Marion barnett's Page

If you haven't realised it by now, I am going up to Birmingham on Friday to the Festival of Quilts, where I will be demonstrating how to colour lutradur on the Spunart stand (just behind Ricky Tims, apparently...wonder if he sings while he works, too...?). And, of course, I'll have copies of Lovely Lutradur with me... but I thought I'd bring some small bits and pieces made with lutradur so that you can see what I use it for. Small pieces of work, ACEOs and postcards, for instance, as well as these pretty journals.

I think these journals would be an ideal accompaniment to a finished quilt, whether traditional or art. Information about the quilt, its making and its care, would all sit beautifully in a wee book like this. They could even be customised for each quilt. I've made a dozen to bring with me, each one different, and of course, they too will be for sale.

I'm really looking forward to this; I enjoy demonstrating...and chatting... please do come and say hello if you are visiting the festival! And if you can't, but would really love a journal, don't worry, I'll be listing them on Etsy when I return. And if you really can't wait for a copy of Lovely Lutradur, click on the image of the book on the top right hand corner of this blog.

Well, yes. I finished this piece, Flying Circus, just in time for it to go to the Spunart stand at FOQ, along with other pieces of my work, for part of the display there. I've also sent some small pieces, so that visitors to the stand can see and feel for themselves the effects you can get using lutradur of different weights. Flying Circus is made from Evolon, a polyester microfibre made by those clever Lutradur people. I'm hard pressed to tell you which of the two is my favourite, lutradur or evolon, so I've recently taken to using them both at once, which solves the problem nicely!

Flying Circus is one of the few pieces I've added hand stitch to. I'm so pleased with the results that I have the nasty feeling I'll be doing more of it, especially to Evolon, as it adds a pleasing textural contrast. It's a small piece, but I think it has a strong effect.

I was told last week that one of my lutradur pieces, 'Cracking Up/Pulling Myself Together' has been accepted to a show in Cambridge next month; I'm delighted. There will be a wide selection of work there; I'll let you know all the details when I have them.

but for a very good reason. Lovely Lutradur is finished, and as you can see, is piling up on my living room carpet! Preorders are going out in the next day or so, and we're accepting orders by email; just contact Dijanne or myself. If you would prefer to order online without emailing us, I'll also set up information on the other blog where you can find a complete listing of the contents as well as a Paypal payment button.

So.... what about Lovely Lutradur? Well, it's an E-Book, or book on CD. It is supplied as two PDF files, so you need Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available free on the net. An E-book works just like a normal book, without the paper, of course, and it does the odd advantage. One of them is that it has 'bookmark' icons. If you click the bookmark icon on the left of the page, a list of chapter headings will pop up. Click on one of those, and you are immediately taken to the relevant chapter of the book. Handy, huh?

The book is divided into several parts. First, we explain about Lutradur itself, then we go on and talk about how to colour it and use it, including a step by step visual guide by Dijanne that shows the whole process as she makes one particular piece. The third section of the book is a series of projects, which we hope will show you how we use lutradur, and give you lots of ideas for using it yourself. And of course, there is the ever important suppliers list. On a separate file, there is a gallery, full of images of our work, and information about the specific pieces. In all, 88 pages of textile temptations!

Price?
Australia $25 inclusive of postage
United Kingdom 12 GBP- inclusive of postage
Europe 15 Euros inclusive of postage
USA $24 inclusive of postage

I'll be at Festival of Quilts on Friday afternoon, Saturday and Sunday at the Spunart stand (apparently we're just behind Ricky Tims!), with CDs, a laptop and a hard copy of the book. Why not come and say hello, and check it out!

If you were listening, you probably heard me screaming at the other side of the world. When the power failed for the fourth time, this time in the middle of saving an important document, you just know that I was less than impressed. Murderous, really. Grrrrrrrrrr. You don't know how much you rely on electricity until it isn't there...

I talked about the workshop I attended last weekend, but didn't supply the promised image, so here you are. The print on the left was the first I made, and the second, the last. In between, there was an interesting journey.

One of the tasks we had in the poetry writing session was to go look around and write down words that described ... something. The exhibit that was ongoing, how we felt, whatever. When we came back, we were tasked with writing a haiku using only a selection of those words. This is mine;

Unexpected dance
Imagine starfish texture
Remember delight.

We wrote all sorts of other poetry, too, most of it in Japanese forms. I really did write more that morning than I have done for the past five years, I think, poetry, at least. Then, we had to make a print based on one of the poems; I chose the one above, and worked with a human form, though it seemed to have nothing much to do with the poem, really. It did chime with 'unexpected dance', however, as you can see. By the time I'd made the last one, I was still playing in my head with the idea of image and text...but had left the poem somewhere behind, other than that theme of unexpected dance. Two figures, and the idea of drawing, both towards and away. Which is doing what? I don't really know. I'm not really sure how I got there, to be honest, but it was a good place to reach, and I could happily have continued making prints for hours.

Credit where credit is due; the workshop leaders were amazing. Lisa D'Onofrio and Annette Rolston work together as InPrint If you get the chance to work with them, run, don't walk, and prepare to be amazed!

things just come together. Like this piece and the glass embellishment that is on it. I have had this piece lying about for a while, and picked it up last week to do a little more stitching on it. And then I remembered the pieces of glass that my etsy friend Mike made for me, and suddenly a lacklustre piece had found the extra something that it needed. Another piece finished; Lost Planet.

I went to a workshop on Saturday, too, and that brought wonders. I wrote more poetry in a morning than I've done in the past five years, which pleased me no end, and made art based on the poetry, and including some of the words, in the afternoon. But more about that tomorrow... in the meantime, the image shows 'Lost Planet'. There are more detailed images here, if you wish to see them.