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Here’s a jolly fellow to help you on your way.
All change.
Vernal happenings.
Recently I’ve not been as busy as I’d liked to have been. It’s usually the case when there are other things to deal with. For me at the moment this is a good old sort out and de clutter, which as you know is far more time consuming than you expect it to be. I like the results though and want more, or rather, less. Also more time though, too.
The show I currently have work in at Leamington Art Gallery and Museum, ‘Unravelling History’, has been open since January 31st. Annabel Rainbow and the Gallery have worked so hard with this exhibition, and it shows. There’s work by Linda and Laura Kemshall too, as well as Jenny Moncur and Daniel Lismore. Here’s a useful link to Instagram for more. unravellinghistory
This is my wall, above, with my dancing and flying boys, and my ceramics in the corner. The setting up team were fabulous, these pieces are big and awkward.
In between moving stuff along at home I’ve been making more stuff, but at least it doesn’t take up much room. I’m working towards another stop motion animation, featuring Gabriel, my Magician, and his eventual dog, Flora.
Here’s a few images, starting with Flora, in pieces, above, waiting for articulation.
Flora comes in many designs, according to where she is in the story. She is based on our miniature dachshund cross, the most joyful of dogs. Tiny, beautiful, brave, loud.
And here is one of my Gabriel puppets, in mostly floral mode. He’s not finished, he’ll be well embellished with beads and other stuff before filming starts.
The type of stop motion animation I do is basically flat lay animation, where the puppets and props are all laid flat and filmed from above, using a fixed camera and tripod. A bit like flat lay Instagram images, when it first started anyway; there’s a lot of movement on there now.
Here’s Gabriel flying. He’ll be flying through winter woodland, so he’s disguised himself. As you can see he’s related to the flying boys at the top of the post.
Naturally Gabriel, who is extremely kind, but also bloody fierce when needed, has a menagerie. They don’t live with him all the time, he sponsors various animal pals in their natural habitat. This was an entirely altruistic move but he has discovered he can call on them when he needs help, and in this story help is very much needed. Above, his rhino friend, unfinished as yet. He’s made like all the puppets from paper, card, fabric, and ceramic: beads and stitch to be added.
Those wings are stronger than they look, I mean, they are lifting a fully grown rhino.
More of the animal gang below, and more to be added.
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No wings for poor camel yet, I’m not quite sure where to put them. One on each hump, perhaps.
A couple of powerful owls. Sometimes Gabriel wears owl masks, and other animal masks. I don’t know why, it seems to work for him.
Below, a not so pleasant chap, the Necromancer. He too has a number of different heads, some of which are ceramic, some are printed card. He’s Gabriel’s foe. I don’t want to say nemesis, as I’m sure he will be overcome eventually.
He’s made from fiddled about with images of animal skeletons I took in various natural history museums, felt, ceramic, black card and ink dyed muslin. Can’t wait to see him in action, but Gabriel will splat him, obvs.
And last, an ongoing needlepoint of Flora. Gabriel is stitching this in the film, well sort of, in a clever [I hope!] sort of animation way. It’ll also be a useful little cushion in real life, when done. Gabriel likes a bit of stitching, as well as reading, gardening and cage fighting.
Watch this space for more action. Not so much needlepoint action though, this one is moving slower than the slowest tectonic plate.
Thanks for reading! Keep creating.
Unravelling History: Unpicking the Collections and re working textile traditions.
The Through Our Hands artist group are getting ready for our imminent exhibition at Leamington Museum and Art Gallery.
We took our inspiration from the Museum displays and collection. I’ve posted previously about this on my blog, showing images of the ceramics, paintings, textiles, and a wonderful natural history book that inspired me, Maria Sibylla Merian’s Insectes de Suriname.
The exhibition is curated by Annabel Rainbow, and as well as Annabel’s pieces, it will feature the work of Linda and Laura Kemshall, Daniel Lismore, and Jennie Moncur.
Work is being delivered to the gallery this week having been carefully wrapped in layers of tissue, tyvek and bubble wrap. Or in my case badly wrapped in random cardboard and a disgraceful amount of bubble wrap.
As we speak the gallery has been painted in shades of Dimity and Eating Room Red. You need to leave it for a few days not only to dry but to make sure there are no chemical elements around to affect the work.
We have a hanging plan of course but things always end up slightly differently because when the space is designed, it is difficult to imagine things like how people will walk through a space and, from a health and safety point of view, make sure they have enough room between the temporary walls.
Despite huge planning over nearly 2 years, you never quite know how it’s going to look together. The artists involved are hugely professional and their work is amazing so it should be wonderful and we do hope you’ll come and see it and enjoy it.
Friday Focus Extra Friday 31st January 1pm
Join curators Abigael Flack and Annabel Rainbow for an introduction the Unravelling History exhibition.
Meet the Artists Saturday 1st February 11am – 3pm
Drop in to the Temporary Exhibition Gallery to meet some of the artists featured in Unravelling History and find out about their work.
Meet the Artists Saturday 22nd March 11am – 3pm
Drop in to the Temporary Exhibition Gallery to meet lead artist and co-curator Annabel Rainbow for demonstrations of her work.
Friday Focus Extra Friday 4th April 1pm
Join curator Abigael Flack for a talk about the history of stitched samplers, followed by an opportunity to hear from Unravelling History artist Annabel Rainbow about how she incorporated this history into her modern work.
Meet the Artist: Windrush Series Saturday 12th April 2pm – 4pm
In this special drop-in session, join artist Annabel Rainbow and some of the people involved in her series of Windrush portraits as they talk about the process and themes behind the work.
Meet the Artist Saturday 10th May 11am – 3pm
For the final weekend of Unravelling History, drop in to the Temporary Exhibition Gallery to meet artist and co-curator Annabel Rainbow.
Above on one of the posters is one of my pieces, which is called Yes. It’s a paper and mixed media puppet, with stitch and embellishment, and comes complete with his own poem. He’s quite big, about 80 cm/31.5 inches tall. Here ‘s the full puppet.
As you can see, he’s a dancer, with wings, of course. They all have wings, which I would dearly like to have myself, and a big swirly cloak too. The latter is possible.
The little book he’s holding has been changed now though, to the cascade of butterflies below. He’s mounted on a collaged background but like all the puppets can be removed. They are all pinned in place for a while like unfortunate butterflies collected by Victorians, and indeed others.
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This is his poem.
Look at the sun warming bone and blood.
The galaxies spin around us,
and oscillating cells pulse to the universe’s rhythm.
It’s all ours,
yes.
Baroque creatures hide in leaf carpet,
and veined wings move with intense precision.
It’s all we have,
yes.
Here are his two companions.
This is Immortal. He’s the same size as Yes, and here is his poem.
Chrysalis Moon,
colours pupate
in each small universe,
a larger whole.
A continuation
into glass,
the flying creatures,
immortal.
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And next is Osseous. He’s not as pretty as his pals but be kind, he can’t help it, he is a bone and fossil sort of person.
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He has a jewelled animal skull floating on a silk indigo Moon, as well as his own head, and some mighty moth wings. Don’t be jealous. Here’s his poem.
Floating, deep in rock and earth we sleep.
The hand and mind of man
will give us life,
revealing each small marvel.
Water and bones, rising,
in columns of water and light,
a ghost of bones,
revisiting.
Through frosted black skies,
fragments of a descending Moon,
shattered stone.
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Here are two slightly smaller flying chaps, part of the supporting cast. Firstly, Red Stems.
Here’s his poem.
Blood red, late late summer,
to autumns carmine speckle.
Grey vein of leaf death,
moths wings soft on skin.
Red stems.
Tracery and matrix
imprint on retina.
Close the eyes.
Keep the pattern.
Here’s his very important bundle, made from felt and red painted twigs. I quite fancy a handbag like this..
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He has a friend too. Here’s Cygnus.
He has a whole short tale, The Swans’ Pool.
As soon as I saw the Swans’ Pool, I knew it would stay with me.
The first Swan was preening, displayed on a sort of weir.
It wasn’t shy. I knew it was a special place, it made me think, so this is what it’s all about, I am going to note down these places when 1 discover them, but I don’t.
Only this one, is there a reason. When I’ve written this perhaps I will note the next. I’ve missed some.
Verdant lush growth brightest green reed shiny water storm stone clouds dragonflies moving light.
The Swan’s partner was noisy, grazing the pool’s surface. It enjoyed making so much noise, it was in complete occupation.
Huge feet, the glorious neck, the Swan’s perfect eye makeup.
No one can do a Swan’s neck, only a swan.
Everything was Swan. I stood there for ages gone, I had photographs.
A couple nearby, talking deep. I knew they wanted the space, but it wasn’t theirs to have, or mine, it was only the Swans’, and they don’t care about us.
They hiss at dogs to warn them from their young, they fly low over streets to amaze.
I looked and looked, the couple talked and talked.
I don’t know of their conclusion. We left at the same time.
Autumn. I sweep a path, which started ugly, became clear and lovely.
A few leaves now will pretty it, a branch load will fall, a sodden mass.
I think of the Swan’s Pool.
The path will be swept again.
And then we have the corps de ballet. There’s five of them altogether, and they will be displayed in a line, under the main dancers.
Two botanical and moth chaps.
Another swan inspired dancer. He goes in the middle of the two two person dancer pieces.
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And the other two from the corps. Botany, moths, butterflies, birds and a touch of church architecture all mingled together. And a flying frog, naturally.
I’ve also made some porcelain nests and a little porcelain and paper artist’s book. This is a poor shot of the book as I was putting it together, with a bit of the nest action too. They are all packed up now so I’ll photograph them when they’re in place at the Museum.
Thanks for getting this far, if you did. If you didn’t, you’ll never know. xx.
Keep creating!
All images and words, both text and poems, copyright Stephanie Redfern.
Palma, puppets and eye.
Well, it’s been a busy few weeks. I’ve recently had a few days in Palma, Mallorca. It is a seriously gorgeous city. This was my first visit to Mallorca; why did it take me so long, one asks? I need to go again.
To start with, a very touristy shot of the S’Hort del Rei. I have many images taken on walks around the city, it’s full of glorious buildings, grottos, gardens, squares, Medieval gems and gorgeous avenues.
Palma Cathedral is wonderful, we spent ages there. This is one of the chapels, created by Mallorcan artist Miquel Barceló. It took five years to complete, and was finished in 2006. It’s made from ceramic and I thought it was extraordinary. Having worked in ceramics I know what a feat this is. I want to do a chapel!
Just three images of it here, naturally I took many more…
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Belo, one of my absolutely favourite things, angels with multicoloured wings. This is the Chapel of Our Lady of the Crown of Thorns.
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Gaudi worked upon several restoration projects within the cathedral. This, above, is his baldachino, a huge heptagonal crown of lights. Apparently this baldacchino is a same size model, made card, paper, wire and wood. The final structure never got to be made, as Gaudi fell out with the builders and cathedral authorities after several years of work. It’s rather wonderful isn’t it. I’d love a slightly smaller version, in what I like to call our conservatory.
Another favourite place ever, Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró in Mallorca is a museum devoted to Miro’s work. It was wonderful to visit his studios. This is me doing a rare selfie, only because I wanted to pretend that the studio was mine.
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Below, some of his collection of objects of interest in a little sitting room next to the large studio, [above].
Below, gallery views.
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The beautiful old house he bought to use mainly as a print studio, situated above the first studio and gallery. Interior shots below, and the view. I want that view. Not quite going to happen in Birmingham though.
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And here’s me and my ancient school friend who puts up with me on these holidays.
There’s a lot to see and do in Palma. We went to a couple of other galleries there too, although there are many; another time for those I hope. The Museu Fundacion Juan March is worth a visit, a beautiful building full of modern Spanish art. And the Museum of Mallorca is an extensive art collection located in a 16th century mansion, with views of the cathedral to boot. The shops are great too, and of course the cafes. This was a favourite, a little funky cafe bar that sold the best lemonade ever and rather good red Mallorcan wine.
To finish, a view of the 10th century Arab baths, set in a gorgeous little garden. I’ll say it again, I need another visit to Palma.
Right, back to Earth, my jolly holiday was followed by some cataract surgery which was quite the contrast as you can imagine. It was only a couple of days ago but seems fine so far, hopefully. My cataracts were caused by steroidal nose spray, sorry, not at all elegant is it, squirting your nozzle, but I would say, if you use them, stop now.
Let’s have some puppets to cheer us up. Well, sort of. They are based on paintings, textiles and ceramics from the collections of Leamington Spa Museum and Art Gallery, for an exhibition that’s going to be held there next year.
This chap is the flying yoga man, of course. He’ll be stitched and embellished.
Here are the details.
An exhibition from Through our Hands 2
‘Threading History
Unpicking the Collections and Reworking Textile Traditions.’
Linda and Laura Kemshall
Daniel Lismore
Jennie Moncur
Annabel Rainbow
Stephanie Redfern
31 January – 11 May 2025
Should be fabulous!
And some more puppets, below. They are the corps de ballet to a couple of main characters not shown here. They’ve been in previous posts but I will be posting them when they are fully finished. They’re all a mix of digitally printed papers, which are made from images of my paintings, and images of objects from the collection, fabrics, mixed media, stitch and embellishments. They are very much more is more. I think maybe you’ll have noticed that, and they will be even more so when finished.
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They are all waiting to be finished, well, actually some of them are nearly done now, phew. They are about 30-40cm and really fiddly to make! But also fun.
Thanks for reading this far, or whatever, if you did. If you didn’t, well we’ll never know, will we?
Keep creating xxx
Puppets.
I’m making work for a show that opens next January at Leamington Museum and Art Gallery, and it’s a good job I’ve started early. I fact I hope I’ve started early enough. [Yes Steph you’ll be fine…]
The work is based on the collections at the gallery, and I recently enjoyed an excellent visit, looking at the works on show in the collection and I also had good root through the archives. There was much to inspire.
Below are a few of the objects that spoke to me. I am liking how the individual pieces I picked out instinctively are sparking new ideas and fresh directions, as well as building on existing interests.
The work I will be making using these artefacts as inspiration will be in our artists’ group Through Our Hands exhibition titled ‘Unravelling History. Unpicking The Archives and Reworking Textile Traditions’, and I’m in excellent company. Linda and Laura Kemshall, Jennie Moncur, Annabel Rainbow and Daniel Lismore are my fellow exhibitors. How brilliant is that?
My work will be based on puppets, well quite a lot of it at least. This is influenced more by my recent experiments with stop motion animation, but the puppets are proving to be wonderful vehicles for these museum inspired ideas. There will hopefully be an artist’s book of sorts and a sculpture or two, too. Hmm. Better keep at it then.
Some ceramics on display and in the stores, that I particularly liked.The little swan and her nest isn’t exactly the most refined piece of ceramic I’ve seen but I just love it. I’ve made nests in the past and I daresay there may be nests in my collection of work for the show.
Likewise the little mossy egg was a joy. Images I took of the teacup, lustred jug and amazingly decorated vase [close up shown here] have been collaged and jiggled in photoshop to make some digital images printed onto different papers for use in constructing some puppets.
This, above, is perhaps a strange little collection of textile objects that I liked. Bags are always fascinating; I like to imagine these being used for enjoyable evenings dancing at excellent parties. The first bag is made from beautiful fine velvet, with added melon seeds, naturally. The small pink object is a needle case; one side is the original colour, the other has seen the light. KO’s little beaded bag is so lovely. I hope KO had some fun in their life.
Pages from a fabulous book I was privileged to look through and photograph, Histoire générale des insectes de Surinam et de toute l’Europe, by Maria Sibylla Merian, Paris, L. C. Desnos, 1771.
It was very popular with all of us, not surprisingly. It’s huge and rather amazing. I feel I need a copy here at home.
Above and below, starting some work here using fossil and bones. There aren’t many fossils and bones at Leamington but there’s a nice little collection at an allied museum, Warwick Market Hall Museum. I couldn’t resist a fossil man puppet and have integrated some moth wings too. The second image is of some of my porcelain pieces sorted into some bowls I made a couple of years ago.
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Fossil man in progress.
Naturally the puppets will be very much mixed media! There are added porcelain pieces, stitch, beads and so on. Added twigs may occur, who knows. When they’ve been exhibited they will hopefully be used in some stop motion work too, although typically for me they are rather large…
I use brads to articulate the limbs.
He needs a name. Answers on a postcard [ as no one says nowadays] Rocky? Or too obvious?
Below, two more puppets in progress. They’re made from digitally collaged images taken at the museum, collaged and added to. They are quite botanical in theme. The butterfly wings are from my own drawings, and the chaps have/will have added porcelain pieces about their persons, as well as stitch and embellishment. It’s safe to say they are quite complicated. I’m definitely more is more these days, but everything still has to be balanced.
Choosing fabrics for this puppet’s scarves. The background of the scarves is layered felt and organza, and although I love all these other fabrics together I’m not sure if they will be what I use to further decorate the scarves. Always worth a fiddle with though. I want to add flamboyant scarves or capes to these puppets: any excuse to get more textile decoration and texture in there. You can see approximately where they will be below. The felt is so nice and easy to stitch compared to the paper, too.
I like the way he ended up hugging his Moon when I folded him up to put away.
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.A close up of the fossil man’s stitched scarves. Felt, organza, paper, beads and stitch.
There will undoubtedly be more puppet action to follow. Thanks for reading and keep making!
It’s been a while…
so here is a little round up of some things I’ve been up to. I have been playing around rather a lot with my new obsession, stop motion animation. I’ll have to return to being more sensible for a while now though as I have textile work I need to start for future shows.
However, I’m hoping to finish my ‘Chameleon’ stop motion film soon, edit it properly, add some music, and if I’m courageous enough, put it onto YouTube. It’s quite long, well about 15 minutes. As I progressed through the making of it, I had new ideas which just had to be incorporated, so it turned into a longer film than I first envisaged. This is typical for most of my projects.
Two lemurs from one of the sequences in the film. They are about the cutest things in the animation; you can’t make creepy lemurs, it’s not fair to them. I made them from felt, with tails I bought from eBay. They took ages to make so they are almost certainly going to get parts in future animations. You can always slot in a lemur.
The lemur sequence is available to see on my stephredfernanimation Instagram account; the link is just there on the sidebar. Followers are welcome but I’ve not gone overboard soliciting them just yet.
This is the start of a layout for the sequence following the lemur scenes., using a variety of assets. There’s a mixed media temple set up, which is based on a ceramic temple used earlier in the film, some trees, stars, ‘stone’ chameleons, Moons, ceramic moths and those lemurs again, photographed and printed out to be used as extras in the scene.
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The following three images show the preparations for the penultimate scene in the animation. The box is one of those rather lovely boxes that tech bits and pieces are supplied in, you know the sort you don’t want to discard as they are so nice and well made and could be useful one day. Also they smell delicious when new, or is that just me? Anyway, here’s one that I have used, decked out with some porcelain pieces I made earlier.
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The plan is that out of this box many butterflies will emerge. This film has been quite the learning experience, but what you can do with animation is quite amazing, and a lot of fun. I’m still very much a beginner.
And to round it all up here’s a shot of some ceramic work that’s been on the go. The small heads and masks are for my next animation, which will be a sort of mummers/folk art/gothic thingy. The characters’ heads will have textile and mixed media bodies, eventually. They are sort of suggesting their stories as they evolve as puppets, but there is a way to go yet! I can’t wait to do the backdrops too.
The larger mask is to hang on the wall. It’s glazed and finished now, so I will post it one of these days. It goes with several other masks I’ve been making, which will also, given the time, be used in some animation.
Thank you for reading! Keep on creating good stuff, it keeps the world positive.
Twenty year itch.
Every twenty years or so it seems I get a major creative itch. It’s not planned, and I didn’t think it would happen after the first time but it has. I know we all have creative evolutions going on throughout our making careers, adding and subtracting practices within our practice, but the big itches are more to do with a complete change of medium. In this case it’s more of a change of medium that still encompasses past practices. Let’s not keep it simple, then.
The first twenty year itch happened in about 2004, when after 20 years of making, selling and teaching ceramics I switched to textiles. I’d loved textiles for a good few years, but only fiddled away at them, in free moments, usually in front of the tv during the evening, since ceramics are generally not compatible with that sort of behaviour..
The seed was sown though, and almost seamlessly [yes!] I started to make work and really enjoy exploring textile processes. I still taught ceramics for many years, making the odd ceramic piece but at nowhere near my previous full on production level. The textiles worked out ok. I was lucky and ended up making lots, exhibiting and teaching classes too. I’m still making the textile work, and teaching textiles.
I’d never intended to teach but count myself as blessed to have been able to do so. I’ve met some great people.
My latest creative iteration is stop motion animation. I’ve loved animation all my life, and do wish I hadn’t left it so long to explore it, but there we are. I’m making a film at the moment, using a lot of paper, collage, and, rather wonderfully for me, stitched textile pieces and ceramics.
I went to an animation for beginners class for two terms at the Midlands Arts Centre, Birmingham, and will go back when I can. We are lucky to have that centre here, the courses on offer are amazing.
At the moment though I’ve decided to continue to work on my ideas at home, and have set up a little studio. This is actually in my usual little studio, re purposed, so there’s no room at all for the textiles now. I’m relocating them downstairs in the conservatory, to give that space a fairly undeserved name. It’s not a bad room, but it has its challenges. Still, no complaining, it’s a space.
The little animation studio is the tiny box room, good for film making since I can black out the small window. I’m used to no natural light in there now. It was weird at first, especially as I could see what was happening in the street. Not much happens but the crows’ antics were fun and one could spot all the varieties of the local dogs being walked. A lot of dachshunds and French bulldogs these days, with a mix of other small dogs and the occasional bruiser. We are rich in dogs around here, and indeed cats.
So, a few general shots of the stage. Yes, the space you make the animation in is called, sensibly, a stage. I’m just playing with my new second hand tripod here. They are interesting objects to wrestle with, tripods. They don’t give in easily, but I have the measure of it now. It’s only fallen on me once.
Here are some of the assets for an animation called Chameleon. Assets, I’ve learned, are all the props you use in the film.
And then lights appeared! Two reasonably priced chappies from Amazon.You can see there has been much cutting out of paper assets with this animation.
More assets, and the subject of the piece, although he appears mostly in his smaller iteration. This is a large chameleon I made for one or two sequences.
The characters are made from printed papers from my own designs and images, and drawings. The chameleons and one or two other assets are articulated using brads.
More assets, I love my flying frog, and using real materials like the twigs adds another dimension.
I’m a very printer based person. I’ve made up and collaged, and printed out various backdrops for the stage. I say backdrops but the whole thing is flat lay, well, at the moment anyway.
There will hopefully be a 3 dimensional plasticine, [moving!] and a ceramic sculpture chameleon [not moving] at some point. These backdrops have some porcelain pieces I’ve made on top. At this stage I was just playing with various ideas.
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During the course I made some very short films, just practising techniques and playing around with the assets I’d made. They are a valuable resource in terms of what you want to put into the finished piece.
Moving along with a set up for some real filming. I call it filming but you basically take individual images that join together to make a movie. I use Stop Motion Studio, a good and cheap app. Afterwards I will put it altogether in iMovie.
You can use your smart phone with this app either as the actual vehicle to make the movie on, which is cool, or as a remote camera. You can also use a dslr linked to your computer as a remote camera, which is what I do. Having the bigger screen to see what is going on is a bonus. I didn’t have a dslr so bought one second hand.
And yes, it does take ages, moving things little by little, especially when you have a lot of assets on the stage, which is my wont. But I’ve never been short of patience with my work. The rest of life drives me crazy, I am so very impatient. But I like labour intensive art work, always have.
Similar to my textile work, I find I start with a bunch of ideas and then develop them, and have new additional ideas as I go along. This seems to work ok for me even with stop motion. I do sketch out storyboards but I rarely stick to them. Above, I made this cocoon from felt, beads and pill packets. It’s about 30 cm, 12 inches in length and is well stuffed. It adds more dimension to the film, in both relief and texture, and becomes unstuffed just before the creature emerges.
The assets, basically the materials, start to dictate ideas of their own, especially when they really get moving. It’s such fun when you run through what you’ve done and there it is, all moving. Possibly a little too much moving with me, I am tending to make rather complicated manic pieces, which I attribute to my age. I am adding in some slow bits now though.
Collaged Moons, above and below, printed in A3 paper size, 11.7 x 16.5 inches, to use as part of a backdrop.
I am very much a beginner but as this is for fun and not my job, that is a bonus. It’s so good to try and to learn something new. I love making the assets, which is why my making past has been such an, er, asset.
More assets. I painted the more detailed butterflies many years ago, and have printed them out in various sizes and on different papers and acetate. The flowers are from images I have taken in various gardens, once again printed out onto different papers. I have some cheap photo paper that works well. I like the occasional shine on the pieces that happens during the taking of the images, it adds even more life.
These butterflies are actually for another piece, which is tickling away in the back of my mind. I do have the problem of wanting to make assets for more than one film idea at a time. These are made from a mix of thin papers, printed, with some thicker collaged papers, lutradur, and various textile netting. Then there are added bits of mixed media, from twigs, driftwood and paper roses, to folded and painted paracetamol packets and ceramic pieces.
The more realistically detailed wings at the bottom are from a painting I did some years ago. They are around 14 cm/ 5 inches wide. Fun and fiddly to make. Bit addictive actually, which is why there are so many.
And below, a detail.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post, that’s if you managed it to the end! Thank you. There will be more animation related posts, which will naturally include collage, textiles and mixed media construction. Coming next, the frighteningly green, felt chameleon paw….and some actual animation, possibly.
New[ish] year round up.
I did mean to post earlier than this but no matter, here we are. This post is a little round up of work in progress and work finished at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. I seem to have quite a few things going on at the same time, which seems to be my operating system these days. Just trying to cram it all in. Having ideas is great but having them is quicker than trying them out and developing them, as we all know.
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Above, a composite image of all that follows, well, most of what follows.
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Textiles first, and here’s a finished hoop from my new series, Poems. He’s quite a character, this mandrill, and I hope he’ll show up in other pieces of work too. I’ll probably photograph him and print him on some fabric, when I decide where he fits in. Or, when he decides.
The hoops in this series are 53 cm/21 inches in diameter.
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Below, some details.
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Now a piece in progress from the same series. It includes three little ceramic faces, and the poem is about them too.
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I’ve finished some ceramic masks that may be involved in a future project, but at the moment are waiting to be hung on the wall. For the ceramicists out there, and anyone else who is interested or is watching Pottery Throwdown at the moment, they were made in stoneware crank clay, decorated with porcelain slips, then biscuit fired to 1000 Celsius. Copper carbonate was then applied, and some brush marks of clear shiny glaze. They were then fired to 1260 Celsius in an electric kiln. Then I’ve added gold leaf. Here they are.
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Antelope, about 36 cm/14 inches.
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Elephant, about 36 cm/14 inches.
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Yes it’s a zebra, 34 cm/13 inches more or less.
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Goat, 20 cm/8 inches.
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There’s a rhino and a crow in the pipeline too.
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I’m quite immersed in stop motion animation too at the moment, and hopefully into the future. As you can imagine it’s a slow business but I love it. I’ve made the assets, as they are called, for a couple of ideas I have. These are the puppets and props that you need in this sort of project. I’ve done some experimental filming and I’m getting to grips with the tech.
At some point it will come together and a longer film will emerge. As it takes a long time to make basically a nano second of film, don’t hold your breath…
Here’s the ‘studio’, basically the same space where I do the rest of my work, so I spend a lot of time moving things around, and putting things away.
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And to finish, a nice sunny image of projects in progress on the worktable.
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Thanks for looking, keep on making!
Time for a catch up.
Well, it’s been a while, so here’s a little catch up of what’s been going on around here. When I started this blog over 10 years ago I used to post really frequently, but now the spacings between blogs seem to get further apart. I think it’s because we are all aware that blogs don’t get as much attention as they used to, since the quick fix of Instagram and TikTok etc have taken us over. Also a blog takes time and work, whereas a quick image loaded onto Instagram is another thing altogether.
So here’s a romp of a post with a good amount of images and not too many words, hopefully. I can’t promise the latter though, once I get going I don’t stop easily.
First of all, my latest series of work, six big hoops, each 21 inches/52 cms in diameter. I saw these hoops at the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in August, and ordered some when I got home. I couldn’t carry them on the train with the work I’d exhibited there too. They’re from Siesta Frames, and are called Chunky Artisan Hoops. They are really well made and sturdy, with the brass screw at the top which means I can keep the piece in the hoop permanently, for display purposes.
This series is called The Poem Series. Above you can see some materials I gathered together that I may or may not have used. Things always change as you go along, don’t they? Each piece has a poem, printed onto a Khadi paper open book image. So, here they are. I’ve started stitching the first one, as you will see.
It’s a mandrill monkey, in case you were wondering. He’ll have stitched hairiness. I’ve wanted to include a mandrill in my work for years. He’ll be back too, no doubt.
Some details of the stitching so far.
I did have an initial colour scheme in mind for the series, but it did change as I spotted more fabrics I wanted to use. Black, as usual, was quite central in my colour choices. Then pink started to creep in, so I let it.
I don’t use commercial patterned fabrics very often but I loved these two pink and black prints. Above you can see some other fabrics I’ve sorted for consideration. The composition was based around three small ceramic masks I made during the summer.
The little masks are placed on but need some earrings attached before they are permanently stitched in place.
Some favourite subjects, moths and hummingbirds.
Beetles and chameleons. There will be many beads. The chameleons are digitally printed onto silk, from an image of linocut I made some time ago.
More pink, and three birds I found in my stash from another project. I decided they needed a home, so here they are.
Lastly, a raven in a piece called The Bird Altar. The altar is porcelain, some pieces I made a couple of years ago, which were waiting for the right situation.The fabrics are digitally printed silk from my images, and commercial fabrics brushed over with white acrylic paint.
In between working I’ve been to Amsterdam for four days. Here are a couple of images. Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Pumpkins from Amsterdam.
Dutch apple cake and tea at the Rijksmuseum. OMG.
This fabulous huge painting at the Museum was right up my street, as a bone lover. It is by Erik Andriesse, see below. I took many images of it.
Below, me in a bar. I wish it was on the corner of my road, what a local that would be.
Below, the view from our room. I loved all the activity, and yes the sound proofing was excellent. We went across to the large white building on the free ferry, it’s the Eye cinema and cinema museum. Below is another view of it.
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So, a great trip all round. We walked along the canals, went to the botanical gardens too, and to this bar [twice] below, where parts of Van der Valk, the latest set of series, was filmed. Obviously we are VderV fans. See below, view with me, bar, and resident cat, Antonio. It was once a bar frequented by journalists over many years. It’s called the Scheltema, and gets mixed reviews on Tripadvisor, I’ve noticed. We had a good time with the lovely owner and a very good waitress. Antonio didn’t say much.
Phew, nearly done. This is my work, below, at the Knitting and Stitching show at Alexandra Palace in early October.
Art Textiles: Made in Britain had a gallery there, which proved to be very popular. Our show Illuminate is touring to the K&S show in Harrogate in November, then next year is moving onto more venues. Details on our website
arttextilesmadeinbritain.co.uk
To round things up, Eclectica Textile Artists, of whom I am a member, have a show on at Forge Mill Needle Museum in Redditch, UK, until 26 November. It’s a wonderful show, and we are running a little meet some of the artists session from 1-3pm on 26 November, so come by for a chat if you can.
Below, a montage of our work.
So there we are. Well done if you got this far! See you next time!
Time for a new project, yay!
I love starting something new. I do still have the Summer Book to finish, below, which should be fairly simple as I’ve made the porcelain pages, and also the butterflies to attach to them. Below are some images of work in progress on the Summer Book. Its close relation is the Winter Book, which is constructed from black and white porcelain pages with stitched textile additions, and has featured previously on this very blog. I used moth shapes in that book, so thought I’d stick with the theme for the Summer Book, albeit butterflies here rather than moths.
Both books will be shown in Eclectica’s show at Forge Mill Needle Museum in Redditch, which opens on October 18th.
Fired porcelain pages. They are fired to 1260 degrees celsius.
A mix of white porcelain and coloured porcelain, rolled together and textured, then glazed with copper carbonate. They’re about 20 cm/8 inches long.
A couple of pages photographed laid on some of the materials I used to make the butterflies. I printed photo transfer paper with images from my collages, and ironed them onto calico. I like the plastic appearance, and you get a good neat edge when you cut it.
Butterflies cut out and ready to have beads added.
Above and below, some mostly finished pages, butterflies not secured yet and indeed may fly off to live on a different page if I change my mind about their positioning.
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These Summer Book pages undoubtedly influenced the colour choices for my new project, as you can see below. The last project, the Moth Pages, was more on the brown/black/white side of the equation, so this will be more colourful and quite rich. Well that’s the initial plan. There will be black and white though, that’s a given with me.
So below here are some flat lay images of materials, and also some visual references taken from my sketchbooks and printed out in postcard size, which I’ll use as the basis for each new piece in this series. Then there are various mixed media bits and pieces that may be used in the pieces too. The fabrics are a mix of new but what I have already, and recycled.
I’ll be using hoops again for this project, and incorporating some of my poems. It’ll be a long haul sort of affair.
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Left over porcelain moths from the The Moth Pages project. They may find a home in this series.
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And finally, an image of the Moth Pages, my last textile project, at the Festival of Quilts, which happened last week at the NEC in Birmingham, UK. It was a very good show, the only thing I would say is that more artists’ galleries would be nice.
I was very happy with the way my work as hung, it’s a tedious job to get them all level, so many thanks to the hanging team. One went wonky but that’s my fault, and I like a quirky character who won’t behave.
Five judges judged it. Four were generous with their marking and comments, thank you folks. Judge number five decided that it couldn’t be judged as it didn’t fit in with the show’s definition of a quilt, in that it had to have two layers joined by stitch. Not the fact the entry was in hoops or whatever. I’m a rebel! It’s great to be naughty.
All the hoops are constructed from two layers though, one layer of fabric would be far too flimsy to stitch and support all that appliqué [is that not a layer one briefly wonders?] and the porcelain pieces attached.
Still enjoying being born to be wild, just off to jump on my Harley-Davidson.
Moving on with the Moth Pages.
My eight hoop series the Moth Pages is all laid down and ready to stitch. Well, one is already stitched and finished, and I’m onto the second now, which is good because they need to be done by the end of July as I’ve entered them into the Art Quilts category in the Festival of Quilts at the NEC, Birmingham.
I wasn’t sure whether to or not, but thought the deadline would be a good motivation to get on with them.They take a while to stitch, being quite large hoops.
So here are a few images, starting with the raw materials, which include a mix of fabrics, new and recycled, porcelain moths, other pieces of porcelain, some inspirational botanical material, and fabrics and papers printed with digital images from my collages and photographs. The book in the first image is my own Stitched Textiles: Nature. I’m revisiting, in part, one of my projects in the book, which uses moth and butterfly shapes and hand stitch.
The hoops are 40 cm/16 inches across, with a slightly weird old fashioned tv shape, and the works are constructed from all the above, with added hand stitch in a mix of threads, and beads. Following on there are some work in progress images, and a few of Instagram typical flat lays [I love a flat lay] with some shots of the first finished piece, at the end of the post.
There we go, fewer words, lots of pictures.
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Below, the first finished piece. It’s not meant to be minimal.
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Back to stitching then. I’ll post more as I finish them.
It must be spring; Winter Book finished.
As predicted I’ve finished my porcelain and textile Winter Book in spring. I have started a Summer Book now, which may well be finished in its actual season, which would be nice, and quite unusual for me..
The Winter Book will be shown in an exhibition later in the year, and hopefully the Summer Book too.
The panels are high fired porcelain with copper carbonate and some clear glaze for those of you with an interest in ceramic processes. Some are made from or include black porcelain.
They were rolled out by hand and textured with various texture blocks I’ve made over the last couple of years. They are mostly about 12 -15 cm, 5-6 inches, designed to be hung, or shown flat.
The textile additions are mainly moths, printed using iron on transfer sheets, with some stitch and beads. Other textile added to the panels are digitally printed and stitched silk images taken from my collages and finished work. There’s silver leaf too, some of which was advertised as edible; I didn’t eat any during the making of this piece.
The book was actually finished earlier but I didn’t like it, so ripped all the textile bits off and started playing with the moths instead. These came from a piece of work I’ve had on the wall of my workroom for ages. It’s now somewhat dismantled.
There are 16 panels altogether, although clever bods will note that there are 18 here, mainly because some are repeated to fit in with Instagram squares, of course.
Below, some individual panels.
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And to finish, below, some more porcelain bits and pieces, ready to be used in future mixed media projects, although the Moon has been appropriated by the Winter Book already. There are some tiny pages for a little bound book. A friend thinks it should be called A Fragile Tale, which I very much like.
I love the black and white fragments. I have no idea yet what I’ll do with them, but I get them out to have a look at every so often. The bowl is thrown porcelain. I love throwing, but sold my wheel ages ago, which I regret.
Thank you for reading or even just looking at the pictures! Keep making, be positive, do it.
Projects, projects.
I’m suffering a little from project overload at the moment, combined with the fact that I don’t seem to have done quite as much work as I’d have liked to have done over the last few weeks. Well, nowhere near enough to be honest. I have several projects on the go and a couple of new biggies I’m itching to get going with too.
One of the main reasons is that I have less time due to exercise. I decided before Christmas that I needed to be fitter and not fatter. This does work I’ve found, but bloody hell you have to put the time in. I’m an apple and that’s not a good shape, but mostly I’m blaming my vague pudginess on lowering oestrogen levels. Well why not, it can’t just be eating bread, right?
So I’ve estimated with the routines with the pink dumbbells and the daily walk that’s at least 1.5 hours away from work a day, but as it’s good for you, well it better be, I’m sticking with it. Just so you know I’m not really slacking. And no I can’t get up at 6 am to fit it all in, that’s just inhuman.
Above is a project legitimately waiting to be concluded. It’s the winter book I actually started in winter, and as I anticipated I will be finishing it in spring, or possibly summer at this rate. This one isn’t waiting for me to get on with it though, I’m waiting for the porcelain pages to all come through the firing before I can arrange and attach the stitched silk pieces on them. These are some of the finished porcelain pages with the silk pieces as yet unattached. I’m really looking forward to finishing this one.
Below are some finished pieces from a series I’m hoping to finish soon. Hand stitching takes time though; is that a reasonable excuse?
I’ve included some poems I’ve written, as you can see, around the edges. These give titles to the pieces.
Above, The Ghosts of Summer, approximately 40 x 40 cm, appliquéd linen, silk, digitally printed silk, hand stitch, porcelain and beads.
Some details below.
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Above, The Paths to Trees. 40 x 40 cm, silk, linen, digitally printed silk, porcelain, beads and hand stitch.
Above, A summer day. 40 x 40 cm, linen, silk, digitally printed silk, hand stitch, beads, porcelain pieces.
Now below is another ongoing project. It’s a scarf I decided to make, having fancied another Goth sort of scarf for some time. It has developed, as is usual for me, into a fiddly project as I’m making it out of some pieces of embroidered black silk which I’m going to stitch together, naturally not having one usefully large piece. That will happen when I’ve stitched on some appliquéd silk gauze roses.
To finish, some cushions. I am quite pleased with myself that I’ve done something with some of my completed needlepoints. I have still more needlepoints hanging around, some too large for cushions, so they’re a problem. They had dropped off my project list but now I’ve remembered them, so that’s another thing to go onto it.
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This piece, above, is a wip. I’ve also drawn out another new needlepoint in my enthusiasm, just to add to the project pile.
Other projects on the list include some dresses, tops and trousers I cut out ages ago, in an effort to be an enthusiastic dressmaker. I’m actually not an enthusiastic dressmaker, I actively dislike it. I wish I was and didn’t, I love the clothes people make. Years ago I used to make quite a few clothes, but that was obviously then, and definitely not now!
So I’ll finish some trousers and a top, hopefully, but the rest, well, consigned to the fabric drawer to use in other work. Backing more cushions perhaps.
Then there’s a dress I bought last year that really needs altering, it’s too long and I want to dye it. And I have a nice Goth top to which I want to add some black lace…
Well, here’s to having enough time, when I’ve finished prattling on this blog about not having enough time.
My new ideas annoyingly niggle away at me with no respect for work that’s way ahead of them in the queue. I want to make a stuffed raven, for some reason, and I’m very keen to start a new series of work based on screen structures, using porcelain moths, fossils, and various other strange shapes, textiles, and some more poems/words. I’ve started to make the porcelain pieces, so that’s exciting.
I also have all the paper sorted, and the pages digitally designed, to make a new limited edition artist book, based on three series of hoop based work. I’ll print it myself, it works well for short runs. However I’m not entirely sure when.
So if you’ve kept up with this one, thank you. Or even if you’ve just looked at the images, which may be best for your mental health on the whole, that’ll do, so thanks again!
This, below, is a page from the Eclectica Textile Artists group’s visitor comment book, from our last exhibition in Cannock, just ended. It was very well received, we were thrilled with all the positive comments. I particularly loved this though, there are some fab comments here but I love the one about reading the signs, just shows how amazingly interesting we are, obviously. Thanks Erin!
Winter work.
I think I started to make my little Winter book to help myself deal with winter this year, to celebrate its good parts; the shape and graphic line of trees, the stark contrasting light when there’s a heavy frost and good light, which is quite rare, but beautiful. I also very much like working in black and white.
I planned the book [ I say planned, but all my projects are decidedly fluid ] as a zig zag book, but after my latest mixed media exploration into porcelain and stitched fabric, I now want this book to have porcelain pages. So below is how I’ve made the textile elements, but the porcelain bits will take a little longer. Making, drying, kilns, you know the drill.
I gathered together some collage materials to get some ideas fermenting.
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Above and below, some collage materials put together to photograph and print onto silk, to make the textile elements of the book.
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I printed out a selection of small images onto silk, and bondawebbed them onto silk gauze ready to stitch. They can be a little flighty without the extra layer and working in a hoop this time round was much easier.
Below, the finished stitched silk pieces, and some words I may use in the book.
So it may be some time before this one’s finished, hopefully though before the end of winter. I need to get a move on with those porcelain bits.
Thanks for reading!
Christmas greetings.
Have a lovely Christmas time, Yule or whatever you celebrate everyone.
Thanks for looking at this little blog, see you soon. xxx
Porcelain and silk.
I worked with porcelain and stoneware for over twenty years a potter and sculptor before the textiles took over. A few years ago though the ceramics started to nuzzle their way back into my conscious. I enjoy working in both media, and I’m always looking out for a way to happily combine them.
During the summer I made some small porcelain plaques, quickly rolling them out and impressing them with some of my texture blocks. As they formed I imagined them adorned with small stitched silk pieces, an idea that emerged as I made the plaques, which was perfect.
Typically other things took over so adding the silk elements had to wait a little longer than I wanted, but they’re finished now, and I rather like them. I added a good wallop of gold leaf, and some black leaf too, as they are going into some future Art Textiles: Made in Britain group shows titled Illuminate, in which my work is based on illuminated manuscripts. I also love any excuse to use gold leaf.
The plaques being made. They were eventually fired to 1260 degrees celsius, with copper carbonate and a touch of clear glaze. The texture blocks can be seen at the top of the images, they are made from some of my linocut plates, and print blocks.
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Below, the fired plaques with some silk pieces and gold leaf being added. The silk is digitally printed on my inkjet printer, from images I have taken of natural objects such as echinoderms and a nautilus, and from my collages.
Below again, some of the finished pieces. They are about 14 x 9 cm.
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I’ve been making other ceramic pieces, small textured hand built jugs and vessels, and small garden planters. I’ll post images of the planters next year, when they’re in use. Below, some small jugs and a little chap with ears, glazed with blue dry glaze. It’s called dry but actually means matt.
I took advantage of a recent foggy morning that made the branches of the cherry tree beautifully ethereal to use as a wintery background to photograph the pieces. The tallest is about 10 cm high.
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If you got this far, thanks for reading! Keep making.
It’s looking like autumn.
It’s a very beautiful autumn here, between the heavy rain showers. Glorious skies, with glowing depths of sunlight illuminating the wonderful colours of leaf and tumbling cloud.
I bought a little pack of autumn coloured silk fabric pieces at the Festival of Quilts in August, not with the intent of making some autumnal work, I was just attracted by the colours. I think because these were the only fabrics I bought, I’ve actually started to make work with them straight away, rather than put them in a drawer. I love to use what I have but there’s no doubt that the occasional purchase of new materials can spark enthusiasm.
I think the resulting series has a look of late summer/early autumn, which was when I started to make the work. I’m not usually this exact in terms of seasonally based work, but they probably won’t be finished until spring, so that’s where any adjacency ends!
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I had an enjoyable collage making session a couple of weeks ago, and after photographing the collages I layered some of them with some other images in Photoshop, to add detail, and in some cases to make the collage paler and more subtle. Above you can see the paper collage, and below one of the Photoshopped versions, overlaid with some delicate botanical imagery.
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I printed these images onto inkjet silk. I have more in store to print, for future work.
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Below are four pieces all laid down and ready to stitch. There is a fifth but it’s turned into an out take. It was the first I made and I changed direction after that one, as I decided to include birds and a dragonfly in the pieces. I often start some pattern based work, only to find it’s never quite enough for me when it’s done. I’m an illustrator at heart, and always feel happier when I’ve made a proper picture.
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The new pieces include the new silk, linen, digitally printed silk and cotton, and porcelain pieces. Each is about 40 cm/15 inches square.
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The birds are saved from a large piece I dismantled some time ago. I’m gradually using all the components from it.
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Below are some preparation images and a couple of early pieces that won’t make the cut. Well they will make some sort of cut in that they will be cut up and used in future work, hopefully.
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So, time to stitch. I should finish these before I start something else but I can already sense that that’s a fail…
Autumn collage
I often find that a new burst of creativity often leads to working with collage, to spark some ideas and to make new materials to work with.
I’ve started a stitched mixed media textile series based on fossils, nests and shells, with probably a few pebbles thrown in too. Some textile pieces are now ready and waiting to be stitched, which I’ll share in future posts, when I have added more textile pieces to the series.
I started with the old collage favourite, the painted papers. The idea wasn’t to actually use autumn colours, I did have some paler compositions in mind. But with collage I find it’s best to just let it do as it wants, something useful always comes out of it even if you don’t actually like all the results. I do like a bit of orange though.
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Below, starting work with the painted papers.
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Some of the finished collages are shown below. I photograph these, often with objects laid onto them, such as shells, a little deceased moth I found in the garden, twigs.
Then they are played with in Photoshop and printed onto inkjet fabric to use in the textile and mixed media work, either cut up or in full. They could be printed onto nice paper too, and incorporated into a piece. Sometimes I’ll choose a close up, sometimes the full piece to change by adding a layer or two in Photoshop from other images I’ve taken.
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The collage above was based on botanical fossils.
After a few rather more vigorous collages a gentler piece appeared. I decided not to cut these printed papers up, I liked them as they are, blocky. They’re from previous digitally manipulated images printed on paper that I keep in my collage material folder.
I wanted to make a couple of sea collages to work with. These are just laid down, so the components can just be moved around to make different images.
There are more but that’s enough for the moment!
Natural Histories, the hoops version.
I’ve been making a new series of work in hoops, hopefully to show next year with the group Art Textiles: Made in Britain. Our new show is titled Illuminate, and we have some tour venues in place, with more to be added. It’s an excellent title, and we are naturally individually approaching the theme in a variety of ways.
Although my work is inevitably based on the natural world, another thing I love is illuminated manuscripts. I saw a fantastic exhibition of illuminated manuscripts some years ago at the British Library, and although their influence didn’t creep into my work for a very long time, I think it is now.
I have more in this series, Natural Histories, to finish, which I think I’ll keep under wraps until the show is up for its first date, but here are some finished pieces and work in progress.
I will be showing another hoop series too, and hopefully some mixed media work, involving textiles and porcelain. This is at the experimental stage, so who knows what will happen. I certainly don’t! There are a couple of images at the end of the post of this work just being started.
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Two of the final pieces waiting to be stitched.
Below, some porcelain pages in the process of being made. They will be fired to 1260 degrees Celsius and will shrink a lot. They are just over 15 x 9 cm at the moment, 6 x 4 inches. I’ve textured them with texture blocks I made in clay from my old linocuts and foam printing blocks.
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Well there’s yet anther heat wave here, with temperatures steadily climbing. It’s my least favourite weather, so I imagine I’ll be inside with the fan aimed at me, working on these pieces. I have no desire to be out and about in 30 degrees plus.
Keep well everyone, whatever weather you prefer.
Stephanie Redfern 