Pulling threads

 After four days selling at Crafts of the North, in Keswick, back to normal and a chance to create some samples for my final 'Sound Walk' piece....These are two samples. I'm going to focus on wind and rain - to reflect the current weather! The wind will be through pulled threads. Now pulling threads isn't easy in a tightly woven linen, so I used linen scrim - far easier: 

Pulled threads in linen scrim with watercolour paint.

Making eyelets, to reperesent the rain,  in linen scrim though, isn't as easy as in linen, so for my final piece I am going to combine the two fabrics ...I have found I can make a continuous pulled thread hole which includes a seam and create an eyelet through a seam...so here is my scruffy sample for this: 

Now to move on to the final piece!

 #fibreartstaketwo #debbielyddon #sensingplace

Workshops week

Part of my way of thinking is to try to free up weeks, by concentrating 'work' into a single week...so this week it was wet felting and drypoint courses as well as an evening talk. Great work produced by all and it was particularly helpful that the sun shone to dry the felt! Much of the felt will be sewn into to finish it and drypoint etchings may be coloured too. 

The ideal drying rack! 

Some fabulous drypoint etching...

Collagraph experiments

For once I decided to go and be taught how to do collagrpah properly - although I do collographs I have always used the sticky foil to seal the plate and wanted  to see how much difference using shellac would make to the detail obtained in a print. So thanks to Linden Print Studio I spent a lovely couple of mornings playing. First learning point - sounds ridiculous, but when transferring a tracing use a coloured biro to go over the back so you can see where you have gone over the line....too many years of primary teaching where you just turn it over and use the same pencil! Secondly, rub and then remove some vegetable oil on the plate - to ease transference of ink. We used Calagio safe wash for ease of cleaning - apply with a toothbrush then rub in and remove. A simple margarine tub holds newspaper/yellow pages (chopped up) nicely. Make sure everything is really well stuck down with PVA - especially lichens before sealing the plate and seal the edges and back too with a minimum of two coats. I shall definately be doing more and using the big press although the Xcut Xpress does the job well enough. 

The plate after inking up and cleaning.

Aughertree meltwater channel print.

Botallack mines plate after inking and printing. 

Botallack mines

The final wokshop of 2022

On a cold and foggy day I led my last workshop of the year. To be honest, I was glad the fog didn't clear into sunshine as I was well aware of the fact that it would be a beautiful day on the fells and while I couldn't see the sunshine, it didn't feel like I was missing out. I do enjoy leading workshops though, and this one, with mulled wine (non-acloholic) and mince pies yielded some excellent and rewarding results! Attendees were complete lino cut beginners and certainly challenged themselves - well done all! 

A frosty start at Gosling Sike.

...and the lino cuts ....

Gosling Sike printing workshop

It seems to be all workshops and craft fares at the moment! One of the most successful has been a recent Cumbria Wildlife Trust printing workshop held at their Gosling Sike property near Carlisle. The day was loosely based on seedheads as sources of inspiration. We did lino printing for the morning and then after a late lunch gelli printing - there were some fabulous results! 

Exploring Wordsworth's garden through poetry and art

May is always a month and I have been unable to do much art work for myself - it's more a case of keeping up with things really! However, it is alsways a joy to be able to facilitate others, in this case as a follow up to a session that Susan Cartwright-Smith and I ran for the Wordsworth Trust at Dove Cottage click here where participants had asked for a follow up session to develop their ideas. It is great that people are beginning to have the confidence to combine both text and images to create finished pieces.

Aira Force

A quick walk round Aira Force, with local poet Susan Cartwight-Smith, in preparation for an event that we are organising with the Wordsworth Trust,  later in the spring....lovely textures, colours and forms as always....

The bottom bridge isn't accessible as a tree has come down during the recent storms bringing a large part of the surrounding ground down with it, but the top bridge is open. It wasn't the best of days weatherwise, especially after the glorious week we have had, but it was nice to be out. Just a few photos from today - I'm glad I have ones taken on a sunny day for the promotional materials! 

 

Eycott Hill Felting workshop II

After an excellent guided walk round Eycott, led by Cumbria Wildlife Trust's Northern Reserve's Officer, we returned to the village hall at Mungrisdale to create our felted pictures. A really enjoyable afternoon - with participants eagre to learn and some lovely results inspired by the morning's walk!