Another tangle pattern I’ve based on photographs taken in the main hall of the Natural History Museum in London. It looks better if the horizontal and diagonal lines don’t cross the double vertical lines – but it takes much longer to draw!
Another tangle pattern I’ve based on photographs taken in the main hall of the Natural History Museum in London. It looks better if the horizontal and diagonal lines don’t cross the double vertical lines – but it takes much longer to draw!
This the second of my Natural History Museum inspired patterns, with this also the second that reminded me of the husk of a pineapple. I’ve not made any effort to weave the diagonals, but it might look good if you want to have a go…
This is the first of a series of step-by-step patterns based on the carved pillars I photographed in the Natural History Museum, London. There are two that reminded me of the prickly outside of a pineapple, this being the first…
I’ve just put the finishing touches to two small quilts. They both feature my own pattern design, which I hand screen printed at college onto fabric offcuts using black textile ink. The first shows the patten, unadulterated, quilted using black cotton and free motion machine stitch round each of the circle motifs. The second is dyed with Adirondack Color Wash sprays (which despite my best efforts still covered everything nearby!), dried, heat set, rinsed, ironed and then quilted in the same way. Both are hand bound and labelled. I use backstitch to hand sew labels for my quilts as this is unlikely to wash off! They are both 22.5″x42″ in size.
This is my 100th published tangle pattern. It’s a step-by-step breakdown of a carved wood panel in one of the side rooms on the ground floor of the Liberty department store, off Regent Street in London. It’s quite an intricate, full pattern, but builds easily.
In recognition of my 100th tangle pattern (did I mention that yet?), I’ve got five limited edition drypoint prints of my tangle pattern ‘Rokpool’ to give away. Each will be numbered and signed by the artist (me). If you’d like the chance to win one of these unique prints, leave a comment below indicating what you will do with the print if you win, and sign up for email updates for my blog if you haven’t done so already. Entries will close at midnight GMT on 18th January, and I will choose my favourite top five commentators on 19th January 2013.
This is one of the print editions – each is a unique print of the same engraving plate and will be framed as shown (though see caveat below!). The print itself is 6.5 inches square. I’ve engraved, printed and mounted them myself, so you will be receiving a totally one-off piece of artwork. The giveaway is open to all, international or local, though I do reserve the right to send an unmounted print if the postage turns out to be prohibitively expensive!
And if there’s any of my tangle patterns you’d like a similar print of, let me know – I’m very happy to take commissions 😉
And you’ll be pleased to know there are more tangle patterns on their way – I’ll be publishing one each Saturday for the next few weeks.
UPDATE 19-JAN-13:
The lucky winners have been selected, and they are: Nana, Joyce Ford, Melinda Butcher, Sandy F and Kris. Congratulations, and watch your email inbox for details on how to claim 🙂
I’ve finally sat down to draw some new tangle patterns 🙂
This is LRI, based on iron railings around the Leicester Royal Infirmary next to Welford Road. It’s amazing how many patterns there are to be quickly snapped with a camera phone and broken down in to step by step instructions:
On Saturday I’ll publish my 100th tangle pattern – inspired by a wood panel in Liberty, Regent Street.
Well, it’s raining and dark. World of Warcraft isn’t letting me log in. What else is there to do except update my blog banner pic? I decided it was time to have the banner show some of my newer skills, and move on slightly from the ProMarker coloured zentangle. I’ve added ceramics, quilting, printing and painting as well as a little bit of self-promotion as artist, designer, maker and tutor. And my PanPastel playbook makes a colourful background to the zentangles that still are the most popular part of my blog.
I’ve also added a new page to let you follow the progress on my planned studio – please leave good advice if you’ve been there and done it before!
The choice of final project in textiles was to either design and make three tea towels, an apron or a Cornell-style fine art box. I followed my ceramics theme and chose the box, and thus embarked on a project to include every technique I could think of to transfer my patterns from my sketchbook to my ‘panoply of patterns’. Here’s the completed box, complete with my display sheets displaying its contents:
Lots of techniques in here, from free hand drawing with a fabric gel pen, to free motion machine stitching, backstitch hand embroidery, iron on transfers, applique, fabric paint and quilting to name but a few…
This term in my print lessons I’ve revisited dry point – with a new twist which I hope to develop and share in due course… And then there was the lino cut – it turns out that lino is a lot easier to carve when warm, but crumbles when hot… And there was the collagraph – sticking items to a piece of card, liberally coating with PVA and allowing to dry before using it as a print plate. Part of the final project is to take prints that aren’t quite exhibition standard and embellish them a little:
Here’s the before and after of a piece of serendipity – I was washing out my large screen with a large repeat pattern on it, and the water/ink mix was caught by the scrap paper beneath – I loved the texture and distressed colours. I embellished it with watersoluble graphite pencil and a bit of frottage on sandpaper to add texture, and a distress ink mix to tone down the white paper:
Finally, I wanted to play around with a repeat pattern on a large scale… the screen alone was two feet square – and I chose to run off a couple of lengths of wallpaper as well as a couple of multicoloured prints:
Not sure that I’d want that repeat in black and white across the chimney breast!
For our final project this term, we’ve had four weeks to work on either a ceramic bird house, or a Cornell-style box. In principle, we had to slab build the box and then use at least two of the techniques we’d learnt to decorate it. I’ve gone for the Cornell-style fine art box:
Once again, all the work is based on my bead or button collection – the filigree is the back slab layered with D-shaped extrusions and then pierced (two techniques already!). The flowers are one and two part plaster moulds taken from other beads (sprig moulds, technique three). The box will dry over the Christmas break and then get fired – it’s white earthstone, and we’ll be playing with glazes next term. The box will hold vertical strings of ceramic beads, which I made by designing my own extrusion die, slicing this into uniform thicknesses, piercing and then carving (and there’s technique four):