The Village Project at The Heathlands Project

House portrait with felt and buttons

I've been working for The Heathlands Project for six years now, longer than I've ever worked anywhere before. In that time the project has grown and expanded in so many ways and it remains a positive, supportive and exciting place to work. One of the areas that I've been responsible for expanding is our textile section. When I first started working here there wasn't any textiles work going on but over the years we've developed an impressive textiles section with a number of sewing machines, an embellisher, a loom and a spinning wheel (and more!)

Using a lightbox to transfer designs

Using fabric pastels

Stitching, using fabric pen drawings as a guide

Each year we make a quilt (more about this year's in another post) and over time more and more members have had a go at textiles and now the textiles project spills out into other art groups as well as having dedicated sessions. As well as the quilt project many members have their own individual textile projects and I'm always on the look out for other projects to get involved with. For example, last year we were involved in the centenary commemorations for the Quintinshill rail disaster.

House Portrait

House Portrait

House Portrait

This year we're taking part in a participatory art project run by AccessArt. They are asking people to create fabric portraits of their houses which they will then join together to make a single piece; the Access Art Village. I really liked the sound of this project and thought it would be a good one for our members at The Heathlands Project to get involved in as it offers a lot of opportunity to try out different textile skills.

House Portrait

House Portrait

House Portrait

As the only real restriction was that the finished pieces needed to be 20 x 20 cm I thought this would be a great chance for our artists to develop their existing skills and possibly try out some new ones. Appliqué and embroidery are always popular and can be used very effectively. We started out by drawing our houses on paper, using Google maps to remind us what our homes looked like as necessary! We then transferred our designs onto fabric using fabric pens. Some of our members are still quite new to textiles and can be nervous about embroidery and sewing and I've found that fabric pens are a really good way of introducing people to working with textiles.

House Portrait

House Portrait using tactile materials (by a person with no sight)

House Portrait

Using fabric pens is similar to using felt tip pens so many of our members are comfortable with this and are then able to build up their confidence and skills by trying out other techniques once they are more familiar with the materials. By drawing with fabric pens as a beginning it also offers clear lines to practice embroidering, adding texture and colour with thread, beads and buttons.

House Portrait

House Portrait

House Portrait

Some of the members (and staff) who are more confident with textiles have chosen not to use the fabric pens but to work in other techniques such as appliqué, by both hand and machine. One of the things that appealed to me about this project was it's adaptability, the way that a house portrait could be very simple and easily worked by a beginner or it could be very intricate and offer lots of creative potential to a more experienced artist and both would work and look good.

House Portrait from one of my Tullie Textiles group

My house drawing and portrait in progress

Getting there with my house portrait

I've really enjoyed seeing the range of houses the members have produced, both in my groups and in in the other art groups too. Each portrait is so different and shows each individuals style. I've also been working on this project with my Tullie Textiles group, showing how well it works with a wide variety of people. There's still time to take part too if you want to, just follow the instructions on AccessArt's website...

Studio Arts: Leaf Exhibition

Exhibition View: Collages, prints and handmade paper

Sometime ago I wrote about some of the work I was doing with my Prism Arts group. We were looking at developing various visual arts skills and techniques, using leaves as a starting point. These sessions went really well, with the participants getting stuck into trying new techniques and starting to develop personal visual vocabularies. The sessions worked so well that the group has evolved form being the visual side of our Studio Theatre Company into becoming a separate visual arts group.

Exhibition view

Bunting made from lino prints on fabric

Lino prints on fabric

For me this is a very exciting development because whilst I love theatre my passion really lies in the visual arts. Altering this group to focus on the visual arts allows me to really use my skills and knowledge to enable the participants to develop theirs. The leaf workshops (as I like to call this block of work) showed that this was the best way for the group to develop and expand. We looked at a range of techniques including lino cuts, paper cuts, paper making and weaving. The positive responses from the participants were really encouraging and have also resulted in an impressive body of work.

Collages

Collage and print

Prints

To celebrate this we held an informal exhibition in our main studio space. This allowed us not only to see how much work had been done and to celebrate our achievements but also provided a good opportunity to start developing our critical thinking skills. Having the work up on display (and before that selecting particular pieces to go up on display) makes it easier to talk about what we like and why, what worked well, what didn't work so well and ideas to try out in the future. Having the work in front of us to refer to is very helpful during this process.

Leaf prints on fabric and lino plates

Lino plates

Leaf prints on fabric and handmade paper

I really enjoyed working with the participants to create this work and seeing it displayed in the studio space I felt so proud of what they'd achieved and excited to see how the work will develop. As often happens I was intrigued by how although we all had the same starting point and used the same techniques and materials everybody's work is very different. Our next big 'event' for the visual arts group will be C-Art in September and I'm really looking forward to seeing the work the group produces.

Weaving (done on a peg loom)

Weaving (on a frame)

Weaving (on a frame)

No Borders: Seven Stories

Pom-Pom making

I am just finishing a block of sessions with the No Borders art group at Carleton Day Service in Carlisle. I love working with this group and this block I have been so impressed with how far they've come both in skill and confidence. I first worked with them back in 2012 and since then have run several projects with them, each time seeing them develop a bit further. This time we are contributing to Prism Arts and Cumbria Libraries 'Seven Stories' project.

Working on designs

Working on designs

Working on designs

It has been really exciting and rewarding working with this group during this set of sessions because they have really led the project and taken control. They are rapidly approaching a point where they don't need me much which is great, at the start they would ask me about every little detail whereas now I am more of a sounding board. To see a group of people take on a project, share ideas and confidently decide how to move forward is one of those things that gives me that 'that's why I do this' feeling. Knowing I've been a part of building their skills and confidence is a huge boost.

Keeping track of our designs

The group had thought about making a time capsule for this project but as we discussed their ideas and how they'd like to work the idea developed into creating a giant hanging book, with their work forming the pages of this book. Their starting point was things they liked about Carlisle. This idea really set them off creatively and each member of the group had lots of ideas and we were able to make some quite detailed plans of what we wanted to do and achieve. One of the things I was really pleased about was that when I asked what techniques people wanted to use they all had really clear ideas and were confident in voicing these.

Strips of fabric, ready for weaving

Warping the loom

Starting weaving

One of the group members wanted to do more weaving, she had experimented with using the peg looms and really liked this way of working so over the past few weeks she has been creating a beautiful woven page using strips of different coloured and textured fabric. This person's starting point had been the library and the rows of colours echo mixed bookshelves perfectly.

The weaving is growing...

...and growing...

...and growing!

Another member of the group wanted to develop her felt making skills. Over the time I've been with this group we have done quite a bit of felt making and I was pleased to see this person trying out new ideas and using the skills she'd already gained to create a beautiful and very well crafted piece of felt. Her piece was inspired by communication and being with friends and I think that joy really comes through in her work.

Laying out the felt

Laying out the felt

Adding ribbon, net and fabric pieces

Starting the felting

Rolling the felt

Fully felted

A third member of the group has not been part of the group as long but has still shown great progression and development both in terms of skill and confidence. Whilst she will still ask what colour to use when I respond 'what do you think?' she answers without hesitation. She just requires a little more reassurance that her ideas are good (which they are.) This person was particularly inspired by the work of Lorna Graves, on display in Tullie House and this led to her working on a theme of animals.

Translating drawings into fabric work

Building up the image

Adding stuffing

Starting with drawn designs this member of the group then developed her work through fabric collage to create a beautiful Rabbit portrait, complete with pom-pom ears and tail. Working on the sewing machine was a highlight for this person and is something she would like to try more of. This person really likes to work in a more 3D way so we added stuffing to raise the surface and give more form to her work.

Making pom-poms

The almost complete rabbit

Adding a ribbon border

For the last couple of weeks we also had another member, who I have worked with on Prism Arts Studio Theatre project. She has been working on a piece of fabric collage, using the skills she's learnt at Theatre Skills to great effect.

Fabric collage owl

I'm looking forward to going back in a few weeks to see how they take this work forward. I am confident that they have the skills and knowledge, and importantly the belief in their abilities, to produce more great work. I'm excited to see what they come up with and to start putting it together.