Imagine finding a bundle of old letters at a carboot sale and then reading them to find that they are from a family of fishermen and master mariners who kept in touch in the 1870's by letter. This is my 'jumping off point' for the next pieces of work.
First some image transfer.Somehow I want to link up the letters to help tell their story.

I have found a collection of letters sent to and from family members who were master mariners and pilchard fishermen in Cornwall. 

What a great weekend at Ammerdown. Here are my pictures of an altered dust sheet.

The last image shows the piece chopped up and rearranged. VB

Dust sheets and more

You wouldn't think a simple dust sheet could hold so much potential but this weekend at Ammerdown we all stood around admiring the marks and possibilities for adding stitch.
Was I a 'Sat nav' person or a 'map reader/maker', i still don't know!

portion of dust sheet before I started

We were given postcard sized pieces cut from the dust sheet. We were encouraged to look at it and see where it took us in the ways of stitch and other embellishments. We also recorded our progress every few marks with photographs but i am just going to show the finished sample here.

i cut the sample into a square!

 i got carried away with colour! We were all so quite at least for an hour working at our pieces.

i made a second sample with cross stitch.
After we finished this challenge we all continued with our own work which hopefully will go towards a future exhibition.
i have been working with film rolls and the idea of images taken. How people take many shots of the same thing. My story is based on the 'Sheringham Shoal' the off shore wind farm.

working on tiny squares of Ramie fabric with graphite, tinting colours, stitch and pulling out threads i am deciding on the best way to join them.

sky sea and beach

 more next time! [AA]
 

What would you do with a decorators dust sheet?

Sian's challenge this Firework weekend was to respond to the marks on a piece taken at random from a decorators sheet.

We were not allowed to sit and think first but had to do one step then take a photo before considering the next step and work on through.

Everyone was so absorbed there was no chatter or banter while we got on with this .[J.H.]

The decorators dust sheet we started with......

Amanda Clayton

Enjoyed a day stitching with Bristol Embroiderers at a workshop with Amanda Clayton.All we used was running stitch and it threw up so many possibilities.     

            

                   

 The day just flew by too quickly,J.H.

      

Making and using hand made brushes

Our challenge was to make a variety of mark making brush like tools using found materials and use them to create marks relating to our chosen story. My story is family history related and I chose the word 'memory' for my experimental work.  J. R.

creating a collage of my word on paper and fabric with rust dyed samples, lace and stitched work

collaging rust dyed fabrics, silk paper and stitched samples with 'memory' mark making samples

mark making hand stitched sample with lace  

 

writing the word 'memory' across a variety of fabrics using walnut ink, procion dye and emulsion paint

 

.

 

Marks using walnut ink and birch catkins brush

 

Marks made using walnut ink with brush made from 'bird of paradise' plant stems

 

 

I am posting the development of my 'Storm ' piece. Please note...HAND STITCHED !!!! Ronnie

Calligraphic marks.

After a slow and unpromising start with my hand made brushes,I found some rose hips on a bush outside the studio.I collected a few and taped them to a twig.These gave me much more pleasing marks ,and I was away.

I 'wrote' with walnut ink and watered down emulsion paint on paper

And fabric

I used some transparent fabrics ,which when layered created another dimension of marks.

So I began to stitch the O within my repeated word GROW.

I can see this adding new ideas and extending my work based around seedpods.

                                                                                                                      J.H.

Ammerdown weekend

A few more squiggles

Hi all, attaching a few more 'marks' made with found beach related items

my tools before use

 a time for quiet contemplation with the beautiful surroundings of Ammerdown

a few wind farm inspired marks 

Weekend at Ammerdown

Ammerdown in the sunshine.