Monday, 2 February 2015

Still Snowing - Still Browsing


http://www.thebiscuitfactory.com/cms/assets/uploads/Winter%20Magazine.pdf

Thought you might like to check this out - another online magazine featuring the best of "The Biscuit Factory" (love the name) The UK's largest art, craft and design gallery in Newcastle.

Welcome to February

The -36 windchill is about as piercing as cupid's arrow I'm afraid but I'm sending inspirational links to warm your heart.

These are links to an online magazine called Through our Hands.  No need to run out to your local (or not so local) news stand.  Grab a coffee, tea or hot chocolate and be prepared to be inspired.





The following two photos are of our new space with sink nearby and access to kitchen facilities. A great place to hold demos and workshops and centrally located (The Manoir building, 404 Main Road).  
















































and take a look at this website by two architects who have arranged to have wood panels installed in an alley where graffiti artists are invited to do their artwork and then the finished panels are removed to be designed into a line of furniture.  As someone who loves text and calligraphy in artwork, I loved the outcome.

Friday, 16 January 2015

A New Year for Hudson Fine Craft

So many topics to discuss so the best way is to start with a few interesting tidbits and keep up with blogging a little more often.  (This already sounds like a New Year's resolution!).

I hope you are checking in now and then and if you're not, I am going to add links to the side bar
here on the blog so that you can always find your way back to Pinterest or other interesting links mentioned in our newsletter.  (I'll do the same in the newsletter so you can find your way here too).

Remember in the 70's/80's there were those intriguing little strips of coloured paper for "quilling"
projects? The paper was tempting but I never did try it.  But a just a "few" decades later and look what some people are doing with it.....incredible!




Paper arts are very big right now and I'm starting to see quilling projects available again.
What started out looking "cute" has become something amazing in someone's vision.

Do a search for quilling on Pinterest and this is what you'll see (just a screen shot to give you an idea).




Saturday, 20 December 2014

Yarn Bombing

Maybe because it's winter and cold outside with a -10 degrees, I've been browsing yarn bombing pins on Pinterest.  So I started a new board with this title and added a link to an article that piqued my interest and hopefully yours too.

Yarn Bombing:  the Knit Graffiti Movement
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/yarn-bombing-the-guerrilla-kni-151393

And here's the link to Pinterest Yarn Bombing.  Just a start because I really should be thinking about wrapping presents rather than trees!






Wednesday, 17 December 2014

Workshop and Exhibition

Cat Frohloff Braunwell will be exhibiting at Les Artisans de Hudson corner of Main and Cameron in Hudson from the 17th until January 19th.  Great place for coffee and pastry and to enjoy a rotating display of original artwork by local artists.

Here is a notice for a pottery workshop to take place in the month of May by Joan Bruneau
Her work is breathtaking.....if you're at all interested in furthering your interest in pottery, this is a
workshop to take.




WORKSHOP WITH JOAN BRUNEAU  (www.joanbruneau.com)

This was just submitted by Marie D'Avignon.......

This workshop will be a non-participatory workshop with a maximum of 20 participants held on May 22nd to May 24th at the Whiteside Taylor Center in Baie d'Urfe.  Just so you know... the weekend the workshop will be held on iis not the long weekend! 

The work she does is outstandingly beautiful and so creative. I am attaching an article on Joan Bruneau, article that appeared in the April 2014 ceramic monthly issue. Also attaching another document that is showing step by step (more or less) one of her wheel-thrown and constructed Stamen Vase with Pedestal.  

Working with terra cotta clay Joan Bruneau uses a combination of wheel throwing and hand building to achieve her beautiful work. The technique and excellent craftsmanship she has developped is what the workshop will be about. The knowledge we will gain from this workshop is without a doubt transferable to whatever clay you are using or firing temperature you are firing at ...   Although this is not a glaze workshop Joan will briefly address her glazing technique - again, something you can apply on whatever clay you use and firing temperature you do... 

BIO
Joan has a tremendous amount of experience as a teacher in prestigious schools and as a presenter for workshops.  The details are in the attachments and you can also find all of this on her website :    www.joanbruneau.com.   Please do check out her website.  pretty amazing.  If you need inspiration take a pique!


THE PROPOSED AGENDA

friday evening : lecture with diaporama
saturday day : demos and teaching
sunday day : demos and teaching


THE DEMOS

Demonstratation of  a variety of wheel thrown and hand built forms which will be the main focus during the workshop. Here is what Joan proposes. If you have something specific you would like her to demonstrate please let me know.

Throwing and Assembling :

* A large tri-foil bowl 
* moulded & thrown bowl
* cut and paste ( cutting and pasting darts in thrown forms) 
* vertical pots ( vases & pitchers) with coil throwing, stacked parts ,
* spouts and handles ( doweled, paper template, thrown, pulled hollow handles) ,
* 2 part altered lids for altered lidded forms,
* altered foot ( starting a piece upside down)

Joan will also demonstrate some of her glazing resist techniques ( Wax, latex and sticker/tape resists) &  touch on slip application and sgraffito.

THE COST
the cost will be $100 and will need to be paid upfront by the end of January. Note: the payment will be non-refundable : if you do pay and can't make it,  you could find someone to replace you and then the amount paid would be transferable to that person.

YOUR PARTICIPATION....
Need to know as soon as possible if you are interested to participate.    

PS: IF YOU KNOW ANYBODY THAT MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN TAKING THE WORKSHOP PLEASE LET ME KNOW...  


If you would like to register or if you have any questions please don't hesitate to email me AT mac.davignon@gmail.com.  
You don't want to miss this!


Thursday, 11 December 2014

December Blog


Hello everyone on this snowy Thursday evening. Time to catch up on what’s been happening this month of December.
I’m writing this as I listen to a recent discovery for me.  Radio station 106.7 “The Jewel” - our local Hudson/St. Lazare
radio station!  The choice of music has been just perfect.

Our second meeting held at the Community Centre on November 10th, was with Lin Watson, a rug hooking authority.  Lin brought a sample and books for us to look at and gave a talk on the history of rug hooking as well as the variations. Humble materials and amazing results. See our Pinterest board on Rug Hooking for a small selection of inspirational web sites.  http://www.pinterest.com/hudsonfinecraft/

I brought some samples of the method inspired by Alabama Chanin’s handcrafted hand sewn clothing at our first meeting, so for this second meeting,  I thought I’d demonstrate how this is done with a project I’ve recently started.  Chanin’s work is so inspiring and although looks intimidating, it isn’t at all.  If you can do a running stitch on cotton jersey then you’re good to go!  You can also check out her work on Pinterest under Alabama Chanin.

We had a brief break due to the Community Centre’s event “Atelier 394” where several of our members had a space to show their craft.

On December 3rd we met at a new location, Mademoiselle Clifford’s Tea Room on Cameron.  The atmosphere was cozy and delicious pots of tea were served while Anne Letellier brought samples of her exquisite beaded jewellery and demonstrated her technique that included bead weaving.  





Anne has sent a summary of the sources for her supplies as follows.


Following our meeting of last Wednesday, you will find some information on beading supplies for beginners.

First you should begin with a good book on the subject, if you follow the instructions given you should be able to do your beading embroidery in no time and as anything else in life, practice makes perfect.
I first learned to bead with `Beading with Cabochon`by Jamie Cloud Eakin and then for more advanced projects `Sensational Bead Embroidery`by Sherry Serafini. Both books are available on Amazon.
You will find most supplies described in those books at the following stores (my favorites) Bead Planet 7348 St-Hubert and Chaton Bead 7175 St-Hubert.  However you will have to get the backing and the thread on EBAY. The backing is `Lacy's stiffy stuff`and the thread is `Nymo`size B or D ( on the Craft section)
The beading needles, the glue E-600 can be found at Walmart.
If you wish to bead with cabochon stones, the best place to find the best and cheapest ones is on ebay. Look in Jewelry cabochon stone and make sure you are buying the right size for your project.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or make a list of your questions for the next meeting.
see you soon,
Anne

Thank you Anne, it was inspiring and I look forward to picking up where I left off and would love to see who else might want to try their hand at bead embroidery.

I added Bead Embroidery to Hudson Fine Craft on Pinterest to further peak your interest.
photo from jewelrywithsoul on etsy



Now, just for fun, I’m sharing this fun app for the iPad that I recently stumbled upon.

You’ll find the download here

The game is based on William Morris’s classic 19th century textile print the “Strawberry Thief”. In the game you use the Strawberry Thief bird as your cursor to collect fruit and repaint this Arts & Crafts master piece. First you uncover pencil work of swirling vines and intricate flowers on paper, then basic colours fills the screen and finally rich colour and texture brings the 1883 artwork to life.





Our next meeting would be Wednesday, December 17th but stay tuned for more information via Newsletter in the days preceding.

And, as always, I invite you to send me photos of your work that I may include in this blog and/or Flickr, a photo
sharing site.   Send to my email

Friday, 7 November 2014

Next Meeting November 10th

You might have received the notice that I'm posting here via email already.  But I wanted to let you know that if you are already on Pinterest, you can pin to a group board at Hudson Fine Craft on Pinterest.  Just let me know and I will add you to the invited list using your email address.  Which means you can pin anything  you'd like to share including images from your own blog and/or website.
We'd love to see what you are doing OR what you would like to learn more about, OR just for inspiration.

Just in case you didn't get an email, here is what's happening this coming Monday.


Hello everyone!
NEXT MEETING MONDAY NOVEMBER 10TH 1.30 TO 4PM
It was wonderful to see such a good turnout at our meeting of October 27th.  We had many people interested in felting and Carol gave a great demonstration of the process of wet felting. 




I had my sketchbooks with me and demo’d some printing techniques that I use to create hand painted papers that I use in those sketchbooks as well as for collage or bookbinding.  

I also brought with me a sewing project inspired by the wonderful Alabama Chanin whose hand sewn garments are all over the internet.  Her name is Natalie Chanin but her company is 
called Alabama Chanin.  Just try googling her name or better yet, do a search in Pinterest.  

   


If you haven’t tried Pinterest yet, I suggest you give it a try.  There is a wealth of inspiration there.  

 I will continue to add to those boards and create many more.
In upcoming weeks I hope to enable you to add to this yourselves.  (once I do a little research on how to do this!).

Monday, November 10th is our next gathering at the Community Centre but there is a time change for this week only.  It will be from 1:30 ’til 4:00.  We will have Lin Watson to speak on rug hooking!
She is a local authority on the subject so this will be inspiring and the perfect demo to follow felting.
I will be bringing my books on Alabama Chanin and the stencil I used and will do a little demo of how I prepared the fabric for hand stitching.

See you Monday at 1:30!

P.S.   We could use some volunteers for kitchen duty.  Someone to oversee the coffee/tea setup.  Anyone interested?