5 in 5 - June 2018 - The South Asia Collection Museum In Norwich

Welcome to '5 in 5' where on the 5th of

each month I post 5 photos that I have 

taken in 5 minutes.

Last week I visited the 'Turn A Page Book Art Fair' in Norwich and one of my exhibiting friends told me of a place I might like to visit, just round the corner. What I discovered was a hidden treasure!  The building was built as an indoor skating rink in 1876 (this was a surprise in itself) and it was worth visiting just for the building itself. 

But once inside I was immediately transported to the far east, and amazed at the displays and diverse collections on view. Part shop, part Museum, I wondered how I had never heard of The South Asia Collection Museum before, and was very grateful for my friends tip off. The skating rink was not long lasting, and the over the following years the building was used as a Vaudeville Theatre, a temporary home for the Salvation Army, storage for tinned meat, and a warehouse for a building manufacturer. Philip and Jeannie Millward purchased the Rink in the early 1990's and renovated it, making it what it is today. I thoroughly recommend a visit if ever you are in Norwich, and it was the perfect place to take 5 photos in 5 minutes. But before I share these, let me quickly show you the building itself:

Some of the exhibits are large pieces of architecture and furniture.

Upstairs you could look across and admire the beautiful beams and wooden ceiling. Back on the ground floor I set my mobile timer and got my camera ready:

This teakwood spinning wheel was used for winding bobbins, for fabric weaving.

I was excited to see antique wood blocks, used for the printing of fabrics.  I had to add these to the collection I bought in India!

And it was lovely to see examples of dyes used and printing in the museum section.  Upstairs the shop sells fabric and linens as well as clothes. Again everything was beautifully laid out and it reminded me of a recent visit to Liberty's in London.   

Other interesting things I found was this collection of padlocks.  I thought of the beautiful doors I had seen in India that were architectural works of art in themselves. 

This bowl of goat bells attracted me too. So much of Indian wares are beautifully decorated and detailed. 

I could have stayed longer, browsing and admiring the exhibits. But I had gone to Norwich for the Book Art Fair and still had more to see; and so this hidden treasure will be a place to visit again. 

Meantime I look forward to using my new wood blocks. I have a workshop planned 'Inspired by India' where we will be printing our own fabric and Khadi Papers to make book covers, and making a book. I'll be back to show you these another time. 

For now, I invite you to join me in this monthly photo challenge. This is what you do: 

1.  Choose a location.

2.  Have your camera ready.

3.  Set a mobile timer for 5 minutes.

4.  Take as many photos you can until the time is up.

5.  Choose 5 photos to download and share by using the link tool.
   You have until the 25th of the month to add your photos.  

If you want to know more there are details here.

And one more thing - when you use the link tool, please click on your post title.  This will show the web address. Please right click, copy and paste this as your link.  This will take readers directly to your '5 in 5' blog page and be easier for them to find.

Thank you for visiting and I hope you have had some recent good discoveries of your own.

Celebrating 5 years!! 

Next month this monthly photo challenge will be celebrating 5 years! That's a good reason to mark the occasion and I would love to hear any ideas that you may have. Please leave a comment below and I will be back with more news and updates soon. 

ALICE FOX - LOST AND FOUND - FOUR

In my previous posts here and here I showed two books that I made during the Summer School.  Today I thought I'd share some another technique that we used - eco printing.  I have used plants before to create prints but not in this way, so I was excited to see how easy and effective this was.
 
Alice had collected a wonderful array of plant life and also encouraged us to go outside to forage.

But first she demonstrated the technique:

We folded a sheet of thick cartridge paper in half lengthways, then in half again, and again. Then we unfolded it and in between the folds we placed leaves, petals, and onion skins. 
 

Finally we secured the folds together using bull dog clips. With the paper tightly folded and bound we put it into a bath of green tea to soak thoroughly.   

Then it went outside under cover with all the other pieces that we had prepared..... 

Skip forward to day three! 

It takes time for the plants to do their magic and because the layers are so thick and wet patience is needed. Finally Alice gave the go ahead for us to open our pieces! Imagine our excitement!

There were squeals of delight as wrappings were removed.  Some of the fabric and paper was still wet so this was hung on a line or laid out on the path to dry. Luckily the sun was shining and it is best to allow natural drying process, but in some cases desperation took over and we used sources of heat to finish of the drying process.  A heat gun, iron or even hair dryer would do the trick but you have to be careful if your paper is embossed or you want to retain the textures. 

Here I am unwrapping mine:

  
Did you notice the string and label on my wrapping? Well I liked the way they took on colour and I went on to use them on another project linked at the start of this post. On other eco-plant prints we used string as a binding. When removed I discovered this left marks which can add to the design.  But I digress! 

I need to unfold...

 And here is my finished print.   I especially loved the effect of onion skins and when I am in the kitchen I will save all these in future so that I have a ready supply. 

Another technique we used was printing with ink and a brayer. I decided to fill in some of the white space using found items such as feathers and leaves, and because I didn't want to use the holes in the way I originally planned I cut these off. I also cut my page into  strips and stitched these together to make one long strip.  Alice's love of needle and thread is catching! 

I glued the strips of holes onto some of the pages as I liked the detail they added. I plan to add further stitching too, to add texture to the prints.  And I am thinking of adding some text, handwritten, perhaps following the contour of the print...

 

But for now I am letting the ideas germinate because like the eco prints, these are sometimes best given time to develop. 

I will be using this technique often in future and love the idea of creating prints anytime, anywhere. All I need is paper, plants, and something to bind them. Oh!  And a mug of tea (no milk thank you!)  

I still have more from the Summer School to share but I have other posts waiting too.  So I hope to see you again soon, thanks for popping by.

ALICE FOX - LOST AND FOUND WORKSHOP - ONE

Last week I spent 4 wonderful days at ArtVanGo in Hertfordshire.  I was booked on Alice Fox's Summer School called LOST AND FOUND and people had travelled from Yorkshire and other distant places to attend.  Not only was the workshop full but there were as many people on the reserve list so I considered myself very fortunate to be there.  Not only that, but others paid to stay in local hotels and accommodation. Me?  I stayed free of charge in a pub car park. That's the joy of having a campervan and being sufficient!

But enough of that. Let's talk about the Summer School.  My heart still flutters even when I think of it!  I had SO looked forward to this! Kev and Viv are owners of ArtVanGo who were welcoming and I felt very looked after throughout my stay.  I was also among a lovely bunch of fellow students and in response to a photo I shared on Facebook a friend in Amsterdam commented that she knew someone else booked on this course.  It turns out this mutual friend was sitting right opposite me and that we had struck up a friendship. This creative world gets more connected and smaller all the time!

But I digress again.  See, I told you my heart was a flutter! I am
so full of ideas and memories that it is hard to settle.  But I will try. Here goes!!

The workshop was about creating prints and designs using found materials - rust, plants, string and such like. You get the idea. We started straight away, and I couldn't believe that by lunch time on our first day we had already been so productive!  Alice is a brilliant tutor, very relaxed and informative, there when you need her and giving encouragement and opportunity to develop your own ideas. She had provided a wonderful supply of fabric and card/paper to experiment with, and also an extensive collection of materials to use.  I shared just a few of these on my previous post.

I have learnt to make my own journal/notebook when I go on workshops as I had a habit of loosing my notes and sample pieces. So now I collect these together and I will write another post explaining more how I do this. Meantime you can see my first signature bottom right.

We started by making prints with rust on card and after watching Alice demonstrate we lost no time in choosing from our stack of materials. I chose a sheet of thick cartridge paper and painted it with green tea. There were other mordents available, so lots of opportunity to experiment. Luckily no one drunk the red wine and we discovered this made a beautiful pink dye!

 

 

After painting my page I added wire wool and another layer of green tea to make it hold fast to the paper.  It is important to achieve as much contact as possible.

 

After, Alice showed us how to use fabrics.  This time we wrapped around rusty mails.

I decided to use a random effect for my second bundle. After
wrapping we left the bundle in mordant to soak for a short time so that it was evenly saturated.


We put our work outside and learnt to be patient.  The wire wool started to show  a reaction very quickly which was exciting,  but we wouldn't know what the wrapped items would look like until they were untied.  This is a very unpredictable process, full of surprise.  And we had to wait several days to get the best effect!   
And when my bundles were unwrapped this is what I found. A wonderful pattern of different colour marks.  

Here you can see a third piece of fabric where I laid other rusty objects onto the surface, rather than wrapping.  This creates a very different effect.

And remember I started by putting wire wool onto a sheet of card? This is the result. Isn't it fabulous?! 

 

Now I know some people will shake their head in wonder.  My friend Jill is a fine example and I know she won't mind me saying! But if like me you like using materials to create something unique and unpredictable then these are great techniques. I love this organic look and having the opportunity to create something beautiful from something that was found or thrown away. Luckily four days allowed us to come home with some finished projects, some work in progress  and a large selection of printed fabric and papers, ready to use.

Alice had so many examples and ideas to share and we were extra lucky as an exhibition of her work was displayed in ArtVanGo at the time of our visit.  So to end, I will show you a quick selection.  Thank you Alice for giving permission to share these photos and more examples and techniques are in Alice's wonderful book called Natural Processes in Textural Art.

 

 



And to see more examples of my own work, come back soon.  I am planning another post or two! 

A FOCUS ON FABRIC....

There seems to be a focus on fabric for me, right now.

My daughter doesn't understand my obsession with paper craft, though she appreciates what I make.   However, I do understand her obsession with fabrics, and with upcycling, because I share that.

And imagine my joy when I saw a photo of my smallest granddaughter on Facebook wearing a dress that Emma had just made. 

For the fabric Emma used one of her tops that she no long wears and she made up her own pattern.  Wren looks the perfect model and seems happy to wear her new dress!

Then I found a wonderful website for vintage style fabrics: www.fancymoonfabric.co.uk.   I just had to look them up and oohed and aghed for a bit.   I see see an order following. 

And to complete the hat trick Alissa posted about a new magazine called Mollie Makes. I just had to look out for it today and joy of joys I found a copy in Asda.   I intend to curl up with with a nice cup of tea and linger over each scrumptious page just as soon as I finish this. And to wet your appetite here is the video that Alissa posted. I just had to share and while the kettle boils I shall watch it again... it is just so cute!

By the way!   I'd love your feedback on my new blog header and layout.  It was time for a change and it's still evolving and work in progress, but I'm still undecided about having a sidebar.   Do you think my profile should be at the top so that visitors can find it easily?   What is the first thing you look for when visiting a new blog?

Have a good day and don't forget June 20th is my blog-birthday-hop!
Lots of amazing people are taking part so hop along with us and have some fun. 

Hope to see you soon, I'm off to boil the kettle!