They thought I was mad but it worked…. Those children can sew!!!!
This is turning out to be a very satisfactory project and the wall hanging is going to be amaaaazing!!!!
They are embellishing their crests with coloured threads and beads. creating contrasting borders and adding interest. So cool and no harm done
We had two transition year students to help out and of course the lovely Caroline, ironing the wax off the bags. They turned out fantastic.
The children all did another bag, this time just using the wax pot. I have to say I think they wax crayon bags are nearly nicer, it is just harder to do.
As this was all going on the students also made a large sheet of paper fabric.
Before I comeback next week, the students are going to do a square each in batik on cotton and we will see if we can get them sewing these onto the paper fabric!! We hope to make a large wall-hanging to hang in their hall.
What a great morning, despite the fact that I left my Tjantings in Ferns!
These girls are really up for whatever is going to be thrown at them. We were discussing doing a community art project of some sort such as a yarnbombing event or just a craft in. Thinking caps on and ideas welcome!
We did some sample topical Batik using the embroidery hoops to hold the cotton. They had not bother and are going to do a small wall hanging next week now they know what to do, with just brushes, no Tjantings!
In the afternoon I took Aoife over to Springhill Equestrian to try out new pony over jumps and in public. Aoife got on great with her, she did not like me on her! No matter i will not be riding her much.
Day one, the taster, went really well. We did two different ways to Batik bags; we used melted wax crayons which were then painted onto the cotton bags and then dyed balck, well grey really! The other ones were done using the more traditional was resist technique but painted as in silk painting. Some of the children got to also make print blocks from Easy foam. The hardest thing on these projects is to keep everyone busy and being able to offer things to do while they are waiting stops boredom setting and as well some people like to do lots of things and others like to do one thing and really concentrate.
Organised chaos, lovely children, lovely teacher she is so cool and obliging! Caroline the SNA just gets on with it and the children did too! I will be back Friday and we will Iron the wax and plan and design our wallhanging for the hall and maybe something for the Gathering!!!
Early morning in Dranagh…..
Don’t get me wrong. I love the look of it, but it makes work hard. Quit whingeing and make the best of it my old ma would have said!
Finish the dreaded assignments and teach myself to needle felt!! While I am at it I can prepare some work for Fern’s NS. I am starting a lovely project there Friday for CRAFTED. The Book of FERNS……All will be revealed, maybe!
Last time it happened I did two lovely paintings
Things are busy again. I have had to stop the weekly classes in the studio, it just was not worth my while. It is sad but it costs me as much to run them as made at this stage, so for the moment…….
Ferrybank is coming along slowly but nicely. It is hard for people to do things at this time of the year, but they will be back.
Here is some of the work they are doing at class and at home. Some notebooks covered with fantastic fabric paper, some shots of design ideas being worked on and sewing and amazing crochet and Knitting, by these talented girls!
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St patricks N.S. The work is really looking good. We had two very good days and the children really engaged with the process as well as the adults. Happy now!
I forgot to mention the photographs in my last post. They were of the children working on Painting on a flour paste resist. It was a long process, day one we painted a mix of flour paste on the fabric, day two, we painted over the dried paste with fabric paint and we spent that third day taking that off. It is not all off so I have a lovely job for Sunday……take the rest off!
I got so into the whole process that I forgot to take pictures of the process!! I will post the finished product whatever it is..
This project is interesting, the children really live in the moment and I can see how it is tempting to ‘finish’ or ‘fix’ the work. However that is not the aim of the project. The aim is for engagement and we are getting that from the children and some of the adults. We have one last type of fabric to make and that is paper fabric.
Then the challenge of putting it all together. There are two ways to do this, I can totally decide what to do or I can let the participants decide what to do next. I am guessing that I will decide. In these situations there is sometimes resistance from some to making decisions themselves.
