Back when I was making my felt pictures for the Weaving narratives project I thought that it would be good to improve my drawing. I wanted to go beyond using photographs and begin drawing up my own designs.
I already had an account at Lynda.com, so that was the natural first place to look for tutorials. I took Von Glitska's 5 Day Draw course where you...well... get drawing prompts five days in a row. Simple really! Part of the course was to post your drawing on social media, so that's what I did.
My first few weren't that inspiring but after a few days I lightened up and had some fun with it:
I really like Von Glitska's work and he said one thing in the course that stood out for me. I'm paraphrasing a bit but it was something like 'don't worry about drawing something photo-realistic. If clients wanted that then they'd use a photo.' (I don't have art or design clients, but it was a lightbulb moment anyway).
In art lessons at school I felt I was encouraged to draw what was there in front of me in detail. Which I guess has its place but is pretty boring! So now I don't have to do that it's opened up lots of possibilities...
It's been a while since I last posted but I haven't stopped making. I've been teaching myself freeform crochet on and off for the last 9 months or so. Ever since I made my first piece for Weaving Narratives and wondered what else I could do with crochet but without a pattern.
My plan with this was to just doodle with wool and try out as many different things as possible, so if I found something online or in a book, in it went. I didn't even have a plan for what it would be, but it's so big that I guess now it's going to be a blanket.
Part of the fun has been seeing people's reactions because I don't think most have seen anything quite like it! Anyway, here are a few close-ups.
I have no idea when I'll finish it because there's still a long way to go and I fit it in around other projects. Next winter would be a good guess. But that's another part of the fun - being as relaxed as possible and only working on it when I feel excited about it.
I'm aiming to make it freeform in every possible way!
It's been a very busy September!* So I've only just got around to posting here at my craft blog.
We're currently part of the way through the Weaving Narratives exhibitions, with Bedford and Luton done and Flitwick still to go (Flitwick library, Oct 13th to 15th) and they've been a great success.
In fact other venues have asked if they can host us for extra exhibitions. I think we (contributors and visitors) have all been amazed by the variety of techniques used and what we have been inspired to make by the material in the archives.
For the non-professional artists in the group (me included) it's been such good fun sharing the excitement of seeing our work in an art exhibition. For most of us it's been something we didn't realise we had the capability to do or ever expected to happen.
I have been doing a few other crafty things this month, so look out for my next post on that. :-)
*Ironically one of the things I did this month was listen to this series on the cult of busy-ness. Well worth a listen. So every time I hear myself saying 'I'm so busy' I question why. Which can only be a good thing.
If you'd told me nine months ago that I'd be hanging up my work in an art exhibition later in the year, I would have laughed at you. I wasn't an artist...I didn't even have anything resembling artwork.
But that's what I'm doing tomorrow and I have to say it's very exciting!
Here are the details of the first Weaving Narratives exhibition at Borough Hall, in Bedford this weekend. You'd be very welcome to come along.
There are others in the next month or so in Luton and Flitwick.
I finished my needle-felted picture of the Britannia Ironworks clock tower and there were still a few months left before the Weaving Narratives exhibitions in September and October. Could I squeeze in another picture?
Well, it was worth a try! I went back through my scrapbook (well, most of it is on my PC and Android phone...) looking for another project. Then I remembered some photos I'd seen of the Bedford Picturedrome Cinema.
Bedford town centre had four cinemas at one time, but now all have been demolished. The last one to be pulled down was the Granada in 1991 and any Bedfordians who spent their youth there are still upset about that 25 years later!
The Picturedrome was the first Bedford Cinema to be built and possibly the first to be demolished, too. It's life span was from 1910 to 1964. When I first saw the pictures I couldn't believe that anyone would knock down such a striking building and replace it with the ugly concrete block now known as the Park Inn Hotel.
But according to Bedford Library, The Picturedrome was known in later years as The Fleapit and had problems when the river flooded (someone walked out of the door one night and fell straight in the river!) So maybe the reality wasn't as romantic as the photos suggest.
I couldn't resist attempting to bring it back to life, but could I manage all those details with felt? If I couldn't I could always try embroidery instead.
I used the same technique as the Britannia Clock Tower, I traced a photo emailed to me by Pamela Birch of the Bedfordshire Archives...
....then flipped it over, drew on the back with a fabric transfer pen and ironed it onto felt. I kept the temperature of the iron a little lower than last time as, with the clock tower, I could see the heat was just starting to damage the felt. Unfortunately the pen didn't transfer as well at a lower heat setting, but the image was just about good enough to work with.
Then I got to work with the needle. This is where I'm up to now (I abandoned the embroidery!)...
