Cooking on Gas ... or rather Painting

I'm raring to go after my nice break away, and I'm getting really excited about this transfer painting lark now.

You might remember I was a bit disheartened with my results before I went away, but on a trip in to Bath yesterday I managed to pick up some Satin fabric and have had some play time this morning. I'm so much happier with what I'm getting on this fabric. Here's a little comparison.Same painted page used, top picture shows my first attempt and bottom is on the new fabric. A huge difference I'm sure you'll agree. (In case you are wondering the blotches in the colouring was deliberate, I sprinkled some salt in to the wet paint of the painted page).

Now I just have to finish ironing out some samples on the new fabric, write it up in the book and I'll finally be able to move on to chapter two (though I have a sneaky confession to make in that I have already started some of the chapter two work - which involves collecting up some samples of different fabric).

On a slightly less exciting, but no less important note, my shopping trip yesterday also resulted in a brand new and very large storage box to keep all my C and G bits together.I was conscious that I was started to get bits and pieces all over the place and I didn't want the fabrics that I'd been buying and gathering for the course to get swallowed up among all the stuff that I already have. The box is looking a bit empty at the moment, but I haven't yet finished my journey round the house to collect up everything to put away ;)

I'm Back

I arrived back last night from a fabulous weekend in Amsterdam, what a beautiful city. Who could fail to be inspired by the beautiful buildings, the wonderful atmosphere and fabulous masterpieces in the museums and galleries, all a bit overwhelming really.

Here are a few snapshots of line and colour from the weekend. I won't bore you here with all my pictures, but if you are interested in seeing more I will be posting more over on my main blog in the coming weeks (link in side bar) or I've thrown up a few on facebook

The first 5 are shots from Keukenhof the world famous tulip park, and the last couple are just street shots from around Amsterdam.





I'm looking forward to getting stuck back in to the course again. I have to say that the holiday reading books didn't even get opened while I was away, there was just so much else to see and do.

I'm hoping to have Chapter One finished and the pages of my sketch book relating to the last few transfer paint experiments that I've done, uploaded in the next couple of days.

Changing my Approach

Tonight will be my last evening at home before my trip away. I do have to get packed but hopefully I will have a little time to spend on work too, and I'm going to change tack on the transfer painting a little. Here is my note to self in sketchbook.(For anyone who doesn't know you should be able to click on the image to enlarge which might make reading my scribble easier).

And for anyone who might be worried that I will be taking my eye off the ball while I'm away, well I have a bit of holiday reading to take with me.

I will not enjoy myself, I will not enjoy myself, I will not ....

Having decided yesterday that I don't really like transfer painting, I've been fighting hard against the notion that I might actually be starting to have some fun (you know how it is once your mind is made up about something you have to stubbornly refuse to accept any other opinion ..... for a while at least!!) I've been plodding on, trying out a few different things. Here's one of the experiments I've been trying ironing the colour through a sheet of lace.Some things are working better than others but I guess that's just to be expected but I am (begrudgingly) starting to have a bit more fun with the technique. I thought that I was almost ready to put together my submission post but Janet, my tutor, has just emailed with a few things that I might try to see if I can improve my results so there is a bit more work to be done yet.In the meantime I am making notes on everything that I'm doing in my sketchbook so hopefully I'm going along the right lines even if I'm not 100 percent happy with the actual results I'm getting.

Actually the thing that I'm loving the most, is what is happening on the baby wipes that I'm using to clean my brushes onLook at this fabulous rainbow of colours. I did have a little play to see if this would transfer to fabric but it didn't really work. I did get some colour out but not the full range that is showing.

I'm going away to Amsterdam for a long weekend from Thursday so there might be a bit of a blogging break, but I'm back Tuesday and have the rest of that week off work so the plan is to really get cracking with some more course work so hopefully lots to blog about next week.

Feeling Frustrated

Say hello to me and my new bosom buddy - the iron. I think I've spent more time with my iron today than with my man - maybe that accounts for the grumpy expression! :)

Actually I think the grumpiness is coming from my lack of success with the transfer painting process. I've spent a good few hours today (not all at once I hasten to add that would be madness of the highest order, sitting chained to the ironing board, lol) painting pages and ironing the results on to fabric and so far I have to say I am a little disappointed.

Take this example as a for instance ....... here is my painted pageI rolled the colours on with the handle of one of my paint brushes, and really liked the nice textured effect that I got on paper. Well here is the same page transferred on to fabric... the fabric is no where near as interesting.

I have to admit that I thought the problem was in the fabric I was using. My local store had no bridal (cheap) satin, so I had to buy something called liquid satin - have no idea what the difference is, only that this type was really quite expensive - still 100% synthetic though, so I thought I'd put up with the expensive and give it a go.

As I wasn't happy with the results I figured getting some other fabric might make the difference. So I made a 40 mile round trip to the next town over in search of something different. Of course sods law dictated that they didn't have any satin either but I did manage to find a bolt of what was labelled as Habotai Silk but listed as 100% Polyester (I'm beginning to realise that although I love to work with fabric I know very little about it, I thought silk was a natural not a synthetic product?!! I don't know maybe someone with some real fabric knowledge can help me out??!!). Anyhow this fabric had a nice sheen and was cheap so I bought some home to try out.The colours are definitely coming out a lot brighter on this fabric. But I'm still having lots of problems, I can't seem to manage to get an even transfer, the colours are all blotchy. I've tried different iron temperatures and a few other synthetic fabrics that I had in my stash but I'm not really happy with any of the results.

None the less I'm trying to stay positive. I'm recording everything that I've been doing in my workbook and trying out different things. I think most of these fabrics will end up getting used in later chapters for stitching samples so I'm figuring that it's not essential to have something that I think is perfect, but it would be nice to have a few pieces that I'm actually happy with and will look forward to working on. It's just very frustrating to go through the process - which is quite time consuming - painting the page, waiting for it to dry and then ironing it, which takes a good while to get the transfer to work - only to end up with nothing that I'm really happy with. Sigh!

I guess it's all part of the learning process but I'm starting to feel a little panicky as I still have a long way to go with all of this, the costs of all these experiments are mounting up and I'm already falling behind in the little study timetable that I had mapped out in my head. Maybe I need to take a day off, take a step back and breathe :) Anyone want to volunteer to come over and give me a sharp slap round the face and tell me to snap out of it?!?? ;-)

Painting Pages

It's been a glorious sunshiny day here today. So I have to confess I have spent a large part of the day out in the garden doing some of the tidy up that is needed as the garden starts to come to life again after the winter months.

I did tear myself away from the sun for an hour this afternoon and have been busy painting some pages with my transfer paints.I have to confess that I don't feel altogether happy with how the pages csme out, but it seems as though the paints often transfer on to fabric and look a lot different than they do on the page so I'll make final judgement once I get the iron on them! Also as I was painting some more ideas came to me of things to try so I'm sure there will be more painting to come.

Module One Chapter One - Collecting Colour and Image

This is my submission for the first part of Module one, Chapter One of the course. These are images of my sketchbook pages. I don't think there is really too much for me to say as hopefully it is all on the pages for you to read.











I haven't quite managed to complete my self imposed task of finding triangles in nature so there is space for another image or two if I can find them!



These pages in my sketchbook have been left blank for now. Part of what I have to do in the future is have a look at the art of Monet and make some notes. So I have left this pages free as a space to add some images and thoughts as they come to me.
These last two pages weren't a requirement as such, I've done them more for my own interest and entertainment than anything else, just a few thoughts that have occurred to me on what I've done so far.