Moods

Arty Connections

All at sea

Our most recent game of Connections was entitled Boat. Jenny provided the starting image and gave general guidance for us to follow as the rounds progressed. Jenny, Pat, Erica, Linda, Liz and I took part and we were pleased Lesley could re-join us from Round 4.

Jenny asked us to combine Boat with an image of own choice in Round 3.  I added a lightship (see above top right) and admittedly became a bit obsessed with the cabin windows for a couple of rounds!  Seagulls, buoys, a street lamp in the shape of shells and two men in a boat were also used by other DOT members.

In Round 4 Jenny wanted to see some evidence of the original boat in our images (lest it had disappeared completely) and in Round 5 we could introduce nautical equipment, hence netting, rigging, floats, anchor, lighthouses and compasses were added.  This produced some interesting results and kept the game alive. In Round 6 we included words or poetry on a nautical theme which gave us a chance to do some research, manipulate text and play with words.  The final round asked for an impression of waves or water in our images so Erica was creating sea spray using text, Jenny used the paint brush tool and Linda added an image of choppy water. Pat, Lesley and I all used distort (liquify, twirl and wave) and Liz used rotation.

Many thanks to Jenny for her good choice of design criteria. Here are some of the images I produced this time around.

All steamed up

Beginning with a black and white image of a traction engine provided by myself, this game was entitled "Steam" and used the same principles as described in Rickshaw (our previous blog entry).

After 3 rounds I provided the instructions for guidance which included making good use of the rivets, nuts, bolts, wheels, name plates etc in the original image and to add a stitch or stitches using Photoshop Elements by the final round.

Pat couldn't resist adding colour in Round 2 where as others remained in black and white for longer. The essence of steam was suggested in some images, others emphasised the metallic nature of the subject or the power and might of the engine. The original image or parts of it were re-introduced throughout the rounds to keep the game in motion.

The rounds started by Ruth and Ros produced the most follow on images whereas others fell by the wayside if there was nowhere to move the image on to or they were complete as they were.

Liz used hand drawn stitches in Round 5 which were put to good use by those who followed on in Round 6. Erica used filters and stroke outline to produce textures which looked like stitching. Ros used the eraser tool and pattern stamp to create stitch.

Here are some of the images I produced in this game of 'Steam'.

Choices

Choices

We have been playing a new game recently entitled Choices where we all chose an image and uploaded it to Picasa web albums. We held a secret ballot and our favourite image was entitled Rickshaw, an image provided by Liz. In Round 1 we all worked on Rickshaw, altering it in some way using Photoshop Elements, and then uploaded the altered image to Picasa. In Round 2 we chose an image from Round 1 and worked on it and again uploaded it to Picasa. Rounds 3, 4 and 5 followed the same routine. We had instructions to avoid working on one particular person’s work and Liz gave us some pointers to follow such as to include text, circles, squares, the colour blue and to bear in mind the words transport, tropical, history etc. We made good use of the rickshaw of course and the windows and lanterns from the original image. It was nice to see the use of text and the subject lent itself to pattern making. Rickshaw Jenny and Rickshaw Lesley produced the most follow on images whereas Rickshaw Erica, Pat and Ros didn’t get off the starting block (must try harder!!). From the original image we produced 25 new designs.

I am attaching our starting image and my final image from Round 5. This had started originally as Jenny’s Rickshaw design and had been worked on by Jenny, Liz, Pat, Jenny again and then me. I struggled with Rounds 4 and 5 as the ideas in my head didn’t translate to the computer and in the back of my mind I was thinking “how would I make these into textiles”.

We start a new round of Choices in the new year. Watch this space!

"Lost In Lace" Exhibition - Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Erica visited this amazing exhibition on Saturday http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/collection-and-exibitions/exhibitions/lost-in-lace/

For more pictures from the exhibition see Erica's Google+ Photo Album

DOT On Show

Proof that we were there! This is the DOT stand just as we had finished putting it up. The work was selected from our recent Consequences Exhibition. Erica Thomson and Jenny King are on the left and our two consenting Mr DOTs Barry and Jim (helpful husbands wielding spirit levels, steps and hammers). DOTs aim was to open people’s eyes to what you can do using a computer as a design tool in textile work, whether it is simply printing an image on fabric or doing more complex things. Every piece of work on the stand was derived from something we did on the computer. All the wonderful members of DOT who manned the stand felt that we achieved our aim. You can just about see Liz Welch's Friendly Plastic masks, and work by Jenny King, Ros Willis, Erica Thomson, and Pat Roberts.

DOT’s group piece drew a lot of interest. It was based on a game of consequences (see earlier posts) using an image of an old mangle in the Millgate Museum at Newark. The hanging illustrated some of the very many different materials that can be printed on to at home. the other work in the picture is by Pat Roberts and Hilary Holden.

Mr DOT x2 in repose, worn out by all that levelling, measuring and hammering. On the wall is work from Lesley Fowell, Erica Thomson, Jenny King and Liz Welch. In the foreground are the two big books that tell the story behind the work with lots of step by steps of the computer transformations that took place to achieve the finished pieces.

Work for the original exhibition “Consequences” can be seen on a CD catalogues (£5) available from Liz (just email lizwelch@rarebird.ltd.uk). The CD contains more than 130 images including overall and close ups of every piece of work in the original exhibition plus work sheets describing the computer stages in developing each piece.

We hope you enjoyed viewing the work and meeting members, but most of all we hope we have inspired you to try your hand at making more of your computer in your creative lives.

Just a quickie

Hello to everyone who has visited our stand at the NEC. I have mentioned our Picasa Web Albums to many visitors, suggesting they might like to take a look as we have loads of images which I'm sure will be of interest. Here is the link to our Picasa Web Album.
Erica

DOT exhibit at the Fashion, Embroidery and Stitch Show

We really enjoyed meeting visitors at our recent exhibition, so much so that we decided that we would like to meet more of you, so....we will have a stand (ZP 21) at the Fashion Embroidery & Stitch show at the NEC Thu 24th - Sun 27th Mar 2011. Selected pieces of work from our recent ‘Consequences’ exhibition will be on display, along with much of the background computer work available to browse. There will be 2 or 3 of us there every day to chat with, so do come along to say hello.
Your ticket also includes entry to Sewing for Pleasure and Hobbycrafts.

Comments from the Visitors Book, Millgate Exhibition

Wow - what a display of techniques and such a high standard and beautiful results - Congratulations. CF

Stunning work! A feast for the eyes and food for thought! BS

Fascinating process and range of outcomes - so many different interpretations and media used. All so beautifully displayed in this space. JB

Excellent exhibition. Really enjoyed looking through all the books. Best exhibition I've been to. LW

So varied and vibrant. It's amazing how one idea can go so many different ways. MA

A very interesting concept. What a good use of 'technology' at last! KS

Wish I could get that creativity out of my computer! DH

A wonderfully stimulating display, using modern technology and embroidery skills that have passed down through generations of crafts people. WH

Truly amazing to see the process from the beginning through to the final piece. I wish I had such imagination - let alone computer skills.

Amazing pieces of art, so different and imaginative. Intriguing how different people's interpretations of 'things' turn out. Loved it. L

Consequences - Last Day

Today is the last day of our first exhibition and I think all Dotties should be proud of the success of Consequences. Everyone worked incredibly hard to make it all happen, and judging by the comments in the visitors book it has been very well received. The staff at Millgate Museum in Newark (the venue for those of you who have not managed to get there), were impressed, and the level of interest in the work has been high.

One of our aims was to make people realise just what a wonderful tool the computer is for assisting the creative design process in textiles, and I believe we have achieved that. People, young and old, have been fascinated by the computer work that went into creating each piece, and judging by the comments, we have inspired some of them to try it out for themselves.

We created a CD of images of all the work in the exhibition plus much of the background computer work to aid people in trying out some of the effects themselves. The CD is available for £5 plus P&P and it is incredible value for money as there are 130 images on the disc. (if you would like a copy email enquiries@rarebird.ltd.uk) Here is a little selection from the CD.

Erica's novel earrings created by scanning in clothing, and printing out on to paper and fabric then folding into origami earrings.

Jenny's beautiful Lillies created with print, paint and applique

Ros's nifty little Dorothy bag and how she came up with the design

Hilary's delightful frost inspired 3D wall piece in subtle colours, each of the four rosettes in the piece has been created by printing on to different surfaces.

Lesley is a first time exhibitor and one of the newest members of the group, but you would never know it from this lovely little bag.

I used one of the games of Consequences as the starting point for this mask made out of Friendly Plastic, fabric and wire.

Pat's delightful Clematis combines simple paper print outs and fabric.

If you missed the exhibition, then you missed a treat, but you can still purchase a CD, join a local group or the CTDG (Computer Textile Design Group), take a class, or simply get cracking on your own and see what your computer programmes can do for your creativity (a good way to start is buy a digital photo magazine and follow some of the tutorials on their free CDs, or check out the wealth of free tutorials available on line).

If you want to know more about each of us as artists then some of us have websites and blogs, others you will have to email directly, so check out the links at the side of the page.

Designs On Textiles "Consequences" Exhibition Oct-Nov 2010

A video from our "Consequences" Exhibition at the Newark Millgate Museum.

The exhibition runs from 9th October to 28th November 2010

You can view this video in high definition (the YouTube default is 320p, you have to click on that and select 720p to view)

The exhibition is up

Fame at last! The exhibition is up and receiving good reviews in the 'Comments Book'.
Some visitors have come especially, others have just happened upon it. For those who haven't been yet, there's still 5 more weeks to visit.

Intermesh

This was the first piece of work I produced for our forthcoming exhibition at the Millgate Gallery, Newark which is on from 9th October until 28th November. It is approx. 60 x 40cms and mounted on a dark blue padded background.

Origami Earrings Day

Today we had a very enjoyable day making origami earrings.

I will be teaching a class at the Husqvarna Shop in Nottingham on 26th October and I needed to practise teaching how to make the earrings with people who were not familiar with Origami techniques.

We made paper earrings, fabric earrings and then more paper ones, but this time to match our clothes. I had asked everybody to bring along paper print outs of scans of some of their clothes, along with the real garments to see which worked best. It was really interesting to see what everybody had chosen and how successful they had been. If you click on the picture, it will enlarge and you can see the huge variety of papers and fabrics we used. You can see some were made from print outs from our Still Life consequences game.

I hope everybody has gone home buzzing with ideas and will make more pairs, maybe as presents.

By the way, I posted this directly from Picasa (using the little icon - Blog this) - just another way to post.

Erica

Putting up posters

With our forthcoming exhibition only 19 days away we are busy putting up posters in the Newark and Nottingham areas - those interested, please make a note of the details!

The posters were designed by Erica and Jenny - the image, printed on fabric, was taken from 'Millgate Consequences'.... more information on this and other images at the exhibition! Hope you can come along.

Lesley

PS To read all the details on the poster, just click on it.

A bag of frost

Recipes

Fancy a piece of lemon drizzle cake, cherry and coconut cake or a cupcake. A wipeclean

recipe book where you can add your own recipes into the plastic sleeves.

Sous the chef

Dear all, long time, no blog.

In preparation for our DOT exhibition I am posting the details which explain the design behind my chef's hat. We were working on images of kitchen utensils and the idea to make a chef's hat suddenly came to me. I had great fun making it, hope you like it too.

Pink Belt

Jenny's belt