A blog about making and doing with reference to the outside world. Activities in this blog are suitable for all ages and abilities, using recycled and natural materials readily available in most homes and gardens.
Use recycled blankets, jumpers and found materials to learn a variety of simple stitching and weaving techniques. Items made can be for individuals or group collaboration.
Indoor and outdoor workshops can be commissioned to suit the needs and interests of your community. Topics and materials are selected in collaboration with host communities.
I work as a textile and environmental artist in a wide variety of settings and communities. My work is made in conversation with people and places, for installations and exhibition as well as running workshops to suit the places and people involved.
I use found or adapted materials for works that are placed in the landscape, in galleries or in public venues.
I live in the fens of East Anglia in the UK, where willow is easily available for making baskets and sculpture. The landscape, light and dry weather encourage me to spend time outside as much as possible.
Thank you for joining in. If you have ideas that you would like to try let me know and they could be included.
For most of workshop activities you are likely to need some tools and materials. Collect them together and put them in a box or drawer will mean you know where they are each time. A box for indoor making and one for outdoors might be a good idea too if you have space.
This week spring has really warmed up, there are so many flowers in bloom and because there is less traffic I can smell many more than usual. Or maybe I am just spending more time outside noticing.
The colours of flowers get brighter and more intense and the insects are much more active as the temperature rises.
After the rain has stopped and when you have made some flowers, it’s a good time to sit and watch the insects and see which flowers they choose to visit.
What colour is favourite?
What shape is most visited?
Indoor Activity Making flowers from plastic bottles.
You will need
Recycled bottles, any size. They can be clear, white or colourful.
Bottle lids
Short canes, approximately 50 cm
Fine wire, recycled wire is often available from discarded electronic goods.
Sharpie pens
Scissors
A metal skewer or bradawl
A thick mat or piece of wood to protect your table top
Use the flowers as labels, to show where you have planted some seeds. Make a bunch of them in the winter, place them somewhere the sun can shine through, see what happens when the shadows fall on a wall or piece of card.
Outdoor activity Collect 3 different flowers from your garden, verge, field or a hedgerow if you are allowed. Could be a daisy, dandelion and clover.
You will need
A pair of scissors
Tweezers
A magnifying glass
Pencil crayons
Glue or tape
Take the flowers apart very carefully with scissors and tweezers.
Use the drawing below to help you label the parts.
You could draw the parts or stick them to a piece of paper with glue or tape. You may need to take them inside to do delicate work.
Welcome to the FrostArt ‘Outside In’ blog.Thank you for joining in. If you have ideas that you would like to try let me know and they could be included.
Saturday April 4th is Slow Art Day
This is a day for galleries, museums and individuals all over the world to invite others to share the art that is precious to them. Spend time contemplating and appreciating skills, materials and techniques. Take time to slow down, this is the perfect opportunity.
This year is different, we can’t meet up and share the art in the same physical place, or enjoy a chat with coffee and cake afterwards. But we can share in different ways. Maybe send an image of your favourite piece, or one you would love to see again and share it via a phone message, have a conversation and share time thinking about that piece. You could of course have a chat with coffee, or the drink of choice, and cake as well!
This does not have to be looking at old pieces, it can be any art of your choice. Make sure you spend at least 5 minutes to appreciate the work, think about how long it might have taken to make, who made it, where the ideas may have come from.
You could follow up time spent looking with researching your chosen artist, maybe there is something about the person and the way they live that would encourage you to develop a different life style. We have the unusual experience of having time to think! I still haven’t decided what my Slow Art choice will be, I seem to take longer to make decisions, but that’s ok too!
Share what you looked at, I would love to see your choices. Here is the website forSlow Art Day
Working with OuseLife artists and teachers from local schools, children made sculptures and installations for Ely Cathedral Science Festival 2017. The workshops I worked on were Recycling and Colour theory, using bicycle wheels with bottle tops to raise awareness of the amount of plastic in the environment.
Spirals and wheels of colour hung between 6 and 10 metres from the clerestory of Ely Cathedral and provided a fabulous opportunity to reflect the colours in the cathedral’s stained glass. Both will exist for centuries, glass will return to sand but plastic will never become part of a healthy eco-system, we need to be so careful of the materials we choose to make with.
The Fenland and Ouse Washes Story Quilt is a community resource for story telling and small scale performance. supported by OuseLife Drawing Group, and Ouse Washes Landscape Partnership, through Heritage Lottery project funding. Initiated in Ely Cathedral in 2016
Finding our wayWork in progressPreparing yarns
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