Artistic Explorations: Visual Poetry (1)

My collaboration with writer and artist Elaine Reid recently resulted in co-facilitating a Visual Poetry workshop, as part of the Barn's community year-long project Flourish that she is leading. In the run up to the workshop we got together in my studio to go through the steps ourselves and create a few visual poems. Elaine already had experience with found poetry and making zentangle drawings around it but I hadn't. We would offer the participants a wide array of art materials to play with and before we could do that, we actually had to find out what would work best.

We copied a few pages of an old book onto heavy-weight mixed media paper, skim read the text without actually reading the content and circling the words that popped out.



Example of text for visual poem

We then worked with gesso (to push back the text that we didn't want to keep) and added acrylics, coloured pens, stencilling, stamping and collage material for the visual element of our found poem. I thoroughly enjoyed the experimental and subconscious process of it all!

Here are the visual poems I made in preparation for the workshop.

Visual poem with stencilling

Visual poem with collage

Visual poem with stamping and drawing

During the first half of the day, which was led by Elaine, they focussed on found poetry; skim reading, circling and trying to connect words and phrases in pencil.



Participants at work in the gallery of the Barn



Participants at work in the gallery of the Barn ©Elaine Reid 2017



Found poetry in action

Everyone would get three different pages and in just half an hour's time, the group created so many different poems from sometimes the exact same text!

The second half was led by me. We first showed them samples of our work so that they could get an idea what can be achieved.


Examples of our visual poems ©Elaine Reid 2017

Once I explained and showed them what you can do with the various art material I had brought along, it was time to play!

I brought a selection of art materials they could use



Using gesso and collage ©Elaine Reid 2017



Using a stencil to draw a shapes ©Elaine Reid 2017

Using various papers as collage ©Elaine Reid 2017



The page is now totally transformed into a visual poem ©Elaine Reid



One of the participants using pen and collage to erase text ©Elaine Reid 2017



This workshop was part of the community project Flourish ©Elaine Reid 2017

One of the visual poems a participant created ©Elaine Reid 2017



Another example of a visual poem created by a participant

Reading and hearing the feedback from all the participants afterwards I can say it was a huge success! Hopefully we can do it again next year. From 5-18 March 2018, these poems and many more will be displayed during a two-week Flourish exhibition.

Art & Craft workshops

It has been a busy month with various workshops I organised  for children and adults at the Woodend Barn.

Printmaking with children 
Using foam sheets, some plastic drawing tools, printmaking ink, coloured paper and scraps of fabric the kids created some wonderful prints. It was fun, but really, really messy! Some kids were worried their hands were still blue the next morning when they had to go to school, haha. Luckily it's all waterbased!

The printing station before the kids came ©Fenfolio2016

Drawing their design ©Fenfolio2016

The kids were very creative and productive ©Fenfolio2016

Inking up the foam sheet ©Fenfolio2016

Concentration! ©Fenfolio2016

Printmaking is a very, very messy job! ©Fenfolio2016

Cool designs printed on coloured paper and fabric
©Fenfolio2016

Making your own fabric and paper wreath 
In preparation for Christmas I decided to organise my first ever craft workshop. We made wreaths from scraps of fabric tied around a wired ring. The paper wreath was made by curling various strips of gift wrap paper, coloured paper and double-sided paper and pinned down onto a polystyrene ring. They loved it and thought it was very therapeutic.

Cutting strips of fabric ©Fenfolio2016

They could choose to make a fabric or a paper wreath
©Fenfolio2016

Making piles of strips of fabric ©Fenfolio2016

Pinning down curled strips of papers ©Fenfolio2016

Tying the strips around the wired ring ©Fenfolio2016

Lots of different patterns ©Fenfolio2016

Curled wrapping paper ready to be pinned
©Fenfolio2016

Beautiful combination of colours and textures
©Fenfolio2016

Even old jeans were being used! ©Fenfolio2016

A beautiful paper wreath ©Fenfolio2016

 

Another beautiful paper wreath ©Fenfolio2016

 

Proud of their creations ©Fenfolio2016

 

My friend Dorothy found a different use for her
unfinished wreath! ©Fenfolio2016

 

 Making Christmas baubles from fabric
Local art and crafts group Third Stage invited me to organise something Christmassy for them. I decided to have them create their own Christmas baubles from scraps of fabric. Almost every woman has some (or lots) scraps at home. It was great to see what they brought along. Just before the workshop I visited a few local charity shops and was very lucky to find some sparkly fabric that I added to our collection.

Once they measured the parts on the polystyrene ball, they cut out their pattern and the peices of fabric. With a scalpel sections were cut into and with  a palette knife the pieces of fabric were pushed into the cuts. The baubles were then finished off with some ribbon and sequins. Easy, fun and beautiful results!
 

First the sections were drawn on the ball ©Fenfolio2016

Then fabric was cut out with the use of a simple pattern
©Fenfolio2016

Everyone hard at work ©Fenfolio2016

Stunning handmade Christmas baubles in just 2 hours!
©Fenfolio2016

Fabulous Fabric: Party dresses

It all started with vintage shoes my mum was about to sell. She had bought them in the early 60's but had hardly worn them. The moment I saw them I fell in love, bought them and a new creative project was born as I didn't have anything suitable to wear with them.

I decided to make an evening dress and initially chose a McCall's pattern. After 6 trials in old curtain fabric I realised I wouldn't feel comfortable in it so I chose a different design and went for the pattern from Butterick 3080. Aberdeen unfortunately doesn't have a wide range of shops that supply dressmaking fabrics and after a bit of research online I found
The Dress Fabric Company based in Edinburgh. The owner was able to advise and source a wonderful drapey fabric (100 % polyester) that would perfectly suit the colours of my new shoes, all by email and phone!

As there was no gala ball to go to (we decided to pass on the one organised by Jaap's employer) I had plenty of time to finish it...and this is the result:

Front view wrap evening dress ©Fenfolio2015

Back view wrap evening dress ©Fenfolio2015

Close-up front view wrap evening dress ©Fenfolio2015

Close-up side view wrap evening dress ©Fenfolio2015

Close-up back view wrap evening dress ©Fenfolio2015

To make it really stand out of the crowd I made a clutch from the dress frabric I had leftover. I bought the PDF pattern online via Etsy.

I used the same buttons as the ones on my dress, only one size larger, supplied by my
local craft shop. It was quite tricky to get the pintucks perfect, even after pressing, as it's 100 % polyester. I used a tricot stitch as this fabric tend to pucker easily.

Front side evening clutch ©Fenfolio2015

Back side evening clutch ©Fenfolio2015

Close-up wristlet evening clutch ©Fenfolio2015

Close-up evening clutch ©Fenfolio2015

I applied two magnetic closures for the flap. For the interior of the clutch lining fabric
(100 % viscose) was used which I had bought for the dress based on the McCall's pattern.

Magnetic closure flap evening clutch ©Fenfolio2015

Interior evening clutch with pocket ©Fenfolio2015

Evening dress with clutch ©Fenfolio2015

After I completed my gala outfit I realised there wouldn't be many opportunities to wear it. I  was also left with a lot of lining fabric which I didn't want to go to waste so I decided to sew a cocktail dress with a lace overlay. I used the pattern from New Look 6261. It was hard to find the right scalloped lace fabric in the UK so I bought it from a supplier in the USA via Etsy.

To check whether the measurements were correct I quickly made the dress in old curtain fabric (looks like satin). After I made some adjustments onto the pattern pieces I started the project. Well, little did I know how difficult it is to sew lining and lace fabric! The mesh of the lace fabric was very stretchy so even cutting out the pattern pieces was really tricky. Also pressing with a low heat iron seemed to stretch it so I had to be very careful.

The pattern allowed for quite a bit of ease but I like it more tailored so during this project I had to make a few adjustments, meaning cautiously ripping my seams. Luckily I was sensible to baste everything first so it was easier to make changes if it wasn't right.

In the end, by being patient I was able to create a wonderful dress I'm really proud of. I have already worn it to a ladies night out. They adored it and were gobsmacked to hear I made it. They even asked whether I would take any orders! I don't have any intention to become a professional seamstress as I would have to give up all my other interests, but their feedback really made my day.

Front view cocktail lace dress©Fenfolio2015

Back view cocktail lace dress©Fenfolio2015

Close-up sleeve cocktail lace dress©Fenfolio2015

Close-up waist cocktail lace dress©Fenfolio2015

Close-up scalloped edges cocktail lace dress©Fenfolio2015