Gwyneth Depport - Artist in Residence for the Heritage Open Day at the National Trust property Gawthorpe Hall

I'm very much looking forward to being able to show some of my work at Gawthorpe Hall in Padiham, Lancashire on Saturday September 14th. Hope to see you there! http://www.gawthorpetextiles.org.uk

It was at the hall that I first was introduced to the wonderful textile collection amassed by a forward thinking Miss Rachel Kay-Shuttleworth and I have returned on several occasions, once on a study visit to get a closer look a the Blackwork held in the collection.

One of my first surprises was that Blackwork was not just black but that other colours were used on occasion and I have seen red, blue green and pink amongst others.

My attendance will be to show some of my work that has been influenced by the Blackwork and I have to say that it still does, I enjoy  mixing elements of Blackwork with other styles of working but especially enjoy the monochrome effect! Here is a small taster.....

just running through some of my machine stitches then getting carried away with it, especially loving the reverse of the fabric when the whirring had stopped......

this was a 'captured' image, made by placing a chair onto a  double OO piece of paper then spray painting it for its shadow, the chair survived but is now also Blackwork in its own right!

this is a motif I designed after experimenting with my absorption with the  roses on tea cups digitally printed onto cotton

more from the Fish Board sketchbook

The outcome of this fun, mixed media project was to produce a wall mounted board with protrusions. I chose the sea for my inspiration, representing it by a 'close up snapshot' of a fish swimming through weeds with other sea creatures 'floating' amidst the weed. Here is the outcome and just a few of the samples and explorations from my Fish Board Sketchbook.

This is the finished piece, I think my photography/lighting could do with more improvement to do it justice. This was a piece of MDF with the shape cut out with a jigsaw, then sanded to create a slightly raised texture.

I always like to make a small model of what I'm thinking about doing, often in miniature because of the everpresent storage problem! Here it is with pins on cardboard showing possible positions for the other floating creatures, with crocheted wire representing the seaweed.

The inspiration for the base boards finish came from this photo (bottom right corner) of this amzing chocolate coloured fish. I just loved the wonderful colours of chocolate and turquoise and reproduced it with pastels on paper, then acrylic on leather, choosing to replicate this sample out of several for my board.

As usual with most subjects in my sketchbooks I further explored with other media, in this case; gouache on paper.

I painted the board with acrylic, using bubble wrap as a stamp for the bubbles.

With much of my work being very free and often having the 'handmade' aspect exaggerated, I like to include a slightly more traditional drawn piece in all of my sketchbooks, usually at the outset. I made a trip to the Sealife Centre in Blackpool and was able to take quite a few photos for source but the fish photos shown on this blog, for this project, all came from the Aquarium magazine.

 

I was drawn to the ridges in this tail and made a couple of fabric samples as in the 2 following pics;

Pinching the fabric and machine stitching.

As often happens with much sampling I chose not to use this in my final piece.

Other pictures of coral had me thinking about the tendrils leading from the arms.....

My version of the coral's tendrils are on the the tall 'post' in the middle.

This little red fella was another version of a sea anemone, made from angora wool.

More 'coral', from wire mesh and horsehair.

'Coral' created from heat gunned kunin felt and wire.

This was my favourite creature feature, a small segment of 'starfish'-embroidered felt.

A vintage crocheted covered button which I further embroidered produced this piece of 'coral'.

I've always been fascinated by kelp and for my board, shrunk it down by heatgunning a small piece of red acrylic painted foam to create the rubbery effect.

Can you see the crab? another acrylic painted piece of kunin felt which has be heatgunned.

the side of Mr Crabbie.

The seaweed was made from chicken wire, with heatgunned, spray painted, packaging polystyrene fabric

Burlesque Quilt Square #2, ready to go, with some photos of my ongoing projects sketchbook

heres everything ready for my next square for the quilt, & if I'm lucky the centre square...

my sketchbook page for square #2 where you might be able to make out that I'll be amking a stage and banner for the group

the orignal sketches and samples when considering the first square

I really enjoy the freedom of a sketchbook, anything goes!

I liked this basic idea but preferred the stockings more in the end

this shows my original drawing and the 'patterns' for the undies and stocking tops, which is stapled in over the first 2 pages, I like to keep related work together no mattered how clutterd it gets

I enjoy the sample making process, quite often very small ones, this one is only 6 x 5.5 cm