Frances Pickering Workshop

I was lucky to have the opportunity to join a two day workshop with Frances Pickering recently. I had long admired her work and was interested to learn some techniques I could incorporate into my own work.
She was a very thorough tutor, with very clear demonstrations and instructions which was vital as there was a lot to do in two days.
I had used transfer dyes before with Angie Hughes but not to produce a complete piece. We painted and stamped paper with the transfer dyes and then ironed them onto heavy weight interfacing.

Then added additional detail by painting these onto paper too and ironing them on.
Next we used soft crayons to add detail and enhance areas before panting acrylic wax onto the surface and letting it dry.

 We then experimented with a textile soldering iron to make marks on the edges and to burn small holes through the fabric to enhance the design, followed by embroidery stitches to embellish the design. I could have spent hours on the embroidery, but hours were not available. I had to think of this as a taster or sample rather than a completed piece,

The pages of the notebook are made from heavy grade lining paper and we cut over sized double pages out and scored the folds before tearing one double page to size. Each subsequent double page was fitted inside the first and torn against these edges to create all the pages which now nestle well inside each other.
We used Koh-i-Nor fabric dyes for the page colouring, first soaking the pages in cold water and painting the double pages both sides before placing a new page over the top and repeating the painting, the idea being that the dye will bleed from page to page giving a marbled effect. When all were painted they were wrapped in baking parchment to dry naturally over night.
Hindsight is a great thing - I realise now that my choice of printing image was not the most sympathetic to the technique. All part of the learning process.
Day two to follow!