Monday 29 September 2008

Glossary & Fossily

I’m finding your help on the glossary so useful. Amazing how many terms there are for the same fabric. Scrim is a real puzzle. The encouraging thing is that most people know what is meant by the term so, as long as a photo is shown, that should do the trick. I’ve put the first draft of the glossary on the d4daisy site (my book page) but haven’t taken all your comments into account yet. Hope to do that later today or tomorrow.

Francoise - we seem to be having enough trouble with the English version!

Ibbygee - what was the subject of your dissertation? Would it make a book?

Aussie Jo - couldn’t get into your blog as it came up with an error message. Blogger strikes again?

Can anyone help Jacqui, with an American soldering iron - fine tip required. If all else fails I think that Margaret Beal sells irons suitable for the USA voltage. Hers are wonderful. email burningissues@margaretbeale.co.uk

I'd forgotten about Pellon so thanks to you all for that and for all the help with the fabric. This glossary could be very useful all round.

Wabbit - over here encaustic wax tends to be solid beeswax with pigment added. You melt it on an iron to use it. Acrylic wax is runny and comes in a plastic container. It is very useful, especially with paper.

In the meantime I am awaiting the printer's summons and hope to be able to collect the books tomorrow, so watch this space. I see that they have it on Amazon but we have no plans to sell to them. I expect some of the smaller booksellers may have it on there but they tend to be expensive for overseas posting. We very much hope that Julia's book will be out soon - it should be on the way to the printer by the end of the week. It looks fabulous.

I am preparing for the Knitting & Stitching at Ally Pally. I have to get some work ready for an exhibition at Salisbury Museum in December. Wessex Textiles have been offered a smallish area, next to the costume displays. We decided that we would all work six 8" square stretchers, based on the theme of Wessex. Mine is going to be a Salisbury Timeline and will stretch along either side of a mock tape measure, marking time. I did something like this before with my fossils.

A brilliant idea struck! I will be doing demos at Ally Pally, based on the mixed media book and I thought I could build these up into the finished exhibition pieces. I could have the designs up on the wall and, as each square was worked, I could replace the design with the finished piece. Inspired - or what!!! It does owe something to the Kemshalls at the FOQ who were building up a quilt over the days of the show. So I have four of the six rough designs worked out - here they are.

This one is fossils again - well, they were a good starting point for most living things. The designs are mostly charcoal pencils on cartidge paper.



Then we have a cross section of Old Sarum, just a tree on a hill with the ground broken up into strips and other papers woven through it. This will have fossilish plants woven in but I haven't done them yet. It is a design I drew some time ago, redrawn on cartridge paper and coloured with tinted charcoal pencils.



Then an view from above Old Sarum. Same design media. Looks a bit like a space ship. May have to modify.



Then a three-dimensional piece based on a fragment of carving from the old cathedral. Loved the shape of it. It has some delicate pencil drawing of the celtic-ish spirals but they are hard to see in the photo.



It will be great if it all works. Two designs to go.

Hope to be back tomorrow or Wednesday, having got the book.

7 comments:

Diana said...

We'll all be looking out for your post saying that the books have arrived Maggie, and that we can order ours! Can't wait.
Meanwhile, ref the glossary - I can't for the life of me find it. Could you give a link to the page, maybe? I'm wondering if there's something wrong with my browser or server, as I had another problem recently, using a link on the Classes page which gave me a wrong email address for Fiona... someone else had the same problem and I think it was later fixed, but the link still comes up for me as the same (non-existent) address. I may just be going mad (or rather, my computer might be - it does have a mind of its own...)

Heather said...

Your designs for Salisbury are just beautiful Maggie. I love the theme of fossils and ancient places and have used both myself. It always fascinates me that we could all work to the same design and yet each piece would be different. The exhibition will be a great success, I am sure.

Wabbit said...

Oh, you are so right about encaustic wax! I must have been dazed or confused when I wrote that. I'm going to the fabric store today, so I'll be looking for scrim to see what I can find.

Jacqui should be able to go to the hardware store and find a soldering iron that will work. If she wants it strictly for use on fabrics, Joann's sells the Walnut Hollow ones with interchangeable tips in their big Joann, etc. stores as do Michael's and plenty of the online suppliers sell them as well. I saw them at fabricdepot.com and have had excellent service there. I bought an iron at Michael's with a very narrow tip to use to cut stencils that I think was $15.

I wish we could just pre-order the books now. I'm afraid I'll get busy and miss the start of everything. I've got nothing sitting outside to age and weather because nothing will stay around very long with all the wind we get. Not that it has rained here in the last two months anyway and monsoon season is officially over. Maybe I should have the Jeep washed to make it rain!

Isn't Heather on to something there with her idea of everyone working to the same design? Wouldn't that make a great exhibit? Give everyone the same starting point design and see what comes of it.

Aussie Jo said...

Great designs, it'll be interesting to see how they transfer to mixed media.
For some reason blogger did not like my wordpress address. If you click on the sidebar you should be able to get in otherwise it's
http://carlseapatch.wordpress.com
Cheers

jennywren said...

I was wondering if you can get acrylic wax any where else other than art van go. I got 2L a coule of yrs ago when I was in England but as I live in South Australia and use it alot I would like to know if it is more easily available. I do enjoy reading your blog Maggi and will be buying your book in the next month or so. Thanks for such entertaining insights into Smudges activities.

Jacqui said...

Thanks to Wabbit for the advice but I had looked that the ones in Joann's (I actually work in one) and it was 30 watts which I think is too hot for the fabrics Margaret Beal suggests and the tip is not as fine as suggested. However, by chance I looked at Liz Plummer's blog and in an answer to a question by one her commentator's she mentioned the make of iron she use as suggested by Margaret Beal. It was by Antex and looking at their website, they have 18 watt soldering iron with USA plugs. Their website is http://www.antex.co.uk/

In the meantime I have been experimenting with the soldering irons I have and you can see the results here http://happyjacqui.wordpress.com/

thanks again for the advice, Wabbit, its appreciated.

Jill said...

I hate to sound ignorant, but what is 'cartridge paper'? I've seen in mentioned several times in your books. Is it computer printer paper? I'm at a loss....

Thanks!