The Studio Blog - Helen Suzanne

a new hat for a windy day

2012-02-27T23:42:00.007Z

Finally dry, I can wear my new hat for a fresh web icon photo. I love how this turned out especially as it was all rather a leap in the dark for me. Every now and again I have to seek a challenge, push the boundaries as it were, in order to keep creatively alive. I've wanted to do 3D felt pieces for a long while now but it seemed like such a huge undertaking that I never quite had enough umph to get around to it.

Well the wedding season is looming in the late summer so, never satisfied with what is on offer in the shops, I proposed to myself that I get started early and "knock up" a little outfit, (if you know me you'll also know that I never manage to do that... my homemade clothes never fit, it's my mother that sews and I should just accept that this, alongside climbing up rocks and singing, is simply something I am not meant to do). A Victorian steampunk type of jacket/dress coat would do nicely but patterns are definitely not my thing... hmmm.... felt is though!!

So... this, as a stepping stone, is my first foray into the world of "battering fuzzy stuff" into a garment. Next to see if anyone visiting Etsy wants it, to fund me some more materials, lol!

a wild and windy day

2012-02-14T16:33:00.006Z

... here in the north of Scotland. As the light is dimming I've been putting finishing touches to my new blog and web page look, whilst having more play with digital sketching for a background (it's subtle but it's there if you look close enough). This time of year I always feel like getting some more light into my life and shifting that dire feeling, both really and metaphorically, of feet dragging in mud. Bring on the sun-shine of creativity I say!!

These are some of the newly dyed pieces that I did the other day in an attempt to kick off some creative ideas. I don't know if it has worked but at least I enjoyed doing them :)

sketching winter

2012-02-04T01:56:00.004Z

Digital sketching has been the order of the evening and once I got into it I was engrosed in this remembering. Sometimes it's great to risk a mess and plunge into scribbling down things that are no longer in front of you, esspecially if you don't have any visual reminders to prompt you... it's a bit daunting but once you're in the mode it can feel so much more like reliving the moment... something you don't get with using a photo, even if you took it yourself.

Of course this method has the added advantage of being done by a warm fireside and not at -10 deg in the dying sunlight of a winters day.

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T14:30:00.001Z

Hope you're all enjoying a restful day today.
Have a great 2012. I look forward to visiting all your blogs and catching up with your creative activities.
Warmest hugs

xxx

Are your visitors having trouble posting...

2011-10-26T11:57:00.006+01:00

...comments?

It seems it's not a rare thing in blogger. After hearing about it I found this from blogger...
"We're investigating reports of users not being able to comment on IE8/9 from the embedded form. We hope to have a fix out shortly, but in the meantime we encourage admins to switch to either the full-page or pop-up forms which should be working without issue."
That being the case I've altered my settings to have commenting appear as a full-page. Please let me know if this has helped if you've been having problems before.

from art to cushion cover

2011-10-25T23:27:00.003+01:00

This is one of the pieces that didn't make it into the exhibition so I'm thinking of turning it into a cushion cover.

I'm fond of the seedpods of the honesty plant and a couple of recent pieces have been based on that subject, both in fabric and in paint.

Amazed by the colour of the rescued plant I looked at it thinking hmmmmm those rust spots look like a fine splatter of walnut ink. It's great when life references stem from the creative rather than the other way around.

Sorry that I'm reduced to talking in captions in this post... I've been bitten on the boob by a horse and am still reeling in pain.

can it be...

2011-10-22T12:08:00.002+01:00

... so very long since I wrote here? My goodness time is fleeting. The summer has been filled with living interspersed with horses, painting and the ongoing textiles. I joined in with an exhibition venture which has just opened at the Eden Court in Inverness and of course if you're in the area do drop in and have a look. The artists exhibiting are all quite different in style and technique. My own contribution is quite small as are the pieces of work but the impact of everyone's work displayed is quite striking.

As the season has turned cooler the woodburner has gone on and thoughts have recently returned to blogging and creating to share. The exhibition working took its tole and made me want to pull away from being creative for a while but now I'm thinking "just play" again and rejuvenate that way... after all they say "a change is as good as rest" don't they. Sharing those adventures with you really helps stimulate more so hopefully I'll be around a good deal more in the next few months.

Here's hoping you had a good summer too.
hugs

those scraps

2011-07-01T00:20:00.004+01:00

Here they are made into a stitched piece. Again letting the pieces dictate the starting point and then working towards resolving the image. It's a nice way to work and quite opposite to deciding first what it should look like (and often being disappointed). This way the whole thing changes and grows with each little bit done, each stitch bringing me closer to something that feels right to look at. I like the constant process of rasping down the hard edges and smoothing away the things that jar, leaving only the highlights to contrast and stand out. Having said that, this piece doesn't quite work, but I've decided to just enjoy the play (with the opportunity of hand stitching) and now to leave it alone.

This was also an opportunity to play with some "friendly plastic" that I recently saw on Heather's inspiring blog... "ragged old blogger". Thanks Heather! Indeed Liz Welsh of "rarebird" was so quick to send that order out that I only waited one day from ordering to receive my bundle of goodies. I usually only work with more traditional materials like silk or glass and avoid man-made plasticy sorts of things, but I was tempted by the ability to colour this formable plastic and I can see there is lots going for it in its favour.
Here's a closer look at the first experiment...

finishing un-finished projects

2011-06-30T10:07:00.002+01:00

"This" I am poor at... once things have been put aside they're often not picked up again. It's like there must have been severe disinterest with the thing for it to be abandoned in the first place so there's never much impetous to pick it up again to finish it off. How ever I have been a good girl and restarted this journal cover... actually no that's a lie to self... I really just wanted a piece to do some hand stitching onto ! A nice side effect is that I got interested in the piece again and did complete it :)

Now where are those scraps I put aside yesterday... I want more surfaces to stitch !

to discard, or not to discard...

2011-06-29T16:21:00.007+01:00

...that was the question this afternoon. Riffling through the scrap box where everything ever cut off or trimmed down goes is a major occupation for me at the start of any project. I'm looking for flashes of colour that I can instantly add moments of interest with, then I can build around these spontanious responses to fashion a piece which is more coherant. Today I just had enough though. The box was too full and not really working as an inspirational palette. Time for throwing the scraps on the scrap heap! Of course not everything went... I still spotted a few gems worth keeping. It's the first time in 3 years that I've had a clear out so it was a joy to bin so much. At first I had a pang of worry that I'd have nothing left to work with but most all of the good bits had gone anyway and I figure I'll just have to create some more scraps to choose from!

The last of the usable bits are scattered here as I'm looking to start a new journal cover.

treasure

2011-06-22T18:51:00.008+01:00

Did you see the program on BBC called "treasures from heaven"? As I turned on the TV half way through I was delighted to see these little tiny parcels revealed from their "Reliquary" - the ancient art of christian reliques. These charms or totems (in effect) contained holy objects in order to be consecrated and deemed effective to be used for ceremonies or personal charms. The small parcels shown below were hundreds of years old and contain bone fragments or hair said to be from various medieval saints!

This is a new piece I finished yesterday based on my kinds of treasure. I love working on the plaster surface and it takes good old fashioned pen and dipping ink like a treat.

a wooly weekend

2011-06-14T16:58:00.008+01:00

Last week and unexpected offer came my way to go up to a fibre weekend organised by the local spinning and weaving guild. I joined up immediately and had a fantastic time with the demonstrations and fibres on sale. Wingham Wool Works is the venture of Ruth Gough and her husband who seemed to bring a whole warehouse full of fibre and all things related. I've had a wheel for a while now but had never managed to set it up to spin properly, so I was glued to Ruth's demonstration. With brain firing on all cylinders I watched her controlling the fibres and wheel, trying to eek out all the subtleties of movement that made it all look so... fluid! That was me convinced. I had to do that class the next day!

That night I practised what I'd seen and managed some yarn. Actually I was rather pleased with it annnnnnd I'd managed to get the wheel running properly with a bit of oil, loads of peddling and a new drive band, but better things where yet to come.

Saturday was amazing. Packed with soooo much information and totally absorbing. Ruth is an excellent teacher, clear, concise, to the point and so very easy to understand. I am so lucky on a couple of counts. One, that I hadn't been burdened with being stuck in one home concocted way of doing it - as I possibly could have been given my tendency to just dive in a the deep end and make something work as I need, and two, to have someone with such a breadth of knowledge and understanding of the actual processes and who can dispel the myths which many books have in them as fact (evidently this is a hang over from the 40's/50's when spinning became "a craft" and over the years errors have been compounded into re-quoted "facts").

We did a whole host of techniques, short draw, extended short draw (or American long draw), British long draw, errm... plying, Navaho plying, south American plying, gosh is that it? Ahhhh no! also the wonderful technique of making "perfect rollags" Ruth's way... you really have to see it to believe it! Oh and plying around a core... I had such a brilliant time that I'd recommend you find out where she's teaching and make sure you get a class with her.

And the next question? Well yes, I can still do those things back at home, though of course it will take some practice to become consistent... good job I'm into knobbly yarns eh!
Many thanks to Ruth and Wingham Wools Works :)

a galling experience...

2011-06-05T18:42:00.007+01:00

...collecting oak galls, (sorry bad joke). A lovely walk this afternoon brought up treasure so hard to find at first and then just before home we struck gold... A wonderful oak tree with many galls. Now imagine small children trying to get conkers out of the horse chestnut tree and that was us jumping up and down with sticks beneath our oak. We managed a healthy 68 galls to make a tannin liquor with plenty left over still on the tree!

p.s. this is to make a dye bath additive, not a drinking liquor !!!!

a collecting day

2011-06-04T23:50:00.002+01:00

Birch bark was one of the first things on my list to gather as we live so close to the woodland and I knew there would be some fallen trees to hand. This does go with a word of warning though... my fallen tree was laying with roots stuck high to the air and had obviously been knocked down in a gale. Safe for taking samples I thought, until the tree decided to take a sample of me! Using a small knife to prise some bark away it slipped and I skinned the pad of my index finger with the blade, just like peeling bark off a tree. Ah karma ! I noticed there were still green leaves on the branches laying half burried in the grass, so I moved on to another piece that was definately dead. The bark came off much easier on that piece.

Once home I started the process of making the pieces a bit smaller before putting them to soak and release their colour.

a journal of natural dyeing adventures

2011-06-04T00:18:00.002+01:00

It feels like I have always imagined that I would do this one day... play with the colouring of fibres by use of plants, so I'm happy to be finally able to have a space in the shed just for this. A newly aquired "blytheswood" charity shop folding out table with wheels is the hub, and where the chairs would stack inside I have my mordanting chemicals. I've bought a couple of stainless steel pots with lids and one with a steamer, plus a load of stainless steel dog bowls... it all adds up but now I'm all set to start exploring.

Today I made up mordanting liquors and washed then set to soak a variety of fabrics, both silk and cotton, and some small skeins of anything I have that will possibly be neutral enough to take dye colours. Tomorrow starts the collecting of dye stuffs. There seems so much to choose from out there! I'm keen to try the birch bark and ladies bedstraw/yellow bedstraw roots as I'd like to get as many pinks and purple colours as possible.

a day of this and that

2011-06-02T00:33:00.001+01:00

A day of showers and dappled sunshine, felting and walks. I had fun pondering the trees and plants which I could use in the natural dye processes and decided that I will keep a journal of the adventure. These pictures are some of the day's activities.

a grey day in translation

2011-05-29T16:42:00.002+01:00

Another grey day inspired a coastal view where reflected sunlight turns silver and the sky is over-hung with a dark canopy. Here the seaweed covered shore-line is slippy and four legs are better than two :)

I've just spent a happy hour looking through some of the wonderful books available on natural dyeing on Amazon, and wondered what other peoples favourites are? I love technical information when it comes to processes like that, chemical and alchemical, as you can't see what happened in order to get there in the final result. Enjoying evolving processes I'm after another learning spell so have reawakened the interest in dyeing with plants. This has particularly been because I can find very few sources of machine embroidery fine pure silk to work with and thought that I should dye my own. Any recommendations?

I shall let you in on the books when I get them :)

a remembering

2011-05-28T10:15:00.003+01:00

I was just going to bed when a very strong image came into my head so I had to try and catch it in a sketch to use later. Many memories of places that I loved back in Cumbria will spring up like that, especially if I've spent time walking and slowly absorbing the area. Hawthorn and Blackthorn hedges can be amazing when they're well established with their twisted and gnarled trunks and spikey tips, particularly the really old ones that have become derelict and open... boundries that once were, scratching posts for sheep and imaginary gateways into other worlds for small children.

Like I say this is just a sketch but my minds eye has it differently so there is further work to be done :)

a stormy coast with a good helping of grey clouds and plenty of wind

2011-05-26T00:10:00.001+01:00

More grey skies forcast but I'm quite happy with the stove lit working away in the studio.

Chelsea flower show is quite an inspiration don't you think? Hope the weather will be good enough soon to get out in the garden and start on the flowers areas. Happily the veg are already planted :)

Enjoy the rest of the week all!

inventory 1

2011-05-18T09:29:00.002+01:00

I compartmentalise my life's history and it's not all one long film. I liken it to having video's on the shelf that I can play sections of as my memory runs through a moment or event. It's a strange thing to do for someone who hates being "put in a box" (save that for when I'm dead!). I don't like labels that confine or catagories that stiffle, but there is a tiny element of me that loves those collections in glass covered tables. I have one of those many compartmented wall shelves with small spaces and I've collected tiny things that have caught my eye. A tiny scrap of decorated ceramic, a birds skull, discarded blackbird egg, and an old tin that had licorice bits in it. These nestle in their little spaces, separate enough to call attention, but safe and secure from being lost.

Sketching for the ideas of a new direction of thought... these are the marks I've made so far...
the spaces in my own wall of life. What I choose to put in them... ah... now then :)

looking for form...

2011-05-09T13:55:00.001+01:00

and shape without using a pattern. Hmm a challenge I've always wanted to try, so now is the time.

I had a silly afternoon wrapped in a bin-bag and duck-tape with my niece helping me make a duck-tape dummy. I've put on alot over the last year and I get so frustrated altering and re-altering patterns to fit so I felt it was about time I tried one of these to fit onto. The instructions are here if you'd like one too!

So now it's time to start wrapping and drapping, pinning and stitching. Wish me luck! It seems to me a very silly thing to be doing ;)

better than I'd expected

2011-05-08T00:05:00.004+01:00

These turned out much softer than I was thinking they would with the microwave probably having heated the fabric enough to melt the wax to some degree, but I'm pleased with the more muted effect. Somehow the pale pastel batiked bits may have been too stark, where as now they are quite subtle and just enough to give some interest to the surface.

After a good rinse in tepid water I chucked the lot in the washing machine on 95 degrees, the hottest the machine will go, and wonderfully all the wax washed right out with out a trace, so non of that nasty ironing with brown paper business (grins).
Now to what style, hmm...

ooo...

2011-05-07T21:59:00.001+01:00

drawing on cloth

2011-05-07T20:13:00.001+01:00

The soldering iron worked beautifully once I tuned it to a low temperature. Here's photo of the whole cloth at the finished waxing stage just before I tackled giving it's dark dye.

I used an old sack of wax pellets but didn't like them moving about as I dipped the tool into them to pick up wax. To resolve this I tried melting some in a little old pot to make a block for stabbing at. Strangely enough I found that the parafin wax wouldn't melt in the microwave! Not what I expected at all. I do tend to use the microwave for a quick dye fix as I hate waiting for hours but the logic of normal wax behaviour had me thinking I would have to just sit it out and not hurry the process, until I discovered the wax alone won't melt in the microwave. Now I'm sitting typing and wondering if I was mad to go against my original logic, hoping that the impetuous boost of microwaving just now hasn't melted the wax.

ironing, ironing, ironing...

2011-05-05T23:40:00.010+01:00

Imagine my delight to find this subtle watercolour type image as I lifted today's newly felted piece from the ironing board. Always looking for a faster way to get a result I'm one of those people who try to iron things dry rather than hang them out for a few hours... this time it payed dividends when the silk fibres in the felting released some of their colour onto my make-do cover. Time to look out a new light coloured sheet to iron on I think... this one may be destined for greater things! A Wisteria design maybe??

This is the felt that the dye came out of... also quite a pleasing result, though I'm still not too sure about the splashes of red, hmmm....

And finally, this evening's project. This newly dyed fabric is a length of cotton lawn that I'm planning on batiking tomorrow. Batik is something I haven't done much of... in fact I must have been perhaps 12 when our neighbour did some with my Mum and I got to join in, and I maybe did it once after that so I have been scanning the web for notes. As I pondered the possibilities of an old pan or two lurking in the shed a thought ran slap dash through the middle of everything, laughing as it went... "I don't have a janting but I do have a soldering iron!!!!". Now I know this works from the old days of making encaustic pictures with blocks of coloured beeswax, so time to check that my trusty old tool wasn't "something that got thrown out the week before it was needed" (after all it hadn't been used for over 10 years and must have gone through at least 2 house moves!) - some things fall into that catagory recently, such as those jam jars I recycled and then needed for a jam making session from a gift of rhubarb last week!

EEEEeeeeeeeee! I'm excited now :)

herbal ban

2011-04-29T13:00:00.001+01:00

You may have heard of the EU ban on much of the herbal medicince available to us in the shops. I certainly feel it's heavy handed and needs refining if it intends to keep the public safe. My greatest concern though is the right of choice of how we look after ourselves as well as the underlying feeling that only the drug companies will benefit from these rulings.

Only two days left and maybe a petition will have some influence?
http://www.avaaz.org/en/eu_herbal_medicine_ban/?copy

tags or maybe bookmarks?

2011-04-24T01:18:00.005+01:00

I've had much creative satisfaction today by finishing off a set of textile tags. There is something very "full circle" about starting off with a loose almost random process, honing it, and ending up tidying it up with neat satin stitch edging, a handworked back loop and a ribbon. One nice thing about doing these was that I realised that about this time last year I did exactly the same with sitting on the front step of this new dwelling place in the early spring sun stitching the loops on the backs of some similar tags. May be it should be a spring ritual, to sit outside and stitch :)

I'd also like to say thank you to Sandra for her recent invite to add my page to her collection of creative crafters :) Nice to meet you Sandra!

sketchbooks

2011-04-23T20:23:00.001+01:00

Do you work in sketchbooks? As a general rule I don't. I tend to work in my head and directly onto the piece in some sort of homogenised blend, but...
I've been tempted. Helen Cowans gave me the heads up on this years new sketchbook project that so many people seemed to enter last year. Indeed I was one of those but sadly didn't get to complete it. Much to my own disappointment too as I hate finding I've started something and have the feeling of "yet again" not finishing, for what ever reason... it bugs me. So I'm doing it again, from scratch, and what ever gets done gets sent!
Click the logo to join in yourself!

wanting some vintage pink

2011-04-09T11:04:00.002+01:00

Do you ever get a yearning for a particular colour, or even combination of colours. I really felt like some vintage pink last night... the colour of Grandma's corset set with a duck egg blue and faded teabag cream.

This is the combination I came up with though I don't think that it does the craving justice... must file it in the mental database to work on.

finding older things...

2011-04-07T17:38:00.008+01:00

... and creating new!

Today I was going through the bits box and wondering if it was time to sort it out. I hardly ever throw anything away. All the trimmings from the edges of pieces and the little snippets of left over fabric are tossed into a wonderfully inspirational jumble in one of my new cube draws. It is getting a little full but maybe it can wait a while longer... usually once a year and it gets a wee tidy from things I really wouldn't use (though it's poor odds that they will get chosen to go as they've all come from things I've already made, lol).

Whilst rumaging through I found a lovely little piece of left over which I just had to use in one of the new cards I've been making. This little flower was from some experiments I did from Carol and Lynda's great book "stitiching the textured surface" a while ago. I have a small collection of books for eye candy but rarely look through them after getting them. This book however is full of really useful stuff and I've referred to it often. As I've done loads of work today I'm going to treat myself to another play with their gesso stenciling methods, which I love as you can make up your own paste from household basics rather than having to get yet another "special product" to try.

So that's my time filled for the next couple of hours.
Hope you've been enjoying a creative day in some way too!

it felt like tuesday...

2011-04-06T17:48:00.003+01:00

... today. How odd, I've missed a day.
Ah well, "felt" I did, both today and yesterday.

These are all just stash felts so I don't know what they'll be used for yet. Some times just the random combinations that happen during the wet felt process serve as inspiration them selves for other things.

finished from January

2011-04-05T15:40:00.001+01:00

Just looking back through some posts and I realise that I hadn't shown you the result of the January scarf with its edging added. For some reason and despite my best efforts at colour management blogger is dulling down the colours a little but you can see a little more how it finished up with its felted and beaded fringe.

a host of spring leaves

2011-04-04T13:36:00.002+01:00

more fun with the felt and beads... perhaps I should make a tree next?

learning to "not paint"

2011-04-02T17:44:00.002+01:00

You wouldn't believe how hard I find this more abstract method of painting. I come from a realistic style which has never satisfied me. Last week I decided, yet again, to stop letting the paint imitate things and just let it be itself. This is the result... what you can see trees?? feels like a woodland?? lmao! see I just can't stay away from turning it into something. There were 5 different incarnations, all looking completely different (sorry no photos were taken) on this one canvas. Painting out, re-painting, over painting, under painting, high lighting and low lighting, covering it all over and wiping it all off. Gradually I started to keep bits I liked but the more I kept the more crutial was the next stroke. The pressure was unbearable so I obliterated it all again. Only at the final stages after blocking out much of the surround did I allow some realistic elements to finally push through.

One thing that I'm pleased with is that I've enjoyed playing with the paint like I enjoy throwing down fabric compositions and stitching into them. Maybe I'm getting to explore this medium now rather than trying to reproduce a scene with paint. One of the most vunerable things I've done in a long time and is very hard to stay true to the puropse and stick with "not painting".

felted creations

2011-03-18T11:17:00.000Z

Going on from making the felt I've decided to make a few spring time broaches from it. I spent ages doing doodles but found the simpler designs looked more effective.

The ones here to the right are other ideas from local scenes and things I've found out and about.

This is what I ended up with after several broach designs last night. Finding the neatest way to attach the pin took the most attempts but eventually I fixed it between the layers with the relevant bits poking out the backing... a much nicer finish. I'm quite pleased with it so am going to let it breathe some new life into my etsy shop :)

Another interesting find on my MIL's windowsill was a seed head she gathered from the garden last year. It's little curled pods are perfect inspiration for some ceramics that I'm planning. I love the wrinkly structures.

red deer and video experiments with the GF1

2011-03-17T15:35:00.000Z

Yesterday was beautiful and almost too bright for photographs in the Findhorn Valley. Over a foot of snow and a smarting wind didn't deter us and it was very much worth while. Here's a few shots and a better quality little piece of video footage of the red deer after they poured over the mountain top to graze on lower ground.

video link

barn owl

2011-03-17T01:31:00.000Z

I wonder how many of these beautiful creatures survived this winter. It must be so hard for them to find food with extended periods of heavy snow. This picture was taken last year and I'm offering it as a 10"x10" print under the "for sale" tab.

never felt so good

2011-03-15T20:02:00.000Z

...to be back working with fibre, soap and water! Especially given such worrying times. It's good to go back to simple basics and get on with "doing" when there is nothing else you can alter but what goes on around you.

Had some fun today with a multicoloured piece made to chop up for some small pieces. I love the effect of adding the silk fibres and just how minutely wrinkly they become during the process.

Here are a couple of shots from todays Textile Tuesday.

Recently I was going through some photographs taken over the last couple of months looking for some inspiration for textures when I came across this...

I must use it some how... may be some cut work through felt or silk.

And finally some sketches for new broach ideas...

wooly sheep print

2011-03-14T17:57:00.000Z

Sometimes I'll be adding new things that I have for sale here on the blog. It's the easiest way now to put them on the web for me.
This is a recent request...

hebridean sheep

available under the "for sale" tab

new logo

2011-03-10T20:30:00.001Z

A little test for using Flickr to share my photography with you here on my blog. Hope you enjoy :)
p.s.
On second thoughts I've decided to add tabs to the top of the blog (a nifty improvement from blogger, thanks!) to direct you straight to my flickr photograhs instead of publishing to the blog from flickr. You'll find this link under the photographs tag :)

The new logo is now being used on the things I make. It's nice to have it as an additional focus to keep making. Hopefully new items will be on etsy soon. xxx

through rose tinted eyes

2011-01-15T18:18:00.000Z

Trying to for imagined images into a tangible form that can be shared with others is quite a task, esspecially if you can't quite bring that fleating image into focus in your own mind. With this thought I've attempted to have a go anyway and live in hope that as I work the image will form more clearly of its own accord.
Do any of you do this with painting too? How do you resolve it?

This is not a painting though... this is done with a camera. Intentional Camera Movement seems to be a trend sweeping the artistically inclined flickr sites and I do admit to liking the effect. You need a camera where you can reduce that size of the apature and adjust for a longer exposure to compensate for less light getting in. This longer time frame that the shutter of the camera is open allows you to add movement to the image. The random effect is only worth trying with digital cameras unless you've loads of film to waste as you can take loads of images before one really works. Gradually you can hone the process a bit though and start getting the right sort of images that have this painterly feel. Loads of fun, esspecially when the light is failing and you need longer exposures to take a picture.

prodding about

2011-01-11T21:28:00.000Z

I've been meaning to do one of these rugs for ages so today I finally started with some old fat quarters of printed fabric mixed in with some hand-dyed cottons. I'm using a hessian potato sack opened up for the base but on trying it on the floor I'm suspecting that it needs to have two open sacks joined to be big enough. There's no particular design so it won't be a problem to enlarge it... just time consuming :) and maybe too daunting.

best foot forward into the new year

2011-01-06T17:30:00.000Z

With the tax return done and the snows starting again I thought I'd begin the new year with something a little more colourful. In rememberance of Autumn, ripe victoria plums and golden sunsets and dancing corn fields, I set about a new scarf this afternoon. The luscious silk fibres from "wooliebullie" on etsy arrived this morning. On opening them and seeing all that colour I couldn't put it away in the box eh! So, out with the silk and dyes and then a couple of hours of felting, et voila... Now what kind of edging, hmm.

hope you all had a good christmas!

2010-12-28T22:41:00.000Z

christmas parcels

2010-12-16T17:11:00.000Z

Finally some things that I can show... Here are some christmas parcels to hold surprises on the tree :)

Hope all your own preparations are going well. We have fresh snow after the recent thaw though it's not forcast to last until chrismas... ach! we'll see eh!

a fabric morsel

...more morsels

painting to show

2010-11-24T21:44:00.000Z

Thought I'd have a little catch up and show you what I've been working on...

These two new oil paintings represent a change in progress for me. The first is how I've been working for a while but the second I feel like I've breached something else. Maybe it's the more intimate position of viewer to the environment, closer and more textural. What ever it is that is different I feel like I'm much happier with this work than anything I've done for a long time.

This next week I'm going to go back to making some textured silk shawl/scarf lengths, so lots of fun dyeing.

Hope all is well in blog world and you are happy with your snow fall ;)

Trying “windows live writer”

2010-11-01T13:42:00.001Z

I’ve just heard about this way of blogging and am intrigued to see if any of you use it and is it any better than just using blogger itself.

A while back I did some shots of new work for the website so thought I’d share one or two here with some more detail. I love doing small pieces with the textiles. In a way they are a method of sketching the environment, making colour notes and exploring small detailed compositions quickly. They develop a spontaneous response to the creative spark and I’m often taken with them, not only as small pieces themselves but as Marquettes for bigger pieces.

I am going to post more soon but would just like to see how this “writer” works.

bye for noooooow xxx

the beauty of autumn

2010-10-16T23:19:00.000+01:00

Well I can hardly post here from my new virtual home without giving recognition to the fact that I now have trees around me. Coming here from the very flat and treeless landscape of the north of Lewis has me delighting in the autumn colour and "crunchiness". I had to get myself out into the forest behind the house to grab some of it on camera before the winds come and more devastatingly the rain to turn everything soggy brown!

The cherry trees have and orange/pink glow and the birch below a brilliant yellow. Mostly though things are still hanging on to their green... as yet.

I'm back to working hard on the textiles and painting but before I delve into all that I must first let you catch up on the project of the year... well my life really!! lol. Below is the creation of my wedding dress. Well to be honest its the wedding dress finished as I didn't take step by step photies. Firstly the sleeve as I showed in the last post now in the dress...

Then there's some detail on the front in the form of a collar, where I layered the shantung silk with organza over pale blue/green leaf shapes and then FMEd about them to link them all up. After that I added the wee cushions of hand-dyed silk haboti and set the pieces of unpolished turquoise on them with gold thread. The final touch was to couch the gold embroidery silk thread around the cushions and do the knot-work.

This is the back of the collar, and LOOK! I managed an invisible zip for the first time!!

Do you want to see the full thing on??
...
hehe,

oh first... the rings. I made them from Precious Metal Silver Clay and then overlaid 22 carrots of gold into the dimples. So much fun and a bit nerve wracking to get the sizing (which worked out perfectly at 10% like they said on the bit of paper).

What else did I make... hmmm
ah yes... Mr Helen's waistcoat... that's what the dark merino felting was for in the last post. I'll have to take a pic of it for next time!

To finish off... here we are cutting the cake :) :) :) (delicious light chocolate cake layered with a fine italian chocolate and butter cream icing like you've never tasted before.... none of that crystaline crunchy stuff here, lol!)... Now I need to lose at least a stone and a half!!!!!

Welcome

2010-10-13T16:58:00.000+01:00

Well, Helen Suzanne has decided to set up a new blog to go with the new web site. I hope that you'll join me in my continuing adventures through the mediums of textile, photography, paint and happiness. There's a bit of clay work thrown in there too so watch out for a few splats of messiness :)
I've moved my base from the hebridean islands of Scotland over to the mainland so I thought it appropriate to refresh my web image and have a wee change of style. Let me know what you think... the studio web site and this studio blog... I know black won't be popular with some of you but I hope you'll bear with me. I'd really like to see if images stand out better with this simple dark theme to support them.

Well what have I been up to? Apart from moving home I've also had a month or so of making madly as I suggested on the old blog. Here are a few pics to show you why :)
when I can get blogger to upload pictures!!!!!

Some gold thread FME on blue/gold shot organza...

... and some silk and charcoal merino cobweb felting.
Hope you enjoy
and I'll be back with you soon with more new work.