Wild Studio Day 1 - Foraging and making charcoal and pens

The process order was very carefully thought out. The first day we foraged for alder and willow slips to make charcoal from. These we packed into tins with close fitting lids and a hole in the top so excess steam could escape. The tins were then immersed in a dry brush fire and fired for about an hour before raking them out of the first and allowing to cool. We also used some small pieces of driftwood in a tin treated similarly so that these could be ground down to powder, whereas the charcoal sticks would be used to draw direct with.

While we waited for the charcoal to be created (fire without oxygen) we made some alder pens. I had tried making dip pens previously but not been very successful. I discovered you need to make a 45 ° cut about 2 cm from a node and then further refine the shape and cuts, removing the soft inner core.

The gallery photos below show the process. Gathered twigs, peeled, the peeled twigs stacked into upright tins so they cannot warp or move around too much, Into the fire to create the charcoal, the charcoal made from the driftwood to create ink. More twigs to make pens showing the angle of the initial cut so the node acts as an ink reservoir, grinding the driftwood charcoal pieces, sifting the charcoal to remove any lumps that would continue to be ground, adding gum arabic powder to make the ink smooth to write with, and then water. Making egg tempera where just the yolk is added to the charcoal not the membrane around the yolk. Egg tempera only keeps for a few days in ink form before it goes bad and smells but once dried on the paper it gives a lovely glossy finish. The last pictures in the gallery show examples of using the charcoal both as an ink with the dip pen and as a drawing medium. It can be smudged and create shadows and highlights like commercial charcoal. Smudge proof charcoal can be made by plunging a piece of charcoal into molten wax. It then becomes a crayon that is smudge proof and waterproof but cannot be manipulated for drawing in the same way that dry charcoal is. I have heard if you coat the paper with gesso you can then wipe away excess charcoal to create highlights but I have not tried this yet. The final image of the cicada is quick drawing using charcoal ink with the gum arabic added

A Retreat with Wild Studio

On the weekend of 20 February I joined a group of intrepid artists for a retreat at Kauaeranga Valley in the Coromandel.. The weekend was to be one of exploration of natural dyes and inks lead by Sarah Nichols and Emma Cowan of Wild Studio. The retreat was hosted at the farm of Sarah Fitzimons who led us in a daily mediation and gentle yoga. Most of the group stayed camping on site but I felt my poor old bones needed the support of a proper bed so I booked into Kauaerangi Vistas B &B which was just 5 minutes from the camping ground. It was a lovely peaceful repose with a private spa, homemade bread and plum jam and a welcoming host. I could join the group easily and could depart in the evening if I felt the day’s activities were taking their toll. I am anticipating surgery on my bowel so this small condescension to comfort meant I could still participate in everything fully. The track in was a bit of a wonder. At the end of the first part of the track there was a one way bridge which looked like it didn’t go anywhere but in fact took a very sharp right hand turn and then headed a bit further on, across the paddocks to the campsites.

The photos above show: The bridge to nowhere, the track in, Headquarters with the kitchen area to the right, Upmarket composting toilet, the first evening intro meeting with Sarah and Emma at the top right, Cars parked up away from the camping area, My private spa at the B& B - Kauaeranga Vistas, a comfortable bed to come back to.

It was a fun weekend and the first time I had felt I could leave Rob for the weekend since his sepsis operation and recuperation.

Soft Sculpture vines and Flowers

I had the twisted piece of wood from Japanese honeysuckle that I had taken out of the garden and that began my inspiration for this piece - another from the Tina Marais course. In this piece the vines are linen wrapped cord, the flowers centres are small pieces of repurposed quilted rejects that have been cut and stuffed with the pearl beads looking like seeds. These pouches have then been wrapped with prairie point petals. The textured background is the first piece of gathered on the bias that I did and it is heavier weight fabric. It had a silver on white leaf pattern which disappeared into the folds.

At the top are some flowers made from covered pill cases with a felt wrap, reminiscent of the way arum lily flowers are when they go to seed. I was quite please with the overall result of this that brought together several ideas from natural processes.

In the gallery you can see some of the inspirations:

Eco Dying from the Garden

With summer weather and the help of solar electricity, I spent a good deal of time earlier this year doing eco dye experiments with foliage and flowers from my garden and recording the results for future reference. I used a tannin bath and potassium aluminium sulphate mordant on the cotton fabrics and pas on the silk and wool. Once the colours had been ferrous sulphate dip as a modifier to see what “saddening” the colours would do.

The main header here is whole dahlia flowers and below are some of the other results I achieved

White-on-White Soft Sculpture

This white on white piece was part of Take Two Arts online course from Tina Marais. Like Tina, I love the play of light on the structured white fabric. The gathered part is another hand gathered on the bias piece that forms the base of the piece. Being created on the bias the fabric naturally wants to fold in on itself and so instead of fighting to make it straight, I have allowed the gathering to fold along its natural line. This piece unlike the vine piece quilting is made from standard white polyester fabric - I think it was some lining fabric left over from an earlier project.

My son in law cut me quite a few 30 cm rounds of waste wood on his c and c machine so I will have plenty of bases to play around with.

The flowers on the bottom right are formed on milk bottle lids, padded and gathered in at the back of the lid. I added some seed beads to simulate flower centres and then used prairie points around the base of the milk bottle tops to complete each flower.

Prairie points are made by taking a square of fabric - 2 inches (50 cm) in this case folding diagonally and then folding diagonally again in the opposite fold direction and stitching these into a long strip on the sewing machine. These are then attached by hand to the base of the milk bottle top pads.

The tassels are long strips of satin fabric twisted and knotted. They are doubled over a large lock ring from a bottle of something that has been wrapped with the same satin fabric. This is then attached at the back before the backing is sewn on

Soft Sculpture with Tina Marais

This was an inspiring Take Two Art online program lead by Tina Marais who now lives in Le Mans, France. There were myriad techniques in the course from wrapping buttons to gathering fabric on the bias. In this piece I used wrapped buttons as in the first gallery progress photo below, wrapping them with a piece of printed silk organza where I had not been happy with the print. These would make excellent textural river stones in a landscape, but this piece is designed on an abstract circle. The gathered fabric is a lightweight organza which I have added beads to for effect. It is interesting to be using other than natural fabric (which is my norm) and has allowed me to dip into some of the fabrics in my stash. The gathering completely changes the look of the pattern on the fabric. Tina had advocated using heavier (curtain weight) for the gathering but, on this piece, I wanted to experiment with the lighter fabric. The back substrate is black polyester velvet which gives a nice contrast to the slight sheen of the patterned polyester.

Fusion Exhibition Taupo

While I was in Taupo looking at the Boat Shed exhibition I also got to see this exhibition by Paul G. A Turangi sculpture artist. He had a range of metal and wood pieces made from recycled materials featuring Maori designs and masks. I am always interested in Masks and the story they hold beyond the physical dimension. It was a very interesting presentation and rounded off my day precisely.

Now could I represent these shapes in structured textile soft sculpture?

The Boatshed Exhibition -Taupo

A friend, Wendy O’Callaghan, is a member of the Taupo Textile Arts group and they had a successful exhibition called the Boat Shed at the Taupo Museum. I travelled across to Taupo for a day of escape and “Filling the Well” It was the first time I had the opportunity to go off on my own since my husband got ill in June 2024. So it was a special day. One of Wendy’s pieces is showcased above and a selection of other works is shown below. Some very talented members in this group.

I love all the texture that is displayed in these works

UnBound - A Shoe as an Artist Book

During October and November I participated in a Fibre Arts Take 2 course, Unbound< lead by artist book Artist, Toni Hartnell. There were lots of tips and book forms and we were challenged to create a book form that was based on an unusual substrate.

I might have got carried away a bit but I decided to cover an old shoe in silver lame to represent my “book.” The idea behind this was to cross the divide between and a more glamourous age. I live not far from Waitomo Caves and the Waitomo Caves Hotel was a magnificent icon of grandeur paying host to royalty and other celebrities as well as the adventurers who discovered the glowworm caves. It stands empty now - apart from perhaps the ghost that is purported to roam the upstairs levels. A victim of time and cost and regulations regarding health and safety.

During the pandemic it was invaded by squatters, but stands forlorn and alone again now. I was fortunate to be able to document the hotel in photographs which I have printed on rice paper and added as a scroll to the shoe.

The photographs below show stages of creating the shoe. It would have been lovely to have done this with a stiletto heal but I was working with what I had and my days of high hells are long over.

Level 7 Advanced Diploma End of year Art Exhibition - The Learning Connection

My husband has been very ill from sepsis and other related problems since I began my Diploma course in July 2024. I am his 24 hour 7 day a week caregiver so I made the decision to spread the diploma out over two years part time distance delivery. This eco coat was made during his earlier critical stages. It is comletely made from recycled cotton sheets with the concept of identity as a garment and the fact that sheets cover us in our most imtimate moments from birth to death. The leaves were eco dyed onto strips of cotton sheet and then cut out and hand appliqued onto an adjusted coat pattern - also made from reused sheets. The embellishments are themselves all recycled. The round pieces are buttonholed locks from the top of milk containers. I added the short feather korowai and woven waste band as an essentially Kiwi touch. All the leaves have come from my garden - some of them had been in the freezer for a few years.

I decided to make the trip to Taita and present my artwork. This was part of the exhibition that ran for two weeks. Below are works from my co students and my paper constructs which I will write about at some stage. I am hoping this year to be more disciplined at keeping the blog current

More zero waste art

In this close up image you can see how I created this page in the Zero Waste Journal. It is coffee packets with textured yarn and black net that has then been free machine stitched over in a leaf design . Another idea of stopping so much waste going to landfill.

My latest Working in the round- Feathers and Fleece

The latest in my working in the round series. This piece is worked on chicken wire attahed to a 35 cm iron ring. Some spaces were filled in and then edges of all the chicken wire were button hole stitched around. The feathers were stitched onto a ribbon and sew onto the back of the ring which had been buttonhole stitched with carpet wool

Collage with Crazy Quilt Embellishment as part of Zero Waste stitching

Using left over pieces from the eco coat I randomly stitched these onto an A4 piece of lightweight interfacing. I then usind a range of stitch and embellishment to go over the joins in the manner of crazy patchwork. This is part of my series from zero waste stitching. When I have completed the samples I will join them in a fabric sketch book

Random Collage with large Stencil on Zero Waste Stitching

Here I have taken one of the horizontal 2 inch strip joined pieces of cotton and then used a large Buddha stencil over the top of the whole piece. It gives quite a different look to the smaller corner placed stencil. You do need to give some consideration as to where the underlying colours intersect with the stencil. The stencil is applied using a stubby brush - I usually use a cheap child’'s brush and cut it back so there is not too much bristle. Then I use a pouncing motion to apply the paint. This sample is not intended to be washed so I have just used acrylic paint. If this was on something that would need laundering, a thickened dye or fabric paint would be more appropriate

Random Collage with Small Stencil Zero Waste Stitching

This is a random pieced substrate using left over pieces of eco dyed cotton sheeting from the Identity as a Garment project. The stencil of the pampas grass in the bottom left provides something of a ethereal feeling as it bends toward the centre of the substrate.

Vertical Strips for Zero Waste Stitching

This is a very simple vertical joining of the two inch strips that were left over from the Garment as Identity project. They are joined simply with a running stitch and a sheet backing fabric to preserve the cottage hand made effect

Horizontal Strips from Zero Waste

Using the left over eco dyed fabric from the eco coat I cut and joined these 2 inch strips in horizontal plane. They will be part of my zero waste journal. Some areas show definite shapes and others are just stained from the plant material’s dy. I added a crochet motif in the bottom left for interest

Zero Waste Stitching

Each year Kate Ward organisers a free taster summit called Making Zen. It is a bit of a marathon effort if you try to watch all the tutorials as there are around 5 half hour sessions each days for 7 days. This year I was taken by Karen Turner’s offering of zero waste stitching. The idea is you take left over fragments of fabric from projects and using progressively smaller pieces of fabric to create stitched art from the left overs. If you have followed along in my blogs you will have seen the eco coat I made at the beginning of this year. There were quite a few bits of eco dyed fabric that just weren’t quite good enough (or leaves that weren’t clearly defined) so I thought I would give this a go using this fabric. The fabric was reclaimed cotton sheeting so it has been quite a story in the making. I ended up making a little sampler book with the ideas I created and I have used this process as my presentation for the Advanced Diploma of Art and Creativity through the Learning Connexion Distance Delivery. A lot of my work focuses on foraged or reclaimed materials so it fitted beautifully with my ethos. The cover of the book is part of a printing session done quite some time ago and ver the next few days I will introduce you to the processes of each page. Going full circle, it has lead to the design of a larger wall art quilt that I will work on in the coming weeks.

Collage and Composition with Cordula Kagemann

This was another Fibre Arts Take 2 course tutored by German artist Cordula Kagemann. I have always found abstract composition difficult but in this course Cordula took standard art compositions and encouraged us to use them to make collage interpretations based on those compositions. We were encouraged to make our own tissue paper marks to use in this collage. I decided to limit myself to this teal and tan palette which is one of my favourites. I have documented my work below.

Playing with weaving in the round

I am working on a series of round structures. My initial interest was created by a day course advertised by out of the blue studio in Ōpunake. I couldn’t make the course but I started working on pieces within a steel ring. This pieceis based ona 30 cm ring and has embroidery stitches and free form crochet. It is quite time consuming to prepare but as I am stillsitting for quite long periods of time as my husband convalesces, it helps to keep me calm and centred. I love working with textured yards. The photo shows the finished round still in the hoop before mounting on the metal ring. The covered circles are made from plastic bottle stops with buttonhole stitch worked over them - part of my recycle focus