Sue Brown at Hope & Elvis

Sue Brown

Last year I went on a Gym Arabic Transfer workshop with Sue Brown at Hope & Elvis.  Sue Brown is a printmaker from Cheltenham (famous also for driving a 2CV - which you might catch a glimpse of later in some of the pics!)  She specialises in collagraph printing which involves making a collage of design elements as a print block which she can then print from.  And her work features lots of birds!  Here are some examples of Sue's work...

Examples of Sue's Work

Examples of Sue's Work

At this workshop Sue was sharing her expertise on the gum arabic transfer printing technique.  For this you need gum arabic, a wooden spoon, some laser printed images in black and white (very important) together with some papers and textiles to print on.  And some oil based printing inks.  Sue particularly likes Hawthorn inks!

Essential Tools - Gum Arabic & a Wooden Spoon

Laser copy of a photo

Lovely vintage papers to print onto

And of course, a cup of tea...

Reflecting on my first results with a cup of tea!

We printed onto lots of different papers and textiles and also did lots of mark making experiments with textured wallpaper, bubble wrap, white acrylic paint, magic foam which you can use to make your own printing blocks and different inks, wax and bleach.  See all the pics below...

That car again!

Prints drying (and a glimpse of Sue's 2CV)

My gum arabic transfers

My mark making

My booklets showing all techniques

Sue had showed us how to make some of our samples into simple booklets just by folding, cutting and gluing.  And here are some examples of everyone's booklets showing a combination of all the techniques we tried out...

Everyone's work

It was a great workshop - thanks, Sue!

Hope & Elvis, which is on the Welbeck Estate near Worksop, is a great place to go for a workshop.  There are great tutors, loads of materials to use, a friendly atmosphere (thanks to Louise Asher, who owns Hope & Elvis) and fabulous lunches provided by Magie Hollingworth (which are a highlight in themselves!) Check them out!

Alice Fox - Tide Marks @ SDC Gallery, London - 22-27 September 2014

Tide Line - Tapestry weave incorporating sea soaked beachcombed metal objects

Yesterday I had the good fortune to see Alice Fox's exhibition at the Society of Designer Craftsmen Gallery in London.  I have blogged about Alice's work before here. 

This exhibition shows a continuation of Alice's work with coastal landscape and found items, charting walks or moments along the shore.  The media Alice uses include fabric, paper, stitch, embossing, printing together with tea & rust dyeing.  Here is a flavour of the exhibition ...

Beach Ghosts - combining paper, tea, embossing & printing

Cloths - using fabric, stitch, tea & rust dyed using beachcombed metal & wire

Alice also has a number of fantastic artist's books on display using paper, tea & rust print, embossing and hand stitch ...

Tide Marks Book #7

Tide Marks Book

Tide Marks Book #25

The books vary in size and I think the books are my personal favourites.

The exhibition also includes poetry by Nigel Morgan which perfectly complements the pieces.

There is also a book - Tide Marks - to accompany the exhibition which includes Nigel Morgan's poetry.  You can buy it here.

On until 27 September 2014 - there's still time to take a look! 

Also - just over the road there's another good place to visit Material Books Art. Check it out!