BLOG 216

 

I have not made any progress on the Lady of the Lake quilt this week, preferring instead to do something completely different and there is a round-about reason for doing this.

 Recently I attended a workshop by Richard Box. I have always admired his work and I had bought his book years ago but I have never tried the techniques described within its pages.

                                      The book

 He came recently to Chester Ps & Qs to give a lecture and followed that up with a workshop the next day. Alongside the pattern, he provided us with a variety pack of small pieces of fabrics which were about 1 ½” - 2” in size, with many different values of pink, red and green. There was also a bundle of threads, and this is where the success of his workshop lay. As students, we would never have come up with such a wonderful variety of fabrics/threads for this workshop if asked to bring them; they included differing fabrics, textures and accents, some with sparkle and glitz! So in a very controlled workshop environment, we watched his precise demonstration and repeated the procedure; we watched again and repeated again and not surprisingly we all achieved the very same picture to a highly artistic level.

                                              In progress

                                            Threads

This of course was just what we wanted to do; that’s why we went on his workshop. We became him, worked like him and came away with a replica of his work. Whether I will go on to use his technique again remains to be seen but it was an eye-opening experience.

So, after that workshop, I was surfing the internet and I came across a workshop by quilt artist Susan Lenz (inboxseries.blogspot.com) and decided to try it with the same attitude that I did the Richard box workshop. It took a while to get the right fabrics and supplies together because they were different from the ones I would naturally have in stock. The fact that I have got as far as I have goes to illustrate the power of good visual images and an informative text. You can learn so much by following someone else’s technique and then you can decide afterwards whether or not it will suit your way of working on future pieces. I enjoy learning new techniques and I have the seed of an idea that I would like to pursue but I am not sure how to go about it. Experiencing different procedures will help me I think and here are the very basic steps of the start of this method.

1 Paint Bondaweb with weak acrylic paint and allow it to dry. Iron it onto synthetic felt.

                                Bondaweb on felt

2 Cut out squares and rectangles of synthetics with Bondaweb already applied to the WS. Stick them onto the felt leaving a ¼” space in between the shapes. Add smaller shapes on top of the larger shapes to add interest.

                                   Synthetics on felt

                                            Detail

 3 Paint a second strip of Bondaweb with weak acrylics and allow it to dry.

                            Painted bondaweb

 4 Tear this Bondaweb into smaller pieces and stick them randomly on top of the rectangles. Use a sheet of baking parchment to protect the iron and press them in place. Cover the whole surface of the textile with the coloured Bondaweb.

                                   Bondaweb on surface

                                    Baking parchment

                                        Covered surface

5 Cut pieces of synthetic sheers into small pieces and stick them randomly on top of the painted Bondaweb so that the surface is completely covered.

                                           Adding sheers

                       Completed sheers

More on this process next time. When I initially read the workshop in its entirety, I have to say that wondered why there were so many phases. I have decided to just work through it and save any comment until after it has been completed.