Alton Art Society Exhibition

I've been a member of the Alton Art Society for just over 5 years and like to participate every year in their Autumn Exhibition. This year will be the 78th exhibition for the Society.

For the past 5 years, I have exhibited my ceramic pieces quite successfully and have achieved a number of sales. Each year I try to enter six pieces, which is the maximum allowed for 3D, and usually sell 2 or 3 items. Last year, 3 of my ceramic pieces made front page of the local newspaper which was really pleasing.

This year, I am only going to enter a couple of ceramic pieces which I have ready. I was going to enter some ceramic leaves I made but I sold them earlier in the year at another local exhibition. As I am taking a break from ceramics to concentrate on textiles, I thought I would enter some textile pieces instead. I have decided to enter a felt bowl, felted vessel and I have also just finished a felt leaf. As the ceramic leaves proved popular, I thought a felt leaf might do well too.

Hopefully I shall have some success again this year and sell a couple of pieces. The exhibition is 1st - 4th October, at the Assembly Rooms in Alton, Hampshire. Everyone is welcome and entry is free.

Auction Anticipation

If you are a lover of vintage bags and linens, a really good place to pick them up is at local auctions. There are a few that take place around my area every month, so there is often a good chance of finding a few gems.

In the past I have been quite lucky, managing to pick up large mixed lots of linens and textiles, as well as mixed boxes of handbags. One of my best auction buys, a few years ago, was a huge box of vintage handbags. There was so many there I didn't really know how many, so just made an estimate and left a bid on that basis. My winning bid was £80 which came to £94 with fees. When I got home and sorted the bags out, there was 54 in all, so quite a bargain. Obviously, age and condition varied enormously but there was some great bags amongst them.

Having already checked one of the auction catalogues online, I know there is a lot of vintage bags for sale, together with some boxes of linens. I am quite excited to go and view the lots tomorrow morning and will hopefully leave some bids. The other auction is an auction in a day, where the lots of dropped off in the morning and sold in the afternoon. You never know what will be there until you go and look. But that is half the fun of it.

Hopefully, I will be lucky. I shall let you know!

Blue Applique Tie Bag

I spent this afternoon finishing another tie bag. I cut it out over a week ago and haven't had time to make it up until now. I have to say, not having enough time to make things can be really frustrating. I obviously need to see where I can make more time.

Anyway, this bag is made from a pale blue wool fabric I bought about 20 years ago to make a skirt. I never made the skirt, so the fabric has been sat in my pile for years. The three ties came from a lady at my ceramics class. She had been into patchwork but had decided to change direction. Knowing I made bags, she kindly gave me about 20 mens ties to use. I love using them on bags as I think they look really effective.

I have used both ends of the ties, on each side, and two of the ties have also been used for the handles. The inside of the bag has been lined in a pale mauve cotton, taken from a man's shirt. The front of the bag also features a vintage diamonte brooch to give it a bit of added sparkle and bling.

From Table to Drawer

I picked up a very pretty vintage tablecloth recently in a mixed lot of linens from an auction that was hand embroidered with posies of flowers. The cloth dated from around the 1940's and whilst very pretty, it wasn't something that I would really use. If I had resold it, the cloth would have only made a few pounds, if that.

Having looked at it for a while, pondering what to do, I suddenly realised that I could cut out squares of fabric with the embroidered flowers and turn them into lavender bags. I cut out matching plain squares for the backs of the bags and used a scallop stitch on the edges, trimming the fabric to accent the stitching afterwards.

I have to admit, that I really enjoy making lavender bags. They are really simple to make, so don't require a great deal of thought and you get to enjoy the wonderful aroma of French lavender at the same time. The only problem was that I was so relaxed I completely forgot to put the lavender in one of them!

The finished bags are perfect for placing in drawers and airing cupboards to make your clothing smell lovely. You can also pop one into your pillowcase to help you drift off to sleep.

Thinking Outside of The Box

I am a huge fan of mixed media and try to utilise different items in many of the pieces I create, whether in my textiles or ceramics. I can't help looking at objects and wondering if they might be useful in some future piece or other. Often some strange item can inspire a whole creative train of thought.

Obviously, I look at clothing for fabric and am often found with my scissors in hand chopping a shirt apart. Skirts are great as you usually have quite a large area of useable fabric without too many seams. Old curtains are even better, with velvet ones being a particular favourite of mine. Wool jumpers are also very useful for machine felting. Obviously old buttons can be easily salvaged and put to good use, together with oddments of ribbon and lace. Recently I was given a whole bundle full of men's ties, some of which have already found themselves appliqued onto a bag, with another in the making.

Thinking outside of the box is really important when using mixed media. The principle doesn't just apply the textiles and ceramics I enjoy. All manner of items can be incorporated into jewellery, sculpture, paper crafts and paintings too. You really just have to keep an open mind at all times.

An excellent hunting ground is the local hardware store. I just can't help myself when it comes to metal and wooden curtain rings, different types of wire, copper tubing and metal nuts. Whilst in the hardware store the other day, I discovered they sold various thicknesses and colours of cording. I had been searching craft stores for it to no avail, so you can imagine my delight! Alongside that, I found different types of chain being sold by the metre, presumably for sink plugs and the like. I did get a few odd looks as I was muttering aloud about the fantastic chains that were available and imagining the uses.

A few months back, I was in my local kitchenware shop looking for a spatula. Amongst the cleaning items I came across the run of the mill silver metal scouring pads. However, they also stocked copper ones too. For some reason the copper ones had a beauty and almost organic quality all of their own. I had to buy one! I haven't quite found a use for it yet, but I will.

All manner of natutal items can be useful, shells, pine cones, stones, wood. I have used leaves as templates before for ceramic projects and have just discovered skeleton leaves. They look so fragile but are actually remarkably robust. Obviously they are great for card making projects but I thought I would try and utilise them in a felt piece. I think the resulting vessel was quite successful.

I am not alone in using every day materials, with more and more emphasis being placed on recycling, people are finding new ways to reuse products all the time. Plastic bottles are becoming fleece clothing, tyre rubber becomes shoes, clothing is shredded and used to insulate cars. All around us artisans are using glass found on the beach, broken china and even plastic bags to create new and beautiful pieces.

Hopefully, you will be inspired to experiment a little too.