Handmade Paper Art and Textiles Flickr Group

I recently set up a group on Flickr called 'Handmade Paper Art and Textiles. The aim of the group is for people who use handmade paper in their artwork to post photos of their work. Photos of just handmade paper sheets are not excepted. The photos have to show how you use handmade paper in your art and textiles.

Below is an image of the first page of photos from the flickr group. If you would like to add photos to the group, you will need to hold a flickr account. Flickr is a great website for artists to promote their work and it is a simple site to use. You can upload 6 photos a week to the group.

Here is the address for the flickr group        http://www.flickr.com/groups/handmade_paper_art_textiles/

                              Please feel free to go and check out the groups work.

My helpful friend

I bought this basket yesterday to use as the basis for a sculpture. I went out to get it a few minutes ago to find that Charlie was trying it out for size. It appears it may be the new cat bed rather than a sculpture.

The basket was sitting on a white table which is why Charlie and the basket look like they have been cut out from the background.

A semi decent photo of me

I actually had a semi decent photo taken of me during the Jackie Abrams workshop. I was working on my sculptural basket when it was taken.

Jackie Abrams Workshop final baskets

Well here are the final photos from the Jackie Abrams workshop. I've had a really bad neck and so haven't been able to post them before this.

I posted this little basket in an earlier post as being finished. I've since bent the corners down a little bit more so that you can see inside the basket better.

This is the start of a bought basket that I covered in my handmade paper.

This is the finished basket, I really like this piece.

Anne Lenders baskets

Anne Lenders is a Marden Senior College student and is also doing Jackie Abrams workshop with me this week. Below are some photos of Anne's gorgeous baskets.

This basket is made with pieces of denim jeans and a barbed wire handle.

A closeup of the denim weaving.

This basket is made using wool and fabric strips over a traditional fibre base.

The basket above was made using machine wrapped cords. There is a close-up photo provided as well.

This final basket is made by weaving silk over the top of a traditional fibre basket. Note the barbed wire handle.

Gorgeous work Anne, such a shame for South Australia your moving to Tasmania (lucky Tassie's).

Jackie Abrams workshop continued

Well today was another day working with Jackie Abrams making bias plaited baskets. Below are photos of my work in progress and then my finished piece.

Adding the shoulder into my basket

Cutting back of spokes now needed.

My finished basket- side view.

My finished basket- top view.

Jackie Abrams workshop started

Well today was the first day of my Jackie Abrams workshop, I had a great day and learnt all sorts of new things. Jackie is a lovely teacher and one who passes on all her little secrets and tricks. Not all teachers are willing to do this and it helps to make the difference between a good teacher and a great teacher.

We spent the day working on a bias plaited basket, made from rag paper that we hand painted at the start of the day.

Below are some of the photos of my work from today.

The strips of paper that I painted for my basket.

The bottom of my bias plaited basket.

The bottom of the basket as i started bringing the corners in.

Starting bringing the corners in.

I will post the next stage in the basket making tomorrow night.

Jackie Abrams Workshop

School holidays are finally here and I'm off to a workshop for the whole first week. I'm attending a one week workshop with Jackie Abrams from America. The workshop is called 'Re-cover the surface'. Below are a couple of examples of Jackie's work and the titles of the work. I will post what I create during the week at a later date.

Akua

Red Sisters

Akosia

Here is the link to Jackie Abrams website for those of you who are interested.

http://www.jackieabrams.com/

Fabric Coil Pot

Here is my latest little vessel I made the other day. I made hand wrapped fabric cords first and then stitched them together to make this little vessel.

Twined Basket

I've been playing a bit more with making a few vessels. I made the ones below using a basket making technique called twining.

This one above, I started making using pipe cleaners and just some wool I found buried in my studio.

This one is made using banana fibres. The wire structure wasn't strong enough though to hold the shape of the vessel properly.

Woven Fabric Basket

I made a tiny little woven basket today out of old scraps of my indigo dyed fabric. Below are photos of the steps I followed. 

First I cut 1cm wide strips of my fabric (with interfacing for stability) and laid them on a flat piece of paper. I then wove the strips under and over to create the base.

So that my base held its stability i then ironed a rectangle of thick interfacing on the back. It could also be stitched if you wanted. 

I then started weaving my first strip around the base of the basket. I used a bit of fabric glue to hold it in a few spots so it was easier to get started. 

Because the fabric wasn't overly stiff it made it a bit hard to get the edges to stand up. I had to add a few more dots of glue in a few places so I could work faster.

I then kept weaving strip after strip around the sides to build up the walls.

Once I'd made the walls of the basket as high as I wanted I folded some of the top strips down and cut some of them back. 

The photo above makes the edge look a bit messy so I decided it needed an edge to neaten it up. I cut a wide strip of dark indigo fabric and applied lots of glue. I then simply folded it over the edge of the basket.

I neatened up the dark edge on the pic above and so the finished basket is below.