Olwyn and I played around a bit with her gourd-design since its a theme in her embroidery. In the second one, the O is a gourd and the U suggests a vessel. I've added a photo of a very old gourd I have which was repaired while it was being made. It has since cracked but it is about 50 years old. Olwyn, I would love to see your work on this theme when it is complete! … [Read more...]
3X5 cut letters
A 20 minute warm-up doing cut 3X5 letters. All the letters except M, W and I are 3X5 and they "work" because the straight sides sorts the spacing. Jackie, Marian, Janet, Hilary and "Gourds" by Olwyn This is such a useful alphabet for group work. with kids, teachers, calligraphers, embroiderers! It's chunky so can be cut out. Its an alphabet I learnt in 1982 in banner making, long before my involvement with calligraphy. The idea is to cut the letter sizes by eye, and then cut out the negative … [Read more...]
Text(iles) – The Exploded Letter
It's amazing how letters get really exciting when you start playing with two colours and shifting them around. Now cut them out of fabric, add stitching, embroidery and embellishments and WOW! Ivy: Phillipa Jackson (here you can see the process); Borders: Dodie; India: Jo Faulkes; Cat: Janet Humber; Liz - Liz Frampton; Daisy: Tina Sharpe. Will the people whose names I missed please let me know who they are so that I can acknowledge you - Letters, Ken, JKW … [Read more...]
Text(iles) in Fareham
I was invited to give a one day workshop to embroiderers on adding text to fabric.As I'm a bit of a fabric junkie, I was enthusiastic, although a little apprehensive about how the embroiderers would receive me. Usually people just use a font these days and feel fine about that. How to show another way of letter making?We were using cut paper as a medium for designing letters to be translated into fabric and stitchery. Here are two of the methods we explored."The Exploded Letter"and PAX which is … [Read more...]
Oxford Summer School – The show ain’t over
...till the Fat Lady Sings.Cathy, Debra, Yvonne, Cathy, Louise, and Susanna painted the fat lady in various poses.I gave them no time to think, told them a little story, named poses, posed her as much a possible and it was just go,go go for a spontaneous painterly expression.They had to improvise a little as well. The Fat Lady is an old friend of mine from Cape Town and she usually stands in my sitting room. A quick shortcut to stylisation is to begin with a sculpture and paint it in such a way … [Read more...]
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