Last week, I was lucky enough to go on a four day workshop
with Lynda Monk – in Dorset, which is a very long way from Leicestershire! It
was a challenge for me to travel so far and there are not many artists I would
do that for but I had attended a day's workshop with Lynda a couple of years ago and it was so
good that I jumped at the chance.
I suppose you could call it a creative retreat. It was
located in the beautiful setting of The Kingcombe Centre, part of Dorset
Wildlife Trust, and we felt very much removed from the outside world, particularly as the
internet and phone signals were rather unpredictable. It was very well organised
by Maria Swain and Ann Emery and they certainly
chose a wonderful place to be.
Having broken my long journey at Bristol, it took a couple
of hours more to get there and the closer I got, the narrower the roads
became, until I was driving along single track lanes brimming with wildflowers. Breathtakingly beautiful ... and I pulled into the gate at Kingcombe just in time for lunch – the first of many delicious meals.
After a quick introduction from Lynda, we spent the
afternoon producing resources to be used during the following days – surfaces
with layers of Lutradur of different weights, tissue, various mediums and adding
colour with paint, ink or dyes, with some liberal sprinkling of salt.
Crumpled Tissue Sample
Reverse of stencilled moulding paste sample
A section of the right side of the above
I was particularly pleased with the stencilled moulding paste sample and would like to try it on a much larger scale.
We also had a messy time with Modroc, which I’d seen in school in my former teaching life, but had never had the chance to use myself. We layered it over a balloon to make a bowl.
After another delicious meal (I won’t mention any more
meals!), we returned to the studio for the evening session - a very interesting talk from Lynda,
about her personal journey into the textile art world.
Day 2 dawned bright and sunny and we continued working on
the surfaces we’d made the day before and producing more, using painted Tyvek
paper, layered in various combinations with acrylic felt, foil, fabric, thermofax
screen prints and bubble wrap! I was so busy that I completely forgot to take
any photos so these were taken later.
We also printed both sides of a large sheet of cartridge
paper, using stencils and thermofax screens, which was later made into a book (which was a surprise and a source of amusement for some Traverse members as they know that I'm not usually into making books). However, I did enjoy the serendipity of assigning the pages, tearing the paper up and sorting the signatures randomly. The idea is to work further into these pages, when inspiration comes ...
Difficult to choose but I think this just might be my favourite ...
I made a mistake when making the holes for the binding, as can clearly be seen here ...
We had the option of working on into the evenings until at
least 9.30 and most people chose to do that, fortified with wine and chocolate.
I certainly needed to if I had any chance of keeping up!
The following morning, we had an interesting little added extra as the Kingcombe Centre had kindly set up the moth trap overnight and we had a little look at the various specimens inside. Unfortunately, I can't remember the names of these two lovely creatures.
Day 3 in the course notes was flagged up by Lynda as ‘busy' – we smiled and wondered
what the previous day and a half had been in her eyes! Joking aside, she is an excellent tutor who caters for all - fast workers, who finish every activity quickly and those, like me, who take a lot longer.
We removed the balloons and covered our Modroc bowls with a
layer of gesso, which I used to attach some scrim, both around the top to
soften the edge and to emphasise the spiral line going around it. This was
followed with a layer of white acrylic paint. When it was dry, I drilled holes in
it to enable me to stitch later and then painted it with contrasting layers of Golden
fluid acrylic paint. I rubbed back the top layer to reveal the bottom layer in
places.
I must confess to losing track of exactly when some of the many activities were started or completed but between the morning of Day 3 and when we
left after lunchtime on Day 4, I managed to achieve the following:
- An unfinished vessel which will be painted in a similar
fashion to the bowl. It needs some work as I’m not sure about the Xpandaprint ‘lumps’
which look a bit like popcorn stuck on. White acrylic felt, with various layers
underneath, was free-machined in random wavy lines, cut with a soldering iron
and then sewn around a tube, before application of gesso and aforementioned Xpandaprint. Heat was applied and there you have it – popcorn!
- An unfinished hanging of cotton duck, layered with a woollen
blanket, using a very similar technique to the vessel to produce a raised area
in the centre. The photo shows it at a very early stage. It will have more
stitched lines and be covered with gesso, white acrylic and painted with fluid acrylics as
before. As you can see, it has been heated and burnt but all will be hidden!
- The stencilled piece was prepared to make a small sketchbook
by attaching it to a layer of felt, adding some free motion stitch and gluing it to book board. The holes are
for the (lost) book screws which will hold the pages when I find where they are
hiding!
- A folded pocket book out of the painted layered scrumpled tissue
paper sample, which was first protected with acrylic wax.
It has to be said that several people on the course finished
a lot more than that; some stitched and framed their samples or used them to make different book covers, while others went away with patterns and plans to make bags
or small decorative shoes.
However, I was well and truly happy with what I achieved; the
whole experience was fantastic and I felt very lucky to have been there in that
concentrated, creative environment with a wonderful tutor and such talented, friendly people. I
sat in my Bristol hotel on the way home, stitching my bowl - very tired but
with a huge smile on my face.
Cath
