Charlotte Yde, Sharon Bradley and Lynda Brocklehurst on The NZ Quilt Show Podcast

This podcast episode continues my National Quilt Symposium theme with several shorter interviews conducted amongst the hustle and bustle of symposium itself.  Enjoy!

Charlotte Yde is a talented textile artist from Denmark who made the long trip to New Zealand to teach at the National Quilt Symposium 2017.  Charlotte is a delightful woman who generously shared with me the process of making her quilt, 'Life Cycle - Albatross', that was hanging in the tutor's exhibition.

'Life Cycle - Albatross' by Charlotte Yde

Charlotte's quilt reflects the life cycle of the albatross and also comments on the environmental situation of this endangered species.

'Life Cycle - Albatross' detail of the reflective thread (can you see the wing of the flying albatross)

The photo above shows the reflective thread that you hear me ohhh and ahhh over in the podcast.  One of the processes Charlotte uses is deconstructed screen printing, you can learn more about deconstructed screen printing here.

Sharon Bradley from Waitomo SewWorms spoke to me about her merchant stand at Symposium and about her new fusible appliqué product developed by herself called Fusamat.

I love her Kiwi can-do attitude where she saw a product her husband was using in his work as an electrician, thought that it would be awesome for quilting, and then went ahead turned it into a new and exciting tool for us to use.

'France 1917' by Lynda Brocklehurst 

Lynda Brocklehurst was the winner of the postcard challenge.  We discuss what the postcard challenge was all about, what the story behind Lynda's postcard was and we also have a thoughtful discussion about some of the other postcards that were on display.

You can learn more about the embroidered postcards from World War II here.

Thank you to everyone who supports this podcast and helps me tell the stories of our quiltmakers, artists and professionals.  If you would like to support me, head over to iTunes and leave a five star review, pop over to my podbean hosting site and leave a donation, or consider advertising your business by sponsoring an episode.  Email me at theslightlymadquiltlady@gmail.com  Cheers!

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Screenprinting for Beginners (Me!)

Kings Theatre Creative is a local creative community space and art gallery in Kawakawa, Northland (home of the famous Hundertwasser public toilets).  I've had quilts hanging there as part of their exhibitions, and sold at least three, woot!!

As part of their Winter program they've organised some one-day creative workshops.  One of them was Introduction to Screenprinting.  I jumped at the chance to get a hands-on with a teacher who really knows the ins and outs of this technique, because I've dabbled in it a little on my own, but there comes a point where you really need proper instruction.

Jasmine was our teacher and she hails from Te Kowhai Print Trust in Whangarei - a facility with traditional and modern printing equipment and techniques, established to teach and support people of all ages in the art of printmaking.

I had a blast and learnt so much!  We started by having the process explained to us with a simple example that Jasmine had constructed.  We watched her pull a print from one layer of stencil and it got us all itching to get stuck in.

But first we all had to draw our own drawings and create newsprint stencils from that.  I chose a cormorant drawing that I've used before in my quilts as an appliqué motif, but thought it would lend itself nicely to a screenprint stencil.

In the photo above, you can see the original sketch top left, then the tracing I took off it with colour notes bottom left, and on the right are two of my newsprint stencils.

Then we were allowed to start printing!  It was really interesting to see everyone's drawings come alive with the layers of stencils.  My first two stencils were of the tiny yellow and blue eye details of the cormorant so were not very exciting, but once I started layering on the wings and body, I couldn't stop grinning!

I have a lot to learn and of the ten prints we made, probably only four of them are of a standard that I'm really pleased with.  But not too bad for a first go!

My quilty friend, Suz, pointed out that she can see a lot of influence in this from my 100 days of scissors and paper cutting project that I'm doing.  And I agree.  It's interesting how much unconscious crossover there is when you start comparing the different strands of your creative projects.

So yay!  I can see more screen printing in my future.  In exactly what form I'm not sure, but now I know more of the ins and outs, I'm confident to try it again and continue my learning.

Printing Fabric - I went a little overboard...

Yesterday I did a demonstration and then held a mini-workshop at my local quilting club.  It was on fabric stamping, monoprinting and screen printing.  It went really well and I had a few people totally enthralled the results when trying it out themselves.  Fun!

Then today I had the job of emptying out my suitcase and cleaning up and putting away.  Well I got everything shipshape and then I began sorting through my samples.  I found a couple that needed another layer or a stamp or two.  I thought to myself, "I'll just do a couple of prints....."

Two hours and several BBC Documentary podcasts later I finally stopped myself!  It is seriously addictive stuff, people, and I don't know whether to urge you to give it a try or warn you off ever starting.

Here are some of my favourites:

Background is a gelliplate mono print, albatross is screen printed.

The black shapes were screen-printed first and then the colours monoprinted on top. 

Monoprints, stamps and screen-prints.

A 'ghost' monoprint (a second, lighter print from the one paint spread), an albatross screen print and the rings were stamped.

I pre-cut most of these pieces of fabric 9" by 10" with the intention of turning them into little lined, zippered pouches (they're very cute, I'll show you some when I've sewn a few more up).

So if you think you are interested in fabric printing, just go find a youtube tutorial and jump in and have a go!  Of course, if you are in New Zealand, I could always come and run a workshop in your area - just email me!