Monday 19 January 2009

SATURDAY WORKSHOP

THREAD PAINTING my way WORKSHOP

These are my samples for the class today.









So let's begin...

These lovely ladies put their faith in me and came and had a go, and did they surprise themselves.
Pauline, Irene, Jean, Gail, Mary, Dee, Rita, Maureen, Sylvia, Michelle and Betty.
I have to apologise to two ladies, not all of the photos came out for some reason so two of you are missing. BUT, I will get you next time.

I always make the ladies bring along their manual for their machines, there was a LOT of manual reading going on.....



A lot of intense sewing too...



So engrossed they didn't know I was taking their picture...



Now, what did Janet say, turn this knob.... Aha yes that was it......



More reading....



...and now, the work they all turned out.

These ladies had never done any of this type of work before, so I am very pleased with the work they turned out in the six hours we had together. I pushed them to their limit, and sent them home with some homework, which I expect to see in February...Yes, I am a hard task master, I like to think they get their monies worth...

This was thread painting on a printed flower which I supplied everyone with...
pretty impressive work for first attempt don't you think....
This was very basic thread painting, from centre to outside, with slightly curved lines, the pollen was done with tiny circles...











Next we moved onto a Dragonfly. Now you all know I love doing these and it was a pleasure for me to see them enjoy painting them too...

Remember, this is all new to them... a blank canvas, they had to 'draw' the dragonfly then 'paint' it, again, impressive work here...
This was making the wings seem transparent; after doing the whole dragonfly, I got them to work upside down, using sparkly thread in the bobbin, which I supplied, so they could get the idea of bobbin work and using slippery threads at the same time...
the work was upside down not the ladies by the way!!!!
The bodies were done doing tiny circles all along the body and head, some opted to put the thingies on the top of the head too!!!
That impressed me I can tell you, I very rarely do them myself...













Moving rapidly along, I then got them to draw a Tree, because of course I like trees too...
You will see all sorts of trees here, from saplings to large Oaks...
grass and branches were added to some as they became more confident in just going for it.
For this they used two threads on their machines, at the same time, one darker than the other, so giving good contrast, also a zigzag stitch was used to give good texture. You will see what I mean as you look through the pictures, some opted to go side to side, so giving their tree a distinctly, Palm tree look!!
Why not? They are their trees after all.
After doing the tree and the main branches., they then had to do the little twiggy bits on the tree, plus the roots at the base and some grass if they wished to.
Some of the ladies chose to 'glitz' their tree as well.
























After doing the trees, I quickly showed them how to draw a free form flower and colour it in as we were rapidly running out of time. I am hoping they all had a go at this when they got home. I am really looking forward to seeing what they have done with today's lesson in February.

At this class they learnt they could draw, they could thread paint, in straight and curved lines and also, they could draw the tiniest circles which gave lovely texture for lots of things. They could 'paint' grass and leaves, the bark on trees, adorn flower petals at will, 'paint' the pollen into the centre of flowers. Highlight the flowers where needed, make wings look transparent, use glitter thread in the bobbin, do upside down work, IE; bobbin painting. All that, with their sewing machines. So there they were, heads down, sewing away, having fun, I hope. I know I had fun showing them how to Thread Paint, my way.


4 comments:

~ Phyllis ~ said...

Busy, Busy, Busy, The thread painting is beautiful. I especially like the red flowers. The dragonflies and trees are quite nice.

jan said...

They were all first attempts, I was quite pleased with what they all achieved on the day. I did rush them!!!

Maggie R said...

Hi Jan..
Looks like your class was a great sucess... I'm jealous.... I wish I was there!! I LOVE thread painting.. I belong to a fibre arts group and we have done this.
I especially love the dragonfly
Thanks
oxox
((((hugs))))
Maggie

jan said...

Hi Maggie, thanks for the feedback, I really enjoy doing the machine classes, I just hope the ladies enjoy it as much as me!! hee hee. This was just a 'taster' for them, I told them they will all develope their own way of doing this, if, that is, they continue to practice at home!!!???!!!