epocktextiles

Paris Day 1

2012-01-16T22:58:00.000-08:00

Place St Michel on Day 1 - I'll blame the jetlag for cutting off the top. We had an appartment in the Rue St Andre des Arts in the 6th, & this was at the end of our street. By the end of the 2 weeks we hardly even looked at it, & I didn't think to take another picture. The weather was cold (but not freezing) with constant drizzle - just enough to need an umbrella most of the time.

Starting again

2012-01-16T22:42:00.000-08:00

The excitement of having time and calm to create again. My sketch habit isn't ingrained enough to be able to continue with it anywhere and everywhere. I happily packed pencils, sketchbook etc for a 2 week stay in Paris after Christmas - but I didn't touch them. I guess I thought I wouldn't do anything over there justice. I looked and absorbed instead.

Before Christmas I had become stumped with following Sian Martins sketchbook project - with a colour section. I have done some colour reading, and am now quite overwhelmed by the amount of information. I knew there was a colour wheel, but the way that pigments in different colours affect how they go on the paper? I certainly didn't know anything about that.

So, back to "Sketching on the right side of the Brain". Did a few hands to get back into the swing, & then worked a hand on a graphite coloured ground.

Fun. (and you can see where I rushed with my wrist in the bottom left corner)

Merry Christmas to Everyone

2011-12-10T18:09:00.001-08:00

Its always a bit touch & go as to how much creativity gets formally recorded in the lead up to Christmas - the silly season. So here is some silliness from our house .....

The Elf Moodle

and ... with friend

Visitors come & go

2011-12-10T18:06:00.001-08:00

Superb Parrot

Butcher Bird

... and its final

2011-11-28T18:01:00.000-08:00

I think I'm over drawing still life and doing my own thing for now - even with colour thrown in. I need to get back on track with Sian's project, and follow someone else's instructions. Cant leave without posting the last 2 - completely sketched with inktense blocks, & over a couple of sessions to let each layer dry before the next.

The bubble vase, previously

and showing progression over 2 different layers

and the paper bags, previously

and showing progression over 2 different layers

perhaps suffered from overexposure

Vase with Gerbera

2011-11-27T02:11:00.000-08:00

We were given this little vase as a wedding present 27 years ago. The gerbera was given to K 2 weeks ago before she went to France - its a sturdy little one.
I had the mantra "leave it for best" drummed into me when I was young. But I'm not going to do it anymore! I've been leaving the inktense crayons, thinking, "I'll do these practice, learning sketches with the cheaper ones". Why? Why? Why? The inktense are so much easier to work with. Once the ink crayon has been brushed with water it is wataerproof, so another layer sits on top. The paper doesn't degrade as much with the colour application either.

and here are my sketches.

Left to Right (and chronologically)

water colour pencil and texta

water colour pencil and crayon

inktense crayons

... and I couldn't help fiddling later

Snuggling out of the rain

2011-11-26T22:34:00.000-08:00

Last week when it was pouring with rain, these two Rainbow Lorikeets sought shelter and snuggled on the back deck

and this King Parrot sat and chatted to itself

Back to the Bubble Vase

2011-11-25T22:22:00.000-08:00

I am constantly amazed at how putting pictures on this blog makes deficiencies really stand out. I'm not going to go back to the beginning & rework everything, but sometimes I just cant resist fiddling with sketches from the last few days. I allowed my bubble vases to sit on surfaces (with water colour crayons - the pencils are a bit scratchy and hard on the paper - now that it is dyed).

and remember without the surfaces

Paper Bag journey

2011-11-24T13:24:00.000-08:00

I have some crumpled paperbags which I am studying and sketching

The one on the left was done about 2 weeks before the one on the right. I am trying to see the main lines, and to identify 3 major shades. It helped with the latest one that I had a strong light source from the top, so the lines and tones were quite well defined. I used watercolour pencils for the shading, then white watercolour crayon for the highlights.

Continuing highlights

2011-11-23T13:16:00.000-08:00

My camera has just winged its way to France with K, so I've had to dig out another, & I had a very long argument with technology about the orientation of the photos when I post them here. I lost and took the photos again. This is a lovely glass port decanter - I just don't seem to be able to fit an object on a page.

Learning the Highlights

2011-11-22T00:56:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago at an ATASDA social day, we used the Brusho dyes kindly donated by Sandra Meech (way back in May). I transfromed my latest sketchbook into a lovely riot of colour. Resists were added randomly as was a bit of bleaching. Not a scary pristine page to be seen. At the same social day we had some t-pots and vases set up for sketching.

In all these examples I actually sketched the t-pot first and then painted the page. Above, extra colour was added with water colour pencil. Below, shading was done with fine texta and highlights with white chinagraph pencil.

Here is my favourite bubble vase sketched on the dyed page the next day. I like sketching and painting on the dyed pages - the watercolour pencils sit nicely on top of the coloured dye. However, must remember to make the pieces actually sit on surface, give them a shadow.

To retail ... or not?

2011-11-21T22:24:00.001-08:00

Its a steep learning curve. I'll take it slowly. Didn't do well at the Fair - and I think its because I am suffering from all round "puffy chest" syndrome - ie thinking my work is worth more than anyone else thinks its worth! So I have reduced the prices on everything - ePOCK's are now $27 and postART cards are $8 each or 2 for $12. I know what the buyer thinks (after all, I was one at the North Shore Craft Group's Boutique Christmas Sale last Friday) - you have to really love it and the price has to be right. So I'll see how they go at Marie-France now.

And yes, I know its boring talking about sales.

So thats it for now.

I've been doing lots of everything ...

2011-11-16T02:01:00.001-08:00

... but most important right now is getting ready for the Lindesay Christmas Fair with my friend Mally Ellis from Grasshoppers and Knit For Life!. I have ePOCK's and postART, and Mally has her beautifully soft hand knitted items.

Grasshoppers modern, yet classic and timeless, simple and soft hand knitwear designs are HAND made from 100% high quality cotton by the Knit for Life! co-operative of over 200 indigenous women in the South-East rural areas of Zimbabwe.

Grasshoppers is Australian designed for babies wear, children's wear, adult jumpers (special orders only) and homewares. Each piece is hand made stitch by careful stitch with dedication and pride by the Knit for Life co-operative of knitters.

Grasshoppers is a Fair Trade registered label, providing sustainable income to a community of women and their families in Zimbabwe since the business started in Australia in Oct 2001. All revenue from sales goes back into the long term sustainability of the business.

The Fair is on from Thursday 17th to Saturday 19th November, 10 - 4 daily at Lindesay House, Darling Point Sydney.

Retail and marketing - friend or foe

2011-11-03T15:04:00.000-07:00

I have developed (maybe its just because I'm just thinking about it at the moment) a bit of a love/hate relationship with retail and marketing - and the ideas behind the buying and selling of the goods in our lives. I mean, they are not called "goods" for nothing - no one would be tempted to go and buy "bads". I've always been the recipient of marketing information, & now, with no idea of what I'm doing (apart from self directed research) I'm making and selling "goods". And, my word, what absolutely marvelous goods they are. I've been rescuing lovely hand embroidered doileys (thats what our grandmothers spent their spare time doing) from left, right and centre, and morphing them into contemporary-vintage electronic pockets (epocks) to carry mobile phones and music players. They really complement this summer's fashions. My first batch is now available for purchase from Marie-France Group - Boutique Hair Salon and Art Gallery in West Pymble in Sydney.

I've created an advertising page

and here are some of the little pockets themselves

Feathered Fascinators

2011-11-02T17:50:00.000-07:00

The Melbourne Cup was run yesterday. I had my fascinator all ready to go, but someone borrowed it to wear to school. I thought just the one feather was quite lovely.

For some people, one feather is just not enough though ...

Beware the Protea

2011-10-25T23:25:00.000-07:00

What was that I said yesterday, "might try the protea again"? I became obsessed with getting those stamens. I was using so many layers of watercolours, I even had to move onto some canvas paper (4) and some water colour paper (11 & 12) rather than my (rather cheap) sketchbook. I even remembered I had some inktense blocks to use. The first set of photos are part way through ...

... and these are the same 4 pictures after I called a truce ... (with the Protea stamens).

My brain was exhausted. With my reading of Betty Edwards "Drawing on the right side of the Brain" book, I finally realised that the task of "playing" with the effects of different media (with my science background this became "experimenting" with layers and effects) was being controlled by my left brain, and the drawing was right brain. I became very frustrated and confused, and it turned out to be not such an enjoyable session. I think I even started to lose sight of it being a flower.

I HAD TO GET THAT DETAIL AND SHADING RIGHT

A flower sits up in the air - why did this one end up needing to sit on a surface?

Anyway, I learnt that it was good to start with a dark ground layer. Dark inktense blocks on wet paper did this well. Once it is dry, the ink is permanent & doesn't bleed any more. Then the red went on in sharp strokes onto dry paper - mix the reds up, and brush over each stroke with a wet brush to dissolve the ink onto the page. Lastly the pale colours for the highlights. Inktense pencils would have been better than the blocks for this. I have a white chinagraph pencil, and its great for drawing a white line over all sorts of surfaces, & worked well here. The layers and variety of colour and stroke thickness seemed to provide the keys for "success". These wouldn't win any prizes for Botanical illustration - but thats not what I set out to do.

Day 11 - colouring

2011-10-21T23:13:00.000-07:00

I rejected my aqua theme, as I wanted to do a capsicum, so its an orange/red theme. I have some red fabric for the ground, a protea flower, a capsicum and an ornate red frame dont want to do the frame just now tho' - so I need 1 more item. Now that I've finished for the day I realise I could get a nastursium flower. Do that tomorrow.

(It's a very wonky capsicum)

I want to practice drawing and painting the capsicum and the flower before starting on the project task (gosh I'm glad I'm not already enrolled in a course - I have a lot of skills to learn and techniques to get the hang of first). Here is a page of capsicum sketch paintings using some different mediums.

Clockwise from top left : watercolour pencil (Derwent), watercolour crayons, watercolour pencils (Micador) on tea bag stuck down with golden matte medium, watercolour pencils (Micador) and Kohinoor watercolours - round white palatte - the ink ones. My attentiveness to detail peaked with the bottom right one.

Then I started on the protea flower - in the Kokinoor watercolours. Had a bit of trouble trying to get all the flower stamens - I think my left brain had taken over and it all seemed a lot of trouble. Might try that again tomorrow.

NEW from epocktextiles

2011-10-20T18:43:00.000-07:00

I haven't done any quilting for a long while now, as I concentrate on the artistic side of my creativity. I've spent some time with my sewing machine producing these lovely "electronic pockets". Perfect for a phone or music player. The beautifully embroidered doileys would never have seen the light of day if not for me ... and maybe you ... You can purchase them by contacting me directly

from the stitching ladies in India

2011-10-19T17:59:00.000-07:00

I love the contact with my quilting friends. We recently made a quilt for Janet using sitched squares from Fiona Wright in India - see Our Pukka Place. The quilt doesn't have a right or a wrong side - they are both as beautiful as each other. The pieced stripey blocks on the first side are finely stitched with running stitch (kantha stitching) by the ladies of the stitching project.

the first side

the other side

Here, the black blocks with the kantha stitch are the other side of the stitching project blocks. The "wonky" pieced blocks are ours - foundation pieced onto the plain fabrics showing on the first side.
The whole quilt was constructed as "quilt as you go" with the black tram lines on the back stitched by hand on both edges.

the Princess and the Pea

2011-10-18T17:43:00.000-07:00

Do you know the story of the Princess and the pea

... was the princess well enough bred to be able to feel a pea under 20 feather mattresses? ...

... well, here is Princess Amber ...

For Claire - fingers crossed for tonight

2011-10-17T18:22:00.000-07:00

My friend Claire has a big function on tonight, so I have my fingers crossed that everything will be smooth sailing and successful.

I think there is a little bit of "gestalt" here.

A step on from "pure contour drawing"

2011-10-17T18:17:00.000-07:00

Time flies by, and I am determined to continue drawing. Here, I am really concentrating on the edges and the spaces in between. Betty Edwards speaks of these as the "perception of edges - line or contour drawings" and "perception of spaces - negative spaces".

I kept 1 eye closed here - this is meant to put it into 1 plane, or 2 dimensional, and didn't rub anything out.

This just gave me a stiff neck as I tried not to move & change my focus!

There is also "perception of relationships - perspective and proportion".

Both eyes open here.

and luckily I have extra glasses

Then there is the "perception of light and shadows - shading" and my favourite - the "perception of the gestalt - the 'thingness' of the thing"! I've got a lot of work to do on these last 2.

.. and on another tangent

2011-10-08T21:38:00.000-07:00

Last week I went to a 1 day workshop with Pam de Groot organised by ATASDA. We made this amazingly fine felt - I had fun adding a fragment from here to there and a fragment from there to here.

Now it just needs some delicate stitching

Carving it up

2011-10-08T21:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we carved at an ATASDA Social Day. I managed to leave everything at the front door at home, so I did my carving at home last night. Stamp carving - into softish lino type stuff.

I made 2 stamps - carved the opposite pieces away - just to see what sort of difference is created. I do love my banksia imagery, & I like the idea of using my own stamps to personalise my artwork in every way.

I have also wanted to make my own stencil for a while, using a different banksia image. I got to and did it this morning.

quite dramatic I think!

Why epocktextiles?

2011-10-08T21:07:00.000-07:00

I have been making little bags/pouches/pockets like this for a little while now. Hopefully I will find somewhere to sell them. I need to make some mony to feed my voracious textile art obsession. I have these lovely sandwich tray covers, & I enjoy giving them a second life. Just think of the time that went into their creation. So this is just one ePOCK - it is an electronicPOCKET, or maybe an essentialsPOCKET. There is a cord to wear it over the shoulder or to tie around the waist, or the loop on the back is large enough to thread a belt through.

..... a very vintage look .....

..... teamed with some eye poppping fabric on the back & inside .....

opened to the outside on the left ... and the inside on the right

Day 10 - day of rest

2011-09-30T19:50:00.000-07:00

I've spent some time cleaning and tidying up my workspace, while reading about my right brain, and in anticipation of my upcoming week of colour. I'm starting to look around for my objects in related colour ways. One advantage in following the sketch project once the development of it is complete - I can skip ahead & see whats coming up. Aqua is the accent colour in my family room/kitchen, so when I started with my favourite squat vase, it wasn't too hard to find other objects of the same colour way.

... on a tangent

2011-09-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

I was so uninspired by my "folds" drawing, that I set out on a tangent tom Sian's sketch project. I figured I needed some help to see the lines and shadows of the fabric. I started looking on the internet, but most of the online tuition was on drawing clothes on the body. So then I thought to look on my bookshelf (I am truly ashamed to admit that I googled before looking for a book). I found Betty Edwards "Drawing on the right side of the brain". Bingo! A lot of the theory resonates with me, and I can hear my dominating left brain - trained for all those years in scientific research - harping on and on. Especially about the folds in fabric - "its all too hard and complicated", " its all just a bunch of lines", "get it finished".

... SO ...

Here are 3 days worth of pure contour line drawings of my hand. Draw the edges slowly while looking at the subject & not the page. I love them in all their imprecision.

I can see why I was quite pleased with a lot of my drawing last week. I realise now that I spent quite a long time doing those sketches, I lost track of the time most days & was having a really good time. I often thought about what direction the line was going, and how the lines related to the spaces in between them as well as to each other. I even remember thinking about how I had wanted to draw what I thought was there, rather than what was really there.

Puzzling patterns on day 9

2011-09-26T23:35:00.000-07:00

It is going to take a few days to get a bit more of a hang of this. I did my first one in lead pencil, and then went over it with water colour pencils & blended with a water brush. Turned out to actually give the impression of a bit of a fold - especially if you squint your eyes a lot (and stand on your head!)

Then I used black pen and tried using scribbly lines to get the shadows. Not too successful.

For this one, I worked from both the real fabric and a photo of the fabric. I used a 6B lead pencil & put in the shadows first and then the stripes. I think I haven't looked at the shadow details carefully enough - not enough actual shadow areas.

anchoring with extra shadow

2011-09-21T22:24:00.000-07:00

I just spent all of 2 minutes adding some extra shadow to anchor the two sketches. Before (above) and after (below)

needed that extra bit of dark

Between the Lines - Day 8

2011-09-21T21:56:00.000-07:00

Here is my first Banksia - from a couple of days ago. Pen drawing, the real thing and pencil drawing. The seed pods on the cone here are open and airy. I had found these took a lot of concentration to draw - getting the right-ish number of pods on the cone, & getting their size in the right proportion to the total cone.

And here (below) are some drawings of the internal patterning (between the lines) of a different Banksia that I did today. Much chunkier, tightly packed seed pods on the cone. This cone is also physically much bigger than the previous one. The top 2 drawings are with the side of a 6B pencil - the one on the left is made up of just the smudgy marks, & the one on the right uses some fine lines and more white space. Bottom left is the pen drawing with cross hatching. I found these much easier to do than the first series - maybe because they were so tightly packed, or because I wasn't trying to draw the whole cone. I didn't try to get the orientation of each seed pod right, I went for the overall effect of the pattern of the cone.

I really feel that I have devopled a comfort zone here for myself - drawing shells, banksia - natural forms. I am really going to have to force myself to move on to the next "lesson" - drawing puzzling patterns from fabric.

Walkabout

2011-09-21T03:17:00.000-07:00

I found a wonderful case moth in the garden, and being an entomologist in a previous life epoch, I couldn't resist picking it up. I even put it in the sun so that I could investigate the shadows. All those sticky bits and shadows were quite challenging. Then it started bumping & bulging, and a huge orange & black catterpillar poked its head out - what a surprise - then it just wandered off - so I returned it to its tree.

Below are some pictures of my subject matter going walkabout - & the stick & bit of leaf where it started.

After all that excitement, I recalled that "pet" rocks dont go anywhere, so I tried the lines on this one. Lots of lines though, and my brain couldn't manage to focus on individual ones, so I guess its more of an impression.

And I tried the Banksia pod again.

A bit more of days 6, 7 & 8

2011-09-20T03:42:00.000-07:00

Every one has a pear or two, but then I remembered I had some lovely BIG shells. These first 2 are in pencil with the cross hatching - can get so smudgy and messy.

The one below is pen - some bits look good, and while I tend to go for the pencil first as I think I'll make mistakes, I like the finished product with pen. Then again, the pencil ones were practice for the pen one. I think I could have worked the shadow a bit more carefully, observed a bit more carefully.

Then I started on one of my banksia pods. Love these one from Verity's tree. This is a practice one in pencil - I'll continue with this tomorrow. I find it hard work doing this - lots of looking back & forth. There is looking inside the line, but not really what Sian had in mind I think.

A bit of days 6, 7 & 8

2011-09-20T03:28:00.000-07:00

I must say I am having so much fun with this sketching - i'm ignoring other things for the moment, and enjoying getting really stuck into it. There was some sun today, so I wanted to do the cross hatched shading - the first 2 with pencil, then a coloured one (watercolour pencils). The second pencil one looks good - the stem is really floating over its shadow. The colour one is a bit strange - didn't get highlights and lowlights right there! Then I really like the pen one (lower right). I could still work on the shadows of the pear on the left - that view of the pear gives me problems.

scenes from weekend at Coffs

2011-09-19T05:45:00.000-07:00

I think its about day 7

2011-09-19T05:37:00.000-07:00

Here are some of my big sketches. Tried using an orange highlighter pen - the only one I could find with thick and thin. Also tried out some water based pastels - not as easy as the inktense to use, but not as expensive either.

I went away for the weekend with my 3 kids (my husband was winging his way to Geneva) - to a wedding on the beach at Coffs Harbour (2 kids managed to fit in a surf between the wedding and the reception). Absolute perfection, and very relaxed. We watched the sun rise on the Sunday morning & did some beach combing. The beach had a lot of beautifully smooth stones, & lots of damaged & smoothed shells - similar to those I have been sketching, but skeletons. So I sketched some of those.

Part of the reason behind doing this project & recording it to a blog, is for me to streamline the physical processes of doing & recording, so some of my images are far from perfect. I am photographing, downloading and (often) making digital collages. I like the beautifully organic shapes of these sea worn shells.

Week 1 Sketchbook - Shells

2011-09-18T18:45:00.000-07:00

I quite enjoy doing this shell - I'm really trying to get to know its lines, but I dont really put the effort into getting the bumps exactly right. Dont know why. I feel like I often get the lines fixed in my mind, but they aren't actually true to the shell. Above are days 1 to about 3, & below is 4 to 6.

Again I have put the shell on A6 & A7 page to enlarge the sketch.

The colour below is from my lovely new inktense blocks. Love the way they work.

Haven't done anything much on light and dark

Week 1 Sketchbook - hands

2011-09-18T18:41:00.000-07:00

Next I tried my hand - only my left, as I didn't have the energy to put the drawing implement in my left hand. In all my work this week I've used pencil (about a 4B) and a fine felt tip pen. I've tried to vary the size of my sketches by here holding a piece of paper folded into A6 and A7 (my book is A5) this helps me get the sketch larger. I like some of the knuckle lines on the bottom left.

Week 1 Sketchbook - leaves

2011-09-18T18:39:00.000-07:00

I find that I'm not very good at following instructions - it can all get rather confusing, but I am enjoying the sketching bit. I've collected some gum leaves while walking the dogs and have sketched them. Afraid I wasn't good at the quirky and ironic needed for background and wording.

Dragonfly POSTart

2011-09-18T17:31:00.000-07:00