Taking textiles further with Alysn Midgelow Marsden

I love being able to play with a new technique, try things out, see how they work and then see what happens when you change things. Well that is exactly what you get to do on a workshop with Alysn Midgelow Marsden.

I first met Alysn at the Wolverhampton Branch of the Embroiderers Guild (where I am currently Chair) several years ago. I am not sure exactly of the timing but it was just before or just after she moved to New Zealand.  I remember being sad at the time that I thought I wouldnt be able to do any more workshops with her (as I did pod making but that is a story for a different post).  However, with her parents still living in Derby Alysn has run workshops in a local hall there ever since (on her annual trips home) and I have been going along and disrupting her class every year.

She calls these classes "Taking Textiles Further" and thats what you do - learn a technique and then see how you want to take it further.This year was split into to 2 seperate classes - the space between and Autumn surfaces.

The Space Between

We started with gathering up natural materials from the gardens outside and then using them to make drawings. This is not my drawing but from one of the extension exercises we did. Isn't it just fab?! I can see lots of ways to use that.

 Once we had done the drawings we looked at ways to abstract them.

the outline of one of my drawings - it looks like Mickey Mouse I think

Then I copied an overlapped it and traced off another outline to make this long piece 

 Once we had a set of new abstract drawings we used them to make stamps in stick on foam (that stuff you buy for kids) and we did a lot of printing on to paper and fabric to try them out.

this is me doing free machine embroidery onto one of my stitched pieces .

 Of course I didnt go off to this course alone - I toook my Posse with me. Don't they look happy?

The photographer in the group surprised to have her photo taken!

having a ponder about what to do next

 I like to make lots of different samples on a course like this - I think you learn more that way, plus if one piece is a disaster you have plenty more to play with.  So in recent years I have come up with more ideas of ways to join the little pieces together.

This is what I ended up with this year - a long thin strip  (had to take 2 shots to get it all in). You can see the variations on a them - some currently with embroidery and some without. I will need to spend a large amount of time stitching in order to get them all finished. I have set myself the challenge of getting them all done before the next class in October. It sounds very achieveable but I have a bad habit on taking on more and more work......

the little stamp on the fabric to remind me that I think I need another small piece in order to make the whole thing work.

machine embroidery and seed stitch - trying it ou

lots of machine embroidery

Autumn surfaces. 

The first class was very much design orientated. This one was about playing with the materials.  See that square in the top right hand piece (yup, back to multiple pieces even at the design stage) - that is   shrink plastic sewn with threads and then zapped with a heat gun. Who knew how much fun that was? 

 I pinched the felt from one of my friends because it went perfectly with the wool tops I had to embellish on.  Then we had pieces of shrink plastic printed with autumn leave patterns. When you zap them they curl up in a crazy way til they finally have finished shrinking and go flat. This is a before and after shot so  you can see how much they shrink and how intense the colours get.

 Here I am messing around with the layout.  Trying out ideas.

 We also used aluminium coffee pods to make metal enhanced surfaces, and I had also added in some lutrador I had coloured and distressed with Alysn last year.

 Then some leaves were printed onto Kraftex paper - it is soft to the touch, more like leather than paper.

 The whole thing is gradually built up piece by piece.  There were a lot of interesting "things" on the tables that people had bought along so I scrounged another couple of metal leaves.

 This is where I got to by the end of the second day. Now I need to give it some thinking time and then finish it off. The hardest bit is deciding how I will display it. I need to think about that first as it will have a huge effect on how I put it together.

 And finally some shots of the other students work - always interesting to see how different they all are.

thanks for reading this.