Spice Souk - Art Quilt

Just a quick post today to show you my latest art quilt based on the spice souks of Dubai. This piece is about A2 in size and uses the same applique technique I used in the Picture Perfect workshop recently.

Islamic Inspired Lino Cuts

I've taken some of my Islamic tile designs and made them into lino cuts. I took care to make sure that the dimensions allow the different shaped and sized tiles to work together. Here are some simple prints used to check the designs were working.

Art Gallery WA - The Botanical: Beauty and Peril

This week my daughter and I visited the Art Gallery of WA for The Botanical: Beauty and Peril exhibition. The exhibition is quite small (how I wish we had a gallery like those in Melbourne and London!) but we enjoyed the pieces by Aboriginal artists in particular. I like the colours and the graphic style composition in these pieces.

There were also some more traditional paintings and a colourful wall sculpture.

Islamic Inspired Tessellations

I have a book out from the library by Eric Broug which shows how to draw Islamic tile designs. You can buy it here. Eric also has a website with some tutorials. All the designs are drawn with a straight edge and a pair of compasses. No measuring, no set square. I've drawn them in my sketchbook and then coloured and photocopied them so I have multiple copies and different sizes. Above is a small selection covering the dining table.

I'm trying out inverting the black and white areas and combining small and large tiles. The hexagons are easiest to work with and give pleasing compositions. I like leaving blank areas, overlapping the tiles and changing scale and pattern across the paper. I think you can get quite an organic looking design that is composed of very geometric shapes.

The squares are a little trickier to get a pleasing composition. It's difficult to get away from a basic grid design.

These star shapes are mainly based on a pentagon although there is one hexagon based tile here too.

The shapes with 5 or 10 sides are hardest to lay out in a design as they don't naturally tessellate. I'm experimenting with putting them on grids with other shapes in between.

Once I have finished experimenting with these copies I will carve some designs into a lino block to use in my "geographical" sketchbook.

"Double Trouble" - Experimental Reverse Applique with Photo Transfers

A super quick post for you today. I have just attended a workshop with Helen Jones and Jennie Abbott from 84 Contemporary Textiles. In this activity we transferred 2 random photos, one geometric and one organic, onto patterned fabric. The fabrics were the layered and we had to use the photographs as a guide for cutting into the fabric to reveal the image below. Machine stitching keeps everything in place.

It's a technique where you can't really plan anything and you get surprises at every snip. This sample is not finished yet. I will add more stitching and perhaps some applique on top.

New Gelli Arts® Tutorial

Hop over to the Gelli Arts® blog for my latest tutorial making these mono-printed bookmarks.

Quilts at the WA Craft Show

This weekend was the WA Craft Show at Claremont showgrounds. This is the smaller of our 2 shows here in Perth but has a greater number of displays by local groups. The Bunbury Quilt challenge was the highlight of the quilt displays.

Also on display were works by The Southern Country Quilters Association, Coastal Threads, Desert Threads, One Red Thread and more.

84 Contemporary Textiles, TAAMMI, Designing Women and WAFTA all also had members' work on display.