Inspirations From The May Garden

May is violet time in my USDA Zone 4 garden, a sesson blessed with my favourites. Heaven might have these views and fragrances, don't you think? Today, meantime, they heal the eyes of body and soul.

First, a look along the flagstone path from under the Corkscrew Hazel, through Husband's forged iron “Peony” sculptures. The green glass flower (lower right) is part of his forged iron candelabra (subject of another post one day on garden sculptures.) Beyond the greenery, you see the Rideau Canal, alongside which lies our garden. It is the Tulip Festival time in Ottawa and my tulips have obliged this year by blooming on time with the violets. The flagstone path is where violets love to grow.

Nature inspires art.

My embroideries of past years have all been especially inspired by the colours and textures of the season in my canal-side garden.

Textured pinks, purples, lavenders, burgundies:

Purple Sandcherry (Prunus cistena) – to embroider as well as to eco-print

Tulips…extravagantly contrasting purple petals and golden stamens

Hardy Rhododendron, acidly mauve. Victorian.

Isabella Preston's “Prestonia” extremely hardy lilacs, developed here in Ottawa at the Experimental Farm of the Government of Canada, during a time when females did the work and males got the credit…(Hmm, you say? ) ….Isabella did get two Ottawa streets named for her eventually. A fine parade of her hybrid lilacs is still grown in the Farm's Ornamental Gardens as well as in gardens all over the city and in the valley around. We can let t the work speak for Isabella in lasting pleasures of fragrance and colour.

 

Lily of the Valley, fragrant and spotless – no enemies at all thanks to her iron hands in velvet gloves. Well, blessed are such peacemakers in some parts of my garden! But keep her out of the dye pot and the veggie garden – she could hurt you there. Above, she is getting along well with the Forsthythia which will have dropped its blooms by the time the Lily of the Valley is in full flower.

Dandelions, Pis-en-Lits (Pee The Beds) with violets (The pink petals are from the “Purple Passion” hardy apple tree under which they grow.) Our city no longer uses pesticides so the dandelions are free to roam. Love them, always have – that is my harmless, cultural prejudice. Would that all cultural prejudices could be confined to quarrels over what may be termed “weed” or “useful” in the plant world.

The Canada Violet, my all-time-most-loved plant.

See how the violet manages to find a place to grow between the spaces in the flagstones? I love the symbolism of blooming in a tight and arid space…

And here, my favourite Spring tree blossom – the native Serviceberry (Amelanchier family) Pretty soon, the delicious berries will ripen to purple and the birds of the neighbourhood will flock to the tree…in a few days, all the berries will be gone. I snack on a few but leave most to the birds. I do pick Saskatoon berries, though – the birds and squirrels here ignore them. I have some berries in my freezer waiting to be eco printed. No need to make the jam- Saskatoon berry jam, made in Saskatchewan, is available in our supermarkets. It is tasty if seedy…and it is Canada-local! The tree is a member of the Amelanchier family (see plant list pages )

Bleeding Heart does well under the Serviceberry, The pink form is much hardier than white in my garden. I try not to have any plant “pets” so no matter how much I love white Bleeding Heart, if it cannot tolerate the basic conditions in my garden, I cannot have it there. When I began gardening seriously in this environment, I did have all kinds of pets, growing them from seed, even. In time, however, I changed my gardening style to growing drought- native plants and only those Green Immigrants known to adapt well to Zone 4. NO pushing the seaonal envelope in this garden nowadays.

“Le Temps Des Violettes – Violet Time” 2004

In response to these Spring Garden Beloveds, I made an embroidery. It was actually among the first art embroideries I created with free motion stitch on a printed substrate. I designed the colours and shapes in my computer graphics programme, printed it out on Pellon on my inkjet printer, then used all manner of threads in my sewing machine to create textures and colours, aiming to capture the parade of blooms such as you see in the photos above. I embellished the finished embroidery with seed beads and painted Pellon “beads”

 

 

Reflections of trees in the canal water are a fascinating source of art inspiration, too. Across from my garden is a magificent old elm tree. I think I have hundreds of photos now showing that tree in every season, year after year. I am planning to make an Artist Book or two about my Elm Friend. Here is the tree on a warm day in May across the canal:

I have made many embroideries of reflections in water. Here is one about the willow tree in my garden as reflected in the Rideau Canal waters:

 

 

 

Until next time with more embroideries about the spring garden and waterside trees, and some eco printed artist books. You can see more of my embroideries on my website http://www.wendyfeldberg.ca

 

Wendy

 

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April Plants and Eco Prints

Goodbye to the Cotswolds in March…

Hello to April in Ottawa:

Just a two weeks later, the Rideau Canal is filled again and the old elm sees its reflection:

Friends return – the Scilla is among the first. Scilla will print blue, like bluebells or hyacinths.

The spring garden is slow this year, five weeks later than in 2012. Iris, perennial géranium and tulips are growing well – all of them ready to give colour in the dye pot.(The iron sculptures are by my husband- he calls them “Peony” . This year, I will wrap them with cloth and plants to make a print. ..See the toad on guard, too, on his plastic perch with a rock from Wharfdale)

Some old friends did not make it. Two mature blue Italian plum trees got too much Black Knot and we had to cut them down. We were sad. This is what they looked like afterwards, waiting for the first outdoor dye session:

And close up:

Amazing colours! Bark and wood dyes this spring, clearly. And prunings from the Concord grape.

Other dye plants:

Rhubarb leaves are a traditional mordant for cellulose fibres but are poisonous (oxalic acid). I prefer sumac – it is plentiful, easy to use, and a native plant besides. Using native plants is one of my aims in dyeing.

Alpine Strawberry is good as ground cover – it selfseeds, too. It makes a lovely clear print.

Perennial geranium, oh so dependable in the eco print bundle. I dug some up out of the snow in January and it was still green – and it printed greeny-yellow, like …

The Tulipa Tarda was tardy indeed this year. I will not print it- too lovely to pick and too few in my garden.

The crocus prints beautifully, petal, stamen and leaf. Plenty of those!

But I have to wait some weeks longer for other plants to print…the trusty Bergenia is up but not much else on the long border beside the canal pond.

Buds, branches, barks, catkins. This late spring is giving me many of these to print while waiting for leaves and blossoms. But it is spring nevertheless and the robin is back in the dye garden.

While waiting for the garden to provide, I forage in the kitchen. These accordions were printed with black tea and bits of iron on 140 lb. water colour paper, Saint Armand “Canal” paper (somewhere between 140 and 80 lb. in the weight) and 80 lb drawing paper. The papers were steamed after soaking briefly in alum acetate mordant.

Details:

Taylor's of Harrogate black tea, Darjeeling, dried leaves.

Last views: Cotswold memories:

An ancient yew avenue in a church yard in Painswick, Gloucestershire

Tiny daffodils in a stone planter. The streets through the village are so narrow that the front gardens can only be made in wee pots on the front steps of a house or on the sidewalks.

Tabitha's Well in Painswick. The Celandine grows abundantly there. The water runs down a steep hill to a river where the woollen mills used to be.

Next post: The tea-stained accordions will be…?

Wendy

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Dots, Damien, Dylan and Diversity in Art

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/arts/design/damien-hirsts-spot-paintings-at-gagosian-in-eight-cities.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

The real art critic lives up there in that link to the NY Times art page, and in this instance is writing snottily about Damien Hirst as successful Dot entrepreneur (Many, many millions of dollars worth of successful entrepreneurship, see above article)

The pretend critic writes the rest.

I am writing about Damien Hirst because he had agreed to be in the IMPRESS Printmaking Festival in the area of Stroud, Gloucestershire, England. Below is what Damien exhibited at the Pangolin Foundry (where he has stuff cast) and Gallery:

The Gallery published this (below) exclusive limited edtion etching of Hirst's working drawing for “Away From The Flock” , one of his celebrated controversial works. Presumably the title refers to the artist himself. One could make a lot of guesses related to that basic proposition, that Damien Hirst does not run with the herd…Though some would call him a Black Sheep because he makes too much money as a living artist for the Art Establishment's liking. Those art critics and gallerists like their art revolutionaries tame and eating out of their hands, I think. And they love it when you stuggle financially and reputation-wise so that you have to co-depend on them…

Hirst's thousands of “Dot” paintings (reviewed above in the NY Times ) are interesting enough in an “art studio exercise” way. Hirst's assistants were instructed to paint dots but with no repeated colours. Spaces between were equal to the size of the dots. Different canvases had different sized dots but all dots on a canvas were the same size.

Now here again is my grandson Dylan's “Dots” art:

I drew a link between Damien's Dots and Dylan's. When Dylan was learning his first words around the age of 15 months, he enjoyed looking at the red portulaca flowers in my front garden. He would touch them and kiss them. I would say “flower” and he would say the word back, toddler-style. Summer passed as did the portulaca. One winter day, some months later when the sun was low in the sky, a shaft of sunlight passed through a piece of red stained glass hanging in the living room window. A patch of red light fell on the wood floor. “Flower”, said Dylan. I thought of Monet who said when he painted nature, he looked not for a flower (for example) but for the patches of colour that made up the flower as assigned by the light – over which Monet had no control. Can we look at Damien's dots and see them as patches of colour, formalized, to be sure, assigned to their precise place on a canvas by an assistant not by nature? Either way, the artist gives up control.

Here are more art works of many kinds encountered on that trip:

Chihuly at the V & A

Jane Henriques at IMPRESS: “Pounce!” This elemental piece is full of vitality. ( No fox hunting allowed by hounds anymore in the Cotswolds, BTW)

I took this photo through the glass of the Thames tour boat. Did you think it might be a Canoletto?

Modern stained glass in Bristol Cathedral. Many of its windows were destoyed in the Nazi bombing of ports during the 1939- 45 war.

A much-loved naughty painting on a wall downtown by Bristol-boy, Banksy.

Porcelain bells sculpture by….? Sorry I have lost the reference (if you know…)

Examples of famous British liturgical textile art. One of many kneelers needlepointed for the Lady Chapel with scenes from the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary – an embroidered-cushion rosary.

The Cloisters of Gloucester Cathedral in Gloucester, venue for the keynote “IMPRESS” exhibit “Red Ink” that dealt with slavery and human freedom as the overall theme

Floor tiles in Gloucester Cathedral

Another Damien Hirst work , this one at the Tate Britain. Ash tray on a table with a pack of cigarettes, inside a large glass case.

Kurt Schwitters, father of collage, at the Tate Britain. Schwitters used a precise formula for placing his scraps to make the collage. He deemed all materials of equal value in the making of an art work, and that it was therefore possible to combine any elements for artistic purposes. No more the primacy of paint, said Schwitters. In this respect, his thinking is in line with Damien Hirst's who further asserted that it was the complicity between artist and viewer that led to a work's designation as “art”. If each agreed that faith was required…

Next, there is Turner (at the Tate Britain) My favourite artist, really

And some close ups of his canvases, below

From IMPRESS again:

Terence Millington, member of the Gloucestershire Printmakers Collective, exhibitor at IMPRESS and frequent contibutor to books about painting and printing.

The Ottawa Gatineau Printmakers Connective exhibit at the Corinium Museum in Cirencester. Clockwise from the left on the poster: Leigh Archibald, Lynda Turner, Mary Baranowski Lowden

My Artist Book “Botanica: New World Scroll 1″ with Clamshell Case by Shlomo Feldberg. At the Corinium Museum, Cirencester.

Still Life With Wellies ( My photo at the door of the barn)

At Arabella's Barn Gallery near Stroud (IMPRESS venue)

Low tide on the Thames near Saint Katherine's Dock, East London

Mouse Performance Art/Sculpture on our dishwasher. Performance staged while the Cats were away. Disgruntled mice with a huge sense of entitlement ate through the pump of the dishwasher in search of possible food lodged there. Additional performance, with sound effects, when dishwater drained onto Husband in his basement workshop…

After the flood, we wanted to make a sculpture like the one above (shown at IMPRESS), a la Schwitters, with our waterlogged art materials…

Goodbye, England. Until next time. (Photo taken from Thames boat)

Last post from the Cotswolds next time. About the plants and other country beauties

 

Wendy

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Eco Print Fest!

Today's post shows more experimental prints made by students during the recent IMPRESS '13 International Print Festival. But first, a few thoughts in which to situate the sharing we can choose to aspire to as art bloggers. In the Foreword to the festival catalogue, internationally esteemed British painter /printmaker Hughie O'Donaghue remarks (with admirable humility, I would say, for this guy is a Big Wheel in art):

“The fine art print is constantly changing and developing and it is a medium that is advanced by dialogue and exchange. Unlike painting, which is very much a solitary activity, printmaking often takes place in a social environment where artists gather together to share equipment and facilities and, as a result, inevitably exchange ideas. This dialogue is something I have prized in the various print studios that I have worked in over the years in Italy, Ireland and Great Britain.”

Here is some more work by other accomplished printmakers who participated in the festival and who also became students of eco printing:

An oak leaf: rust and logwood powder over …something yellow (no label…)

Eucalyptus (L) with iron modifier producing black outlines. Source of the blue? Could be juniper berries or bits of Red Cabbage.

Rectangular cuts of metal rusted with vinegar, printed on silk tissue, with Red Cabbage

Brushing on some of the dye modifiers, postprinting. Note the conscientious labelling!

Carrot tops (yellow-green) and logwood with a tad of Red Cabbage (blue), with colour mixing

Red Cabbage and kale

Metal pieces, rusted with vinegar, with dye powders on accordion folded watercolour paper. Much colour mixing, especially in the folds of the paper.

Sage and eucalyptus (L) modified with iron (R). Note the well-filled notebook (L)

Adventurous collection including juniper, Cow Parsley, nettles – modified with iron liquor (L) using a fan brush – giving the effect of raking light.

Sumac (pink), nettles, R.Cabbage et al, i.e., colour mixing taking place.

Turneresque euca with iron. Pigments leaked through from the prints on the back of the paper.

Lovely. Nettles? The green, centre. Rose leaves (L). R. Cabbage and sumac berries (R)

Euca, R. Cabbage and madder powder

Just vinegar and metal pieces on silk tissue to give a rust print

Rusted metal with plants and string resist. The shiny patches that look white are rust

Beautiful wash of colours. By now, can you guess? Colour mixing here is wonderful.

Another view of one shown in the previous post. Sumac and berries- juniper? mistletoe? Acorn cap?

On silk organza ( for chine colle) – ??? plants with string resist.

Crocus blue, mint yellow green, sumac pink

A repeat from last post – I remembered that this was a rose petal and not a rose leaf modified by iron to give dark shades

Here are some prints drying on the rack. Great to work in a real print studio!

While we were in the studio eco printing, Andy Lovell http://www.andylovell.com of the Gloucestershire Printmakers Collective and a participant in the festival was screenprinting up a storm on an adjacent bench. Here is one of his wonderful screen prints:

Not sure of the title. Would like to call it “Mine” . It calls to my mind the landscape of the Cotswolds, anyway.

..as does this landscape by Constable (seen in the Tate Britain)

…and this, my own photo of the Cotswolds looking over to Wales. Talk about “green pastures”…sigh….

More about the artists in the festival next time – including Damien Hirst! Subject of many debates, as is only proper for art…

And bearing in mind Damien's “dot” paintings – here, to finish, is how my grandson, Dylan, appropriates dots as an art medium:

Why stop at Red Dots?

And why stop at the hand as canvas? And why not include stars?

Best

Wendy

 

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A Rainbow of Eco Prints at the IMPRESS International Printmaking Festival

Home to freezing Ottawa from the equally freezing Cotswolds… finally sorted through the thousands of photos and picked some for the blog…It was the coldest March in 50 years in England – snow, sleet, rain, wind…Dire warnings about severe weather (several snowflakes were forecast) ..but who cares? It was a fabulously creative time in the Master Class on eco printing on paper.

The hoped-for foraging was meagre since few plants on my long lists (see Refs pages) were actually available for the gathering from the fields and gardens, given the late spring. Nevertheless, hotel fridges, Tesco, Waitrose, lay-bys, street weeds, hedgerow stalwarts and students' own gardens still provided all we could possibly want for our foray into eco printing on paper. Cousin Pam from Yorkshire even drove down with a “boot” full of eucalyptus, laurel and hydrangea trimmings from her garden; sage, mint, kale, Red Cabbage and carrot tops from Waitrose, roses too and early quince blossoms. From the Stroud environs came blackberry tangles, snowdrops, crocuses, celandine, cyclamen, dried beech leaves, ivy, mistletoe, nettles (barely up but plentiful), juniper berries, barks, mosses and mystery leaves galore…and oak leaves foraged from a galvanised iron drinking trough, all ready rusted…

See now what we printed with all of these (and more) We also had some painterly post-printing brush play with dye assistants/colour shifters like ammonia, iron liquor, copper sulphate and cream of tartar. Just a selection in this post – more to come (and lots already on FB). These, plus dye powders from Couleurs de Plantes, a selection of dried dye plants like sumac berries and black tea, copper pipes, iron bits and various barks all contributed to the rainbow of colours we obtained.

I was very happy with the results my students were able to achieve – first time for most of them. We worked hard and tried everything! Such an adventurous group. We had no time in one short day to let the first bundle rest longer than the lunch hour! The first batch of papers were pre-mordanted with alum as is my recommendation while the second batch had no alum soak (no time! ) but then we were experimenting.

Through the steam from the pot…the first reveal…

Eucalyptus, rose leaves, logwood dye powder, iron modified, in a steamed stack of papers. What can you say? So very lovely.

Sumac berries, logwood dye powder(?), some greenery, iron modified. Simmered in water, “Canal” paper rolled over a wood dowel (or was it a copper pipe?) This method of processing gave highly textured surfaces to the paper and induced pigments to pool in the folds where the fibres were bruised by the rolling.

Mystery (to me) leaf modified by selectively painting with iron liquor (rusty nails in vinegar or ferrous sulphate powder solution) Blues likely from the very co-operative Red Cabbage, greens maybe from rose or nettle…I did give each student a sheet of labels to attach to tne papers and to record the plants used but I did not photograph the label for this one from Bernard (I think)

Water colour paper, accordion fold with pockets , iron bits, dye powders, Rec Cabbage et al…spectacular rust and plant dye print by fearless printer, Maxine Relton.

Eco print on silk organza (I included some silk in the kit along with papers for chine colle experiments) Not sure of the plants but the result is delightful.

Cousin Pam's Ilkley Eucalyptus with Madder Rich dye powder . Isn't that an inspired colour pairing? Love the wash effect of the dye powder (which could be painted on like ink as well as sprinkled as powder)

Rose leaves and quince blossom – on the left, first print; on the right, painterly touches with iron liquor to bring definition. Lovely effect. As Kate said: “The iron brings it all to life!” Indeed it does here, while still retaining, not overpowering, the character of the original colours

A wonderful range of colours and forms in delicious harmony. A colour and value study.

More printerly prints next time. Thank you for your good wishes

Wendy

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Eco printed socks: Sweat as mordant?

One pair of Husband's 100% wool cross-country ski socks, forty years olds…yes, forty. (I am not the only one with a Stash…)

One day in the winter with only left-over dried eucalyptus to print with:

Wool socks bundled over debarked wood and simmered in left-over dye bath (dried coreopsis, tagetes and euc leaves) for a couple of hours:

The results with Eucalyptus globulus: One side of the bundle:

Other side:

Note the heel area and the colour obtained there:

Red on the upper sock where it came in contact with the heel in the rolled bundle:

 

 

So now, will Husband wear these? The answer is YES, he will. They look like the skin of some exotic animal!

But will I let him? If NO, only because I have other ideas than feet-covers for the fate these lovelies

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Late Winter Fungi Foraging

What are these, dear readers? They have been growing on a distressed young Red Maple (Acer rubrum) around the corner from my house and I collected some yesterday with the intention of trying them as dyes.

They are in the company of some pretty lichens, as you see. I have been collecting similar “tree ears” from fallen or felled logs – I have even bought big ones from a funky florist shop – but these are the first I have taken from a (barely) living tree. They are quite small. I was wondering if these fungi grew only on trees that were weak and dying or dead? Am I disturbing a delicate balance by collecting them? From the decay grows the next generation of many plants but in a natural evnironment. A “forest floor” is unlikely to develop on a city street.

A recent snow storm was too much for the maple. It was planted a few years ago in a dry, dry summer and several of its newly planted companions succombed within months. This one braved on. So sorry to see it break – by the time I return from the UK it will have been removed, most likely

 

The funghi grows all over the tree bark, all the way up.

What are the names of the lichens? I have so far stayed away from collecting them so have not yet studied them carefully. It is on my list , though, and I do have Karen Diadick Casselman's book on lichens (see my reference page)

Last pic: Maybe this is the last snow slide this winter? It's in my front yard and my grandson could not resist, of course:

 

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O To Be Eco Printing In England!

Above: Rhus typhina (Staghorn Sumac), quintessential plant of the Canadian landscape, sometimes known as “the Railway Plant” because is grows so freely along rail road embankments from coast to coast. Its red candles were used by Native Peoples of Canada to make a lemony tasting drink. The whole plant gives yellow or yellow-green dyes. I use the fresh green leaves for tannins in the mordanting of cellulose fibres, as well as for contact printing on paper (above) and textiles. The red berries or “candles” (dried or fresh) print a beautiful range of reds and pinks on paper and silk.

I am off to Britain, my native land, next week. I will be an exhibitor, presenter and workshop instructor at a festival and symposium organized by the The Gloucestershire Printmakiing Cooperative. I'll be taking a little of Canada back with me in my prints and Artist Books – both native plants and green immigrants.

IMPRESS International Printmaking Festival.

The festival takes place in the Cotswolds at various locations in and around Stroud, Cheltenham and Cirencester. Britain, China, Cuba, Peru and Canada among others will be represented. I am looking forward to meeting the plants I know well in Canada but in their native or adopted territory! Almost all the plants I have used for my prints so far can and do also grow in England. (See my reference pages for more info about plants to use) It will be an adventure to see how some of those same plants print in an English spring instead of an Ottawa summer and fall!

The Ottawa Gatineau Printmakers Connective (OGPC) is sending work by seven members who have been invited to explore the themes of “the land” and “native”. The title of the Canadian exhibit is“Landmarks”. Some OGPC members will also have work in the “Red Ink” exhibit. It will be very exciting to share with printmakers from so many different cultural traditions.

I'll be in the “alternative” printmaking stream of the festival.

1. Presentation and Demonstration

Saturday March 16 at 11:30 at the Art College of Stroud.

2. Master Class in Eco Printing

Monday March 18, 2013 from 9:30 – 4:00 at Griffin Mill studio of the Gloucestershire Printmakers Co op in Stroud.

3. Meet The Artists “Landmarks”

(Wendy Feldberg and Mary Baranowski Lowden)

Wednesday March 20, Corinium Museum, Cirencester (Sched TBD)

4. Printing and Design Workshop based on “Landmarks”

Dry point, roller and sponge effects, monoprint with printing press

Tuesday March 26, 2-4:30, Corinium Museum, Cirencester

For the IMPRESS festival details:

www.gpchq.org.uk (“IMPRESS” tab)

For info about the symposium, classes and workshops:

http://www.gpchq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/IMPRESSWORKSHOPS.pdf

Ottawa Gatineau Printmakers’ Connective exhibits etc. at IMPRESS

– “Landmarks” at the Corinium Museum, Cirencester

http://coriniummuseum.cotswold.gov.uk

- “Red Ink” at the Gloucester Cathedral Cloisters

http://www.gpchq.org.uk/gloucester-exhibition-red-ink/

Ottawa Gatineau Printmakers Connective artists at the IMPRESS festival:

Leigh Archibald

Wendy Feldberg

Diedre Hierlihy

Mary Baranowski Lowden

Rosemarijn Oudejans

Debra Percival

Lynda Turner

My work at the festival:

Next posts:

Updates to previous posts and to my plant page, plus a new page about copyright!

Wendy

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Trade secrets…sshhh…

The Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild (CBBAG) Ottawa Valley Chapter, held another workshop recently. Our instructor, Mary McIntyre, led us in making a simple and elegant photograph album. Mary is a paper conservator and master bookbinder. She enriched the workshop experience for us with her interesting presentation on the history of albums. Most enriching was her generous sharing of expert knowledge of bookbinding way beyond the topic of album-making. Workshop participants, each in their area of interest and expertise, also shared generously. It was a very satisfying experience. How pleasant to be a member of such a generous group and to learn and share so freely. One of the principal aims of CBBAG is to pass on the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for bookbinding and the book arts, and to actually plan for a time when students might become instructors also. CBBAG is not a guild where trade secrets are the order of business! No NDA's required.

In the past, though, in other guilds, strict secrecy and Non Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) represented important values to the master artisan. Diane Vogel Maurer reports in the introduction to her book ” Marbling: A Complete Guide to Creating Beautiful Patterened Papers and Fabrics” that “much of the work was accomplished secretly behind wooden partitions and masters were careful to teach only a few aspects of their craft to each worker to prevent any of their apprentices from learning enough to establish himself as a competitor.” (p15) That proprietory approach to teaching and learning marbling had its lifespan cut short by Charles Woolnaugh who “divulged the whole process“ by publishing a book, despite the outrage of the guild. James Sumner, Woolnaugh's chief rival, did not take such severe umbrage, however. Recognizing the value of disclosure to the progress of knowledge and of healthy competition, Sumner pragmatically published his own book on marbling. I have to say I like the cut of both their jibs.

So here I am, Spilling The Beans again on my blog, today starting with some images of the albums we made at the CBBAG workshop. Mary supplied us with bookcloth she had made herself from Quilter's Quarters. Mary divulged her secrets, too, in the self-respecting context of a workshop. To make the bookcloth, she revealed that she applied a simple cornstarch paste to the back of the cotton and let it dry. (Wheat starch paste works too. A recipe for corn starch paste is at the end of this post). The bookcloth covered the outside of the album and we had some pretty Japanese papers to line the inside covers. To construct the album pages, we cut Fabriano black pastel paper to size, sewed the stacks of signatures together (I made my first Kettle Stitches!) and made some decorative stitches over the spine of the album.

My album is the orange one. You can see the elegant effect of the spine-wrapping threads on all these albums.

We cut rectangular apertures in the spine board to enjoy a view of the sewn signatures. I love that feature!

The linen thread we used to sew the signatures was brought through the aperture, then around and over the spine at top and bottom. This gave a lovely thread texture to the outside of the spine.

Husband made the green one. He made another album at home. His engineer's mind caused him to figure out how to make the spine decoration threads more stable ( they do kind of shift around) so he simply pierced holes in the spine and brought the thread through them.

Natural linen thread, waxed, for the stitching

Canson pastel papers for the album pages and commercial bookcloth for the outside covers:

A map for the inside cover:

Corn starch paste recipe

Four parts water to one part corn starch.

Mix cold water and starch until smooth

Cook over medium heat until thick and smooth, stirring all the time.

Cool in the fridge.

Thin with cold water and beat to remove lumps, to make a paintable mix. Thinner is better.

Place fabric on a flat surface like an acrylic sheet,

Apply paste to the back of the fabric

Dry and store.

More “Secrets”

In the CBBAG workshop, our instructor, Mary McIntyre, shared aspects of her practices re attaching papers to textiles. I have been reading “Magical Secrets About Chine Colle” by Brian Shure of Crown Point Press. Brian is another artist maker like Mary, dedicated to a legacy of teaching knowledge, skills and attitudes in a self -and-other -respecting but generous and open manner. One way Brian does this is through his books. His information on using paste with paper and textiles is very valuable. He shares expertise fully in his book with the goal that you and I as readers will learn and pay it forward. In future posts, I plan to report more of how I am using Mary's and Brian's processes of attaching papers to fabrics.

Until next time!

PS The bookbinding needle inside the spine aperture gives a sense of scale.

 

 

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Ooops!!! Lost Post on eco printed Artist Book pages!

Sorry but it seems I have deleted the post I wrote yesterday about my Artist Book and the Clamshell case. Here is ” Local Colour” meantime. I was inspired by arlee's nerine …plus have cabin fever a bit, longing for some green….

I will try to recreate the Lost Post – It was a little history of my first eco print and how that printed textile ended up as the covers in an Artist Book.

May I offer you some eye candy meantime? This is a collection of images of leaves I live with:

To remind myself that I like sewing and other kinds of printing: this is a free motion and hand stitched morsel on transfer- printed polyester, mounted on painted canvas, 6″ x 6″. I do wee textiles like this when I need to stitch either when I do not have a Big Idea in mind or when taking a break from the Big Project. It is a great stash buster, too. For this one, I simply patched a few fragments together and stitched on them

Detail of same. I like making the seeding stitch. Julia Caprara and Ilze Aviks have done wonderful pieces with just that one stitch. I challenge myself to stick to one or two things to focus on

Carob tree, started from seed. I am a maniac seed saver and seed starter…it will be 80 years approx before this babe grows a carob pod or locust bean which the fruit of the plant that John the Baptist and the Prodigal Son ate…it reminds to be patient while waiting for the fruit of my labours…Another of my embroidered paintings is on the wall behind the Carob.

 

The fig tree is finally sprouting. The textile on the wall behind it is by Lorraine Roy, Canadian fibre artist. She often uses trees and leaves as motifs in her work. She cuts up bits of fabric and traps them behind tulle to create a textured surface into which she then stitches.

Below are seedlings of Polygonum tinctorium, Japanese Indigo. I grew the plant from seed in pots last summer but was too busy to make the blue dye when the time was right. So I let them grow on and brought them inside, cutting them back a few weeks ago. They have self seeded in the pot!

 

These are pet Eucalyptus globulus with a few Silver Wattle (seeds from Richter's).

Slow growing for sure – these plants are almost a year old. Think I wIll get prints from them any time soon?

 

Hitchhikers…I dug up some red geraniums to bring inside and along with them came hyacinth, Star of Bethlehem and …????Looks like an Easter lily but it is very tall…

The geranium (pelargonium) gave no print at all hardly when I tried it on paper.

Back to the Lost Post!

 

Wendy

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