Thursday 9 May 2013

Stencil and Stitch

At our Spectrum meeting yesterday, in addition to eating lots of cake which seems to be the focus of our gatherings lately (thank you Gill... it was delicious) we spent some time playing with Markel paintsticks. I used a tried and tested image of poppy seedheads and rubbed the Markel through a stencil using an old toothbrush ( apparently they clean up quite nicely with white spirit so you could pop it back in the bathroom mug and he would never notice)
 
 
I stencilled the image over a couple of black and white monoprints from a previous meeting.

 
There was no doubt that many of us were influenced by this lovely book from the equally lovely Bobby Britnell. A couple of us had been to the book launch at Art Van Go on Monday and others had been on a course there with Bobby this week.

 
Today is the only day this week that I'm not teaching so instead of getting bogged down with reading blogs admin etc on the computer I decided to allow myself the luxury of a morning stitching and I've quilted one of my monoprints with free machine stitching.

 
It is very much in the style of Bobby's work so I need to play around a little more to inject my own style but it was still a satisfying morning and I enjoyed myself.

 
The other thing I brought home from Spectrum was this black and white piece below which is the next piece of work for our Round Robin project. Whereas I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my previous piece I haven't a clue with this one... any ideas? I might have thanked you for the cake Gill, but I'm not so impressed with this! Where on earth do I go from here?

 
But I'm not worrying about it this evening because I'm off to the private view of this exhibition.

 
Threads Galore
An exhibition of textiles from the North Herts and Beds Branch of the Embroiderer's Guild
Letchworth Arts Centre
8th - 30th May
Open from 10 am, Monday to Saturday

21 comments:

  1. I love the detail of your Poppyhead but have no idea what you could do with the 'eye' fabric. I find it rather unnerving.

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  2. I'm afraid I've no idea what I would do with it next either! But then I'm also unsure about what to do with my next piece.
    I love your stitched poppyhead, what a good morning's work x

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  3. What a thought, disposable tooth brushes if he knew what you were thinking.

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  4. Add 3D eyelashes made from water soluble Gina, with little gems on the ends!

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  5. I found myself doodling over your eyepiece with the mouse. Lots of long curved eyelashes, machined in a varying colours crossing over each other, would reference the eyes and make a linking background pattern. It's a thought anyway.

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  6. I would try variegated threads and stitch a continuous circle that grows in size around each one. They would then join up. Or use them as seed pod centres and add the cases. Good luck.

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  7. I like Pam's idea for the eyes but I would find them creepy to work with too. You could mask them out a bit with a tulle or lacey layer or what about having the as the centres of flowers? Very spooky!

    Your own Bobby inspired poppies are lovely.

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  8. I love the stitching on your seed head Gina, beautiful!
    Thanks for the tip re the toothbrush, good to know! ;)
    V xxx

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  9. The poppy heads are gorgeous and the book looks good too, may have to put that on my wish list.

    Don't know why but I thought of hand outlines to join the eyes together - eyes peeping out from hands, maybe.

    Must get on with my reading blogs ahem, I mean admin

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  10. Hope he doesn't read your blog or he'll know why his toothbrush tastes funny! Love your stitch and print experiments and I've had my eye on that book - it sounds good.
    As for the eye fabric - I'd be tempted to add text in and around the eyes saying 'I've got my eye on you'! Not very creative though.

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  11. I like the eye lash idea too but I would add some garish eye shadows!

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  12. A successful morning, I'm sure you really enjoyed doing your own work! Hope someone warns the family about your use of their toothbrushes!!

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  13. Does it have to stay black and white? Cut up and form into another 3d piece ... What happened to the bird for the weather robin ....
    Zebra
    Penguin

    Can people join spectrum?

    Can you add contrasting colour and turn it into peacock feathers? How many more people will have it?

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  14. The seed pod is lovely, and now I'm itching to buy Bobbi's book. Haven't a clue what to do with the eyes - good luck!

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  15. That poppy seed pod stencil is just delightful.

    Enjoy the journey toward making this new work of yours your own :)

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  16. The eyes are quite a challenge, how about random noses and mouths or phrases meandering between to connect them.
    Love your poppy seed head. The shading from the stencil looks perfect.

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  17. I think the eyes would prove very challenging. Perhaps you could stitch on some false eyelashes?

    And as to the toothbrush - I'm telling your DH!

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  18. I enjoyed our day on Wednesday. I've thrown away the piece of fabric that I was working on, I wasn't at all happy with it but I'm keeping the piece of paper. I love your poppies over the mono printed fabric, think I may have a go at that.

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  19. You're right about Bobby, one of life's truly lovely people. I hope that book is a huge success just like your stencil work. Where to from here with it? As soon as I saw those 'eyes' I was reminded of that Cecil Beaton wallpaper - or was it a textile? - made up completely of eyes. I wish I could give you a good idea for what to do next Gina but I suspect you'll come up with the goods on your own...i.e I have no idea, please don't expect any help from this quarter!

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  20. Love, love, LOVE the mono printed and stitched flowers. Gt some Markal paint sticks myself cheap on eBay, but haven't got round to using them much!! Especially love the bit about white spirit on his toothbrush!

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