OPEN DOOR - Textile Tales – Session 2

Today we asked the group to bring in a precious object and share their stories with everyone. Every object had a beautiful story. One participant spoke about a gold chain which was given to her by her mother, a necklace which is worn at all times, bringing her peace and tranquillity.  Another participant spoke about a precious scarf received from a close friend who is no longer with us, she holds onto her memories wearing this scarf.

As the stories developed, each participant went onto looking at their family tree going back three generations as well as forward into three generations. Many of the participants have grand children, as well as great grandchildren. We started to map this out onto paper.  This task certainly evoked some good memories for the participants!

We then began to decorate our family trees with leaves made from felt, hessian and threads.

Everyone's family tree was added onto the large tree, with each branch representing our different families.  Participants will continue next week with decorating the tree!

A Thousand Paper Cranes

SESSION 5

We are back in the big dining room and people are coming in with tie dyed bags ready to cut stencils.

I am worried that some of the designs chosen are really fiddly and difficult to cut out!
Yet again I am proven wrong as even the smallest and most complicated designs are cut out with amazing skills and speed!
In no time Rozi is showing everybody how to use more than one colour on the same stencil, and before I can blink, bags are spread flat and stencilled again and again!
The sponges we are using for stencilling give beautiful subtle texture.

Tie dyed and stencilled bag

 

Rozi stencilling with the sponge

              

What day is it? VALENTINE’S DAY!!!

 

So, A THOUSAND STENCILLED HEARTS!!!!!

Rozi is showing off Alison’s beautiful silk painted scarf, and conjuring Milena out of it! Bernadette is showing her stencil designs and underneath are essential items for walking on the wild side!

 

These are some of the things people said during the session:

‘The people that I’m making these (cards) for will be really impressed as they know I’m not creative’

‘I’m at my happiest when I’m messy’

‘Doing this helps me feel like myself again’

Sylvie – ‘The atmosphere is very vibrant. This is a good group’

 

OPEN DOOR with Studio 3 - Moving Images

Session 11   

There was a concentrated effort today as everyone tried to complete their work.

John thought working with Philip and his drawings of different creatures was good.

Ian S got very absorbed in his painting of the background for the Grim Reaper and enjoyed himself again. He said he learnt more about acrylic painting, particularly that the colour would get lighter towards the horizon.

Ian G found it very absorbing too. He had worked very hard at home since the last session to get his film ready for viewing and did some more tweeking today – it looks fantastic! Ian even managed to teach Rozi something she didn’t know how to do by showing her the lipsync program ‘Crazy Talk’. Meanwhile, Ian’s trusty assistant, Elaine, extended her modelling skills to the Grim Reaper animation and worked on a series of Grim’s cloaks gradually changing colour from black to gold. She also did some more work on the Grim himself to make him look even more sinister. She said she enjoyed doing this and found it quite relaxing.

At first, Karen felt down–hearted about her work with the Goddess cards. When she first saw it today, she thought it wouldn’t work but appreciated the help and advice from Rozi and Jill. She then felt a lot better and realised it would work after all with one or two adjustments.

Paul said he enjoyed working with Rozi on his animation sequence and putting the music on to make it more complete.

Howard said, “It was good to see my rough mock–up and see what bits needed doing still – then it all suddenly came together!” He was quite surprised, after all the painstaking work he had put into the drawings and stop motion work, how quickly it all suddenly came together as an animation.    

OPEN DOOR - Textile Tales – Session 1

Today was the beginning of a 12 week project called Textile Tales, which is part of Open Door Project Year 2.  Artists Musarat Raza and myself, Bryony Pritchard, have been preparing many activities and looking forward to meeting the group, which is a combination of participants from two previous Artlink projects; Feel Good Factor in 2011 and Sikh Elders in 2012. 

Today the two groups will meet each other for the first time in the freshly refurbished Artlink basement. The kettle is boiling and the biscuits are ready.

The theme of the project is exploring stories, myths, legends and personal tales within our cultures and finding interesting ways of sharing and retelling these stories through a variety of textile techniques.

We welcomed 3 participants from Feel Good Factor and 6 from Sikh Elders. We began the session by introducing our names including any associated special meanings or stories. By using an OS map of Leeds we marked all the places we live across the city and we noticed similar areas where we live; Beeston, Harehills, Roundhay and Hyde Park.

With a box full to the brim of different objects, everybody is invited to rummage and find an item, which might trigger a memory or a story about themselves. This generated some wonderful discussions within pairs and small groups; yoyo competitions amongst their children, a smart grandfather riding on horseback through Jamaican forests wearing a chain watch, a romantic wedding anniversary ceramic box, knitting lessons from influential neighbours, tricky calculations in an engineering office, secret money for the milkman under a door matt, draped silk scarves and freshly cut flowers within the childhood home.

As the snowflakes began to fall outside, our tales are shared. It becomes apparent, there are many wonderful storytellers amongst us!

With paint, sequins and trim, we decorated our own special wooden box, which will be used in future storytelling activities in the project. One participant drew beautiful birds inspired by a bird watching book she had in her handbag, others created pretty patterns with their sequins.

It was great start to the project and we look forward to hearing more stories from the group next week as we focus on our family trees.

Bryony

OPEN DOOR with Studio 3 - Moving Images

Session 10

Ian S said he had really enjoyed the session today and had got a lot more done – he felt he had made a big improvement on his painting.

Karen felt she was making progress and could see her work beginning to come together. She felt pleased with the colours.

Paul said he had had enjoyed doing the drawings for his animation even though it was “a bit repetitious”. He produced a new set of drawings today that he thinks are better and that can be incorporated into his existing sequence.

Ian G and Elaine continued working together shooting Ian’s animation. Ian described it as “quite a mental work–out” – and physical, too, with all the getting up and down to move and operate the characters! Elaine, whose official role was camera operator, said it had been enjoyable: “I’ve enjoyed just seeing how it’s done”.

The funniest thing today was how well the ‘yellow food dye’ worked in Ian and Elaine’s animation!

Howard finished shooting his Woodcutter and did a recording of his voice–over – first take straight off with no editing needed! “It’s been far easier than I expected and its come on more quickly than I expected!”

It was agreed that there is a strong sense that everyone's work is coming together.  

A Thousand Paper Cranes

SESSION 4

We have to use the small dining room as there is a sink there that we need for tie dyeing. As luck would have it, this turns out to be the most popular activity, and more and more people are coming until there is hardly any room to move.

However everybody is eventually seated and full of enthusiasm.

There are socks and pieces of cotton expertly tied, bundled and painted with various dyes. Soon there are half a dozen hair dryers drying the cloth, we are all sweltering and

I am daydreaming that I am in a strange hairdressers!

Soon we are unravelling beautiful colour pieces. It is amazing how many colours you can get from only three! We are ironing on the floor as there is no room anywhere.

Afterwards we start on the canvas bags. They are more difficult to paint on as the weave is rougher and cotton thicker. We shall continue to stencil next time.

 

 

 

These are only a few examples of what was made in the session.

We look forward to stencilling next week and continuing to work with fabric dyes!



OPEN DOOR with Studio 3 - Moving Images

Session 9

John said the session went well today.

We tried some test recordings for the sounds and voice–overs. Paul used a made up ‘rain stick’ with a cardboard tube and peas to create a rain sound and then tried tapping on the table with his fingers. He thought the ‘rain stick’ worked better for his drawings.

Karrie did a trial run recording the story of the Grim Reaper. She read it through once and had a good rhythm and then picked out certain sentences that she needed to re–record. She said it went okay.

Ian G cut out the photo stills to re–arrange as a photo storyboard for his animation, now renamed ‘In the Grasp of Winter’.

 

Karen worked on a mock–up of her ‘Goddess of Time’ piece, then sponge painted the background colour on a large piece of card with a purple colour – the source of inner light she said. This is the first time Karen has ever painted and she found it really exciting – “I loved it!” “I thought everything had to be done very precisely and measured, but then I went wrong and realised that it produced a good effect.”

At the end, Karen exclaimed "I've really enjoyed it.  I'm really pleased that I have come and am doing something creative in my life!"