Material Girls

I went to see the Material Girls Exhibition in Romford yesterday. They have again made some wonderful thought-provoking pieces for the exhibition, with inspiration from usually 'Unseen' images from nature. I didn't manage to take any pictures, but the exhibition is on until 11th February at The Visual Arts Centre, Frances Bardsley School, Brentwood Road, Romford, Essex RM1 2RR. Find out more on the Frances Bardsley website, where you can see images of the exhibits and find out the opening hours. It really is worth a visit.

Denise

Back to Reality!

Almost back to normal as far as jet-lag is concerned; the last couple of days have seemed a bit of a blurr!

Got back to new issues of both Quilting Arts and Stitch. They both have some fantastic projects. Stitch includes some exquisite embroidery, collage using water-soluble fabric, a beutiful organza wallhanging and even a bag from an old bra!

Quilting Arts has articles on creating figures from fabric, using left-over dye to make some fun pillows, resist dyeing and using stitch to enhance your quilting as well as felting and inspirational artist features.

A couple of new books have also just come in; a beautiful book by Janet Hall featuring photography and showing her work. Not a project book, but one you can get lost in. I've also received a new wire work Jewellery book that has some great designs. The 2010 Search Press catalogue came in yesterday, and we've got some great books to look forward to over the next few months, particularly 'Celtic, Viking and Anglo-Saxon Embroidery and The Bayeux Tapestry Embroiderer's Story both by Jan Messent, Essential Stitch Guides from the RSN - Blackwork and Crewelwork are first, followed by Silk Shading, Stumpwork and Canvaswork.

Just to let you know that there are only a couple of places left on the Tapestry Weaving workshop with Joan Young. Also coming up are workshops on metal embossing, silk paper and textile postcards.

Denise

The End of CHA and what followed.

I didn't get a chance to blog yesterday, but I managed to order some great things for the studio, including buttons that you can stitch, bezzels for making jewellery, and some wonderful brass embellishments that can be used for making jewellery, embellishing altered books and textiles. Most things won't arrive for 6/8 weeks unfortunately, but here's a taster, including the embellished leaf I did in their Make and Take :


There are also some other things that I want to get in the next month or so, particularly more Jacquard products which I tried out in the workshops I took with Sherrill Kahn and a spectacular new resin which I'm very excited about. There will be more on that once I've experimented with the sample I've been given.

Last night Ray and I went to see Avatar. It was brilliant! Even Ray said it was good - praise indeed!

Today we went to Disneyland. I don't think Ray was particularly enthuiastic, but he seemed to enjoy himself most of the time. This picture is significant, but the story behind it is too long to explain here.


We got absolutely soaked on the Grissly River Run, but my favourite ride was Pirates of the Caribbean. We went round after dusk, and it was magical!

I'm not sure I'll be able to blog again before we leave for home on Saturday, so if not, I'll be back once we are home.

Denise

More Cha Cha Cha

Another great day at CHA, with another Sherrill Kahn workshop and more ideas for the studio.

For those of you who are Ranger fans (and I don't mean Rangers Football Club), here is a picture of the Ranger Melt Art wall. It included art work from Linda Brown of LB Crafts, and Leandra Franich of PaperArtsy. Leandra has blogged about how she constructed hers.
I'm just off out for dinner, so I'll post more later.

Denise

CHA Again - with a bit of a distraction!

I'm sure you don't want to see what I had for dessert this evening, but here it is anyway; Pineapple Upside Down Cheesecake:

So after that slight indulgence, back to today at CHA. I'd booked on a couple of workshops with Sherrill Kahn, someone who's work I've admired for a long time. She was not a disappointment. A very gracious lady, very willing to share her skills and knowledge. We were using Jacquard paints with resists in the first workshop, and in the second more paint, this time on card:


and photopaper, which gives a brilliant result:

Sherrill was good enough to say that we can use what we learnt today in our own workshops, so I'll be arranging something as soon as possible. We used Jaquard Lumiere, Dye na Flow, Neopaque, T-Juice markers, oil pastels and wax crayons.


Even better news is that Sherrill is hoping to come to the UK later in the year and she wants to come and do a workshop at Craft Arena! Let me know if you would be interested in this. It is a great opportunity to work with a very talented lady.

I've managed to get on Sherrill's last CHA workshop tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to learning lots more. The subject is 'Glazing with Paint'.

Denise

CHA CHA CHA

Had a great day at CHA today. Too tired to write much and I have to be up early for a 7am workshop with Sherrill Kahn! I've seen some great products I want to get for the studio though, including some wonderful new Ten Seconds Studio moulds and metals. I'll try and post more tomorrow, with pictures.

Denise

To CHA or not to CHA?

I got into a bit of a muddle this morning. We walked up to the convention centre only to find that CHA doesn't start until tomorrow! We could have gone round the public craft show that is on currently, but couldn't see the point of dragging Ray round that too, so we decided to do Downtown Disney, which is the Disney Shopping Mall.

Loads of shops, including a huge World of Disney of course, lots of restaurants and glimpses of Disneyland over the fences.

My watch stopped the other day, so I used the excuse to buy myself a Mickey Mouse watch. I could have gone with one with a lot of bling, but decided to go for a traditional approach - black leather strap and Mickey Mouse pointing to the time.

There is also a big Build a Bear workshop. Two floors of bear goodies! I may or may not have decided to buy a few things; I won't say in case Emily reads this.

Then back to the hotel for a rest and a bit more C&G work before sorting out what to do for dinner. I could get used to this!

Denise