Farewell!

I've moved. This blog is now hosted on the wordpress.com site. http://jenhendesigns.wordpress.com Why? Because, when viewed on the iPad it looks really professional and is much easier to use.

Books galore

Took an interesting class today at the City Lit, London, on contemporary ways of doing medieval bookbinding. We learnt to use plastic wires, cable ties and even car tyres.

Last week I also took a class on coptic binding, single needle and two-needle stitching. Have made several books since then and feel I have, at last, cracked it!

Published!

The March/April 2010 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors has published my letter about using Citra-Solv - it's in the Muse Flash section.
http://www.clothpaperscissors.com/blogs/clothpaperscissors/archive/2010/02/17/cloth-paper-scissors-march-april-2010.aspx

Time flies

Time flies... there has been little or no time for any creativity... or maybe this is an excuse for lack of inspiration. However, this might well change. Spent two days this week at Art Van Go taking a workshop with Ruth Issett -- Creative Paper Works. The group worked with acrylic mediums and colour to make wonderful textured papers.

The two examples here were made by 1. collaging white/neutral papers of various thickness and texture; 2. Brushing a light coat of white gesso in parts; 3. Brushing parts with acrylic varnish that had procion dye powder added for colour; 4. an ink wash using procion dyes as the ink (turquoise, lemon yellow and magenta); 5. an overall wash of magenta to integrate the colours; 6. Markal (Shiva) paintsticks rubbed over the surface; finally a light brush of acrylic wax with gold Pearl-Ex powder was lightly brushed over part of the surface in the top image -- the one at the bottom has some acrylic matte medium added in circle shapes for added texture.

Old stuff

Last April I made a set of pictures for our bedroom here in Naples. I decided to photograph them today as a means of encouraging myself to make some new work. The background is created from printed paper that has had the pattern knocked back by painting over with gold gesso, tissue paper, strips of a National Geographic magazine page that had been treated with Citra-solv and torn black paper that had been embossed with a pattern from textured wallpaper. The crumpled texture of the tissue paper has been lightly rubbed over with a gold Shiva (Markal) paintstik.

Absence makes the heart...

Well it has been a long time since the last post. Been busy travelling - Sorrento, Italy, in September; Stockholm, Sweden and New York City in October - then November was spent preparing for a workshop I taught at Art Van Go plus house guests and lots of socialising. Busy, busy.

Now having a very relaxing time at our condo in Naples, Florida. It is wonderful to be away from the cold and ice of London. Though it was cold here for the first few day after arriving the weather is back to normal -- sun, blue skies and warm. The most we have to think about is what to eat!

The downside of all this is that my creative muse has abandoned me... I can't put my mind to anything, not even jotting down ideas in a sketch book. Today, Carol, who I have met in the virtual world of the Altered Books group, sent me a link to a great blog - Dispatches From LA - where there is an online class for making a shabby journal from scraps. The images reminded me of a textured book wrap that I made some time ago for a miniature book of fairy tales with etchings by David Hockney. The material I used was dyed by me during a class with the wonderful Ruth Issett. The book wrap was made after a class with Angie Hughes.

Stephanie Redfern at Festival of Quilts

Last week at the Festival of Quilts (Birmingham, UK) I had a great day gazing at some wonderful pieces of textile art. Such talented women -- I am so envious. In particular I was drawn to the work of Stephanie Redfern, who had created the most amazing book with art quilt pages. It was stunning, so imaginative with words and pictures yet she only won second prize in the Quilt Creations Category... the winner piece was a vase of fabric flowers, they looked good, were beautifully made but did not have the wow factor that was Stephanie's work. http://www.sredtextiles.co.uk/

for Amy

Following on from the Triptych I made a similar canvas for my stepdaughter -- she had asked me to make something for her bedroom. She was thrilled. The style is similar to my earlier work but what the hell... many a famous artist has returned to the same theme.

My first teaching workshop

Exciting news... Art Van Go have asked me to teach a workshop in November. It's a real honour as I still consider myself a learner in mixed media. However, in a former life I was an information specialist and have a great capacity for recalling useful, and sometimes useless, information, which I love to share. This includes mixed media techniques, inspirational books, and web based resources. The workshop will be about sharing things I have learnt. The papers that will be created can be used in collage, handmade books, scanned for developing in Photoshop; printed onto fabric as well as inspiration for other work.

Altered Books

I belong to a Yahoo Group, Altered Books... not been a great contributor more of a lurker. It is the 10th Anniversary of the group and one of the moderators, Corinne Stubson, is making 188 books comprising of individual pages that group members have submitted to celebrate the anniversary. Each of us that has a page in the book will be sent a copy. This is a labour of love by Corinne: I am really looking forward to seeing the book at the end of September.

Corinne's work can be viewed at http://www.glitz-oh.com/art/main.php

Image Transfer

At an Art Van Go workshop with Annette Morgan I made a fabric collage using image transfer. Firstly I tore up images from a non-glossy magazine (newsprint works as well), placed a piece of white nylon on top then brushed with acrylic matte medium. When it was dry the piece was soaked in warm water for 10 minutes or so and then the paper was rubbed off, leaving the ink adhered to the nylon.

I scanned the collage and, using Photoshop, copied a section and altered it using hue/saturation and the Cut-out filter. This image was printed onto T-shirt transfer paper and ironed to the collage. I then machine stitched it in place onto a backing of linen scrim. There was white nylon showing -- used the soldering iron to burn it back to the edges of the collage. Am quite pleased with my first attempt at this technique.

Triptych

Took a challenging class in June with Bobby Britnell at Art Van Go -- 'Mixed Media Approaches to Abstract Design'. I ended up working on a pebble with white veins and abstracted it down to several images using different types of media. Chose one of the designs and developed it onto a rectangular canvas by sponging acrylic paint over paper string. Finally the string was rubbed with a gold Markal (Shiva) paintstick. Made two more with the colour moving from grey through blue to mauve. They have pride of place on our bedroom wall.

Citra-solv

Using Citra-solv with National Geographic pages is a great technique for making collage papers. Paint Citra-solv to one side only of a National Geographic double-page spread, place the "wet" side face down on the the other page & rub the back a little. Use a heat gun to dry the back of the wet page and pages are ready in a minute or so. Peel the pages apart before they stick.

In the UK Citra-solv can be bought online from 21st Century Health - I get the large 32oz bottle, expensive but works out more economical in the long run.

http://www.21stcenturyhealth.co.uk/productdetail.asp?category=&prodid=30

National Geographic pages work the best because of the ink that is used in the printing process - possibly a base of gold?

Single Page Book

The final assessment piece for City & Guilds was to create a design for my chosen craft with Living Forms as the inspiration source. I decided on a handmade book from a single sheet of paper with seashells as the Living Forms (more like dead!). Photos of Tenby, Wales, were the image sources. My Canon printer can print on paper that is 21 x 56cm, which gave me scope for a book that was cut and folded to a page size of 10.5 x 14cm.

It took a few tries to get the layout correct but it worked! The images show the on-screen layout and the completed book. It was printed on thin card that had been coated with InkAid.

The quote is from the painter, Augustus John, who was born in Tenby: You may travel the world over, but you find nothing more beautiful. It is so restful, so colourful, so unspoilt.

Creative Computing

Hurrah! I've completed and passed City & Guilds Creative Computing. This was a great course for me, although I am competent in using Photoshop, I was not using it to full advantage as a design tool. I have learnt a lot of new tools... sometiems it was tricky as the course was written for Paintshop Pro users and I had to "translate" the terminology into Photoshop speak!

The montages are of Kiev, which Ivisited in April 2008. The background is pomegranates photographed in the market. In the image on the right a Ukranian newspaper was scanned and "clipped" to a large pomegranate, a cupola represents the stalk.

The student exhibition is at
http://www.lindakemshall.com/OnlineCoursesStudentExhibitionJenniferHenleyComputing.htm

Must get into this blogging thing... & a killed catalogue

Long time since the first post. Obviously not totally taken with blogging. However, as Maggie Grey had posted a photo of my altered catalogue on her blog http://www.magstitch.blogspot.com/ I feel encouraged to add the same photo here.

It was great fun killing the catalogue and then creating a rather nice 3D work from it. Maggie has such great ideas -- I'm a real fan.

Have a look at the Catalogue Killers group for more photos http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cataloguekillers/

Why clog up cyberspace with yet another unread blog?

Have decided to join the blogging world - musings may be short and infrequent but thought this would be a good place to post some of my dabblings in mixed-media art.

The image is one side of my final assessment piece for City & Guild Creative Sketchbooks. I had to make a zig-zag book inspired by architecture -- this is my take on the Vienna Secession, which houses Klimt's Beethoven Frieze. The course was taken online and was great fun to do. Highly recommend it for those of you who cannot commit to taking a regular class. http://www.lindakemshall.com/linda_kemshall_online_courses.html

Am now taking Creative Computing with Linda Kemshall.