it now it is called cuckoo flower or milkmaids.

And a lovely bed of teasels

As well as getting plastered in mud I got these fossils, some ammonites but I still need to find the 2foot one, in the lower left hand corner are criniods these are a sea lily and the pieces you can see are the stem.

I have great enjoyment collecting them it is the fun of finding them and the fact that they are thousand of years old and yours for the looking.

Apologies for the last post half of it appears to be missing and what is worse is I was stone cold sober when I posted it.

March`s card from Carol

This i s March`s card from Carol at Textile tales it is beautiful colours and warm orange stitching very vibrant in the flesh,I was so pleased with it thankyou Carol.

By using the fern leaves you could get 3 printoffs from one plate I pressed these in news paper which was dated 1980 so they have lasted well.The flowers above are the same age I think they are Hatties Pincushions and the details have printed off very clearly.