Book Making

I have taken a couple of classes recently with Sandi Sexton in Dublin and made these books.  They are pretty addictive and I think I will be making quite a few of them.  More workshops will be listed for September soon.

Boro Exhibition - Somerset House, London

I am just back from a trip to London where I went to see the most amazing exhibition of Boro Textiles.  These were original Boro pieces made at least over 100 years or more and they have been preserved over the years and are now part of a collection which was made available for viewing at Somerset House.  The pieces were all stretched and mounted on frames which I wasn't expecting but it showed off the pieces to be beautiful works of art - I had to restrain myself from touching these works but photography was allowed so I managed to take a large number of up close photos as well as purchasing the catalogue that went with the exhibition.  Here are some of the images.... I took over 65!

Boro Inspired.... continued

Back in July last year I posted a picture of a piece of work I was working on entitled 'Calm' for an upcoming exhibition with a Storm theme,  I probably started it in March of that year - and here I am a year later and I am still working on it.  I had put it aside for a long time as I was uninspired with it but after looking at it lying on the floor for several months I have now added quite a few more layers of fabric and stitch and its starting to take shape.

More Discharge Dyeing with Bleach

I've now made my sampler into a book of some sort.  Each section can be viewed differently - I like how its now turned out and I've added some simple stitching to sections of it.

Front Cover - closed

back and front covers 

Growing Imaginations

Cork Textiles Network has been asked to decorate the tree in Bishopstown Library (I havn't actually seen this so I dont know if its a painted tree or artificial tree in their foyer)  - this is my contribution - its around 10" in height.  The base fabric is discharged linen which turned out a lovely peach colour, the other snippets of fabric are also discharged linien and 1 small piece of rusted fabric. 

Discharge Dyeing with Bleach

I am currently working on a workshop based on discharge dyeing with bleach.  I have my sampler almost complete now and just need/have/want to add some stitch.  This is all sample based and demonstrates what you can achieve very quickly and simply with limited tools and equipment.  The stitch will be added to show how you can embellish these designs.  I had initially intended to make a fabric book out of the samples but fell back to my own comfortable way of patching and layering.