Last week Liske and I from Littleheath Barn Studio co-hosted a wonderful workshop exploring the possibilities of print and stitch. I have been adding a lot of paint to my work recently, to achieve texture, and it was incredibly exciting to explore these ideas with a fabulous group of students. We started our adventures with the gelli plate, a tool that requires you to work quickly and not think too much! Soon the studio was filled with experimental samples…
The results were so exciting, I never really have a plan in a workshop and tend to run with the dynamic of the group. Over in my No Rules Textile Society we are currently playing with the concept of gathering fabric and it occurred to me that a technique called ‘crashing’ would be brilliant to explore alongside these new prints, the results were incredible…
We also folded fabric, pressed it with the iron then printed and gathered it….
Print, stitch, gather, print in varying orders!
And that was all on day 1! On day 2 we continued to experiment but also started to use our samples in collage, weaves and patchworks…
I love how mixing up these techniques can create such beautiful results. If you would like to see more of Liske’s amazing studio there is a tour inside No Rules Textile Society. You can also check out her website at Littleheath Barn Studio for a whole diary of amazing workshops. Over in No Rules there is a group of lessons all about paint and ink techniques that I use in my work. Please feel free to join just for a month and play, if these photos excite you I think you would love it!