Open Studio

Open Studio Event 2012.

Hot Bed studios on the second floor of the Casket works opened it's doors to visitors over the weekend, there was an exhibition of studio-holder's work and I did 'have a go' Demos of Heat Transfer Printing onto fabric. Thanks to all participants, the event raised awareness of textile based printing and meant people could take home a souvenir of their visit.

Dysperse Dyes used for Heat Transfer Printing, 

the dye is pained onto paper and when dry transferred onto fabric using an iron or heat press.

Helping participants with Heat Transfer Printing.

Studio with new 'Sails' on display

A great day of demonstration and print sales

Day 21

...and then daily life takes over! Could have sworn the last post was two or three days ago...no a whole week has gone by and demonstrated on a small scale what happens on a large scale when you blink and a year has passed by! So to update you on the week that vanished... creatively it was quiet compared to the previous week, which may be why I didn't blog. It is a difficulty when something creative is more than a hobby, sometimes you just don't have the impetus  to do things that you should feel compelled to do. As far as making goes, Wednesday was most creative as it was the second week of the Endpapers course I am doing at Hot Bed with Tutor Sue Shaw. We focused on small repeat patterns which was a revelation as I have only ever done large scale repeats, put together in quite an organic way. Sue revealed the secret to organising a few small motifs into a repeat pattern that allows your eye to glide over it rather than drawing the eye to a stripe or focal point. I am still working on my small repeat so it will feature in a future post...promise!


My energy this week is channelled into the Open Studio Event at Hot Bed Press this weekend 26th/27th November 2011, which marks one year of Kiran Lee Textiles up and running!

http://www.hotbedpress.org/events/open-studies-at-hot-bed-press-26th-27th-november/

Day 14

I recently did some artwork to accompany an album launch of a life long friend. Dan Whitehouse recently launched his self titled début album at the Glee Club in Birmingham. At the start of the summer he had sent me the album in it's very near finished state and asked if there was anything I wanted to respond to. Having started to work collaboratively with Manchester Cloth I have been interested in different ways of working and the album was definitely inspiring. Ideas bubbled away over the summer while I worked on my Sails collection, I had the vague idea of using the album to inspire a book as I wanted to do some bookmaking, however the scale of this idea was beyond me so I focused on the song I felt most affected/inspired by and this is the result.
The book is actually constructed as a concertina but this was an attempt to make the pages work as a more compact panel.

My Heart Doesn't Age (It Just gets Older)

I understand the single is to be launched soon so check out Dan's website and have a listen http://www.dan-whitehouse.com/

Hot Bed Press Open Studios 2011

I have been working on a bit of promotional information for this years Open Studios at Hot Bed Press. The studios had only just been set up last year and there is the potential for it to be a much more exciting event this year. Below is a picture of the building for the poster.

The Casket Works Open  

Preview  Friday 25^th November 

Saturday 26^th & Sunday 27th 11am – 4pm

This year Hot Bed Press, Suite Studio Group and Cow Lane Studios have joined forces for the first time. The building houses 53 studios across 3 floors, with some artists throwing their doors open for the first time.

The open studios is part of a bigger Salford wide event; Sights from The Other City, which we are part of organizing, and includes Islington Mill, Chapel Street and Hope United Reform Church Gallery, which features Printomania, and we welcome our neighbours The Slaughterhouse Photography Studio into the veritable mix. 

Visit the site for information on all events during the week at Sights from The Other City.

On the second floor there will be Artists studios to explore and a range of work to see along side Heat Transfer Printing drop in workshops run by Kiran Lee Textiles.

On the first floor Hot Bed Press will be running free demonstrations and our ever popular 

Under-The-Bed Sale with prints from £2 - £30. 

11.11.11

Working at Stockport College next to the War Memorial/Art Gallery, I was momentarily startled by the cannon explosion at the end of the two minute silence for Rememberence Day! I was unexpectedly moved by two minutes of radio silence whist cleaning screens, thinking of all those lost lives. 

Here's hoping for a peaceful future.

As promised the cotton devore print below

Devore on cotton (laminated onto polyester chiffon)

The photograph is not terribly clear but it is enough to see the result is not captivating! Some samples work better than others, that is the point. This was done in response to a line in a book which suggested laminating two fabrics with bonderweb or acrylic print medium. This was bonderweb and it was  not strong enough, perhaps there should have been more pulls with the squeegee, any number of details might have improved the outcome, still food for thought, I do like the idea of holes being made in cotton, just a matter of experimenting!

10th of the 11th

Much quieter day today! Did some work on artwork I did for a friend's album launch, he is now promoting a single from the album and using my artwork for the packaging which is exciting. So if you get chance look up Dan Whitehouse http://www.dan-whitehouse.com/ The single due for release soon is My Heart Does't Age (It Just Gets Older). A snappy song that really struck a chord with me. Hope to be able to post images of the artwork soon. For todays picture another devore sample after the burnout phase, the design is at it's most visable, you will see how it turned out tomorrow!

Devore on cotton laminated over polyester chiffon.

9th November 2011

Day 9 and what a busy one! Some time spent at the studio finishing off sails and just six eyelets to go! Across town for Tai-Chi class and back to Hot Bed for the first of four evenings on a course run by Sue Shaw on
'End Papers'. We started off with marbling and it proved to be a hypnotic evening, struggling with floating colours and soggy paper! Much fun was had by all, everyone surreptitiously or not so surreptitiously eyeing up each others swirls and eveyone attempting to do a 'bouquet', a particular pattern which evaded me though some did seem to get the hang of it. Below is the only piece I could photograph as I forgot until they were all laid out on a drying rack.

Marbled end paper design.

Days 7 & 8

Exciting times, have just got home from delivering a Devore Print Master Class Demo at Hot Bed Press, thanks to all those who attended and made it a lively interesting evening. When Sean at Hot Bed asked me if I would be interested in doing such a talk, I thought "mmm yes, I use Devore quite a bit, know my way around the whys and wherefores ...mmm I might just Google it!" and what you find out is... there is not much known about it! It does not seem to be hailed as a process of ethnographic interest or of note of any kind, however... there are lots of interesting things about it and and the history of it's use...and for any more on that you will need to book or attend a later talk! and so to reveal another sample. Below is the denim print after it has been washed out. I think I will be doing lots more devore on denim!

Devore print on denim.

Days 5 & 6

Remember remember the fifth of November...was so busy remembering it was the 5th of November that I forgot to blog! So back to Devore on denim... the picture below is the devore paste after it has been printed, dried and then 'baked' in the heatpress. So the print paste has 'burnt'. Tomorrow I will reveal the denim sample after the singed fibres have been rubbed out (in water so the harmful chemicals are not airborne) I was wearing a mask while baking the devore print as this is when the acid is released to burn out the cellulose fibres.

Day 4 Cliffhanger

4th November, well I have done a few samples today towards resources for my talk on Devore Printing, they are even photographed, just getting the pictures on the computer is where I am going to stumble, so tune in tomorrow to see exciting samples experimenting with Devore... Devore on denim...devore on silk paper is it even possible??? Devore on cotton velvet mmm sumptuous.

Cheating on day 3

Day 3 and already I'm cheating! the benefit of working in a print room is that there are scraps of fabric just lying about! I promise more original work in the weeks to come. I was delighted to get an email today from a friend in Australia, (Hi Betty) who was glad I was blogging again.
So far information has been scant I know but over the month of November hopefully some sort of update on the year in Kiran Lee textiles will be revealed.

Appropriated shibori!

As compensation for not doing my own shibori... 

here is a sneaky peak at the sails I have been working on over the summer .

 These are designed to hang in clusters over a favourite armchair to provide a foliate canopy of shadows.More on these at a later date. Although I have not been busy blogging all year I have been busy doing other things which I do hope to reveal to you as I go along. This evening for instance I have been researching a talk on Devore Printing that I am doing at Hot Bed Press in Salford next week, so there is lots to catch up on as you can see! Till tomorrow!

Day 2

I started another sample at my studio this morning but is was not dry enough to bring home to photograph, so thats one stored up for another day. Spent some time finishing the edges of sails at the studio and as a last minute thing came up with the sample below

Sample 02 blue food colouring on kitchen roll cut with patterned scissors.

One Year On

My experiments with blogging have not got very far since launching Kiran Lee Textiles in November 2010 so one year on I have decided to make a point of doing a series of posts documenting an ongoing experiment. So the first post of Dye Another Day. I will attempt to dye a small sample of some kind of material every day and document it as regularly as possible.

01 Shibori sample blue food coloring on book binders calico.