April meeting

We had a very busy evening this April with lots of different activities going on. The theme was Barking Mad. I am of course well behind on the themes and have just finished my Beneath my Feet piece. Have been very taken with lessons on Intuitive Painting and my Beneath my Feet piece came from a lesson by Alena Hennessy. It started on a box canvas and ended up being fused to paper. Had to  grunge up the paper though as it didn't seem to go with the rest of the picture. I basically started with just painting colours and inks where I felt they needed to  go, I had to add some circles as I just love circles and then it started to look like a path. I opted to turn the canvas and build on my path with fabric circles that I fused to the canvas with Bondaweb.
Have to say that I am really pleased with the result.

I have also started a book based on the elements which is what I want to add my tags from Angie's day to. I've finished the Earth piece and am now working on air- this is the painted and printed backgrounds, going to stitch them with the machine and add some hand sewing later. The background is made from strong cotton fabric which I have coated with 3 layers of gesso. I then added paper (torn and randomly placed using matt medium) and some structure paste. I painted over the top with a thin extra gesso layer. Then I added the colour using inks and acrylics. Surprisingly this will still go through the sewing machine!

This one is water, I did try some acrylic (matt medium) transfers but they didn't work very well. I did have more luck with the Prima matt medium although managed to transfer my fish upside down! 

Again this is just the background, I have to add more machine stitching and then hand sewing over the top

Mel has also been experimenting with structure paste which I think is a wonderful medium. Here are some pieces that she is working on.

Is it me but I can see a face in the one above! 

Below are the textures she has created from fabric manipulation. I would love to see these coloured perhaps with dyes or inks??

Pauline was printing this evening. I love her prints and using natural objects to create some fabulous printing. These could be backgrounds or pieces by themselves.

Ellen finished her Barking Mad piece or is this Cracks?? I love the layered organza the colours are so beautiful.

Averil brought in her beautiful felted vessels and also her three dimensional stitched structures that she created through Sheila's workshop. I am so sorry I missed it I would have loved to do this one! 

Ellen brought her's too!