Art Quilt Adventures

Today was the first get together for my new Art Quilt Adventures students. This is going to be a flexible ongoing programme for students who want to push their own work further with input from me and the creative atmosphere of working with a group of other people every once in a while.

From a tutor's perspective it's a daunting class to teach; I had some activities up my sleeve, but without knowing what work the students would bring with them, what stage they were in developing ideas and their individual skill-sets, it was a bit like going in blind. But I love a challenge! I can't think of much worse than going into a classroom with a rigid lesson plan and knowing exactly what the students will do. One of the luxuries of teaching in my own studio is that everything is there should we want to go off at tangents and try things unplanned.

For me art quilting isn't about technique, fabric or sewing. For me it's all about ideas, design and a concept. The aim of these get togethers is to focus on what can be a the tricky stage of getting an idea out of your head and into some tangible form that you can work with. Today, all thoughts of fabric and thread were put out of our heads and we focussed on trying to capture the essence of our subjects purely with line. 

I didn't want to freak everyone out with the mention of drawing too early on in the day so instead we did analysis, editing and selecting with tracing and linear monoprint. Of course they're both drawing techniques at the end of the day! Later we also worked with linear rubbings too. All fast and fun techniques for recording ideas down in an immediate and spontaneous way.

We were lucky enough to enjoy Linda's company for part of the day too. I knew she couldn't resist running off a few mono prints for her art diary. She added colour with pencil crayons and wash. 

I missed getting a photo of Margaret drawing around a dressmakers dummy on the floor - you got away with that one! She's working on some really exciting ideas which I'm not going to give away here. You'll have to wait and see.

I hope the students enjoyed the day as much as I did. They each came with their own ideas and it was challenging but exciting to be part of them and chip in with my suggestions. I'm very much looking forward to the next instalment.

Bye for now,
Laura
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