Michael Brennand Wood's workshop

I attended a workshop yesterday at Preston College with the artist Michael Brennand Wood.  He is an extremely charismatic man, who was happy to share his knowledge and motivation.  His work is rooted in a love of historic crafts so he learns each craft and then uses it in his own work.

For instance, he studied lacemaking before producing this work, which is a huge piece entitled
Lost in Lace

He said

I first made lace in or around 1973, bobbin lace followed by a short spell working on an industrial machine in Nottingham. I loved the diagrammatic, schematic linear designs that a lace maker worked from. They reminded me of graphic contemporary music scores”.

He is inspired by Islamic work, the symmetry of rugs, it was incredibly interesting listening to him.

And then it all went horribly wrong because we were expected to 'create'.

The thing is, I'm a spinner and a dyer.  The creative part of my work is in colours and technique and anything else is out of my comfort zone.  I did want to try something out of my comfort zone, but it did not go well.

Oh the pain of being told to go away and play with an embroidery hoop, shells, poppy seed heads, wire and fabric.  But, not to do anything twee or pretty, to push the boundaries, to create layers, to rip and tear. To experiment in front of an internationally renowned artist and textile lecturers.

 

The hoop was wrapped with muslin squares and embroidery thread and shells were 'trapped' between the layers

My friend is a teacher at the college and was sat by me laughing.  Michael was lovely about all our creations and did really try to find something constructive to say about my work, but anyone could see that he was struggling.  I turned to my friend and said 'what did you make of what he said?'

'Rubbish, I'm afraid"  She didn't say rubbish, if you know what I mean.

I did learn something (apart from humiliation) which is that if you don't keep on experimenting, it's all the more painful when you do so i intend to keep trying.

And I came home with this beautiful shell. Worth every penny

Michael Brennand Wood

Having moved house in December and having all had our rooms decided (dd in the attic bedroom), we are going to have a shifty around, (dd in the first floor bedroom and me into the attic).

This is us just after we moved and I can't believe I'm going to have to sort it all out again!!

In other more exciting news, I'm off to a workshop with Michael Brennand Wood this week at Preston College.  Michael is a mixed media artist who uses machine embroidery, wood, paint and collage to produce his beautiful work.  I can't wait to see what he has to say.  I think it would be fascinating to incorporate handspun into work like that.

I will report back what I discover!

Angelina arty yarn

I'm a pretty steady spinner, I'm driven more by colour than anything else, but why would people necessarily buy a yarn they may be able to buy in a wool shop from me when it will cost more? Well because it's so high quality and a complete one off of course!

So in order to try something new, I decided to try something a bit off the wall for me and I retrieved my box of Angelina fibres from the top of the shelf and my carder and set to.

Here's the finished yarn, photographed on a notebook on account of the ridiculous March weather, this is a photo of my neighbour's garden in the blizzard (it's nicer than mine).

The Angelina fibres need to be pretty thick to have any effect on the plied yarn, but I do enjoy plying thick and thin and seeing the fibres flash here and there.  Now I just have to think what to do with it.

If we don't use our yarn for knitting or weaving, how can we use them?  Going to experiment and see what I can do with it.  Other than take it out of the box, look at it and then put it back.  We'll see.....

New Neons

Colours are often what drives textile lovers. Couldn't you just stand and stare at boxes of yarn or ribbons or bolts of cloth?

As a dyer, colours are always exciting, what shall I use, how will they mix, how different will they look when they're spun up or felted?

Now and again, if I have visitors or my daughter friends are over, I might ask them to pick a couple of dyes and have a go of dyeing the fibre. I like to do this because its always interesting to see what other people will put together.  I have my own thoughts on colours, but it's fascinating to see others ideas.

Hence the Hero dyelot. These are shades I would never have out together, I was surprised at my daughters friend Deborah's choices.  I was a little skeptical over how they would look once dried.  I was doubtful whether they would sell.  How wrong was I? They were gone within the first morning, the whole dyelot.  So here they  are again in all their neon glory.  Bearing in mind that neons are right on trend!

So thanks Deborah, just goes to show how it helps to have another point of view!

If you like the look of these fibres, they're here, along with some new more subtle shades

www.lazy-kate.co.uk

Late last week I took a trip into Liverpool which is something I don't need more than a slight excuse to do.  I headed down to the South end to Lark Lane which is Liverpool's own Notting Hill, full of vibrant cafe culture.  I visited Arts Hub 47, a co-operative where local artists and artisan crafts people are able to sell their work.

The co-op is relatively new but there is a buzz in the shop and the work is of a very high standard, so I'm thrilled to be able to offer some workshops there.  There is a workspace upstairs, enough for four spinners with wheels, we can nip out at lunch time for a little bite of something exotic and finish the day with a funky skein of art yarn. 

We're throwing a few dates around at the moment, but if it's something you think you'd like, get in touch and we can see if we can make it happen

cathy.lazykate@gmail.com

Off again.......

This post starts off as too many seem to, it's been a long time.

Since we last spoke, Christmas has come and gone and it was an incredibly busy time here, we did our best ever craft fair, the amazing Winter Arts Fair at St George's Hall in Liverpool.

The event, where tables are fiercely fought over was every bit as good as was reported and Nic from Feltipedia and I had a ball

http://www.feltipedia.co.uk/

In the middle of all the Craft Fairs before Christmas, we also decided to move house, a move which allows me to have my own room for work.  This is a huge relief to my family who were drowning in a sea of yarns, fibre and dye.

Consequently after Christmas I collapsed in a heap and there was nothing doing creatively for quite a few weeks while I slowly came back to the land of the living.

So this is my first blog of the new year, I'll be posting new fibres to the website.  Sorry I've been away, will try my best to be a better blogger!

http://www.lazy-kate.co.uk/

Wovember 2012

We're really happy here to be supporting Wovember, the campaign to celebrate wool, wear it as much as possible and apply pressure on the fashion industry to list woollen garments correctly.

Dr Kate Davies and Dr Felicity Ford, the originators of the campaign feel that to list this garment as woollen is misleading to say the least, and yet when searching for woollen jumper, this is where Asos will take you.  Yet this garment has only 5% wool.

This inconsistency confuses people, but more importantly, it devalues wool as a high quality product.  In their own words 'Wovember aims to reinstate the true value of those terms by linking them with the animals and people who raise, produce and process our WOOL.'

So take a look at their site and get behind their campaign, you can sign their petition here to have woollen items listed correctly, just as Champagne has to be, or Melton Mowbray pork pies!!

http://wovember.com/wovember-petition/