On the trail of the lonesome sprout

Facebookers among you will have heard the tale of the single sprout (in a plastic bag) that was the result of an online shopping misunderstanding - I thought it was one pack. There have been hilarious tales of other peoples adventures, including Dorothy's seven bunches of seven bananas. In view of the difficulty of sharing the aforementioned sprout I have decided to decorate it and put it on the tree. Watch this space!

I've been juggling work and Christmas - lots to do on WoW at this time of year but managed to find time for the annual train trip to see Father Christmas. This has been going on for five or six years now and we keep thinking that the older GCs will grow out of it but they are as keen as ever. Although Lauren may have to have a re-think as a Hannah Montana game is a bit infra-dig at eighteen!

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It takes place in our local garden centre and the track has been extended year by year and now is about a ten minute ride. All lit up with fairy lights and the track is lined with toys.

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Good for swoopy photos.

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When you alight from the train (at the grotto) Father Christmas is waiting. It was a new one this year and I think he was a bit unnerved by our GCs en masse. I would be, too! Anyway they grabbed pressies and we took a photo.

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By unamimous vote (theirs) the next stop was the scruffy pub for lunch. This is part of the golf course at the end of our road and is very unstuffy and slightly shabby but the staff are lovely. The boys like the table football, too.

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So a good time was had by all.

Not much about textiles in this blog but I'll just show you one of the pics from Alysn Midgelow Marsden's next Wow article - March issue. A fantastic mix of shrinking plastic, t-shirt transfer paper and stitch. I can't wait for after Chrimbo to try her techniques.

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In the meantime I wish you all a lovely, peaceful Christmas and here's a Displacement Map, (made from the swoopy light pic) to go with the wishes.

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Even fewer sleeps now

As you will gather I am having a few problems in trying to write my blog using my new galaxy tablet. I love it but this is hard work as I don,t seem to have much control over where the pics go.

The pic above shows Elli W, Jane W, Clive and I having a convivial lunch, complete with crackers and party hats. We had a fun time.

The pic below is of the Art Van Go garden. We called in on them on our way to do a talk at the Letchworth Christmas party, which was wonderful fun. I was so surprised at the lovely garden and there is an outdoors area for classes to be especially messy or smelly. Sounds just right for me and I got talked into doing a workshop next year. I always enjoy teaching there.

I am going to quit while I am ahead but if anyone knows how to move pics on a tablet, do let me know.

Apologies for the phantom heading -it was the blog that got away.

Not many sleeps to go

The Christmassy Edition

A lot has been happening here, as usual. It's a good thing that, thanks to the economic situation, I can't afford to retire! Sorry about the rant - I don't really want to hang up my needles yet, but it's annoying to sees one's little 'pot' disappearing.

The Lynda Monk book has been a great hit and I'm so pleased. Apart from being so creative, she is such a delight to work with.

The Christmas season always starts for me with the Stanpit Christmas party. This is held in the hall where most of us local stitchers learned our craft through City and Guilds courses. Sadly, these haven't run for a while, but the party has continued, currently organised by my Beyond Stitch Group. Maureen Beale has been the driving force - a fantastic job she has done, too - but circumstances have forced her to give up. Luckily, one of the other local groups is going to take it on, so it will continue. It must have been going for about thirty tyears and is always such fun.

This year we had Ruby Lever as speaker and she was just great. Look at her lovely work.
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Don't you just love the tassels?

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This made us feel very Christmassy so yesterday Clive and I set to, to wrap up the presents. We lit the fire in the baked bean can, put some Chrissy music on the ipod and off we went.

Clive does the wrapping and Smudge and I get in the way.

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Smudge was disappointed to find that he no longer fits in a plastic bag - even the outsize ones. He used to disappear in them and then scoot round the room at a great rate of knots.
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He had that look on his face that I had when I tried my Christmas glad-rags out the other day, 'I really must go on a diet!'

He has become something of a local character due to his fondness for dogs. As we live on a dog-walking route, he gets to see a lot of them and has made special friends with a Saint Bernard and a Labrador. Luckily they both like cats but it's funny to see him rubbing round them and we often have a little crowd of dog walkers gathered at our gate. He's such a show-off!

A Flickr group is a great idea for Lynda's free online classes, Wabbit. I'll get that going.

Sorry your birdie got 'roughed up' in the ;post, Heather. Is he OK? Do you need another one?

Ancient Strings and Fabulous Things

Jane Wild and I went to a fabulous workshop and concert based on Senegalese music, last Saturday. It was by a group called Ancient Strings and Fabulous Things led by Doudou Cissoko.

Doudou and percussionist Alicia Davies led the workshop which involved a bit of singing along to an instrument called a kora, some bashing of a pseudo calabash and ‘body percussion’ – aka clapping and slapping. It was huge fun. Here is a pic of Doudou. He has the kind of face that you want to paint.
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Here he is with the kora – a twenty-one stringed instrument. The strings used to be made of hide but now they are strung with fishing line and the sound is amazing. Find out more at

http://www.reverbnation.com/doudoucissokosancientstringsandfabulousthings

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Lynda Monk’s book 'Fabulous Surfaces' is flying off the shelves – just back from Harrogate where we took several orders and where Lynda is taking part in the Art and Artists section. I’ve been trying out her white spirit distressing techniques and they work amazingly well.
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She’ll be providing free classes for everyone who has the book. Starting after Christmas, they should really cheer us up through chilly January. I was thinking of setting up a Facebook page so we could all see each other’s work, but I know that not everybody likes Facebook. We usually have a Yahoo group but I find it very tiresome to organise and it seems to attract nasty spam. How else could we do it? Your views are welcome.

Here are the winners of the ‘Fabulous Surfaces’ giveaway. Deb Jackson and Barbara Wilson have each won one of Lynda’s lovely hand-made books and Ann Aket and Cynthia Tanti have each won a copy of ‘Fabulous Surfaces'. I haven’t checked whether you’ve bought this book already but, if you have, choose another from the http://www.d4daisy.com/ website.

Heather Martin and Esme Wright have each won one of my Birdie brooch cards. If you are a winner, please email me your snail mail address maggie@workshopontheweb.com It would be so helpful, even if we already have your snail mail addy, as it’s quicker than getting Fee to look it up. She’s a bit busy posting books right now!

There were loads of packages of goodies – too many to mention here but you’ll know if you’ve got one.

Our decision to go to Harrogate was made rather late so we had trouble finding a hotel and wound up in a two bedroomed flat for almost the same price. It was very classy and great value for money. We’ll be going back there, I think.

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I have lots more to tell but lunchtime is here so I’ll soon be back with the rest of it.

Big Giveaway

We are having a lulu of a giveaway on the d4daisy site http://www.d4daisy.com/. This is to celebrate Lynda Monk's book Fabulous Surfaces which should be here next week. Not only giving away copies of the book, but lots of materials, yarns and threads and some of Maggie's birdie brooch cards.
Click on the 'let me know' button on the d4daisy site to be included - no obligation to buy, we'll just let you know when the book is there. If you are already on the list, you will be automatically included, no need to click again.

Wonderful stuff (like this bodice) is the book - we're so pleased with it.
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This is a super brooch. Michael liked it so much that he put it on the cover.
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It doesn't seem possible but we have been in our 'new' home a whole year today. This was us on 19th November last year.

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It looks a bit different now. It was such a good move for us as we love it here, on the edge of the forest. Should have moved here years ago.

Printing, proofing and a bit of old tat

We went haring up the motorway this morning to meet up with Michael, the other half of our d4daisy publishing venture. The printer’s proofs of Lynda Monk’s new book, Fabulous Surfaces, were ready so, to save time, we met at the services to do the final proof. I have to say that the printer has done a great job and the colour is breathtaking.
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Here we are, spread over a picnic table, as it is always a bit dark in the restaurant. Luckily the weather is mild. I think I’m very brave taking a photo of a photographer – shan’t show him this.
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Clive is next on the production line.
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Proofing is very nerve-racking and it’s so easy to read what you expect to be there, rather than what is. We always involve Katherine James, a professional proof reader, and it is amazing what she finds. If anyone is thinking of self-publishing I would really recommend a proof reader (the cost is not great) and Katherine is a textiles person too. I know from my time editing Embroidery magazine that the bigger the heading, the more likely a mistake!

We’re all delighted with the book as it is the first one in our new ‘Workshop’series. It should be available on the d4d site around the 24th. www.d4daisy.com

This is subject to the vagaries of printers, of course. We once published a book around election time and found out, too late, that they were printing all the manifestos. Guess who got priority?

I shall be doing some Lynda book give-aways on this blog and on Facebook later in the week.

What do you do with old work? Do you recycle it or chuck it out in horror? I’m giving a talk in Bristol next week and needed a piece of metal threadwork to fit a theme. Looking at this City &Guilds piece, I can see all the errors but I can also remember how much I enjoyed making it. I had never done anything like it before as I came to C&G from a machine embroidery and drawing background, unlike most of the others who were familiar with more traditional techniques. Perhaps it’s good to revisit work from the past. What do you think?
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We are planning our local Christmas Party in Christchurch. There are always more people wanting to go than there are tickets, so this is a reminder to the usual suspects (or anyone else who fancies a fun day). It only costs a fiver and a plate of grub and we have Ruby Lever, always a popular choice, for the speaker, plus trade stalls etc. Email me if you haven’t got a ticket yet. maggie@workshopontheweb.com

Btw, regarding the collagraphs in the last blog, I used Daler Rowney Georgian Block Printing medium but Jenny Bullen tells me that oil paints on their own work very well. Thanks for that tip, Jenny.

Fun with the Sizzix

Rather a long time since I posted about dashing off to Urchfont to the Text. 21 group - or whatever our group is called. I keep getting told off for getting it wrong! We have been so busy with Lynda Monk's new book, 'Fabulous Surfaces', that I've had no spare time. We are nearly there now and hope to be at the printer next week.

Back to Urchfont - we had a wonderful few days concentrating on printing techniques. Jane Wild gave us a class and came up with some amazing ideas for everything from mono-prints to collagraphs. Needless to say, it was the latter that I was concentrating on, having upgraded the pasta maker for a Sizzix Big Shot Cutting and Embossing machine.
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Sorry about the strange angle, but you get the picture. It was so much easier than the pasta maker. It is designed to heavily emboss paper, so printing doesn't put a strain on the machine, as Wendy thought it might. I had to add a couple of pieces of felt to the platform that holds the plate and, when that was done, it gave perfect prints very easily, just gently rolled through. I couldn't believe how easy it was.

I made the plate, below, from textured wallpaper, scrim and kozo fibres, all stuck to mount board with PVA glue. Jane also introduced us to carborundum - a fine grit that you sprinkle on to PVA. It's great for texture.
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I have always used acrylics with a retarder for printing but Viv from Art Van Go recommended oil paints with a special printing medium mixed in. This gives you so much more time to work on burnishing the plate - the point where the excess paint is removed. These are my prints - sideways on as Blogger is having one of its turns!



What do you think?

Comments

The jacket worked really well, Heather – will show a pic of it next time. I’m thinking of selling it back to Marks as a designer special.

Ticks – Clive seems fine, thanks. You do have to be careful because deer ticks carry Lyme's disease, very nasty. We live on the edge of the forest so lots round here and, on the day it attached itself, we’d taken the family to the 'scruffy pub' down the road for lunch. This is right on the edge of the golf course and is in the woody bit. Other people have posh eateries in their golf courses but ours is cheap and tatty. The food and staff are lovely and the kids like the table football machine.

Smudge does have tiny ticks but Clive’s was huge. Perhaps they scale themselves to their victim.

Had a giggle about putting the tick killing stuff on Clive too – it doesn’t seem to work on Smudge.

Urchfont, Thumbs Down and a Tick

Look at this pile of stuff - where am I off to, you ask. Well it's the time of our quarterly indulgence at Urchfont Manor. My text. 21 group (or something like that) is having a session with Jane Wild on collagraphs. I can't wait. I've bought myself a Sissix cutter/press and haven't tried it yet. I am doing a talk in Worcester, straight after (Saturday) so will report back next week.
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I am also taking the embellisher machine with a view to attacking this jacket. It's a per una (posh M&S) in boiled wool and I loved it but the sleeves and a couple of panels at the lower front are made from nasty black fur fabric. So I aim to set the embellisher on them.


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I made a couple of little bags some time ago - just velvet, silk and chiffon. Here is one.



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I love the way you can do huge hand stitches like this.



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That become part of the fabric when embellished.



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I do hope I don't ruin it!

I may be a little late at the manor tomorrow as Clive has just found a big fat tick on his back (a gardening hazard). I got it all off, but it's as well to have the doc look at it. We had a friend who caught Lyme's desease and it was horrid.

Talking of matters medical, some of you will have seen on Facebook that I have to have operations on both thumbs. I thought I was only going for my carpal tunnel check up so it was a bit of a shock. They take out a bone and that stops it rubbing and hurting. I had the following phone conversation about it with my cousin.

Me: They take out the bone and put in a bit of gristle.

Cousin: Where do they get the gristle?

Me: Oh, they've probably got a lump of pork hanging around.

Cousin: Is that why they call it a hand of pork?

Boom. boom.

That joke probably only works if you are a brit.

Thanks for asking about the book. It's running a bit late due to the hand thing but I'll keep you posted.

Jane Lemon Exhibition

I'm sure all UK stitchers know Jane Lemon's work. She is best known for her amazingly innovative church work. Heading up the Sarum Group, she changed the image of ecclesiastical embroidery over the last 40 years. Her own work took a back seat to the group so it's great to see an exhibition of eight panels of hers at Salisbury Cathedral. The work is titled Prisoners of Conscience and celebrates the 50th annoversary of Amnesty International. The Cathedral has a long history of support for this cause and their stained glass window depicting this theme is quite amazing.

I'm not going to go on at length about the panels here but I shall be doing a full review for December's Workshop on the Web and our review pages are unrestricted, so catch it then. But, if you can get to Salisbury (there is a charge to go in to the Cathedral), it is so worth seeing and they have some of the Sarum Group frontals on view as well.

The work is an interesting mix of machine embroidery, goldwork and embellisher machine.

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Jane attends life drawing classes and it really shows in the composition of the figures.

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The barbed wire runs through all the panels, silver turns to gold when the prisoner is released.

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Below you can see Jane's amazing skill - the silver kid barbed wire is a wonderful, both as a close-up and from a distance.

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Thanks for the advice about the jammy mouse. It still fells a bit sticky and the jam didn't set well this time so I think it will be a sauce and a glaze, though probably not for mixed work, Heather.

The Lynda Monk book Fabulous Surfaces has gone to the designer in Australia. As it is a new series for d4daisy, which we are calling Workbooks, she is doing a re-design. I can't wait to see the sample pages. These will be single topic books, aimed at producing wonderful stuff without spending a fortune. You won't believe what Lynda has done with tissue paper!

My new book will also be a Workbook, based on dissolvable stuff - mostly film, not too much paper this time, although I've found some interesting ways of combining the two. I've been able to get cracking on mine and spent some time gathering up all my pieces. I'd forgotten about this little book. It's made from Softsculpt. warmed and bent over two bottles to give a book shape. The 'leaves' are made from water-soluble film and I'm exploring more on the technique used. Having lots of fun.

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Comments

I remember signing your book Sabine - it was great to meet you. I think the exhibition in the foyer two years ago might have been the Pfaff one which doesn't happen every year. i agree there wasn't much happening in this area. I think it is a sign of the times that stalls selling mops and so on had crept in this year. I guess it's hard to fill when everyone is broke.

We all have to support AVG Irene - and it's necessary to keep up the paint stocks. I bought lots of their papers, too.

Diane's cumquats sound wonderful. I bet they make great marmalade.

How do you get jam off a mouse?

I am in the kitchen, catching up with a bit of blogging while making some more jam. It's the last thing I should be doing and is, I think, a displacement activity for getting on with the text for my book. Unfortunately I'm using Clive's laptop and have made his mouse all sticky with jam. He'll kill me.

I was only at the K&S show for a couple of days, doing demos in the Learning Curve. What did anyone think of the show? I loved the Textile Study Group exhibition and have devoted many pages to it in my WoW review. Purchased one of Gwen Hedley's little treasures from her Excerpts from a Visual Diary. This is mine.
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Here are some more. They looked great in a row.
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Here is a piece by Mary Sleigh, based on Kettles Yard in Cambridge - a place I love. It's a place of collections where art, furniture and fossils all sit side by side and I love Mary's take on it. The title is Not Wanted on Voyage.

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I also enjoyed the Beryl Dean retrospective - waiting on images for that one. It seemed a pity to have two brilliant retrospectives at the same show. Diana Springall's coincides with her book and was great - but could have used more space.

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I loved seeing the inspiration, design and finished pieces.

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The piece at the back of the image above was entirely worked in narrow fabric tubes.

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The graduate showcases were very good - both knitting and stitching. Who could resist a knitted lampshade? Anyone know the name of the student? I'm usually very careful to note names but missed this one.
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I felt that the quality of the exhibitions was a little uneven this year but when you consider how many great exhibitions are here, all in one place, it is such good value.

I have to go - my jam is ready for pouring. I think that the birds can have the rest of the grapes now.

Giveaway Winners

A very quick blog just to tell you that we've drawn the giveaway for one of my precious books. The winner is Jen Henley - well done.

Fiona's daughter Sophie picked our winners - we made a list from this blog and facebook and gave them all a number. Then Fiona's daughter Sophie, chose two numbers from the list, so it was all fair and square. As we had such a great response we're giving an extra prize of a Workshop on the Web subscription (or renewal if you already belong). That prize goes to Cat in Tassie. If Jen and Cat email me maggie@workshopontheweb.com with snail mail addy for Jen and email addy for Cat I'll get it all sorted.

I am in a mad panic as I'm running late with my preparation for next week at the K&S. I am doing a couple of demos as we haven't got a stand, but I got a bit sidetracked by work for my new book.

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This sample started me off down a new path and all I want to do is explore it. Ain't textiles exciting.

Wanna see my Operation?

Look away now if you're squeamish, but isn't it healing well? All the bumpy bits have been absorbed - aren't our bodies clever? Only problem now is remembering not to carry stuff. Still mustn't knit or type, but the one handed stitching works a treat.
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We recently asked our Workshop on the Web folks what articles they wanted and they were keen on one on the making of precious books from samples. Another excellent idea was a project that progressed and we could all join in with. So I've combined these two and will have a precious book article with techniques and, hopefully, a video. I'm hoping lots of people will try the ideas and we're going to have a readers section to see them all. The pic below is a layered printing method I use a lot in various ways.

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These books are so useful for those special stitched samples, like the letters below.
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The photoshoot meeting for Lynda Monk's new book went really well and Michael and I were absolutely bowled over by the quality of her work. It's called Fabulous Surfaces and who would guess that the one below is not leather, but tissue paper. I want a jacket made from it.
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There are lots of ideas for books, bodices and vessels. If you want us to let you know when it's ready just go to www.d4daisy.com and click to go on the 'let me know' list - no obligation.
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Comments

Glad to have amused you with the jam making. We made loads but the kids have pinched lots of it. Modesty aside, it is delicious. I shall put some time aside next year and make more. There are still loads left on the vine.

Cranborne Manor only opens once a week, Celia, but it is well worth a visit.

I agree about using kitchen stuff for textiles,Virginia. I think my pasta machine collagraph printer is my most successful to date.