I’ve been reviewing the past 12 months and evaluating my favourite work.
Best 9s are a great way to do this. Here are my Best 9 of the year. Work that I feel pleased with as they broke new ground in terms of skills and technique progress.
It’s been great to apply art to commercial illustration briefs and to monetise my practice, as above.
Here are my painted Best 9. A real break through this year was the workshop that I did in Rotterdam with Helen Dardik. The techniques Helen shared, and the products she’s uses, are a real revelation. With practice and care my painting skills are building.
Fabric and Textiles Best 9 – I enjoy the colours and textures that I create on fabrics. Florals and birds were key themes of my work in these mediums this year.
Here’s to 2020. I’m excited to see what emerges this year. I hope your have a great year.
Please like my post, if you do. Thank you so much.
I’ve really enjoyed creating in August. The month started off with the Helen Dardik workshop in Rotterdam which was beautiful and inspiring. The month and art has flourished from there.
I created an illustrated map, an instructional illustration for #PortfolioClub, an illustrated Recipe prompted by Flow Magazine’s book 50 Ways To Draw Your Beautiful Ordinary Life. I also created a party invitation book cover and stitched/painted self portrait.
I added new items to my Folksy shop as we start to get ready for the busy festive period.
To learn more about this latest work follow these links❤️
Tiny lavender bouquet brought by bluebird, delivering relaxation and sweet slumbers.
Textile illustration using hand and machine stitch with appliqué.
First sketched as part of the #illustrationworkshop process before being made in paper, then fabric.
Inspired by the lavender at #dawnirelandtextileartist group
Poppy stages embroidery inspired by our morning walk.
Saw this pretty poppy on our walk yesterday morning so I decided that it would be my subject for an appliqué embroidery. It’s not quite finished, a little hand sewing to follow, please pop back to see the completed work.
Created at @dawnirelandtextileartist workshop at #stitchedupandfleeced
I’m loving birds at present and after 18 months of construction disruption close by, I feel blessed that they are now returning to our garden.
Their song is like a sweet heartwarming tonic after the din of demolition and the intrusive vibration of ground working and construction.
Bird activity is recommending with the sweet joyful chorus of this busy beautiful season for the birds.
Inspired by their uplifting song and always fascinated by flight I’ve created a number of fabric birds.
Designed and printed from plants in and around my garden using heat sensitive dye techniques, then embroidered and embellished before stitching the birds.
The birds have developed from work for a customer’s commission, in which I was asked to produce a bespoke cushion design of a bird with flowers.
On Saturday I ran a workshop at Stitched Up and Fleeced Workshop textile studio in Sheffield. The feedback from the workshop attendees was:
A great start to exploring the technique of using transfer paints and the heat press.
I really enjoyed the workshop, it’s amazing what can be achieved in a short time. There’s a lot of opportunity for experimentation as the process is very quick.
I would definitely recommend this workshop as an introduction to using a heat press. Kim was a generous and helpful tutor.
Really enjoyed today. Would like to do another full day course.
it was great to be able to share the techniques and see people’s faces light up at seeing what they had created so quickly transferred onto fabric.
I’m delighted to have received these testimonials after a run through of my upcoming workshop, which will take place at Stitched Up And Fleeced in Sheffield on 9th March from 10-12:30.
“The workshop had a relaxed environment in which I felt comfortable asking for help or any questions about the work. The organisation of the workshop meant it was enjoyable and the time given meant I wasn’t rushed into completing my design. I am very happy with what I produced and the skills and knowledge about heat press and the dyes I developed during the process.” AGR, Sheffield.
“I thoroughly enjoyed trying a totally new skill. Instructions were very clear and the group dynamic made the whole experience much fun. It was great to see the vibrant finished result emerge from my own design. It was rewarding to complete the task from beginning to end in just a few hours.” JPS Chesterfield.
“Amazing evening experiencing the ‘Magical’ creation, made possible by the unique experience of Kim and her Heat Press techniques.” MK, Manchester.
The workshop provides the opportunity to create a design and transfer it onto fabric for use in a fashion, sewing or craft project.
Priced at just £30 it’s a lovely, great value experience for some quality ‘you time’ or a lovely early Mother’s Day gift.
During #inktober I created my first bell pepper allergy illustration. I then saved this on my phone to show when ordering food in restaurants.Watercolour painted peppers added to the original many language background
Now don’t get me wrong it’s not that I don’t like peppers. I find them deliciously tasty, but it took some years to pinpoint that being doubled over with severe stomach cramps, hot and cold sweats, three days when I couldn’t get out of bed, diahorrea until my system was empty, was due to eating bell peppers.
Bell Pepper Allergy and Intolerance Symptoms – Found through research.
Give me a chilli and I’m happy and fine, but a fragment of bell pepper or a pinch of paprika and I loose the next few hours at least. Until my body has painfully fought the peppers and kicked them back out of my system.
It was suggested to me by a GP that it may be IBS, which is why I believe some people could be thinking and dealing with what they believe is IBS when they might just need to drop peppers from their diet.
Heatpressing hand painted peppers
Machine rendering after hand sewing
Now peppers are very nutritious for some people, but they can be anaphylaxic for some. However they are almost never listed on food menus and food packaging as allergens. Often they’re not written on food menus, despite them being part of the dish. Due to their colourfulness peppers are often used in ‘food on the go’ meals such as salads. Really helpfully they’re often finely chopped and written in minuscule font on the ingredients list on packaging.
So I just want to make people, you even, more aware of the possible reactions and physical responses to peppers. Maybe this work can take away someone’s pain or discomfort.
So I’m asking people to think before they eat and serve bell peppers and paprika, I’m asking food retailers to think before they add bell peppers and paprika and to make it as an allergen, and for restaurants to always state where bell peppers and paprika have been used in their dishes. And please use a different chopping board for peppers.
Thank you for reading to the end. Next time you eat peppers just observe in the time afterwards how you feel. If you have any of the symptoms listed in this article you might want to see if the symptoms clear up or cease.
Eat happy, be happy, consider pushing aside the peppers.
Free Download – I’ve created an illustrated download for those with Bell Pepper allergies and intolerances. This is for use in restaurants, hotels at home and abroad. Please feel free to print and/or share this with someone that it may help, and to raise awareness of this food allergy. Card size set to 9 x 13cm.
Related work: Work that relates to the techniques is at the following links. I often find that the work is stepping stones to the next creation, like a bright creative path where the next step is revealed upon completion of the present one. These creative projects led to this work.
Next Step – in the campaign is to use the content created with supermarkets, restaurants and through PR and social media to raise awareness of bell peppers as an allergen.
Mini Case Studies – If you’ve a bell pepper story please email me as I’m collecting personal accounts and experiences that can demonstrate how this intolerance can affect individuals.
Everlasting passionflower lovingly crafted from textiles. The satin cheese plant I made led to my decision to make a textile passion flower….I studied the beautiful flowers that I have been growing in garden for 15 years.Some all-white varieties surprised me in the garden this year.Passionflower study in coloured pencilsMonochrome study aiming to simplify the forms.Watercolour study of passiflora.I then took the designs into stitch. This was the first iteration of the passion flower with a little fused Angelina fibre panel for the centre.Free motion embroidery and ribbon couching to create the second flower design.After considering different fabrics I decided to use satin with scrim behind for the third flower experiment.It was important that I create depth for the flower’s corona filaments, anthers and stigmas. I used felt, a bead and embroidery silks.My intention whilst working at Chelsea College of Arts at the start of the month was to create screen printed designs that I could later add 3D passionflowers to. A passionflower couldn’t exist without its leaves. I created this one using satin that I have designed and printed using Colourcraft products, with felt behind/underside made at Stitched Up and Fleeced in Sheffield.
The final addition was the tendrils shaped with a little love as inspiration. Photographed in the sun, which is what prompts the passionflowers to reveal their striking beauty.
Thanks so much for reading to the end. I’m delighted with this work and will be looking at the display of it. So watch this space by popping your email address in the box at the top of the page to follow my blog. Normally a maximum of one post per week, a little bright creativity into your inbox
Here is the work that led to the passion flower creation.
And finally here are flowers I painted in pomegranate juice (and a little green watercolour). The juice was a stunning pink so I could resist making art with it. The work is inspired by a great book I’m reading The Joy of Watercolour by Emma Block.
Had a great week at UAL Chelsea College of Arts, working in the Textile Print and Dyeing Room. Here’s my favourite work – screen prints (including foil) and silkscreen painting.
This two colour screen print was created using cut paper.Experimenting with foil
Silkscreen print, from hand painted design. My earlier screen potent can be seen where they had marked the cloth.Design inspired by element of passion flowers, as part of ongoing study of this plant species. I love how this came out and like the tendrils.A productive few days work.My final and favourite piece was using cut paper and three colours.
I’ll be developing these pieces and creating with them so pop your email address in the box at the top of the page to see how they develop.
If you’re interested in this work here are other related textile work I’ve been busy with…
On Saturday I ran a workshop at Stitched Up and Fleeced Workshop textile studio in Sheffield. The feedback from the workshop attendees was:
The collar up option for heavy rain is quite David Bowie/spacey.
