END OF TERM

And so ends another education year for me. My 10 week courses at Hampen Factory, Cheltenham and New Brewery Art, Cirencester are now finished this term.

I have been posting regularly about the work that has been made at Hampen. We have explored some interesting and challenging techniques, such as combining lino with collagraph.

Or just doing lino for a change, there has been lots of fabulous work from everyone, I have been rubbish at recording it, however.

The pin board has been full of prints drying, the top images is a silk aquatint, and as you have seen in past posts, this technique has proved very rewarding.

The afternoon group embraced the idea of printing lino blocks onto collagraphs, as with the teasel at the top of the post, this viaduct shows how a background collagraph inked in different colours can change the mood of the work. The smoke is on the collagraph plate, an excellent use of wood glue at the plate making stage.

The exciting addition to my classes this term has been the 10 week, Contemporary Enamel for Beginners at the New Brewery Arts, Cirencester. NBA bought 2 enamelling kilns and off we went! The experimental pieces below show a wide range of techniques attempted over the course. Each week there was a new development as everyone tried things out. An amazing amount was achieved in such a short time.

 

                           

 I have had a lovely time this term, all my groups have been full of lovely, generous and creative people.

There are still places on both courses next term, contact me directly for information about Hampen Factory or contact the New Brewery Arts http://www.newbreweryarts.org.uk/ and check out their range of workshops and courses.

VITREOUS ENAMEL EXPERIMENTS

Now that all the Christmas stock has been delivered I am now turning my attention to exhibitions I will be in at the beginning of next year.

This and the following piece will be off to the

Devon Guild of Craftsmen's exhibition Narrative Remains.

These images, enamel on steel will

find themselves in Bath

at the Rostra Gallery.

I have just finished these labels of Lost Relatives

ready for an exhibition of MA graduates called Second Impressions.

This will be at the New Brewery Arts, Cirencester.

I am beginning to explore the use of red and as you can see I

am still obsessed with using postcard messages.

Now that I have finished all this work I have mental space to sit down over December

and draw, plan and design some new pieces.

Watch this space!!

HOTHOUSE

The Crafts Council announce the 38 makers selected to start the six-month Hothouse programme in January 2014, which is delivered in partnership across four regions in the UK.   

...and I am one of those makers. I have been selected to join the Midland cohort in January.

For more details about the scheme, http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/about-us/press-room/view/2013/38-makers-selected-for-hothouse-4?from=/about-us/press-room/

CONTEMPORARY VITREOUS ENAMEL

Let me take you back to almost exactly last year when I announced in a post that I had been awarded a public art commission for a set of  vitreous enamel panels. http://suebrownprintmaker.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/great-expectations.html

I am pleased to announce that it is now complete. Here it is sat in my sitting room ready for the representatives of Cheltenham Borough Council, the Bath Road Traders and Cheltenham Connect to see it for the first time.

Happily they liked it so the hard work of Rachel Davies and the generosity of John White at Hy-Tech Enamellers has not been in vain. 

For those of you interested in the processes and stats. The whole piece measures 7ft x 3ft.

The image is white enamel drawn through to the black. Yes the image is completely hand drawn onto to the surface.

The coloured panels are thin steel with digital transfers fired on. Thankyou Jane for your computer help with these.

Enamel is notoriously difficult to photograph because of its sheen, but at the bottom of each panel

I have etched into the enamel surface with glass etch to create soft grey images.

 

I am now looking forward to the panels being install either late this year or early 2014.

 

 

 

 

A BUSY WEEK!!

I have just come to the end of a very busy week of delivering work to galleries for Christmas and running weekend workshops.

Friday found me dropping off these

enamel pieces to Nature in Art.

These pieces are for their contemporary craft exhibition.

http://www.nature-in-art.org.uk/British%20Contemporary%20Crafts.pdf for more details.

I then spent a lovely weekend with some very talented people

experimenting with silk aqua tint.

Chine collee was included.

Plate making using dribbled glue and hammerite over the chiffon surface.

Viscosity inking was also included.

The next silk aqua tint collagraph workshop is March 15-16, 2014. There are 3 places left!

CHRISTMAS IS COMING...

LE WEEKEND

I have just returned from a weekend with the lovely Rob at Dartington Hall, Devon.

What a lovely place to stay.

At the moment the gardens are full of fungus,

gorgeous colour and

interesting sites. The Henry Moore and

Randel Page sculptures being some of them.

I spent the Saturday enjoying a workshop

organised by the Guild of Enamellers.

Our region has possession of the Thermofax machine at the moment, so the workshop consisted of

making screens using photo copies that powdered enamel

can be pushed through. I had never done this before and it was a bit of a revelation.

While I have made lots of silk screens to make enamel transfers, I could not get my head around using powdered enamel to make these sorts of images.

By the end of Saturday I had these 3 samples and a refreshed reason to use powders.

A big thankyou to Jeanne and Pete Crosse for organising the Region 6 workshop and leading the session with such enthusiasm.