There has been a famine in this part of my life, too many other things going on. No Blog entries for a couple of years…. But maybe I’ll get back to this in the near future, I have lots of new little bits and pieces. I’ve been doing more drawing, painting, papery things, book making… less of the quilt making, and surprisingly, less textile art. Featured image in my blog post is a photo of the one and only quilt I made in 2023. The rest of the year was – playtime! Travelling, Camping, being retired and lazy!
so here is a wee look at some of the new stuff…. small works in progress – enjoy!
Exploring little paper houses – monoprinting, quick pen drawingsStill Waters - in progress, almost finished, part of a Reddy Arts Textile Group https://reddyarts.wordpress.com/ exhibition that is coming up in 2024. More details in a future post.Exploring mixed media collage: the pardalote didn’t make it into the piece, but another wee bird did… come see the Reddy Arts Textile Group Exhibition in May 2024 to see which one! (Details to come)
RATG has a challenge currently on the go….. I’ve been playing with interpretations of tree roots, and realised that in fact this has been a recurring theme in my work over the years…. My current work has reached a bit of a stalemate, or perhaps this is just an off day… , but anyway here are some pics of some previous tree roots work
Such a weird year, all in all. Covid restrictions, and retiring, and babysitting…. drawing and painting…. not too much sewing, but a few exhibitions of work around the ridges. Coming into summer and a soon to be New Year, I am only just regaining my incentives to get back to stitching…. so here I am planning on combining some painting (on calico!) with maybe fabric collage and definitely some machine stitching…….. a Triptych for one of my girls. Plus, I have some other ideas I would like to explore… and of course now we have retired there will be more excursions in our little tiny caravan -but maybe wait until after the school holidays, and the wet weather, and the heat, have abated! Meantime, this will be keeping me very busy over the next little while….. a new work in progress. Osprey reference by Graham Bell, Brahminy Kite reference by Ang Th Ang : both used with permission. The Sea Eagle is from my own photo reference.
Lately I have been exploring handmade recycled paper construction – that is, deconstructing old papers ( we seem to have so much these days) by shredding them and then converting them to pulp in my dedicated blender (purpose bought for $35 from Coles – I see they are now on special for $25!! so one wonders how long it will last!) This all began when my husband, in clearing out some space in his shed, found and presented me with some old screens we found that had been used to make papers with the offspring when they were in primary school – not very taut, and not very big, and no deckle! haha. I decided to try it out again from that hazy long ago memory of doing this once before… clearly not very successfully because a) the adult children have no memory of it and b) I didn’t make any more…. I made a few papers with one of these screens, and well, the edges were super thin, and the middles were thick, fairly horrible…. I thought at this stage it would be worth finding out how to actually do this properly…. so I invested in a book. This was a revelation! I enlisted the help of my husband to make me a mould and deckle, and then a plywood press. I have two sizes of mould and deckle: one 5″ x 7″ (made from a couple of old stretched 8″ x 10″ canvases) and the other is A4 size.
Once I have made the papers, they spend some time in the press to remove the water, and are then laid out to dry….. follow that with sizing, allow to dry again, press again to flatten; a quick iron will make the papers nice and crisp, and the outcome should be some lovely textured and mottled papers ready for watercolour or gouache. Some of the sheets are rather more cardboard-like, and some so thin they are super fragile in the drying process (that creates interesting wrinkles and gaps….). It’s all about getting the solution the correct balance in the vat, and that I am afraid is impossible for me to do in any kind of precise scientific way…. but maybe I will get better at judging what it feels like to be the correct weight for what I want…. Such a process! There may be quicker ways, but then I am a novice.
Following on from the paper making, what to do with the papers? The first batch of papers made on the original deckle-less mould were not to be wasted (invested a bit of time already in this process) and I wanted to experiment with painting on them. So this little series of kingfishers was born. What if I add some stitch? and some batting, and sandwich them, and then how to put them together? Found some inspiration on Pinterest, and here is the result…. I think this is not yet finished….
A4 papers drying after the first pressing
Dry 5″ x 7″ papers from an earlier batch
Close up of A4 sheet drying
Kingfishers concertina
The green papers were coloured with acrylic ink.
Recycled diary pages, watercolour and gouache, and stitch.
Watch this space, I plan to make more! Maybe some monoprinting, more stitch, and other elements! So looking forward to exploring this ….. and guess what, I am awaiting the arrival of another book which will tell me how to convert my weeds to paper… oh and garden plants too…. Not that I have many actual plants… just weeds……….
It’s been pretty quiet on my blog lately…. well for months really. What can I say? I’ve been busy. Poor excuse you say, and of course you’re right. Last year is too long ago to remember properly. Just briefly, I started a new challenge with Reddy Arts, joined some drawing classes on how to draw birds, taught by Natalia Balo http://www.bfineart.com.au/ and spent loads of time drawing portraits from photos on Sktchy. I taught a textile workshop (Life Amongst the Lilies) to some of the QQ ladies mid year, tweaked some quilt designs/patterns; made some baby quilts…… worked at my real job, did some reading………… and started a diary (essential if you suspect you have a failing memory…) The difficulty is remembering to write in it.
In the gallery are a few things from 2019.
Jewel of the Wetlands
Bird of Paradise
Who’s Winning?
“Afternoon Light”
Sunflower
“Not Michael”
Azure Kingfisher
A selection
Kookaburra canvas
Butterfly
Detail butterfly
Kookaburra 2
Snowy Slumbers
Splendid Fairy Wrens
Snowy Slumbers early design
Little Black Cormorant
Purple swamp hen
2QAQ colour challenge 2019 postcards.
Sktchy selection
Sktchy portrait
Scarlet Jezebel butterfly
Kookaburra 3
Snowflake Slumbers
2019 art – a little bit of everything.
Now I am looking forward to continuing to improve my drawing and painting skills, as well as keeping some textile art coming. I would like to explore mixed media, and have recently joined a suburban sketchers group, which gets me out with like minded people and helps to overcome that self consciousness of drawing in public.
Until my next post, I wish you all many happy and creative hours pursuing your art endeavours!
Sue Duffy Designs 