Ongoing organisational activities

Jenny's discussions with Mansfield Museum and Art Gallery:. 

The Museum has the exhibition booked from 5th May to 2nd June 2012 and this gives us an extra week.  Setting up date to be agreed - between 30th April to 4th May - one day will be sufficient.

The Festival of Stitch is on 28th April and Kickstart items can be delivered there as usual.

The Museum would like photographs and/or drawings for publicity but not until January. 

The Museum will take 25% commission on sales.

The items made as a result of 'Kimono and all things Japanese' a part collaboration with 1623 Shakespeare Company will share the same exhibition space which should ensure an eclectic and exciting exhibition.

QR code

http://bit.ly/odb82z.qr

Click on this link and you will see our QR code. Apparently if you have a smart phone you cabn download an App to read QR codes - scanning this will enable a link to this blog. I don't have a smartphone but perhaps someone could let me know if it works?  We can add this to any advertising, exhibition posters etc and it will enable the viewer to read all about us...

Metabolic Images?

Metabolism

What happens to the body during exercise? Why is it good for us? How does all this tie in with diet?

Have a look on google images at Metabolism - there are some really interesting patterns produced by the health industry...

How is all that work coming along?

If any of you would like to share some images of works in progress, or ideas you are pursuing please get in touch and share with others - no need to wait until the exhibition to showcase your talents!

Thank you to the three people who have taken part in the survey so far. I would be really grateful if more of you would do so - click on the link underneath the slide show of workshop pictures - it only takes a minute or two.

Stop Press:

Translation Days 17th September at Swinford and 2nd October at Dunholm cancelled due to insufficient bookings received

Our other book sponsor...

 http://www.thesilkroute.co.uk/

Kickstart 2012-13

Whilst the next Kickstart will be about so much more than the written word, you might be interested in getting ahead of the game with a look at a current exhibition of calligraphy by the Northampton Scribes. "A Walk on the Write Side"

On my way back from a short holiday in Belgium I was determined this year to get to visit the Mackintosh house at Derngate Northampton, so with a considerable detour (involving getting to Kelmscott Manor in Gloucestershire too) we duly arrived in Northampton and managed to fit in the Northampton museum too. It is well worth a visit.
13 August - 9 October An exhibition celebrating the 15th anniversary of the formation of the Northampton scribes. FREE http://www.northampton.gov.uk/downloads/2011_May_-_Aug.pdf

Calder - Movement

you tube footage of Alexander Calder creating his circus.

A book suggested in the Kickstart booklet is 'Calder Sculpture'  by Alexander Rower. ISBN 0-7893-0134-2

This artist brought the mobile into modern art. He is an all time master of the form.

Calder Cirque

There are many images of his mobiles to be seen in google images for example

Calder Mobile

Consider different ways artists have conveyed movement :



Bridget Riley

Eadweard Muybridge

Umberto Boccioni

Translation days

 The next workshop will take place in September this year - not long to go...

If you didn't manage to get to one of the artist led workshops, and feel you would still like to join in Kickstart this year Pam Keeling will be running two 'translation days' for those who feel they would like advice and/or guidance on work they have started either on their own or at one of the summer workshops.



skiing repeat image from the book courtesy Toni Stanford

For those who have done at least one of the summer workshops, there will be some suggestions as to how to interpret the paper work into fabric and thread. 

For those who didn't, but may have started to produce ideas on their own - not only might they be able to glean ideas coming from the workshop suggestions, but individual tuition will be given to all.

These workshops are priced at £28 for the day, and you will need to bring your ideas and resources with you (and, of course, lunch).

Pam will cover a range of product development ideas, useful developments from your  inspiration into textile production for the exhibition.

1. Saturday 17^th September 2011

at Swinford Village Hall, Chapel Street, Swinford Nr. Lutterworth, Leicestershire, LE17 6AZ

or

2. Sunday 2^nd October 2011

at Dunholme Village Hall, Honeyholes Lane, Dunholm, Lincoln LN2 3SU

Please contact Penny Marsden to book a place: pennymarsden@gmail.com

One of our book sponsors

http://www.claresbeautifulbeads.com/



http://www.claresbeautifulbeads.com/

Collograph play day with Janine Pope

On Sunday 24th July a few more Guild members cut, stabbed, punched and shellac'd their way to creating a collograph plate for printing purposes.

Work in progres

Janine, part Scandinavian, is an artist working with print, text and fabric to create individual pieces. An award winning bookbinder she began the day showing a few of the things she creates under the pseudonym of
Mud Rabbit.

One of Janine's glorious collograph plates

We built up low relief textures on mount board, carving into the board too,; we used bits if vintage haberdashery, eggshells, shiny surface card etc to create texture - this became our printing 'plate.'

Pam's synchronized swimmers

Everything was held down with wood glue and varnished with shellac; the plates dried in the sun outside while we ate lunch before getting our hands dirty.

Janine discussed the work of artist Rex Ray - and Lance Letscher, artworks made by a similar process of collage.

Heavy weight cartridge paper and 'Fabriano Rosaspina' paper (there's a name to conjure with)  were cut to size and put to soak in a water bath whilst we were shown the methods of  blind embossing, inking plates and running plates through the roller press.

Janine with Pam at the small press

The rest of the afternoon was ours to experiment - with sandwiches of newsprint, inked (or not) plate, fabriano, newsprint, blanket and a good bit of exercise for upper arm definition we all came away with printed designs.

Nichola exercising on the big roller

Many of course worked on fabrics - we're textile artists, what else? Some had followed ideas around the kickstart theme, and water played a significant part in many ideas; others just played with the process.

Carol inking up her watery themed plate

Another generous artist, providing multi coloured inks, papers, and all the equipment necessary for a fabulous workshop - thanks Janine!

Blind embossing - inspired by the previous days' cartoon workshop

Comments from the feedback sheets:

"A very enjoyable day - lots of energy from the tutor"
"...this tutor was absolutely brilliant!"
"... excellent - fantastic day"

" completely ignorant of technique but by the end of the day I had made three good prints - excellent tutor!"

Cartooning with 'Gilby' 23rd July 2011

A small but select group got together at Asfordby Village Hall on Saturday 23rd July to learn cartooning techniques with Derby-based artist Andy Gilbert.

One of the lines written in the Kickstart booklet suggests using the lines used in comic strips to denote movement.

On the basis of that we booked Andy as something very different to the usual textile related workshop format.

Andy had provided everything for the day- each participant was given a new sketchbook, pencil and marker pen to work with. It is unsual to attend workshops with little or no requirements list and for this seasons Kickstart we have been very fortunate in the generosity of our tutors.

He introduced us to the world of commercial cartooning, in particular the greetings card market; how he goes about designing and ideas for humerous captions, and all interspersed with guidance on drawing the cartoons.

Tricks were introduced in order to simplify designs for print reduction, giving direction to the eyes of the character, hairstyles, and detail to create individuals.



hairstyle alone can change gender, but add an earing and eyelashes and Hey Presto!

Changing expressions - here we started with the same basic character drawn four times on the page
By changing the placement of the iris, the shape of the mouth and the hair and eyebrows we have four very different characters.

Pam's Pooch

A child is created by making the eyes more circular, the nose smaller and the face more squashed and not elongated - add freckles a smile and his favourite pooch ......If only it were that simple?

After a lunch taken away from the work, and a good chat, we returned to be set a 10 minute challenge - given the suggestion of 'cooking' we each had to draw a characer in a setting with a caption - humerous if possible.   I am sure we all felt a bit daunted but everyone rose to the task and we had men with camping stoves, dogs and lobsters doing the cooking, wonderful kitchen settings with pots and pans and many varied characters.

as the comments on one feedback form suggested: "It was good to have everyone moving together as a group"

We then learnt to add the bodies to our characters and make them move: walking, jogging and running:

Dawn's whistling jogger

Andy provided some wonderful bright, vibrant color markers to complete the sketches:

Joyce's first lady?

and each participant was provided with a good quality A3 Bristol Board to make a final piece of art



Everyone had the opportunity to ask questions throughout the session, Andy very obligingly gave suggestions of ways to draw many characters on request from Lions, to Mice, to a snoring man in his bed  - the antithesis to movement perhaps?

comments from the feedback forms:

"Tutor able to answer all specific questions from individuals - very pleased to help and illustrate what he meant"
"Confidence to attempt some cartoon drawing - a brilliant session!"
"learnt how to draw cartoon characters; very useful for my kickstart project. A lot of showing + doing + practice - very well led session"
" the use of simple lines to create movement, atmosphere and emotion - achieved all my learning objectives"

Thank you Andy for an inspiring and fulfilling workshop.

Muscle -moving on?

Take a typical image from a medical dictionary:
look at ways another artist may depict similar images. I like the work of Peter Randall Page and whilst I don't think this is where he gets his inspiration I can see some similarity to muscle tone:


on Google I found a student designer using Peter Randall Page as inspiration in 2009;
By 2011 Scottacus Anthony was producing this:


and it isn't too far of a stretch of the imagination to look at Peter Randall Page's aquatint etchings to see where it might have come from:
and all this from looking up muscle images...

Movement

Check this blog out for ideas in movement:

http://theartofed.com/2010/06/08/showing-movement-in-artwork/

Inspiration...?

How about this for a pixelation of an idea for sporty goings-on? A friend has taken her son and friends to the snowdome to celebrate the end of GCSE'S and this pixelated picture - posted on facebook - already looks like a piece of textile artwork

The next workshop days are looming fast!

The four Artist’s Education days are concerned with starting points and looking at how other artists may develop ideas into designs that will be useful for a variety of techniques and processes (research and design development). The workshops are all 10am to 4pm and cost £28 for the day- excellent value!

The first two have taken place - see blog posts below.
 

The third is on Saturday 23^rd July 2011 at Asfordby Parish Hall, Asfordby Nr. Melton Mowbray, with Derby based cartoonist and humorous illustrator Andy Gilbert.

The fourth is on Sunday 24^th July 2011  at Asfordby Parish Hall, Asfordby Nr. Melton Mowbray, with artist and printmaker Janine Pope.

E-mail pennymarsden@gmail.com to book a place asap

Jo Owen Workshop 26th June 2011

Sheffield based textile artist Jo Owen is an experienced artist and tutor; her work reflects an interest in the human form through clothing the body and figure drawings. The fascinating pattern and textural qualities produced by painting, manipulating, layering and stitching fabric and paper are endlessly explored in her work.



Michelle's prints - never underestimate the humble potato!

Extract from the kickstart book: "Bodies in water and water movement are endlessly fascinating. Swimmers, divers, sporting events or people playing, they all become distorted by water movement. The combination of bodies, costumes, tile shapes, water, reflections, lane markers all add to the pattern formed."

Capturing moving images can be difficult, movement can be difficult to draw, and Jo worked with quick sketches and lots of words to capture the moment. She used reflection as a design source and as a method of reminding herself of what she had seen.

Pva'd tissue, marbling, photographic images, and repeat pattern are all sources for imagery distorted and fragmented by the movement of water, and the play of light and reflection on its surface.

Sarah's swimmers

 In the morning Jo guided us on her own journeys through water, with exercises and design ideas; the weather was glorious and all our efforts on paper and fabric dried quickly in the sun enabling us to move on. We used sheers and shimmer, calico and paper, layering and stitching to build a number of ideas to take away and move forward.

printed sheer fabrics

Jo Gave her time to everyone individually in the afternoon to discuss ideas and ways to move forward. It was a hot bright day - probably the hottest this year?

The humble potato (with a little dressing of acrylic paint for good measure) allowed the creation of crowd scenes, cycle helmets, poolside and splashes... everyone had a thoroughly rewarding day - thank you Jo for your inspiration and guidance, the comments from the feedback sheets reflect the success of the day:

'This is my first Kickstart and I'm really pleased I've joined'
'..in all extending my horizons..'
'Interesting techniques, very good tutor'
'Jo spent lots of time talking to each person about their work and making suggestions...'

layered viewers by the poolside?

Graeme Reed Workshop 25th June 2011



Jenny's Ice Hockey Player



Creating Crowds

Watching the game

Toni in creative mode

An excellent workshop today with Graeme Reed, an Ashbourne based artist/illustrator.

An extract from the Kickstart book suggested crowds:

 “Lots of people! What a daunting thought.

… skiing … felt as if the slopes were crowded with skiers all rushing at me. To capture this feeling I traced a line diagram from a ‘How To’ book. I then drew it again and again until the page was full of overlapping figures. 

The drawing could be worked on to make it more abstract. The figures could be coloured in the bright colours that skiers wear. The outline could be quilted. The figures could be drawn in much more detail.

If you imagine an aerial shot of The Great North Run crossing one of the bridges over the Tyne, all you can see are the heads and shoulders with only the figures at the front and sides having bodies and legs. This is true for lots of crowd shots.”

Graeme identified ways of interpreting crowd scenes; he was generous with both his ideas and his resources,.

We started with quick warm up drawing exercises using photographs of crowd scenes (and imagination); we created line drawings to try and capture the mood of the crowd, continuous line and blind continuous line drawings, using pen and pencil.

Graeme then introduced mono printing techniques and various coloured inks; throughout the day we worked with 4 versions:

Line drawn, Stencilling with vectorgraphic images, Wiping to create dark and light, and Painterly mono prints introducing more colour.

Some images were more abstract and created the ‘feel’ of the crowd, some were clearer and representational; quality of mark and line, colour shape and tone were all employed differently to produce an array of images to move on into stitch.

Comments from the feedback forms:

"a thoroughly good lesson!"

"Wonderful  Tutor"

"Really inspiring workshop  thank you"

"really enjoyed the workshop, could have happily carried on for much longer" 

Thank you Graeme for a brilliant day!