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Creative again at last

It’s nearly 6 months since my last entry, and most of this time I have been clearing my old house, packing everything in boxes, moved to Tonsberg, and unpacked everything again.
So yesterday, I needed to do something creative again. I took an old sheet, wrapped it around some old tools i have inherited from my father, poured over about 3 litres of tea of various kinds, wrapped it in plastic and left it in the garden overnight.

 

The result when I opened it today was gourgeous:
 
Such beautiful marks.
 

Just now the piece is in the washing machine, hopefully the marks will survive. I don’t know if I want to keep it as a wholecloth or cut it in smaller pieces. Time will show.

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New Year with lots of opportunities!

I’m sorry it has been so longe since my last entry, but I’ve been busy working on my Modules for my Certificate in Machine Embroidery with SST, and clearing my house. This spring I’m going to move to the other part of Norway, and of course then I have to clear the house first. Do you know how much we accumulate over years? I have been living in this house for 30 years, a house with much storage-room. Now I am moving to a little house with a little garden closer to my grandchildren, and hopefully away from the rainy Bergen. 276 days with rain in 2015 will not be missed!
So, my days have been more than full with school-work, getting rid of things I do not need and packing.
But in the last two weeks we have had real winter, cold ( -8 degrees C), dry and lots of snow.
Beautiful pink and pale blue days.
I just love how the snow sits on the grass and branches.

 

And suddenly, I realised I had to use this snow to do some snow-dying. Winter in Bergen is usually grey, wet and windy. And today it looks like we are going back to normal, + 6 degrees C, windy, and the snow is no longer beautiful but getting a dirty grey look.
Well, just in time, yesterday I did some snow dying, snow, dye powder and fabrics.

As usual, I did not measure anything, everything just at random:

Today I have used some time washing and ironing it, and look at these beautiful colours, especially the one to the left

I also put in some lace, these are not 100% cotton, but they do have a subtle beauty I think.

 

That is all I have for now, I hope it will not take this long befor next time. And thanks for reading.

Rust dying and eco-pinting
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Rust dying and eco-pinting

Since I came back from Birmingham and FOQ,  I have done some rust dying and eco-printing. When I visited my daughter in September, I did rust dying with some gears from an old mangle she has.

Wrapped in cotton fabric, a cup of tea added, and left for a few days, and the result is beautiful

And this piece was just wrapped around the bundle:

 

Next, getting inspiration in the Wet-studio at FOQ, I just had to try eco-printing.  The bundles from my first attempt

And the result, these first are strips of cotton

 and some Dupon silk I had:

this one looks like a dead forrest

and some lovely purple marks, but not many leaf prints.

Second time it got better.  I put in some chestnut shells and got a beautiful tint of green and lovely marks

Now I just have to figure out how to use them…

Textile Zig-Zag-book
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Textile Zig-Zag-book

I have made one of my paper zig-zag-books in textile.

 I scanned the pages of my paper books, played with some of the pages in Photoshop, and printed on TAP paper the ones I wanted to use in my textile version. I then used Bondaweb to glue them to the backing of a piece of Gesso-painted cotton. This gave me the hold I needed for a zig-zag-book. To secure them further, because some of the pages went over the foldings, I stitched them with white tread. The quote I’ve used is from a poem by Jon Fosse. No deeper meaning, I just needed something to write.

Two more books – in paper this time
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Two more books – in paper this time

I have just made two Leporello-books in paper. The collages are made from the many writing-exercises for part two of Juliette Exkel’s Textile Books Workshop.

 
The front is yellow and black, it was a bit tricky to get a decent photo
 
 
and the other side is red and black

 Book number 2 alternates between black and blue

and red and black. All on white paper.
Now I just have to make them into one made of fabric.

Two more books finished
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Two more books finished

Here are two more of my textile books for Ineke Berlyn’s course. I’ve had so much fun making them.

This first is my version of Book of Tea. Filled with quotes about tea, laces and stitching. With leather cover and closed with a key.
Enjoy!

 page 1
 page 2 and 3
 page 4 and 5
 page 6 and 7
 page 8 and 9
 page 10 and 11
 and page 12

The next is «Welkome to my Garden»

The cover is made of  balsa-wood, painted like a flower garden with a fence, made of those sticks you stir your coffe with. The fabrics are mostly snow-dyed, as well as the
thread I used for hand-stitching.

 page 1
 page 2 and 3
page 4 and 5
 page 6 and 7
 page 8 and 9
 page 10 and 11
 page 12

Yellow Tulips
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Yellow Tulips

We have just revealed our new challenge on Latitudequilts, and this is my contribution. Our challenge this time is Art Deco.

Tulips are such elegant flowers, simple in shapes and in so many
wonderful colours. And since Art Deco is very simplified, it was a
perfect match for my personal challenge, tulips. Looking through images
from my garden, I settled on the one I used in an earlier challenge,
LOVE, and used it as a template for raw edge applique, with hand dyed
cotton.
As a background, I used something that reminded me of
radioes from the 1930s, freehand cut and pieced commersial fabrics, on
top of pale green linen.

 
 The quilting in the background is simply straight lines, the tulips are free hand machinequilted, with French knots.
I am also working on my last textile book with  Ineke Berlyn, I’ll show you as soon as it is finished. 

My scroll is finished
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My scroll is finished

I promished to show you my scroll-book when it was finished, and here it is:
It is based on my fascination for Medieval Norway, and the king you see at the start of the scroll, Magnus VI Haakonsson, king of Norway 1263-1280. Among other things, he buildt the two structures you can get a glimpse of, in Bergen and Tunsberg. But most of all he collected the different laws in Norway into one, «Landsloven av 1274», parts of which exists in our present legislation.
  This is the left part of the scroll:
and the right:
another close up
I have also finished another textile book for Ineke Berlyn, which I will show you next time. 
Thank you for watching.
My favorite spring flowers
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My favorite spring flowers

I just love this time of the year, when everything comes to life again. Just now my Anemone Blanda is brightening up my front garden
 Just when the crocus are finished blooming, this comes
It is so wonderful to be greeted by this after a day at work. It is so refreshing. And next, my tulips are getting ready for warmer weather
 
I am also working on two textile books, one with Ineke Berlyn (sorry, no pictures), and a scroll book with Juliette Eckel. This is some early photoes of it: first samples and next a rough layout. Next time I will show it finished (hopefully)…
Just a short update
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Just a short update

I have started on my next textile book for Ineke Berlyn’s workshop. Today I have painted with thickened Procion MX for the background fabric, and just now, I’m waiting for it to dry a bit before I print some more on it.

I have also on the line some pieces of fabric treated with BubbleJet solution for printing text for this book.

And while I was working, I also made another little piece,
with a bit more painting, just for fun. It may be useful some
day…
 

 I will keep you updated.