Devore Print Workshop

I am running a Devore print workshop at Hot Bed Press in Salford.

Saturday 17th - Sunday 18th March.

Devore is the process of applying a print paste which devours certain fibres, it is used to create textured velvet scarves amongst other applications. Come along and discover some of the secrets of textile surface texture.

The workshop will explore different techniques of applying devore paste to a variety of fabrics including block printing, hand painting and using pre-prepared screens and paper stencils.
Saturday will be a day of exploring fabrics and techniques and on Sunday ideas can be resolved to produce an artisan silk or velvet scarf.
The essence of the workshop will be experimenting with the techniques along with an introduction to dyeing fabric to compliment the devore print. These processes can be pursued by individuals with some basic equipment and ingredients.
Participants will take home a finished scarf and may also want to bring along some old jeans to explore applying 'that distressed look'.

For more information follow the link below

http://www.hotbedpress.org/courses/

Two examples of devore print. The top fabric is polyester viscose mix, the devore paste burns out the viscose leaving a thin layer of polyester warp and weft. The bottom sample is a silk viscose velvet, here the paste burns away the viscose velvet pile leaving the silk backing.

Waterside Open

I am pleased to announce I have had a piece of work selected for the Waterside Open Exhibition, held at the Waterside Gallery, Sale. The work selected is a new piece from the Sail Collection.

The exhibtioin is free and open to the public 11th Feb - 21st April 2012.

http://www.watersideartscentre.co.uk/open/default.asp

Interiors UK

I was invited to go to The Interiors UK show at the NEC in Birmingham with students from Stockport College. Always good to see what is happening in the larger textilee world! The most interesting corner was the area curated by Designer's Block, they have an interesting blog too...follow the link below...

http://www.verydesignersblock.com

They had adapted a corner of the trade show to feel like a creative village, with a 'pub', seating areas and interior products with a luxurious hand crafted touch. A great launch pad!

Seasons Greetings

I hope all have had an agreeable festive season, a Merry Christmas and a good start to the New Year!
Below is this years Christmas Card design, more may be sent out electronically this year as I have been held up getting Christmas creative projects off the ground!

I had a fabulous Christmas with friends and family. One of my favorite presents was this paintbrush necklace made by Zinkwhite. See their website for other interesting up-cycled wearables and decorative objects.

http://zincwhite.co.uk/index.html

I started the year creatively with a visit to the 'Lost in Lace' Exhibition at Birmingham Art Gallery. The exhibition explores 'new' notions of lace, its physical composition of thread and negative spaces, it's social associations and the way line and aperture together describe space. One of the most striking works in the exhibition was the translucent wall of silicone 'tiles' by Ai Matsumoto, see link below.

http://lostinlace.org.uk/artists/ai-matsumoto

I am off to experiment further with devore on denim, the results of the first round of tests resulted in two exciting 'canvases', pictures to follow shortly.                                                                       

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/