Quilt-In at Geelong

I made an error in my previous post about the dates for the Travellers' Blanket  on-line class- it will start on 17 June 2013 not 2014 as I said in the post. I have fixed the error.

This last year I have been president of the Geelong  Patchworker & Quilters Guild, and one of our fun activities is to have our Quilt-in day which is tomorrow 18 May 2013. Here are the details:

 

Quilt-In

Saturday 18 May 2013 from 9.30 am until 4.00 pm

at  the South Barwon Civic Centre ( cnr of Reynolds rd & Princess Hwy Belmont-Melway map 465 E3

Deborah Brearley will speak in the morning program

Michelle Hill will speak in the afternoon program

Our Challenge is Rainbow hats

Travelling exhibition of Marrakech quilts and plenty of show and tell

Cost $10 per head but bring your own lunch and mug- morning and afternoon tea will be provided

We have 7-8 Traders, so plenty of choice to stock up for winter quilting projects!

Anyone is welcome- the more the merrier- lets all be inspired , as we have great speakers, there will be trading tables , there will be plenty of show and tell or in the words of Auntie Jack " I will rip their bloody arms orf" at the next meeting if there isn't! And please if you turn up as a result of seeing this on my blog- come and say hello to me.

And I have been doing some dyeing, though my hot water service dyeing wasn't terribly helpful in that process, thankfully it's fixed now- and I am looking forward to a nice hot shower rather than the lukewarm pretend showers of the  last few weeks!. I have also  been doing a bit of stitching- another version of Bali- my friends cat.

On-Line Courses

There is still time to sign up for the on-line linocutting course.  You do not need to use lino necessarily, as you can use easy cut or other mediums which can be carved with lino tools. It is a great way to make your own stamps or to make more elaborate pieces which stand up in their own right and which come to life with the addition of stitching and other textile techniques. Email me if you are interested. Below are  a small sample of some of the linocuts I have made and how I have used them.

Of course I have made poppies into a linocut and was quite chuffed at how different the effect of the print was on Evolon compared to lutradur ( apart from the fact that the actual print also reverses)
but also how much detail stitching the pieces made.

This linocut is based on a persian motif adopted in French fabrics in the  eighteenth century. I really wanted to see how much detail  I could get into the linocut.

This is quite a large linocut and was inspired by a photo I took in Rue Mouffetard in Paris. In the piece below I only used a part of the linocut to make the print.

 The image above is again inspired by a photo I took in a  Brasserie in Chartres, where the windows are lined with all manner of teapots and coffee pots.

And of course my Sentinelles are also printed with a linocut- though my lino is starting to deteriorate so I will be making my last print run with the linocut later this week and then I will make no more of this kind of sentinelle. The good news is that  we are organising an exhibition of the sentinelle panels in Palaisseau near Paris from 29 March until 12 April 2014. We found that  peopel had really had a sense of fun with the embroidery and the embellsighments they used so the idea is to exhibit as many of the  panels which have been stitched as possible. There is still time to join simply email me if you would like to buy a panel and join the project. The cost of the panels is $15 (AUS) plus postage, which is about $2 ( )AUS for one panel.. I will also exhibit my larger panels so that their whole story can be told.I am really looking forward to seeing them all together!

And this is a piece I am working on for the Voyageart group ( I am running a bit late but  I am getting there)  The face is from the statue de l'Assumption in the chorus in the Chartres Cathedral . It took a while to work out who had made the sculpture as the information is not readily available- it was made by Charles Antoine Bridan out of carrara marble which he personally selected in Italy. I thought I detected a certain italianate style in the face of this angel- in fact it reminds me quite a lot of one of the faces that Michelangelo painted in the Sistine Chapel- I am not sure why- perhaps the broadness of the cheeks and the angle of the eyes? It turns out that Bridan may indeed have been influenced by Italian sculpture as he studied at the Academie de France in Rome from 1757-1762. There was little else to find out about Bridan except that two of his sculptures are in the Louvre and that his son also became a sculptor. One of his sculptures in the Louvre is described as having a flacid style- not sure what that exactly means. But I do like the face of this angel- there seems to be a dreaminess about it. It seems as if faces are my theme at the moment.

And last but not least. I have had a number of enquiries as to when I am running the Travellers' Blanket on-line class again and have decided that I shall start a new class on 17 June 2013. Below are some images of work created by previous students:

 The piece on the right is by Frances Mulholland but I forgot to record the name of the student who made the piece on the left. She used all eco-dyed fabrics for her memories. If you are interested in joining the class and creating your own Travellers' Blanket email me for more information. Cost of the class is $60 (AUS)

Linocutting Class On-Line

I have previously indicated that i would be conducting an on-line linocutting class starting on 13 May 2013.That is still my intention but I have decided to revamp my notes in light of what I learned at il Bisonte in Florence and also in light of the work I have been making in the last year or so, where using linocut prints has assumed much greater importance in my own work. I am told that the linocut notes form the classes I have previously taught are very comprehensive and that there is  nothing quite like it available as a book or  via the internet. I would make it into a book, but am working on my France book and that is number 1 priority at present- and I am trying to think of ways to raise some funds to pay a designer for the book and to publish it in French and English.

So Linocutting- online- the course. The course gives some background history and then there are a series of exercises to build your skills and learn the use of your tools and to give you ideas of how you might design  initially simple blocks building up to more complex blocks and  multi-colour printing,multi layer printing, using photos to create blocks and creating a monogram. The workshop has been designed for printing on fabric though I will now add  things about printing on paper.The program will be delivered in 3 fortnightly lessons and there will be a forum in which to discuss and share. The notes comprise of pdf files totalling  about 80 pages or more. The course will cost $60 AUS- if within Australia fees can be paid via internet banking and outside of Australia by Paypal- you will need to email me so that i can give details of how to do this.

So i wanted to share what I did at Il Bisonte. Let me start by saying it was a great course, I learnt a lot and  it gave me a lot of food for thought. It was an inspiring environment to be in, because not only were there students doing the woodblock cutting and printing course I did ( some of them were year long students) but there were other print makers using  other rooms and presses making all sorts of wonderful prints with lithograps, etchings and photo emulsions.Surprisingly few of my fellow students  had websites or blogs ( except the young Indian student who sat beside me and whose name I spelt wrong so now I can't find her website or FB page) being worried about copyright infringement and the time it would take to build a website.

Another aspect that arose was the fact that this was a week long course. In quilting and textiles we do so few week long courses and everybody wants fast fast techniques and thinks that simply learning the technique enables you to  go off and do it by yourself- and I would possibly have subscribed to that view to some extent, being a bit of an autodidact ( though I do read and research). However after a week at Il Bisonte i  can honestly say fast fast is not the best way, and in a way I knew this because I know it takes time to develop work.I loved that I had a week to be there to develop, to think about what i was doing ( and I did go home and do homework by way of drawing) taking on board  the input of the teachers, researching their work ( when I was able) looking and seeing what the other students were doing, watching them print and being inspired what emerged when the paper was lifted, and most of all working harder to make my second wood block better than my first but also taking in what i had seen some of the others do in terms of creating textures, lines and impact.It didn't feel right to photograph their work as  copyright did appear to be a sensitive issue, so I cannot share some of their inspirational work. I learnt from being in the presence of a master print maker, though the language was a challenge, i learnt from being in the presence of a workshop where Henry Moore once taught, I learnt from my fellow students and I learnt that to improve on your first  attempt actually teaches you more than your first attempt.

The blocks we worked on were 12 "x10" ( 30 x 25 cm)- we were taught how to  back the  blocks properly to protect the back, to prepare the blocks for best conservation and then set to drawing and preparing our drawings for transfer and then preparing the block for carving. The carving of wood is quite different to lino though you use the same tools, and it was more time consuming, but the results were worth the time. From Gianni Verna I learnt to explore the graphic qualities and positive negative space to a greater extent, to not get too fiddly but think of how to make the graphic qualities  work for you and from Manuel I learnt that subtlety is no bad thing- two opposing views you might think, but one that gave me a lot to think about.
So here is the work I did:
from drawing...... and I am still playing with faces,

 To carving- and I changed things as I went along simply because I knew this was not going to be a great print and then decided to  explore creating texture  and working out how differently the tools behaved in wood compared to lino...

 To my first print, which I did not bother to execute on better papers- I could see it's failings and  wanted to do better and learn more,

 To my drawing of a tree, thinking about putting in background texture, but heeding Gianni's words about positive/negative and  opting for less

 Carving the wood, which because I wanted my contrast to be about  fine lines took a long time- no shortcuts here and no point only doing a small patch because that would not give me the full extent of possibilities

 To the carved piece which looks beguilingly simple but took two days to carve

And the final prints- I brought these two home as the ink had dried , but the prints I liked best are being sent because it was printed on paper that takes longer to dry. We also used the back of the block to create a textural landscape of the actual woodgrain- letting it do the work in creating a relief that created the ground for which to print over.There were a few slip ups- as I need to learn greater control of my tools  as they behave differently in wood compared to lino and to apply the pressure differently and to use the knife tool more, and there's room for improvement but on the whole I was better pleased with this block compared to my first block. Thank you to Il Bisonte for giving me this opportunity.

Flying Home Tomorrow

Time  always flies when you travel and this trip has been no exception. During the week I visited Jane Rollason and her partner Michel the mayor of  Viville in the Charentes, to see what the region was like , because if I ever sell my block of land in Gellibrand I want to have somewhere else to live in France as I can't afford to buy a house in  Australia unless I buy out in whoop whoop and then I may as well live in France!.

It was lovely visiting in Viville- on day one the village fete was on which consisted of gathering for breakfast, driniking red wine, eating  young garlic stems, cheese,pressed meat and bread, then many of the villagers went for a walk, but as there was lightening and thunder we decided to  return home, and then a lunch which took all afternoon; I won a ham in the raffle, something incredibly useful to win when you are about to fly home, but I am sure Jane and Michel will enjoy it! I loved wondering aroudn their garden which was about to be ploughed for the vegetables and enjoyed seeing Jane's work looking fantastic on the stone walls of their house!

Yes that is the Jambon de Montagne I won.

The angel at Chartres Cathedral , where my friend Christine and I went on Monday to do some serious photographing!

 Jane and I waiting for the TGV- i hate photographs of myself I always look like a have swallowed a cow.

One of the tapestries at Abbaye aux Dames, where you can also rent a room in the monastery if you are so inclined. I omitted to record who designed the tapestries but they were worked on by groups of local women and adorn the walls of the church.

And Jane's lovely work.........

A piece of Jane's work  made with "flower power"- a technique Jane has perfected. This particular piece was made with pansies from the garden.

And a lovely pink peonie rose which  was gingerly opening it's petals int he rather cold and wet weather.

We did go sightseeing one  afternoon to Saintes and Royan and I think I can safely say i could very much fall in love with this region especially a bit away fro, the sea- rolling hills, bits of forest, vineyards for the famous cognac, old stone buildings........Tomorrow I fly home and this trip will have been the stuff of dreams......

Quilts en Beaujolais

 Part of my stand at Quilts and Beaujolais- all the ladies and knights and madonnas in one place.

 Ladies and knights kits- are available to buy just email me!

 Gillian Travis with her colourful work inspired by travels

Bergen Rose- safely back with her work!

Some of Alison Holt's beautiful embroideries.

Safe to say quite a few new friends made, old friendships renewed, some brainstorming and ideas sparking , and refuelled a bit!

Firenze, Printmaking and Quilts en Beaujolais

What a week.It is not often I actually get to do a workshop, so  to do a workshop was a treat but to do it in Firenze at the Il Bisonte printmaking school/studio was a double treat, but wait there is more, because for three mornings we had the instruction of  Italian master printmaker Gianni Verna ( classes ran every morning form 9.30 until 1.30 and the whole of Tuesday)- I think the whole week felt a bit like some kind of heaven. My prints left a lot to be desired but I learnt a lot ( thank you Manuel our other instructor and who does not have a website) and I also learnt, that I have to do more of this!It was inspirational being with the other students, most of whom were there to study for the year ( I was the only student there for the week), some had really interesting takes on printmaking and even subject matter. I was so inspired I didn't hardly do anything touristy. Every day I would walk about a kilometre and a half through the old part of Firenze to get to the studio- it was enough.

 Gianni Verna discussing printmaking with more than one colour- it was all in Italian- I did understand some of it- but it is graphic arts and pictures do speak a thousand words!

 Il Bisonte is situated  on the other side of the Arno River to most of the tourist attractions in Firenze so every morning I would walk, along one bridge further from the Ponte Vecchio.

 Every morning past the Duomo.....

 The iron work on gates and above windows and doors was wonderful.

 And one day after we finished the morning I went for a walk to find the Pitti Palace, got hopelessly lost and walked up a hill and ended up in the countryside ( almost)- it was quite a walk and I did find the Pitti Palace on the way back but decided to keep walking.

 My attempt at carving wood- I learnt the grain does not always play nice, that I will need  more tools and  I need to do more of this.

 My finished prints ( which will have to be sent to Oz as they did not dry in time) using two colours.

And spring has sprung! Today I head off to Quilts en Beaujolais to hang my new work . And is anyone out there able to give me a lift  on Sunday evneing after Quilts en Beaujolais finishes to Evry or Soissy Sur Seine?

Oh and don't forget I am starting another On-line Lino-cutting class starting 13 May- please email me if you are interested.

The Last Few Days

I have been pretty exhausted since arriving in Europe- tried to get so much done before I left and there was only so much time, and then I have to spend time with family too, and the last minute things. My first teaching was at Oderzo not far from Venice. I had toyed with taking the night train, but flying and staying in a hotel was cheaper than the overnight train. So I took my dollies on a stroll around Venice and tried to take photos of them in some iconic locations.....

Yesterday I took the train to Firenze and found the hotel I had booked quite easily- it appears that Firenze is much more affected by the economic crisis than Venice with all but one of the bookstores shut down- even the hotels are  more reasonably prices though I am sharing a bathroom and that always lowers the price. I have enrolled in a course at Il Bisonte to make a woodcut and do some printing on paper- a wish/dream for a long time ( doing a woodblock cutting course) and suddenly the timing was right- I did miss the first day but today we work from 9.30 until 6.30. I walked over there yesterday to see where I had to go and found that Firenze is much smaller than I remembered or maybe I just walk more these days. Anyway I am so looking forward to the course, it's ages since I have done a workshop!

The workshop in Oderzo went well and my hostess Denise from Cuci Service invited me to her house for a meal with her family which was most enjoyable. Most people managed to finish their pieces.