Saturday 30 April 2016

Continuum - a New Commission for Miles and Dacombe

Deep Roots Tall Trees -  Dreaming Our Woods



Jo Dacombe and I were delighted to be commissioned by Deep Roots Tall Trees to create a walk with interventions for the Our Woods Festival. We have a period of research to walk and create together in Thoroughsale Woods. We will be exploring the seasons and our walk will be called Continuum. Very exciting, I hope you can join us!


Photos by Kate Dyer




Friday 15 April 2016

Exploring Ideas and Fibres with Jeanette Appleton


‘My focus is to help the individual find their unique way of making and designing. An art/ design approach discovering the various marks and mixes with the fibre and additional materials. The potential of discovering ideas at each stage of the felt process is enormous.

Briefly experimenting with art materials heightens ones awareness of the texture and surfaces possible with textiles. There are various ways to layer or mix the fibre, which are made into pre-felts. As these are partly felted they hold as a cloth but still pliable to attach more fibre or other materials. They are excellent to fold and manipulate to suggest three dimensional forms, also using a tailors dummy for garments. Pre felt can be pulled and cut to discover many more shapes and compositions. These change again when fully felted but this magical transformation of materials reveal new surprising marks and textures.

The aim is not to know what you will make but explore the possibilities of a prototype or finished item, depending on what emerges through the process. I encourage developing an A3 folder to display these ideas with the samples as prototypes for future one-off textiles, interior or fashion items.’
www.jeanetteappleton.com

Beginning Again

I have built up a range of skills by felting but  this was my first experience on a course with an artist totally immersed in using fibres to explore meaning, place and context. It felt very much like beginning all over again and sometimes that can but just what is required in order to move forwards.



laying out single threads on paper to understand
their unique properties.


Exploring fibres, 


textures and colours


Using a mask to think about garments


First pre-felt with black chiffon


Pre-felted colour blocks



Two different colour ways



textures


and shapes


added to existing pre-felts


the bottom of the sea


exploring folds


At the end of the two days I had four or five pre-felts whilst others had larger, more finished felt pieces. I thoroughly enjoyed the two days and Jeanette's approaches to using felt as a material for art making or a as component part of an installation. I love using the wool / alpaca, I thought I was going to make a coat, now I am on a journey with these unfinished things wondering where they will take me.

Sunday 10 April 2016

Willow Weaving Day with Iris Bertz


This year I am striving to learn new skills and try new things


so in April I attended a wonderful willow weaving day 


in Kenilworth using locally grown willow


Iris makes this look so easy


even though I remained a woman of more thumbs than fingers


I'm delighted with the basket / nest I managed to wrangle together.


Weaving in a sunny garden gave me lots of time to reflect, the group was lovely and the food provided by our host Deidre Vernon, was spectacular. I would be really tempted to go again if there is a course next year.