3D Flower making with Phiona Richards

12 participants took part in the penultimate Kickstart workshop for 2013 with the lovely Phiona Richards The Rooftop Gallery in Corby was a well hidden but spacious venue for the event which gave us the chance to try many different styles in paper for potential transference into fabric and stitch. common Kusudama flowers, lillies, medallions, Venus Kusudama and many others decorated the tables at teh end of an inspiring and tiring day many thanks Phiona

Ruth Brown Cyanotype Prints

My thanks to Ann Pocklington for putting together her impressions of the workshop held at the 20:21 Gallery in Scunthorpe on Saturday 17th August 2013. This was a really enjoyable workshop lead by Ruth Brown, experimenting with the photographic (not dyeing) process of cyanotyping. Fabric choice The process needs a natural fabric and the choice will affect the results. Cotton works well, as does silk vicose velvet. Silk noile has silk gum, sericin, in it which resists the chemicals used and gives a spotted result. Woven viscose gives a textured result and spun rayon gives a very crisp image. Although these last two are man-made fabrics, they are made from plant cellulose, so react as natural fibres. Applying the chemicals Ruth showed us how to frame up our natural fibre fabric to paint on the light reactive chemical mixture with a wide brush known as a hake. A brush without a metal band is ideal, as metal will react with the mixture. The fabric doesn’t need stretching taught, just tight enough to stop it touching the work surface below the frame. The chemical mixture consisted of equal volumes of of ferric ammonium citrate (25 grams per 100 cm3 water), mixed with potassium ferricyanide (10 grams of per 100 cm3 water). These solutions will deteriorate over time when mixed, but will keep for about three months if kept separately at a constant, cool temperature in the dark. The mixture is used to moisten, not soak, the framed fabric, avoiding the wood and wiping off any spills with bleach. Different ways of applying the mixture will affect the result, for example using a sponge, a dry brush or spritzing the mixture will give a textured image. Drying The fabric was left to dry. As the reaction to develop the colour needs ultra-violet (UV) light, this can be done in normal daylight or artificial light as long as there is no direct sunlight. Printing Between us we used a variety of objects including ferns, flowers, seed heads, grasses, lace, cut out letters, buttons, chains, and peel offs. The objects were placed on the fabric and left to develop under a sun bed until the fabric turned grey (green-grey on silk). A facial solarium or very bright sunlight will work. Fragile objects like feathers can be flattened under a sheet of glass - most glass does not stop all UV light, but will reduce the amount reaching the fabric, and some glass - eg. glass made for conservatory window panes -is designed to really reduce the amount going through. Another way of flattening objects is by sticking them onto clear sticky backed plastic. We had two rolls to choose from – and to Ruth’s surprise one completely blocked UV and gave no results. The moral is try any material used to flatten objects before going ahead. I was particularly keen to try the effects of using a digital image and I was absolutely delighted with the result. I had already chosen a photograph and scanned it into my computer. I turned it into a greyscale image and increased the contrast in a fairly heavy handed way before resizing it to print it onto the rough side of an inkjet compatible acetate. Ruth advised us to print not at the ‘best photo’ or ‘transparency’ settings, but to use normal glossy paper setting. The acetate can be fixed to the fabric by using a temporary adhesive spray such as 505, Other ways of altering the light reaching the fabric are by laying bubble wrap over it, letting the sunlight be defracted by a shallow cut glass bowl or scrunching the fabric – perhaps scrunching, flattening and rescrunching during the developing time. Rinsing When the colour of the fabric had developed, the pieces were well rinsed. A few drops of hydrogen peroxide added to the rinse water speeded up the development of the blue colour and this was rinsed out before continuing. Preserving the cyanotype When thoroughly rinsed, the cyanotype can be dried. To preserve it, avoid rubbing, iron on the back, and keep it out of strong UV light. Wash it if necessary in products designed for wool or silk. Keep it away from alkalis which will turn it yellow. Other colour effects The colour can be deliberately changed with the use of alkali to give a yellow tinge. Strong tea will produce a sepia tint, while pure tannin will give a reddish brown. The fabric can be procion dyed or steam fix silk dyed before cyanotyping. As cyanotype colour is translucent it acts as a glaze and the underdying shows through. Alternatively, the finished print can be overdyed with steam fixed silk dyes or heat set silk paints. The positioning of these can be controlled by using an outliner such a gutta to restrict the overdying to only parts of the cyanotype. Health warnings Use rubber gloves and a face mask if you are sensitive to the chemicals used. UV light in any form can harm cells and is potentially carcenogenic. Follow the safety instructions that apply to any light source you use. Hydrogen peroxide is one of the strongest known oxidising agents and should be used in dilute concentrations and with caution. The fact that it is used to decompose dead tissue around wounds should give a clue as to the importance of following instructions on the container in which you buy it! Ann Pocklington

Design workshops with Alysn

'Getting good ideas from nowhere and making them better'. Alysn led two workshops for Kickstart this year, and the slideshow to the right are pictures taken from a very successful day at St Pauls Wilford Hill near Nottingham. 22 participants were led through a series of exercises consisting of group work in the morning starting with mind maps of associated words, to picking out areas for repeat pattern; with time to develop initial ideas in the afternoon. The excercises could work for any subject matter and though this was based on flowers at the beginning you can see the progression to often very abstract ideas at the end of the day.

Georgia O'Keeffe

Georgia O'keeffe used flowers as subject matter for decades; concentrating on the centre of the flower. Read here okeeffemuseum.org what Georgia herself thought of the sexual connotations of her paintings.

Do you have a look at other blogs - the Sketchbook Challenge this month is garden doodles - have a look at what others are doing and challenge yourself!

One of Lesley Riley's experiments

Back to ScienzeNaturali again - see the faces & figures?

There will be an additional workshop with Alysn Midgelow-Marsden on Sunday 28th July - Venue TBC - watch this space.

There are still plenty of places for the August, September and October workshops

Flora Grubb Gardens

Flora Grubb Gardens

For a different outlook on garden centres - where you might find much inspiration take a look at Flora Grubb in San Francisco - virtually of course!

Back to ScienzeNaturali - what about flowers that flatter to deceive?

Scienze Naturali

Scienze Naturali, a set on Flickr.

If you have a facebook page you can follow Scienze Naturali for photos like these..

Joan Miro on art and gardens

Quelques fleurs pour des ami

Joan Miro wrote "I think of my studio as a vegetable garden. Here there are artichokes, over there potatoes. The leaves have to be cut so the vegetables can grow. At a certain moment you must prune. I work like a gardener or a winegrower. Everything takes time.  My vocabulary of forms for example did not come to me all at once.  It formulated itself in spite of  me. Things follow their natural course. They grow, they ripen, you have to graft; you have to water, as you do for lettuce. Things ripen in my mind."

Landscape with rabbit and flower

 The front cover of this year's book is a design by Angie Lewin
Angie Lewin studied art and then printmaking in London in the 1980s. After working as an illustrator she then went on to study horticulture followed by a return to printmaking.

Angie looks at plant communities on an intimate level, even the fine lines of insect eggs on a flower bud are observed in her work. Still lives often incorporate seedpods, grasses, flints and dried seaweed collected on walking and sketching trips.

Angie also refers to her interest in the work of Eric Ravilious "A Wedgwood cup designed by Ravilious, may contain feathers and seedheads"

The cup and saucer illustrated in her design above is one of Ravilious's Garden design:

the designs in this collection vary, and include gardening implements as well as plants. Have a look at other designs -such as the cucumber house...
 or flowers on a cottage table:

'Gardens & Flowers' Gallery Forty-Nine's new exhibition highlights the plight of pollinating insects, and celebrates the centenary of the Chelsea Flower Show.

An innovative group of Yorkshire artists gained inspiration for the work in our forthcoming exhibition from an Everingham flower farm.   ‘Gardens and Flowers’ opens on Saturday 1st June with a preview from 12 - 4 pm. It will be a big, beautiful exhibition with an installation of 2D and 3D work by acclaimed Yorkshire artists including Corinne Young, Shirley Vauvelle, Claire West, Samantha Bryan, Sharon Winter, Chris Moss, Esther Munday, Margaret Hockney, Jill Ford, Helaina Sharpley, George Hainsworth, Margaret McLellan, Lee Karen Stow and Meg Burkill.   Inspired by and linked to the abundant wildlife destinations in the East Yorkshire area, the exhibition sets out to reflect the beauty of native British flowers and to highlight the plight of pollinating insects, and the importance of our gardens and parks to their recovery.

Corinne Young, who has also curated the exhibition, said: “We wanted to create an exciting mixed exhibition that was inspired by nature and wildlife, and were delighted when Gill Hodgson of Flowers from the Farm offered to let the artists gather source material at her farm near Pocklington.  

 

I’m passionate about nature and have done lots of research into pollinating insects and the importance of nectar and pollen rich flowers and was thinking about organizing a nature-inspired exhibition, so Gill’s invitation was very opportune.”

 

The Gallery is also involving many of the area’s nature tourism destinations in the exhibition, including the RHS, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Events (especially of note is the Wolds Wildflower event on 16th June), RSPB, Yorkshire Coast Nature, Be the Start (B&Q)and The Secret Gardens (open gardens taking place as part of a week-long summer festival in Gallery Forty-Nine's local area of Old Town, Bridlington).

 

The exhibition runs from 1st - 29th June, and will feature nature-inspired textiles, paintings, sculptures and ceramics.  The exhibition will then move on to the Art & Rose Gallery in Pocklington on 6th July.

Just take one very small area to begin

There are many ways of looking at the subject – it is limited only by your own imagination!  For this set of images I have taken one tiny idea from flowers

They go to seed and pollinate

Scanning electron microscope images of seeds

 

 

First selection just taking one very small area of study in flowers, and look at the way other artists have used it

Peter Randall Page for example

a woven willow star anise seed at Kew

This piece is tie-dye - the fabric tied around seeds to create the pattern

this piece is Seed, bird map by Cas Holmes