This will be an exciting year - Not only is Quilt Art www.quiltart.eu opening our 30th anniversary touring exhibition with two exhibitions - Dialogues (in March in Heidleberg) and Small Talk, (at the Festival of Quilts 2015), but I will also be exhibiting Somerset Level work with South West Textile Group www.southwesttextilegroup.org. - an exhibition called 'Imprints" at the Museum of Somerset in Taunton in the fall. Through Our Hands, www.throughourhands.co.uk is another realitively new group which is making waves in the textile world with a wonderful e-magazine and online profile (also an exhibition gallery at Festival of Quilts this year).
A very exciting time for Art Textiles in the UK, at the moment and I am so fortunate to be part of it all. More about these groups and exhibitions wil follow.
What I am sharing today is some starting points for 'The Sewing Machine Project" with Studio 21. You can see images of our past exhibition 'Chineses Whispers' and members work on www.stuido21textilart.co.uk
We are a group of textile artists with very diverse styles who are graduates of the Diploma in Stitched Textiles from East Berkshire College, Windsor. We are having an exhibition at South Hill Park, Bracknell later in the year and I hope to share some of my own work in progress in this blog.
We have been inspired by the sewing machine - the history of making and everything from bits and pieces to sewing machine parts and beyond. My colour inspired by Husqvarna green. I always start with sketchbooks... for me a way of making marks, recording information and just getting 'into' the flow of a new subject. I love wax resists on brusho painted paper as well as bold marks with the paint brush, and pen. Something will come of this I think. I already have done a sewing sample, so watch this space. Inspiration from monoprints will be next.
On another note.....
I might need some feedback here.... Would there be interest in some simple techniques and design sharing on this blog. Definitely not an online course, but frequent exercises, mini challenges to try? These would be based mostly on surface paper techniques, sketchbooks, line and mark making with perhaps some composition thrown in. Please leave a comment if you think it might be a consideration I know those of you reading this are probably very busy with your own work, but as I write this post (and I am hoping to do this on a regular basis) I could include a pdf or two. .....Just a thought.
Thanks for reading