Lovely weather !!!!

Oh what a lovely weekend the promise of a long hot summer , clear blue skies and sunshine . These photos were taken at Trebah on saturday where I went to draw and get away from the wind . I love to go there at the end of the day as you can stay in the garden until 6.30 .

Karen Nicols

I really admire the work of Karen Nicol. I have seen her work at Designers Guild in the form of a tablecloth with print and stitch on linen and her work is in "Textile Designers at the Cutting Edge " a book published by Laurence King a book I must get hold off . Her work is very painterly and quite representational with an eye for detail and scale .She designs for lots of top design houses.Her work is featured is the May/June issue of Embroidery which is worth reading .It seems she studied at Manchester as I did but then went on to the Royal College of Art .

Apron

I have now found an apron pattern to try out with my "Hydrangea and map" Pattern which is printed onto linen this time in a small repeat I also have the same pattern in a larger repeat so am thinking of combining the two.

New fabrics

Repeat trialled on paper for "Magnolia Trewithen " and "Blackbird and Euphorbia."

I have been refining designs and creating new ones from my drawings using photoshop to play about with the colour and and the step and repeat programmes to create tiles ready for printing.The one above "Blackbird and euphorbia "shows the original at the bottom amd an inverse image at the top . They were printed onto linen to test the colours .





This has been inversed and then a colour dropped into the background (pale turquoise ) . Some of the colour washed out when printed onto silk viscose but the repeat worked well . This still needs refining but has potential.

Designs onto Ceramics

I have been experimenting with potential decals to put on my charity shop and auction finds , upcycling / recycling .
This is a mark impresssed on the bottom of a cup in a tea set from the auction at Redruth seen when held up to the light .The gold pattern on this may burn off when fired but it is worth trying .
(above)Using the new Magnolia Trewithen design to create pattern.
The same china but this time with the Hydrangea and Map pattern .
(above)Whiteware from a charity shop in Penzance with the Hydrangea and map pattern arranged on one of the latest cloths from ebay.

I prefer the Hydrangea pattern as it has a very classic look .

Scilly

For the first time in my life I visited the Scilly Isles last week for an overnight stay with friends who were there on holiday for the week . After a very calm crossing I transferred by smaller boat to Tresco to visit the gardens and then spent the night on St Agnes where we explored the island the following day finishing up at the pub that has to have one of the finest views in England before catching the ferry back from St Marys . I did get a brief chance to see the main street before an equally calm crossing back to the mainland . Tresco Gardens were inspirational and although I was only there for a short time I managed two quick drawings of the amazing tropical plants and brightly colored wildlife (a pheasant who came to drink from the pond where I was drawing ).I intend to go back in September or October for a week to continue visual research to develop more designs from these amazing gardens.
The islands themselves exude a feeling of calm and space and it is palpably warmer and drier than the mainland with exotic succulents lodging themselves in wall crevices and displaying themselves in abundance alond lanes and in gardens . The sea is a beautiful turquoise tinged with green and the birds even friendlier than Trebah . An amazing place to get away from it all without having to fly abroad , a unique environment .

Recycle,reuse reinvent .

Alongside my digital print designs that I am working on from my drawings I am also translating them in applique and embroidery onto antique linens bought through ebay . Many of these have small tears or rust marks or some other imperfection that have rendered them less than perfect . These prove to be a perfect canvas for my own designs and also take them from their own era into the 21st century. Alongside this I have been looking at other textile artists who are working on a similar theme such as Jamie MkIntosh ,although her work is fashion based , and Zoe Murphy who is using recycled wedding dress silks to create interior pieces using print and stitch.
I will also be using print alonside the stitch techniques on the larger pieces.
So far I have translated "Gulls and daisies onto a small table cloth piece and "fish and fuschia " onto two tray cloths that have a side embroideres inset . The fact that the piece is already "finished " creates a perfect canvas for my work.
Having been brought up with mealtimes where we always had a tablecloth and our own linen napkin (and individual napkin rings ) perhaps developing this side of my work may encourage people to once again sit down at the table and enjoy meals together . A dying art or not ? Discuss!

Alec Walker and Crysede

Following a discussion about how my work is inspired by the Cornish gardens and countryside I was introduced to the work of Alec Walker . His designs were inspired by the countryside of Cornwall as mine are with drawings simplified and transferred to woodblocks for printing using discharge techniques .
( Extracts from Penlee Museum website).

"Crysede was set up by Alec Walker who was born in 1889 in Mirfield, West Yorkshire. His father was a well known textile manufacturer and in 1912 Alec was given a rundown mill by his father, which he turned around to produce the highly acclaimed 'Vigil Silk'.

The following year saw him purchase 'Sambo's Row' in Newlyn to convert to a textiles works
Plant and machinery were brought down from Yorkshire and local labour was trained; 1920 saw the formation of 'Crysede'.

Vigil Silk from the Yorkshire works (which was now being run by his brother Gerald) was printed and made up in Newlyn. The silk was printed on long tables using hand carved wooden blocks. In 1921 Alec Walker became involved in 'Group X', a Vortists revival.



In 1923 he visited Paris and met Raoul Dufy, who encouraged him to create his own designs. These soon became very popular and that year the company had over 3,000 mail order customers from places as far apart as Paris, Australia and America. In 1925, Walker held a one man exhibition of his textiles at the Independent Gallery, London. In that same year he invited Tom Heron (father of the painter, Patrick Heron) to join Crysede as manager. "
The designs on the textiles are extremely colourful and varied and were available in a wide variety of colour-ways. The company printed on silk, silk georgette and to a limited degree on cotton and linen. The designs were applied using wood blocks, a method of printing which in the main had died out. A different block was used for each colour, sometimes as many as seven. The ink was applied and the printing process is known as discharge printing. The ink bleached out the ground colour. The patterns were often given evocative names such as 'Dancing Flowers', 'Flying Fishes', but Walker also used the names of local places, 'Ding Dong', 'St. Buryan', 'Zennor', 'Penberth' and 'Isles of Scilly, for example."