Lockdown Can Be A Time For CREATIVE Isolation And I Am Really Enjoying Being At Home With Access To A

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Processions June 2018

We have had the most amazing time working on this beauty!

Dorcas Casey, (who is an ex-Strode, Art team member of staff and also an ex-student) but now creates the most incredible sculpture and works from her studio in Bristol, amongst lots of other exciting ‘side-hustle’ projects such as this one. @beastsoftheuncanny

In collaboration with Somerset Art Works (SAW) partners and funded by the Arts Council, the banner project is a nationally co-ordinated, mass community artwork, initially designed by Artichoke as part of the centenary celebrations, promoting the importance of the female vote in 1918. 100 banners were created up and down the country.

Our banner was lovingly made by students, staff and also members of the community. We took our banner to London as part of the Processions celebrations in June and marched around the city, in the heat with thousands of other women. It was exhilarating and so great to be part of something so important to our heritage as women and also to celebrate what the Suffragettes and other women’s groups fought for so we could begin to build amore equal society.

Our banner received lots of praise, we were singled out across the press and made several headlines in the daily papers and on social media. Radio 6 Music singled us out and Dorcas was interviewed by Lauren Laverne, live on BBC radio, broadcast to millions.

A day to remember for ever and so great to be such a key part of this event. Our banner will also be on tour and exhibited around the UK with the 100 banners, it will be part of a publication and also included in a planned International Textiles Biennale in Lancashire in 2020.

Out and about gathering visual research for future projects. Grids and nets to start the journey. Once you start looking you can’t stop seeing!

The superstars of A level Art Textiles 2019.

A wonderful collection of experimental and highly professional outcomes. Themes include ‘mending’, recycling, sustainability and processes including spinning newspaper into yarn, dyeing, beading, dissolvable fabrics, stitch, screen printing, embroidery, beading, darning, appliqué, patchwork, fashion.... so much to celebrate and such a lovely bunch of students. 

MA stuff

A level costume design exploring the theme of ‘Birds’ exploring the darker side of these winged creatures, inspired by Alexander McQueen’s exhibition ‘Savage Beauty’ at the V&A. An innovative use of materials such as bin liners and interfacing to create an ethereal, feathered quality in a series of cropped capes.

Great photo shoot with technical support from Dave Merritt.

New favourite beach. Wonderful rock formations and so many beautiful pebbles, each one so unique and inspiring. Jurassic and Triassic. Very photogenic and lots of ideas forming. Making drawing tools and using them to capture the scale and drama of the place.

Getting my colour mixing mojo on. Painting outdoors in the Spring sunshine feeling inspired by the fresh colours around me in the garden and from walks in the surrounding fields, lanes and woodland.I had forgotten how much I love this!

In the late 1980′s and early 1990′s after graduating, I worked freelance as a textiles designer and also travelled to South America after winning a travel bursary award in a design competition. I was inspired by the pre-Hispanic, ancient textiles of Peru, where the Incas and other ancient civilisations used natural dyes to create their woven cloth. I travelled through Peru, Columbia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina and down to the very south of Chile and had the best time. I researched natural dyes, spending time of the beaten track, living with indigenous people and learning from them. We picked roots by moonlight and gathered plants on specific dates linked to the Inca calendar, there was lots of superstition surrounding the dyeing process but also much wisdom and understanding of the life cycle of each plant and when it would give the best sources of colour.

On my return, I spent most of my time mixing colours from gouache and saving the match pots in 35mm film canisters as sample colours. This was pre-digital when everything was hand painted and drawn out in detail for selling to design companies. I had forgotten my love of colour matching and mixing and remembered my workshop space had literally hundreds of these hand mixed colour swatches lining the shelves for reference when recreating new colour palettes.

Thes images show my process of stretching fabric, priming, layering colours over a series of days with time between to ponder what colours to mix and add for balance, harmony and also composition. Enjoying myself!

Amazing digital floral designs heading for the print room by talented FAD student. Perfect for summer fabrics!

So happy to be back in the Textiles zone, working with new Art Foundation students creating shadow paintings to develop into print and stitch this week.

It’s always exciting to start the new term in September but so necessary after such along period away from creative Strode sessions. I have really missed working with our incredible Art students. Welcome back to you all. 

These paintings will be used to explore screen printing, heat transfer printing and surface designs with stitch for the 3 week workshop sessions in textiles.

A great start!

#lovemyjob #creativetextiles #printandstitch #letsbeatthevirus #creative #backinthezone

Textiles students in full flow creating free-machine stitched creatures in dissolvable fabric for wearable art neckpieces based around sea-life and observations at the aquarium.