Bags galore!

Didn't realise it was a month since the last post but I've been hard at work creating some new bag designs and building the stock up for a couple of upcoming sales at Easter. I seem to be going into nunofelting in a big way these days and I love the feel of the bags, especially when I use silk chiffon but it does make the whole bag making process labour intensive.

I do intend to get back to Module 1 just as soon as I get the wrinkles out my hands from felting!

Solid shape design study

As part of chapter 4 I have been playing around with shapes from my sketchbook and preparing designs around those shapes. I drew gumnuts in various forms and in various media. The photo below shows two pages (top) that looked at a representation of the gumnuts, in torn papers and bleach on ink. I developed a flowing shape (in orange, bottom left), from these and created designs from paper cutouts and stamps of this image.

Design 1 (bottom R): diagonal colouring over shape

Design 2: Shape within diamonds
Design 3: rotated and folded shapes

Design 4: New shape coloured in counterchange

Design 5: Shape within overlapping rectangles

Design 6: rectangles cut and replaced

Design 7: strips and displaced shape

Design 8: Shape within letter and writing

Design 9: repeated shapes within lines of writingDesign 10: Figure drawn over the collaged shapes

Design 11: A eye drawn over shapes

Design 12: Collage folded, shape redrawn on top, unfolded then repeated in perpendicular direction

Design 13: negative spaces coloured in collaged design of repeated shapesDesign 14 and 15: negative shapes (striped and solid) from shape collages (eg design 13), in new designs with drawn and ripped verticals
Design 16: Original shapes cut from striped collage of coloured papers, marked outlines of original shape on top

Design 17: Cut, stamped, bleached and dotted shapes of various sizes

Texture studies

I have been working on Chapter 3 texture and surface relief studies from various photos and images included in my small sketchbook pages inspired by trees and other vegetation. I have prepared 4 A3 boards depicting studies on moss, cactii and tree barks. The boards are preliminary composite presentations and the individual components have not been stuck down yet. The components have not yet been labelled on the boards. Each texture piece has been photographed individually after the general board.

A 5th board to come is studying leaf structures.

Board 1 shows texture studies from images of moss. There is a background stamping to represent the moss appearance.

Top details: bullion bars sewn in varying thicknesses of cotton, oversewn in single stitched of perle 5 crochet cotton.

Upper middle details: lengths of fibres free machined onto calico, brushed with xpandaprint and gel

Lower middle left details: fragments of cotton pipe cleaners set in moulding paste, brushed with xpandaprint and heat treated. White acrylic painted over surface

Lower middle right details: strips of cotton gathered and fringed sewn down in horizontal strips, intermingled with crocheted nodules of perle cotton on single chain links

Bottom details: fragments from a moulded plastic draining mat cut and set in paste, oversewn with novelty threads

Board 2 shows textures under a cactus theme

Top left details: Moulding paste stencilled in layers:

Middle left details: shards of template plastic cut and set in paste:

Bottom right details: liquid Sculpey and cotton wool moulded on to painted calico:

Bottom left details: heated tyvek stitched onto calico. Skewer pieces set in PVA and wire 'sewn' over sticks. Treated with sealer and painted in white acrylic:

Bottom right details: pieces of tyvek paper heat treated and stitched onto calico, set in paste

Boards 3 and 4 show texture studies from photos and markings of tree barks:

Middle right detail: strips of handmade paper layers and set in moulding paste.

Middle left detail: paper pulp molded over a mesh structure of wire with "holes" created.

Bottom details: pieces of corrugated card set in twisted mesh:

Top left: threads and Saa bark set in PVA,covered in tissue paper mimiking the monoprint of Saa bark.

Top right details: painted hessian manipulated into shape with PVA solution:

Board 4 (textures of bark):

Top detail: sculpted clay on painted calico covered in PVA tissue paper

Middle detail: paper casting from tree set in moulding paste and PVA
Bottom left detail: cut fibre and coarse salt under PVA and tissue paper

Bottom right detail: stencilled moulding paste covered in PVA tissue paper.

Bugs and Botanica

ATASDA is celebrating its 35th anniverary in 2009 here in Australia and we're having a travelling exhibition entitiled "Exotica". Individual members are making wall hangings, masks, and headdresses in the theme, but collectively we are designing vines in a "Bugs and Botanica" theme to decorate the stands. We have been organised into groups of 4 with each member making a basic vine (from any medium) with one attachment (flower, bug, whatever). Each month, the one of the other 3 members makes another attachment and sends it on - a sort of round robin.

My basic vine and flower attachment is felt and bead based but as yet I have not received any other attachments for it - watch this space.

One of the other members of my group has a vine that is in blues and other pastel colours so I made her this flower. I made about 7 petals from machined lace which were set into liquid Sculpey that had been pigmented with Pearl x pigments. the petals were formed into a flower and held with beading. The finished vines and attachments will have to be packed/unpacked about 5 times as the exhibition tours Australia over 2009 so have to be fairly robust. This flowere is actually quite flexible and squashy because of the rubbery Sculpey - hopefully it will cope with the packing.

This month's attachment to the third member's vine had to be a black or greenish bug that would fit in with his plastic vine made from bag ties, computer tags, etc. I came up with my waspy kind of bug - felt based with small discs of pigmented Sculpey (as above) beaded on , overlapping to make an armoured body. The wings are from machined lace in variegated thread.

Australian wildlife

I've spent the last couple of weeks on summer holiday activities with the family and thought I'd share some of the photos with you all.

We went to Taronga Zoo (on what has become our annual visit) to find a wonderful new sealife area now as well as everything else and to meet the 'babies' born since our last visit. In particular we wanted to see Manifa, the 11 week old baby pigmy hippo, so so cute at only about 18 inches long. Seemingly she'd been unable to stand properly at birth and her mother gradually abandoned her, leaving her to be 'hand reared' at the zoo until strong enough to hopefully go back to her mother.

I managed to embarass my daughter again by walking around with tissue paper taking rubbings etc - not cool I believe, but they inspired me to get back to creating my texture pieces in white - more next week, promise.

We had a week in Tasmania just past, and couldn't leave without visiting the Tasmanian Devil Sanctuary. But boy do those little teeth look sharp, up close! The poor things were looking very hot in the warm weather that week.