Ramblings and Urchfont Open Day

(Roaming Trolley- Dawn Dupree Exhibition at Brewery Arts Cirencester)

Why are so many exhibitions staged in the Summer months? Trying to get to everything is quite a logistical nightmare, but lots of fun and stimulation. Plenty of stitching has been happening since I last posted. Its much easier to type now that I have new letters stuck to my laptop keyboard, see my photoblog here but I still make lots of typos, thanks goodness for spellchecks!

Managed to get a lot of leaves made to add to my Art in the Garden at Urchfont.... but with all the garden stuff growing there since I did the first installation.. I still need to add more. As Jane Lemon is keeping her watchful eye on me ... I shall promise to make some more Jane... as you are right ... the more the better. Although I am not sure when I can next get down there.

Have also finished the July bag for the BQL bag challenge I have been involved with. If I am honest I almost gave up on this one.... patchwork is perhaps a step too far for me. Enough said. The July bag appears to be much more my style.

I have also been using my embellisher a lot as I signed up for Dales Embellisher course. Most enjoyable. Absolutely typical though I am 3 lessons behind everyone else.

Will have to post some more later... am off to Marlborough in a moment to listen to a talk by Christine Benson, so will tell you all about Urchfonts open day and this afternoons talk when I get back.

Time for exhibitions

Had a day of visiting exhibitions yesterday and most enjoyable too. Both exhibitions were in Cirencester.

First went to Edwina Bridgemans' exhibition "Orchard" at the new Brewery Arts in Cirencester. Very thought provoking. It finishes today and goes on to Glastonbury next and then tours herefordshire and Kent... catch it if you can. Well worth it. I found I needed to allow myself the time to read and view and think to fully appreciate this work.

Then I went on to view the Rubicon exhibition at Cirencester Museum, a small exhibition, but with my interest in Roman artefacts and such like, well worth it for me. The group had looked at the artefacts in the museum and this inspired their works of art. Intriguing and thoughtful work. The above mosaic is at the Museum, its one of my favourites.

What a mess!

This is the state of my table and my workroom... yes I am busy doing things, but that no excuse for this mess!

I think it must be time to have a clean up. Cannot find a thing. I dare not take a photo of the rest of the room.... its a lot messier than this, if that is possible. Shall hang my head in shame and do something about it tomorrow. Want to stitch tonight.

Day out working!

Well, there might be shortage of fuel here... but I still have to travel around the south of the country on exam business. I really enjoy this work, such a pleasure to see such a wonderful variety of artwork. Yesterday I was in Bournemouth, it was a lovely day, sunny and pleasantly warm.

Whoops.. took the occasional wrong road and had to turn round.. but a very pleasant drive. On the way home, decided to eat the human fuel ( bought sandwiches ) in the New Forest, always a pleasant spot when the sun shines and a welcome break from all that driving and concentrating.

Well as you can see, a downpour of rain put paid to the picnic, and I had left the coffee in the boot, no way was I going to get wet to get the coffee! So did without.

On the way back , Salisbury Cathedral looked splendid in the sunlight - John Constable eat your heart out! This is just a quick snap.

Then, in order to get to Marlborough entails a drive through Savernake Forest, enlarge this photo and you will see an enormous old tree very close to the road, quite amazing. Would love to know if it is really 1000 years old.

Then home again. Lovely day out.. but working too.

The layers instalment for GIMP

Thanks for all your comments and mail about using GIMP, I am so pleased you are enjoying using a free program. As I promised here is the next tutorial for using layers. Its great fun. You will need to start with 2 digital photos. I have used a portrait and a photo of a plant.

1. Open your photo files

2. Go into Dialogues menu and click on layers

(remember if you click on these photos in blogger -they will enlarge)

3. Go into Layers menu and click on duplicate- do this 3 times

4. In the layers window, drop down to dodge and play with the %- in the copy 2 duplicate.

5. Go to file menu and click on open as layers

6. Open another photo

7. Click on “scale” on the tool bar and scale the 2nd photo up and click scale to finish

8. In Layers menu-click difference

9. Repeat opening a new photo as a new layer.. Do not scale.

10. Click on the move tool and move the photo to the top right of the palette

11. Create 2 duplicates of this image

12. Play with the layers, move tool and duplicating of layers until you are happy with your design

When you are happy with your collage – then save it.

Let me know how you get on with the layers in GIMP, and I would love to see the results of your all your hard work.

New excitements to play with.

Hope you are enjoying playing with GIMP, Pippa, you will well and truly be a computer junkie! I am working on the layers still, so hiphop by later to have a look. Sue, the cat is going to feature on some new work I am doing. The strangest things can start me off on a design idea.

Great joy today, Maggie G new book arrived in the post, I have only had time for a quick glimpse, but it looks good.

My embellisher machine was running very hot yesterday, and not just as a result of the hot weather we are are experiencing. Its all Dales fault for getting me all enthused again. Such fun.

Working with the Embellisher

Here is my first attempt at putting a video on my blog.... hope it works Ok.

This was fun trying to film whilst operating the embellisher machine. Where to put the camera was an interesting problem to resolve. I will leave it to your imagination. Did it in the end, but shall not share with you how I did it... my good friends know!

This piece of work has just returned from Exhibition and I am thrilled to say it has a new home. How exciting is that. Although you saw many sample shots ( modeled with resident siamese) whilst it was being made, I don't think I posted the whole thing. So just for you... here it is.

Memories of the Mekong Delta

(Click on the photo to enlarge)

The cat sat on the mat

I was rummaging through my mothers' work box, looking for some elastic. I was so surprised to find this lurking in the bottom of the drawer. I had no idea she had kept it, I made it , at school, when I was 8 years old. I can still remember stitching the blanket stitch around the outside, as I was the only pupil who could do it, and so helped the teacher show others.

I have been playing with my embellisher today and have had great time, will share the results with you later.

Playing with digital images.

A little while ago I had a wonderful time teaching teachers how to use digital photography creatively. There is a free program on the Internet called GIMP-click here. When the home page opens- just hit the download button on the header and -away you go. As the teachers on the course came from a variety of schools and taught different age groups it was important to find software which we could all use, but without the huge costs involved with purchasing software. We found GIMP to be powerful enough for experienced users, but stress free for beginners.

So I have promised to share some of the ideas I have been playing with. I thought I would start with a little tutorial in 10 easy stages for beginners, to familiarise you with the basics of how the program works. Then later I will work through the layers menu with you.

So just to get you started and familiarise yourself with GIMP.

(If you click on any of my images, it will enlarge for you)

1. Click on the Gimp icon and open the program.

2. Go to the File menu, and click on New.

3. A sub-menu appears- click OK.

4.On the Toolbar menu -go to the Airbrush symbol and click.

5. In the sub-menu for the Airbrush -- click on pencil sketch and then the colour Blue from the foreground colour palette. Make some random marks.

6. Change the colours of the Airbrush in the foreground colour palette. I suggest you keep to bright primary colours.

7. Make sure the background colour is Black and in the toolbar click on the Bucket. Click on the white spaces in your design. Keep clicking until all your background is black.

8. Your finished design might look something like this:-

9. You can also play with the filters to get different effects. Go to the filters menu and the sub menu -Distort, there you will find the Emboss filter..Play around with the numbers. When you have an effect you like.. save it. I worked on the image until it reminded me of a textured embroidery. You may like to print some of your images directly onto your fabrics.

10. You now have a number of simple routines available to you with this program... over to you to be creative.

I would love to see the work you do... so please post your comments and a link to your blog so we can all have a look..

Update

I have been travelling all over the south of England this week and have seen some wonderful artwork displays created by 16 year olds.

What a lot of talent in this country, amazing. I have to say I regretted recently selling my trusty old car as I was driving home in the torrential rain, through badly flooded roads on Tuesday, I was sharply reminded that my new eco friendly car lacks traction control...... scary..... I really had to slow down on the duel carriageway. Lesson learnt, I was lucky not to aquaplane. A close shave.

Felt particularly sorry for the folks who live down the bottom of the hill, they suffered severe flooding again!

Amanda I am so pleased you enjoyed the Wantage Exhibition. I received lots of supportive comments when I gave a "meet the artist session" on Saturday. I will be taking the exhibition down this Saturday in the late afternoon, so I have decided to share a few photos with you, just in case you cannot go along to see it for yourself. There is a lovely cafe area as well.

Maggie ( yes she is also calling me ToM - which stands for "The other Maggie") asked whether I am still doing a lot of computer work, and the answer is yes. I will try and follow your tradition Maggie, and put together a little demo on layers. They are such fun to do.

I will try and put the demo together over the weekend, as I really must do some housework tomorrow.

Stitching stuff

Thanks for showing some of my current work on your blog Maggie, and the workshop you gave us was great fun. I shall really have to get working hard on the sketchbook and ideas now, as confirmation has just arrived that the Exhibition at Steam Museum is confirmed for February and March next year. I am very pleased and excited at the prospect.

This is one of my self - made printing blocks, repeatedly printed through scrim, the results are great fun. I am enjoying this.

Talking about Exhibitions, managed to get the exhibition hung this morning at Wantage, and before we had finished a lot of interested public were looking round. Wonderful. The Museum have requested a "meet the artists" session. So I shall be there this Saturday, pop in if you are around.

(This is Margaret's work.)

Review of the week

Machine stitched through my thumb today, after cleaning, oiling and putting a new needle in the machine. Ouch! In retrospect it was probably a good thing I had a new needle at least it was sharp and went straight through. However I suspect it was a result of a frantic stitching weekend... more later.

It was a lovely week, last week, celebrating my Aunts 90th birthday on the Sunday ( see my photo blog) was the commencement of all the excitements. It was delightful to see her again and looking so well, and two of my cousins managed to be at the party too.

Monday was a day preparing for my talk to the Swindon Branch of the Embroiderers Guild, and testing the digital projector and am very pleased to report it works well. Lovley group of people.

Tuesday was a workshop with Maggie, it was good to catch up with all the gossip again. Fantastic days on Thursday and Friday, visiting schools and moderating the Art and Design exams. I feel so privileged to have seen some wonderful work.

Friday I spent frantically stitching in preparation for the weekend at Urchfont. I have really had trouble with the design work for this exhibition. Everything kept going wrong, you know how it is sometimes, anyway finally on Friday morning it came together. Went off to Urchfont and managed to dodge the rush hour bank holiday traffic, so arrived early. I immediately set up the sewing machine and machined almost non stop until Saturday lunchtime and then hung the work for the exhibition before lunch.... really cutting it fine.



A hanging basket will be positioned in the centre...... however I will be stitching some more this week and going back this weekend to finish the installation. When I hung the work it was brilliant sunshine and the shadows were to die for.... by time I got the camera out the sky had clouded over and was threatening rain, also it was incredibly windy, so the work has some rather discreet fishing line to keep it in place.

If you fancy having a look at the Art in the Garden Exhibition at Urchfont, it is viewable until September 30th 2008. All the work is outside, and amongst the scultpures and stone masons and woodworkers are now 6 textile artists work. Really exciting. We had the private view on Saturday evening between 5 and 7pm, and I was thrilled that Jane Lemon came along, it was good to catch up on all the news and to meet Jenny, who had accompanied her. Lesley, one of the Friends of Urchfont Manor has organised the exhibition for Urchfont and does a magnificent job. Funds raised from the commission on sales goes to the upkeep of the gardens. A worthwhile cause. Catalogues of the work for sale are available at reception.





This is Rita's piece of work. hanging outside the coach house. I will take some more pictures next weekend, when hopefully it will not be raining so heavily!

Met some lovely people this weekend and I also met Jean who visits my blog..... hope I am forgiven now I have updated !

Urchfont are having their Open Day on 6th July 2008 so let me know if you can make it... maybe we can meet up for a cup of tea.

Tomorrow is a Bank Holiday and rain is promised.. so I might spend the day machining again. Tuesday I am hanging an Exhibition at Wantage Museum.

300th post

Wednesday February 15th 2006 was the day, with encouragement from some Internet chums, I started blogging and I must confess I never thought it would last. I had never indulged in the daily diary activity, as a child or adult, and thought that a blog was something similar. So I have proved myself wrong and have clocked up 300 posts......amazing.

Diaries tend to remain a fairly private activity and not designed to be viewed by others, whereas a blog can be viewed by all who look for, stumble upon, or follow links to the blog. Isn't the internet wonderful for allowing us an insight into other textile artists worlds. I love visiting other peoples' blogs. I have learned so much about the everyday life of different countries, cultures and regions within the Uk.

Another aspect I have really come to enjoy is the comments left from fellow bloggers. Always a joy.

As a family we recorded family events with photos, an activity I inherited from my father. For a blog to work for me, it has to have lots of photographs. To my mind, this post has too much writing so far!

Looking back over this blog - I have really enjoyed the activity and am always so surprised that anyone visits and reads my ramblings......let alone comment. So please keep visiting and commenting , you are very welcome.

In true diary fashion a record of the todays events (with photo) .

Rather a hectic start to the day, as we are having the outside of the house re-painted. So lots of garden furniture to move out of the way, to enable the ladders to reach the upper windows.

Lovely afternoon though with the Great Western Embroiderers, we were playing with the automatic patterns available on the sewing machine.

Shirley has also designed a badge for us all, and explained how she had digitised and stitched it out on her machine. We had great fun. Probably as a result of the wonderful warm weather we are experiencing, numbers attending the meeting were down. I suspect they were all in their gardens. Weather is glorious at the moment.... just right for painting the house.

After I got back home, unpacked the car, and made a pot of tea for the workers. I realised I had not seen Herr Schnauzer for a while. Then to my horror discovered someone had left the back gate open. He had decided to take himself for a walk, after extensive searching found him again. So am really relieved, as he has no traffic sense whatsoever! Phew! Needless to say he is fast asleep after his adventure. Me? I was a nervous wreck!

Maggie's Magic

Thanks Hippopip for your recommendation, and I shall certainly try and get back to the Stroud Festival this week to have a look at Clare Lane's work. We were in a bit of a rush, the other day as a meeting beckoning us in the Forest of Dean. It was great to meet you, today at Marlborough too. It is always such fun to meet fellow bloggers, so thanks for introducing yourself to me.

The other Maggie very kindly mentioned, when we met at Marlborough today, that she had missed my blogging, as I explained there is a good reason. If you pop over to my Photo blog.. I think the photos replace the words. As you will gather it has been a bit hectic around here, and for the foreseeable future, I can see no let up in sight. Who was it who asked " what will you do with all your time when you retire?" What time! How did I ever manage to fit work in as well?

One of the great advantages of early retirement is, I can go and listen to some wonderful talks and it was good to meet up with my chum Maggie and her hubby Clive at Marlborough Branch of the Embroiderers Guild. Maggie was giving a talk on Computers, Friend or Foe. As always Maggie was very inspirational and entertaining, and was ably assisted by Clive on the computer.

Maggie, Clive and I met up a number of years ago, when we were on the first committee of the CTDG, and I was lucky enough to do some tandem teaching with her to West Country teachers. We had great fun, except we had to carry the machines up to the 3rd floor of my school..... no lift....to reach my artroom. No laptops then either.

I really enjoyed Maggie's talk today, pulling together so many ideas and as always enthusing the audience to have a go. It was wonderful to see her textiles in the flesh, instead of photos in a book or on the blog. Talking about books... Maggie has a new one coming out ,its gone to press, and is due out very soon. I succumbed and have pre-ordered, it looks wonderful. Very exciting!

(Maggie posing with her new book)

I am very lucky in that I can also attend Maggie's workshop at Marlborough next Tuesday, its an all day event. It will be different to be on the student's side of the teachers desk. I know we will have lots of fun.

Clive won't be needed next Tuesday as it s a stitchery workshop, we will miss you Clive.

(Clive packing the goodies)

Really think Maggie should make you a lovely smiley face badge, Clive, with the words "Happy to help"