Saturday 9 July 2016

Total decay!

Day 2 in the messy house proved to be even more fun than day one! Yesterday had been all about preparing surfaces and applying colour ( or not, seeing as we are working in shades of blue and black) but day two was all about layers and texture.

Christine showed us more simple, but amazingly effective, techniques and encouraged us to play, play play!


So we did!


Lunch?....do we have to stop? Really? Well okay, but then I'm back to work, layering, adding tissue, gel medium, India ink, spent procion dye, a quick rub with an oil pastel, a swish over with a baby wipe (don't know how effective they are on babies but they're marvellous in the art room!)


The atmosphere was electric, we were all just buzzing with creative energy, with Christine at the centre encouraging, prompting and demonstrating.  Terry had quite a job getting us all to stop long enough to drink tea and eat cake! 


Many of the processes and techniques can be directly transferred to fabric, but having the chance to work first on small cards meant you could try out many ideas and experiment with techniques, layers and processes without the worry or expense of involving fabric.  Indeed, Christine had encouraged us to stitch on the cards too.  In the image above the central blue card has been stitched with a perle before being layered with tissue paper, gel medium and washed with inks and dyes; just beautiful.


By the end of the afternoon we had all produced a collection of nearly 100 surface on 6x4 cards. When they were laid out on the (now tidy) tables they looked amazing - it quite took your breath away! 






The Poetry of Decay with Christine Chester was one of the most creative, electric and enjoyable courses I have ever been on.  Christine shook me up, turned me upside down, inside out and light my creative flame again - what more can you ask from a tutor? Thank you so much Christine, we look forward to welcoming you back to InStitches, when we shall be in our new studio!

If you would like to find out more about Christine and her textiles, visit her web site www.christinechester.com 



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