Beautiful Poppy Projects

I want to share some of the beautiful work done by some of my students in this workshop. The larger poppy was done by Alwyn Bowyer, orange poppies by Esther Strelan. Esther's will be updated when finished.

The smaller poppies are by Margaret Coombs and this is not finished. Margaret has had some painting experience and this piece will be updated when finished.

Beaftiful Poppies

The Beautiful Poppies workshops are going really well with a lot of enthusiasm from everyone who is joining in. Using a combination of mixed media to achieve this look, we start with building up layers with texture medium, fabric decoupage to apply serviettes and rice papers to a painted background. Once I have achieved the image I use free machining to give texture and interest to the piece. I am amazed at the variation and watching the creativity come from each student. Using different serviettes and backgrounds give these pieces individuality.
This is a great workshop to try different mediums and techniques.

TWISTIE DYING

Our last dyeing day was an experimental day with a new product -Drimarene dye. These dyes are designed to use less water when rinsing and when mixed with not deteriorate or loose colour intensitity. On the same day we also used sun dyes with twisted fabric to create beautiful colours. We tried fabric around large rope with string to hold it then applied paint/dye and left it until the colours had migrated. We then used pvc pipe and roushed the fabric on the pipe. Other techniques were with marbles and rubber bands. I was amazed with the range of different effects and everyone's was unique.

Flower Garden

I recently held a workshop - Flower Garden- photo on right. The students dyed there backgrounds and then free machining the design into the background and then using ink tense pencils and water soluble crayons to colour the flowers. Some students used different colours and some changed their designs which I encourage in my workshops to bring out that creativity that is in all of us.

I then went back into the background with more free machining to embellish the ferns and give more texture to the overall finish. Hot fix crystals add a beautiful finish.

The closer photo here on the right is Linn Dixon's finished version with beautiful magical effects. I love the way the colours have blended in the background. Lyn added mushrooms and a Honey eater at the top.

Autum

My latest workshops have produced some lovely work. I conducted a colour wheel workshop in March, as I feel it is very important to go back over colour every now and again. Colour is so much fun to work with. We started off with 9 4 x 6in blocks and picked out colours we wanted to work with. There was a challenge to use a colour you found you didn't like or use much and experiment with. We then looked at contrasts across the wheel and embellished the blocks to add other colours that are next to each other. This photo was done by one of my students Margaret who really enjoyed doing this piece. It is a beautiful addition to her work room.

In April we worked with photoshop and learnt a little more on software to help us along with useing photos in our quilts.

Summer

The past few months I have been experimenting with Ink tense Pencils on Fabric and getting some amazing results. The use of textile medium gives greater control and ability to blend well together with water soluble crayons. In these workshops I encourage individual creativity and one of my students took her piece in a fantasy direction with pastels colours adding fairies and bugs. It was really lovely. I'm currently running workshops to teach this technique in S.E Queensland. Information and photos are on my website on dates.

Over the Christmas Holidays I had a young sewers class where the children painted their fabric and made different things. Two of the boys(with help from Granma) made a great library bags, another boy painted and stencilled his shirt. One of the girls painted her fabric and made a great cushion embellished with buttons. The other girl used puff paint, stencilling, and free hand painting to create her piece. I really enjoy working with the young ones and we had lots of fun.

I look forward to our next break and having some more fun the the kids.