Grrrrr!

Don't you just hate days when nothing works? It's not even eight o'clock in the morning and my workroom lights refuse to work (Clive is muttering in the garage with fuses and trip switches). Blogger still won't load my pics and I can't find a vital piece of work for tomorrow's class. It can only get better - can't it?

8.30 am and it has got better - the lights work and I can load my pics on Clive's machine. Still not on my laptop - how weird is that?

Anyway, to get back to yesterday. Thank you so much for your lovely comments about the talk. Pat. It cheered me up no end (the cat is ill again) and I thought your comment on your blog that you thought of computer design as cheating, was very interesting. I don't think of it like that at all as I always take care when composing photos or else I scan my drawing in. What I don't like is when it is very obvious what effects are used - so always use several on top of each other or fall back on our good old Displacement maps.

Had some emails about how to do Displacement maps so I'll do a tutorial step-by-step on Wednesday. I think I have done this before and it's my fault for not adding the right notes to the blog.

Here is a pic from Sissinghurst of the white Wisteria.

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And a closer shot of the flowers, using the Layers and duplicating the pic. Then adding a new layer and putting a colour wash over with the fill tool.

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Changing the top blend mode to 'difference' gives this great design.

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and then putting it through the Polar Co-ordinates effect.

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Here is Kathy from Kent's lovely bag, based on chimneys. See yesterday's post.

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And a detail.

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Back to the preparations for the Marlborough workshop.

Motorway Musings

Blogger won't let me put any pics in, I'll try later this afternoon so please do come back again.

Later, the same day, (this is getting to be a serial blog) - still can't load pics and I've made them all smaller, too. Will try on tomorrow's blog. Thanks Pat for the accolade on your blog. The headphones won't fit for the oppsite reason if you keep saying things like that about me.

Hi Jackie - great that you are blogging. love your work.

Will keep you posted on the Aussie thing, fingers crossed.

Our weather has now reverted, Artisue, so it's back on with the vests.

Had such a good time in Kent. I used to teach up there regularly and Clive usually came with me. We always had what we call a 'Kentday'. We would go up the day before and follow our pattern for a lovely day. This involved eating our lunch sitting in the car, by a lake with lots of wildfowl. Birdwatching without the walking - suits me fine. Then we would go to the Outlet Centre in Ashford for Marks and Gap cheapies. This was always followed by a trip to the movies and finally the hotel check-in and a lovely meal. By this time I had spent the teaching fee, but what the hell?

So that is what we did this time - varied by going to Sissinghurst instead of the birds. Although it was early for the garden, the Wisteria was wonderful and there was lot to see.

Underneath the wisteria for a Val-type shot. PIC LATER



Saw a movie called The Eye and we were a bit worried as there were only four of us in the cinema! It was good - quite scary - and I couldn't hide in the dining room like I do at home. Meal was great.

The talk the next day went well. Hi, Brenda - it was so lovely to see you all again. Kathy showed me a finished piece that she started making on my course. It is based on Chimneys, Hampton Court, I think. Great isn't it?


PIC LATER

They tried to fix me upwith a mike with headphones but it wouldn't fit on my head. No, not because my head was too big, quite the reverse. So I did the talk, including the computer demos while clutching all the equipment to my bosom. Luckily it is an ample one.

On the way home we saw Pompey supporters lining the motorway bridges, possibly waiting for the team coaches. For those not in the UK, they (Portsmouth) won the cup final yesterday. It was fun to see them and I started thinking about other fun things that have livened up our journeys. Here are a few:

A builder's van with signing on it - 'You've tried the cowboys, now try the Indians' (Singh & Co).

Signs on the M40 that went on for miles saying 'Emergency Toilets, next exit'. One day we had to take that route and found another sign saying 'Emergency Pub'.

A fruit growing enterprise on the Queen's Balmoral estate with a notice that said Pick-Ones-Own.

It all cheers up the journey.

I'm off the do a workshop in Marlborough on Tuesday. It's quite a new one called Slip, Slap, Stich. The idea is to make a slip to apply to a background, slap it on the aforementioned background and then stitch it. I'll take some photos for you.

Still Displaced

Sadly you can’t do displacement maps in Version 7, Gill. I use version 9 or 10 but don’t feel the need to keep buying the new issues of software unless there is something I really want. I would recommend upgrading to get the Displacement maps, though. This is the feature that I use most of all.

Pat - I’m doing a talk for the Guild in Canterbury on Saturday afternoon at a place called Lower Hardres. Love the Kent crowd so I’m really looking forward to it.

Great to meet you, Simone. Enjoyed your blog and plan a return visit for a longer browse.

Aussie Jo - there is a whisper about an Aussie trip next year but my lips are sealed.

Fiona - without you we wouldn’t have the on-line mags or any of the the web-sites and I wouldn’t be blogging. I should explain that Fiona taught Clive how to write html and set him on the www path. We’ve moved on a lot since then but it still seems like magic to be able to communicate with so many people. Fiona also gives us the confidence to try things that we would never undertake without her holding our hands. Interesting to speculate on what we would have done without the web. Would I still be editing Embroidery mag? Would Clive be retired and twiddling his thumbs? Would I let him? Is that what we’re doing in a parallel universe?

It was great to meet up with Hippopip - glad you enjoyed the talk. The digital projector has made an enormous difference to our talks. We can do computer demos live (this is a bit hairy at the moment as I have Vista on the new laptop and sometimes funny things happen and Clive has to rescue me) and have little movies, too. It all breaks up the talk. i found a really good image to play Displacement games with. It is a fossil drawing from my sketchbook.




I displaced it with the little stone tower from our last National Trust visit.




Here is the result, below. I am going to use it for a mixed media piece for the new book. I love the way the ring binding has made a border.



This is how it looks when the 'Tile' option is selected. This gives repeats instead of displacing the whole image. Interesting.



I don't use Powerpoint as I find it has limitations and we seem to be able to move fairly seamlessly from the slide show software to the movies.

We went to see Jane Lemon on the way to the talk and she is recovering well from her surgery. She showed us a wonderful altar frontal, almost finished, destined for Portsmouth Cathedral, very impressive.

We were early for the talk so we stopped at a pub right by the canal and sat in the sun drinking diet Cokes while we watched the boats go by. It's a hard life.

The lovely weather is soon to be over, they say. Entirely my fault as I rushed into Bournemouth yesterday to buy some summer clothes. Should have known better - sorry folks.

Sun and Games

Having a lovely lazy Sunday. The weather is wonderful and we've been mostly in the garden - very little gardening and quite a lot of sitting. A brief spell of intense activity when the Gcs arrived for a bowling tournament on the Wii. I wopped them, good and proper!

Tomorrow I am doing a talk on computer design at Marlborough branch and will take the chance to visit Jane Lemon on the way. A huge advantage of the digital projector is the fact that you can do live demos (I use Paint Shop Pro) and then show how the designs were translated into stitch. My favourite effect, as you will know by now, is the Displacement Map and I plan to show how the Graphitint drawing below can be transformed using the pic of the Sagrada Familia, from our Barcelona holiday.




I just love the way that the jotted notes have transformed into a border.



I am doing a talk on the same subject in Kent on Saturday so, although I will change the content a little, all my 'show and tell' work will be packed ready for me. How cool is that?

A couple of exciting blogs I've found. The first one is by Barbara Siedlecka www.barbarasiedlecka.blogspot.com and she is using it as a retrospective for her textiles. I have adored her work for years and it is so good to see it again. She was an illustrator and her drawings are lovely. Then she made textiles for ad campaigns, which I think is a great way to spread the word. I've written several articles on her work and she shows the one from Embroidery on her blog. I'm sure she won't mind me showing this collage to whet your appetite.






Then there is Fiona Dix www.lovefibre.com who has a very interesting life wearing lots of different hats. She hosts all our sites and is the reason why Workshop on the Web is such a rock steady site, even when the new issues are launched and the site has so many hits. Her own work is great and she writes beautifully. Her main site www.textilearts.net is full of interest.



I do intend to add lots of my favourite blogs as links. Nag me if I don't do it soon.

Shrinking and Snapping

Loved the Tudor Tailor site, Margaret. Thanks for the information. Next time I’m looking for someone to give a talk I will know where to look.

We’re having such fun with the Wii. It was supposed to be for the grandchildren but Clive and I have played with it almost every day since we got it. The boxing exercise is so aerobic and really makes you out of breath. It also makes me do a bit of work with the fit-ball to wind down so I’m hopeful that lots of calories are being burned. I want the fitness board, too, Verobirdie. Will ask the kids to club together at Christmas. No, no videos - I’m not an elegant player!

Yesterday the weather was lovely and we went to Weymouth (on the coast about an hour from here) to do a class on Shrinking Plastic. The venue was a Social Club, right in the bar so I felt quite at home. The view was fantastic as it was right on the cliff top. Here are some pics - not up to the usual photo standard as it’s bad form for the tutor to spend ages with a camera, so just ‘snapped’ at the ‘show and tell’.

I always start by just using gold pen and crayons - this little fish was so cute. I think he was made by Julia.

Then we move on to exploring texture with sequins (which melt) and glass painter's gutta. Little tiny books by Ann and Julia.

Cutting shapes is good fun and we try to cut carefully so that the negative shapes can be used. Jill’s flowers were great and they produced an interesting piece from the remnant.

Jackie’s tiny book covers were wonderful - by now we were on to embossing powders and stamps.

This orchid, by Jan, was splendid. She was very talented and I asked her what her preferred style of stitching was. She said she didn’t know as she’d only just joined the Guild and this was her fourth workshop! One to watch, I think. She also made a mean fruit salad.

A lovely day, enjoyed by all, including the tutor. I’m going to try to spend some time in the garden today, just sitting. London tomorrow, Marlborough for a talk on Monday so I need a rest before I start.

Wiis and Warriors

Thanks for all the comments. I haven’t been able to blog as much as usual but please don’t desert me. I shall soon be back on track.


Kate - many thanks for the award. I have put the pic here because it is one of the words that I overuse, so it seems very appropriate. When I had a ‘proper’ job (in insurance) our Marketing Director wanted to rename the building we worked in ‘Excellence House’. We talked him out of it on the grounds that we could be sued under the Trades Descriptions Act!

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I haven’t heard of the Tudor Tailors Talk, Margaret. Who gives that? Sounds great.


Busy week with a good meeting with Michael Wicks about the next book. Our main problem is going to be storage as it is so expensive to use the commercial firms. I need a lock up garage, I think. Luckily Embellish and Stitch sold very well but Fiona is keen to get her spare room back so I must get something sorted out.


Also bought a Nintendo Wii. We've had such fun playing with the gcs version and I thought the boxing, where you use a punch bag, was very aerobic and would keep me fit. They said it could be set up by idiots and guess what? It was. We had no trouble and were very proud of ourselves.



I’ve been working on some shrinky plastic as I have a course next week in Weymouth. I wondered about the Tudor theme so I drew this little knight - although he looks more medieval than Tudor. I wanted to see how the Graphitint pencils worked - they are quite grey with just a hint of colour. I made a tile with holes at the corners for stitching. Here it is before shrinking.





And afterwards. He's quite dark but I splodged gold pen on him and I quite like the effect. I shall experiment some more.





The other piece I'm working on is for Brenda Weeks Tactile Textiles Exhibition in Christchurch, Dorset, in June. It is aimed at people who have poor sight and need to touch and feel things. I am starting off with one of my embellished silk fossil surfaces which I shall stitch and wax before making a big vessel. It will then have mad springy bits all over it on wires.



I'll keep you posted.

Lots of Art, Lots of Stitch, Too much Eating

Thanks for all the comments. The sketch book I was using here has pages that are about A4 (letter) size. I don’t work well with anything too small as I like to have plenty of room to be splodgy.

Penny - this fossil is pretty good but the one I used previously was bigger and better. That was the one that the grandson dropped - which is now several fossils. All those years and then….Toby!

A good trip to Art of the Stitch on Saturday. Traffic was light, parking was easy and we arrived at the gallery spot on opening time. I was impressed with the exhibition and, although I agree with Sue that it was very arty, I thought that this was arty in a good way. There weren’t too many installations of the dripping tap persuasion and there was lots of lovely stitching, especially hand stitching. I’m not going to say much more as the review will be in the free access part of Workshop on the Web in June and will have lots of photos. Here are a couple of pics to be going on with.



This is Durer Stitching - a lovely 'take' on Durer's Hand drawing by Rosie James.



And Personal Space by Scott Ellegood. Amazing hand stitching.

On the way home we did the 'National Trust for lunch', routine (this happened a lot last year) and went to Charlecote Park. Such a lovely, sunny day and we had a good walk and ate too much. Look at this fantastic rustic door.

Plus a detail.

Must tell the wwsil about this.

I can feel a bit of an interest in all things Tudor coming on. There were some great patterns in the stonework. Don't think they were very aged but they did look like true copies of some of the interior patterns.

I went to Highcliffe Castle to pick up my work from the exhibition and found that I’d sold some more pieces. My mixed media piece had gone. I had planned to use it for the book but will happily make another one in the series. So good to sell work - there is something special about other people liking it enough to part with hard earned cash. I hadn’t even taken a proper pic so it was just as well that I put one on the blog.

Today has been a very exciting day as I have been over to the wood working son-in-law for a meeting with Michael Wicks. The guys are doing a book on hand-made wood-workers planes (not the flying kind) and Michael had to take some photos in the workshop.

Michael and I are hoping to do some books with other textile artists and it is all very exciting. More news soon. He bore off a lot of work to photograph, including my sketchbook so I shall have to work on torn out pages and stick them in when it comes back. Very into sketch book stuff at the moment. I think I may have a sketch book section for each technique in the book and talk about the materials used in the making of that as well as the resulting piece. At the moment I am using Liquid Translucent Sculpey. I used it in the Image to Stitch book for image transfer and that got me interested. I think it's a good idea to include all manner of experiments in the sketch book and write up the method. So easy to forget.