Coastal waters.

IIra brought along  her latest pieces based on the coast.To remind you,she uses only man made fabrics to work on,and paints them with acrylic paints.

               

These have had some stitch but have much more to be added before they can be considered finished.

You can imagine the sea having gone out leaving behind little rivulets and ripples in the sand.

 

Ira has got a new obsession ,these pieces seen above.Painted as before then over printed before stitching and beading.

 

A close-up,I could see a pair of eyes peeping out !

Thinking ahead.

Carol had been out and about but instead of her intended destination of the Botanic garden she had ended up at the Gorge.She discovered it has information about the plants and wildlife to be found there.

It has some rare species and we thought this would be an ideal subject for her to explore.

Meanwhile she has been playing around with some layouts and fabrics for butterflies.

Her work is so very detailed and accurate.These will look beautiful for NIA.

Jenn brought the pieceshe had just begun last time by laying down,fabrics ,papers and print .She had them left from Cas Holmes workshop and wanted to do more work.The piece had become two as she cut had it apart.Since last meeting stitch and additions had been added ,and there is more to do.

This piece developed from a Gelli plate play session and may or may not reach finished status.

Inktense.

After our drawing day Deryll went and had a shop for some supplies.Apparently there is a new arts shop in Park Street Bristol which offers opportunities to try their products.She collected some Inktense bars and some Aquash brushes ,then set to and experimented.

She used them on fabrics,but was not happy with the results so chopped it up.The fragments were reassembled and stitched with her machine's automatic patterns.

We liked the back and the front of the 'new' fabric,It was destined for a bag but ended up as 

these rather attractive cards.Lots more scope for experimentation we think Deryll.

Chinese Thread Book Workshop

Sally, Viv and Liz attended a workshop with Lori Sauer at the Bookbinding Workshops, Woodborough. These are examples of the complex Miao paper books in which they keep their threads.

 The above three pictures are of the one Sally made, from buff-coloured Khadi paper

 A view of the workroom, with Liz at the far table. Concentration was needed to get all the measurements exact, cut the components perfectly, and glue the correct flaps!  We nearly all (8 of us) made a mistake at some point and had to recut at least one piece!  Our admiration for the Chinese girls who made their sewing books grew by the minute. ( It took all day to produce a book, with a much-needed lunch break in the excellent cafe.)

The next two pictures are of Viv's completed book, which she made from a stiff white Khadi paper. She regretted not choosing the buff paper which was thinner and therefore easier to fold.

Did Liz ever finish hers, we wonder...

February already !

Marilyn had been on a much awaited cruise only to have it cut short unexpectedly. She was disappointed but made use of the time back home to create these.

We all want them.Her partner had made her a portable loom.....

which she spent no time in putting to good use.

They are just inspired! She had also been continuing to use her irridescent inspiration to create these...

They look much better in real life,the colours glow and ripple just like irridescent wings of insects.

Mixed media.

Jenn attended a Summer school with Louise Watson in 2013.She has been playing around with various bits of paper etc. left from the workshop and had this to show.

   It is long and thin,the middle of the two photos overlap.It fits with her Coastal theme but she is not sure about its inclusion in ........

Dual purpose !

Sally brought along a piece we had seen back in 2013.She was wondering how to progress it.It was from some Birch trees she had drawn on her travels and had been printed by Fancyprints before stitch was added.Turning it around and looking at it we saw a landscape with sun coming up above the horizon.

We will wait and see if she follows up our suggestion.

Her trip to Ethiopia had brought another delightful travel journal into being.This lovely sketch done while at the airport.She has such a rich resource to draw on,both in experiences and in her very personal journals.

Unlikely chums.

Kirsten has turned her attention to felted creatures and brought along these little beauties.

On such a small scale it's amazing the amount of detail and character she manages to get.These will be very appealing to our NIA audience.

NIA.

We are gearing up for our next exhibition at Easter so the focus is very much on what we will each exhibit.As it is at Nature in Art the work must be ,however loosely ,to do with nature.

Jane continues to refine her ideas using her brand new embroidery machine and software.These flowers were some samples she had produced to try to decide on colours. Each represents a great deal of stitching and planning as she digitizes the images used and then plays around with type and density of stitch to create the finished piece.There is no inputting,setting the machine to go and wandering off to do something else !

Liz 's subject matter is Trees and she has continued to develop her 'Eco dyeing'.

She finds that picking up shed leaves gives the best result as the sugars have developed.The little Khadi paper zig-zag books are delightful .They will have added stitch.

She has had good results on various fabrics too.