York Open Studios is now over! The aftermath takes nearly as much effort as the set up. Sometime this week I will rediscover the sofa, unearth the work tables and maybe even be able to get into the spare bedroom. Hmmm, usually I am find things that I put into a ‘safe’ place months later. I hate being too tidy – it is too stressful and only causes anxiety.
Did you manage to go to any venues or just browse on line at the amazing array of artists and makers?
It doesn’t matter how unnaturally tidy there is always a cup of coffee somewhere.
So classes for this season all at my workroom in York – Getting Started is a 2 hour slot for setting up your machine and getting you started in this exciting technique, it is also a problem solving spot. I have no set dates but contact me and we can discuss dates.
The seashore is running again, exploring ideas of mixed media, layering, fabric manipulation and machine stitch. Two dates – May 18th and June 12th.
The new and exciting proposal is the Starting Point – ideal for those who have the sewing skills and experience but are uncertain about what to do and how to get started.
The cost of the course includes a copy of the ‘Starting Point’ ready printed on to fabric and it is entirely upto you to decide what to do with it!. I have a range of samples and ideas to give you inspiration, a room of materials and also wet media for you to experiment with. These should fun and creative days suitable for those new to freehand work as well as those more experienced.
Dates are May 29th and June 15th , 10 – 3
Don’t forget I also do courses at the Viking Loom in York. Check their website for dates and content.
And the next show – with the York Textile Artists- is at Thirsk Rural Arts – starting on Monday 29th….. of April ’til May 11th. And of course I will be at the Great Yorkshire Show in July. And at Duttons for Buttons in Ilkley in August, Staithes Festival in September, and…… and…..
Time is moving on. Looming large on the horizon is York Open Studios, when local artists open their doors and invite people in. York’s event is over the first two weekends in April. Definitely looming.
Trying to get all the jobs done is daunting but it must start. Work is being made, new ideas and exploring media and technique still continue. Mixing painting with the stitching still has a vitality but I do need to get out and push it further. I have been trying to play more with layers and the painting side, but still it is the stitching that engages me, the physical handling and manipulating makes it more personal.
There will be new pieces shown for the first time, some older pieces have been cannibalised in the experiments and present themselves in new guises with new characters, as well as some of the other media work to look at.
EEEK!!! Tattycat with no clothes on alert!
The Tattymouse tribe grows slowly as new beasties are joining the crew, Tattycats! Began as a gift for a friend in hospital, they seem to be gaining momentum… at least this is Tc2. I am not yet sure about them/him/it. It will look different with the scraps and embroidery on it.
And of course there are other things happening- visiting the Ferens Gallery in Hull to view the Open Exhibition, I need to take more to the Art in the Mill Gallery in Knaresborough. The York Textile Artists group have local shows in the offing (City Screen in May) and are applying for more !! Hopefully we will be exhibiting in the Summer too.
I am teaching at the Viking Loom but am putting together a series of workshops of my own too – keep an eye out, numbers will be small.
Life after York Open Studios – descent from the pinnacle of tidiness.
This is what I always forget – how long and much energy it takes to have everything back in the right place, the place where I will look for it!
It is now officially After Open Studios but before the Panic About Great Yorkshire Show begins. I am running around in circles getting momentum up on the big birch trees piece ( currently at 3 bobbins used.), sorting out content for new classes at the Viking Loom in York, researching for a new commission piece and trying to catch up on every I had put on hold- if only I knew where I had put them.
The main arrangement for the birches is done and the real stitching has begun. It is going to be a long job- imagine trying to fill in a picture 4ft long with a biro. I am still sorting out the patterns I want to create on the trunks and the range of colours to be used. I have started with a neutral to anchor the fabrics and then am trying out 2 different variegated rayon threads- subtle golden ochres for the distant trees, a more vivid and vibrant mix for the foreground ones. I still don’t know about that one, decision to be delayed until the couching and whites are applied. – when it will probably be too late to change it!
I am working on this in spurts of a couple of hours as a form of self defence, or else the sheer scale of it will be daunting and it will gobble up all the space and time to the exclusion of all else.
The all else includes creating ideas and content for the Summer and Autumn classes I teach at the Viking Loom. These are fun to do but tailoring the techniques and images to suit takes some thought. These tonal birds are done with reverse applique. Sewing through layers of semi transparent fabric to make the shapes or image, and then cut away some layers to leave a range lighter tones. Fiddly to cut out the shapes but very satisfying, and the technique is adaptable to all kinds of outcomes. It also only needs a competent level of skill with the sewing machine so should be do-able by most, and with a little modification should be do-able by all.
And The Commission? the research and initial thoughts are taking shape, but it shall remain shrouded in mystery until the practical begins in earnest. There is fabric to paint, techniques to discuss and cake to eat before I reveal it !
You have a week to see the York Textile Artists’ group show at Rural Arts in Thirsk – it does look very good, varied in approaches as well as techniques. Pop in if you are around, the on site cafe looks most promising… and they have a shop.
Not only has this loomed but it has arrived! Weekend one has gone, weekend 2 is fast approaching. All too soon it will pass and the work room will descend into its usual chaotic state.
I don’t often open my work space and this is the only opportunity to see the two current series displayed together.
If you can get to York this weekend – do. It is too good to miss, over 150 artists all happy to welcome you into their place and to chat. Demonstrations happening and …. and…..
Have you booked the dates- April 13 & 14th, 20 & 21st are the days when a large part of creative York will be opening up their private work spaces and welcoming you in to see them in their native environs. The booklets are out there waiting to be claimed and the website is up and running ( and really easy to use!). The taster exhibition is the weekend before, in the Museum Gardens, right in the heart of York.
I am, of course, perfectly organised, ahead of schedule, with out a care or stress…… and there again I might be whizzing about like usual, trying to tie up all the loose ends and really commit to doing the washing up.
The Dancing Birches have continued to multiply and have spawned more abstract and textural work too. Greeting cards have been printed, and I think I know where I put them. But the joy of the moment is the “Starting Point”/ “Inspirations”/ “Go and Play” printed trees. (I must decide what to call them.) These are the little landscapes I had digitally printed onto fabric. The intention was to provide a starting point for people to work on, doing their own thing or perhaps following one of my work samples if they wish. The image is just 3 trees against a suggestion of a landscape, allowing plenty of scope to add, invent, interpret or completely ignore. One of my testers immediately went out to take a photo of her dog in a suitable pose to add in! I haven’t seen the result so I have a vision of her still chasing over the Yorkshire Dales trying to get the hyper active spaniel to stand still.
These little scenes have exceeded my expectations and are a delight to work on. The cotton fabric is light but remarkably robust. I have hand sewn, embroidered, machined, quilted, painted and appliqued on them , and they survived and gave back huge levels of enjoyment.
Enough of the print has come through to the back that working with the image in reverse is very doable too!
Hopefully others will see the potential in these little scenes and take them home to play, stitch, embellish to their heart’s content,
I am not open on the Friday preview evening, but will be on both weekends, 10 -5pm. Venue 66.
The main work will be the various Trees series and the whole Humber series of more abstracted colour embroideries. I will have a piece of work on the go through out and some bits and pieces that might appeal to other makers. Pop in if you want to , to see and ask and chat, you will be most welcome!
It is February! I had only just used to it being January.
The year looks to be busy, exhibiting as part of the York Textile Artist group as well as individually. So far I don’t think I have double booked, but I still have submissions in and am waiting to see the extent of my commitments!
The current theme of the woods is developing. Strangely it is developing with paint and printed fabrics with hand stitching. It is giving me more variety of thread to play with but it is so slow compared with the machining. I have enjoyed playing with low tech monoprint – building a visual texture, laying in areas of strong colour with simple applique and then stitching in concentrated areas. After the complexity of the Fragments of Landscape series this feels bare, but it means that everything done has to count.
This worked on rust stained cotton, with a hand dyed silk scarf sacrificed for the background. The trees are composite- lots of fabric pieces of contrasting surfaces and colour. Hand painted cotton yarn was couched on to create the wandering lines on the trunks and then the whole was machined! I like the contrast of the simple background with the trunks – there is a fairy .tale quality there somewhere
And of course there are these little ones – I had a metre of fabric printed with the background and now am working into it in various ways.
I am exhibiting in and around Yorkshire this year – York Open Studios, Inspire Gallery at Danby, Great Yorkshire Show, Staithes Festival, as well as venues in York itself. Other exhibitions may be available – if I get myself organised.
I will be holding a few informal workshops at my workroom in the early Summer, these will be advertised on my website, here and on facebook ( again requiring organisation) , but am doing monthly classes at the Viking Loom in York.
If you can get to any of these do stop for a chat!
That means it is nearly October. October means it is York Textile artists Annual Show!! In umm, umm… a couple of weeks!
On schedule or dashing about ? Achieving gracefully, or trying to do multiple things at once and creating more chaos than anything else?
This year’s show is again at the Cemetery Chapel in York ( a beautiful listed classical building) and is on 7th and 8th October.
My work is still focussing on the Humber series – looking at sky, water, reeds, ebb and flow and lines of patterns.
The main mistake was using hand stitching so densely – it is much slower than I am used to with the machine. It was tempting to make whirrry machiney noises to see if it went faster.
The idea is from the constant changes in the tide, the movement and disruptions of the flow in the water as the tide fights against the flow of the river as the Humber widens towards its estuary. By now it is becoming abstract – rips, tears and extended long stitch over more controlled surfaces. It is so different making work with no perspective or picture, using stitch patterns, threads and textures to create rhythms and having fun playing with colour. Not easier but just with different emphasis.
This week and next! York Textile Artists are showing at Fabrication on Coney Street in York. There is lots of new work and new ideas in development too. Pop up the stairs and have a browse.
That comes down on the Sunday and on the Monday work is being delivered to the show ground in Harrogate for the Great Yorkshire Show! Exciting times. and that will take us to half way through July.
This such an engaging event to do last year. Met lots of different people as part of an art exhibition rather then a textiles one, had great fun visiting the animal pens, the country crafts people and the foodie retailers! This year is the Humber series first full public outing, so fingers crossed it goes down well.
If you want to have a go, check out the courses on the Viking Loom website for workshops – one a month in York.
It is post York Open Studios. The room is gradually descending into chaos from the dizzy heights of ‘tidy with no trip hazards’. I am now focussed on various events with the York Textile Artists (exciting), the Great Yorkshire Show (scary) and setting up classes.(eek)
First – a thank you to all who came and supported the artists. It is a wonderful thing to open your studio to all and sundry, but works better if people come, and works best if the people are enthusiastic about the event. Thank you again. (sundry may be the local cat who comes in and makes himself at home- didn’t buy anything)
While I really enjoy doing classes for the Viking Loom shop , they are bigger numbers, more structured and directed than the ones I offer at home. These are in my workroom, with all my bits and pieces to hand so the range can be greater, the content and pace more personal and the mess greater too.
If you fancy a try but are unsure, have a go at the Intro. We will start gently, promise, show you how to set up your machine, discuss to hoop or not to hoop your fabric, and then set about enjoying using the machine as a freehand creative tool! Don’t worry about “being able to draw” , there are fabulous cheats, shortcuts and ways of getting your creativity out!
The T-Tr- Tree is great for beginners as well ass the more experienced. As the name suggests we start simple and build in layers, adding fabrics and colours until we have a tree! For the speedy we can add landscape details or even colour the sky, or just settle down and work at your own pace.
Drawing with the sewing machine is on the 24th May, come as half day or whole day. We will be working out ways of going from a photograph to a stitched image. Try out different line qualities by changing the selected stitch, and by changing how you sew, create tone or surfaces with various stitch patterns and combinations. Just watch how your work can change from a traced outline into something more descriptive and expressive. We may try out different weight, colour and finishes of threads to see what impact that has! Lots to try and consider but the end result should be samples for future inspiration and a collection of sewn ‘sketches’ and images.
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Playtime should be fun- come and experiment, playing with fabric to make new surfaces, textures and ….. everything! If it doesn’t move too quickly then we can try to stitch it. Make new patterns, tear , reveal , put together to make an idea of land or sea, or be completely abstract – the choice will be yours. It is a day of exploration, full of “ooos” and “how did you”s. If your experience is dressmaking or quilting, this could be excuse you are waiting for.
subtle! More colour, texture and stitch than tone.
After that we are down to Project Days. I will be making a piece on the theme during the day so you could follow or take ideas from me, or bring your own and enjoy a day dedicated to your sewing! There is no formal teaching involved, but I will be there for advice, technical or creative assistance and coffee making, or if you are following me- I will talk through the decisions, guide through the processes and help you structure your own piece of work. Work entirely at your own pace, set your own ideals and explore your own creativity.
Friendly, informal, fun. Come and get excited by the immediacy and creative potential. All you need is a machine, enthusiasm and a freemotion/embroidery or darning foot.
Scheduled Stitchy Days Spring/ Summer 23
£
INTRO have a go before committing to a whole day
10-12
£35
May 16th June 13th August 9th
7 – 9 pm
£35
May 16th July 5th Sept 6th
Stitchy Days- T-Tr- Tree ! basics, building layers, stitch patterns, using colours. Then creating a little landscape around it, and maybe a little paint in the sky?
10-4pm
£55
May 10th
Using your machine to draw with. Thinking about line and patterns, about visual textures giving surface and volume. Sound technical? – most of it is happy squirms, shreddies, wibbles and scribble!
10-4pm
£55
May 24th
Fabricy Playtime – If all you know involves straight seams and flat fabric…. this is a day of being naughty -torn edges, ripping, layering, manipulating, changing colours, making surfaces, being lumpy.
10-4pm
£55
June 7th
Project Days, Landscape, Garden, Seascapes. Bring your own project ideas on the theme or work from one of mine, ask for artistic advice, technical input, or follow me through creating a piece of work. Scrap box available but materials not provided. Landscape: June 27th Garden July18th Seascape July 26th
10-4pm
£45
If the time and dates aren’t possible for you, contact me …
Check the website for artists and venues if you haven’t got a brochure, and get your route planned.
If you don’t know Open Studios, you can visit artists and makers in their workrooms and studios, chat to them, see some of them at work, buy big or small from the person who made it! The York one is very well established, with well over a hundred local artists taking part all over the city!
I am venue 104, in Acomb, west of York centre.
My preparations are nearly done – new work is made and framed, walls have been painted and I have even mowed the lawn, twice!
New series include the Silver Birches. Snap shots of the local nature reserve I walk through on my way to Acomb shops. Passing through the trees means I don’t see the complete tree, just the trunks, and ideas of the surroundings in between.
The Humber was the source of the second new set. Travelling back from Hull I decided to have a detour along the river and was fascinated by the way that land becomes water and water then becomes land in an endless cycle of tides. It did involve some serious amounts of mud which is less romantic, but at times the sky seemed more solid than the land and the land was mostly water.
A wonderful place to spend time, full of strange light and subtle movement , a place of edges and margins, of ambiguity and patterns. And of course it rained. Many of these can be rotated, so sea becomes sky, and what is solid could be reflections.
If these are not enough, then there are Magpies, Fragments of Landscape or even Koi carp, and never forget the Tatty Mice.
Painted, Embroidered, appliqued, stitched, quilted, stretched, framed. Certificate of authenticity and he is ready to pack!
For all we have been planning since the dinosaurs last roamed, it has been a mad rush. Promoting takes so much, organising takes time, liaising with the venue, and of course, making sure the tea and coffee guys have all the access they need! BUT this weekend. This weekend!
Do come if you can, see an exciting range of contemporary fine art textiles across many genres, in a beautiful, historic venue close to the heart of this beautiful, vibrant city.
The artists will be there for chats (coffee) and also manning a pop up shop for the group. Find out about classes, other events, about the group, and of course there will be the collaborative piece to raffle on behalf of the Stroke Association. And tea and coffee. And cake. And Tatty Mice…..
Wonder why I volunteered to be there both days… I wonder….
fran Brammer 