Inked and Laced

Our resident artist and project coordinator Carole Miles was invited to run a lace inspired print making session during the Keep Calm and Carry Yarn day at the National Centre for Craft and Design in Sleaford.

This gave Carole the perfect opportunity for some experimentation in her garden studio, using lace donated by a variety of Back To Books members whilst developing a new Remake Remodel activity and the chance to take some more steps further afield. Carole persuaded Back To Books member and walk facilitator Andrew Rushton to accompany her and to help document the work. It was also and opportunity for Andrew to explore the delights of the NCCD and of the area surrounding the building. He loved exploring Sleaford inspite of the torrential rain and took a lovely sequence of images in the rain-less moments! 

The workshop space provided at the NCCD was lovely, as was the group and only one or two had any previous print making experience. As this was a short session prints were made in a variety of quick and simple ways and Carole gave advice on how to avoid the pitfalls of using either too much or too little ink / texture. First impressions were a pathway towards much more successful prints as participants got the feel of what the materials might do and which colours might work best.

 We loved the journey this particular print took

 and were intrigued by the choice of materials.

We also love the way that Carole showed the group

how to get two prints from one pull.

There was also time to explore different ways of

utilising inked or embossed lace and 

both sides of the materials inked.

We feel certain that participants were happy as they left with a sheaf of printed papers which could be remade or remodelled into other things. You can see more impressions here

The day was also a great opportunity to connect with other makers like Anna Steiner, Phiona Richards, Amy Lee and Carol Parker and to see the gorgeous window exhibition by Ruth Singer. There was a wonderful exhibition of jewellery called Jewellery for the Famous and the Infamous taking inspiration from contemporary icons. There was so much to see and many old techniques being used in new ways or new techniques taking craft into new realms. The shop was full of delights including gorgeous work by one of Carole's favourite jewellers  Helen Noakes and we can heartily recommend making a visit or taking a course at the NCCD if you get the opportunity!

Free Drop-in Workshops at The Resource Centre, Kettering Exploring

              

THE VIEW FROM HERE

Do you live in the Avondale / Grange 

ward in Kettering?

If so why not join us For Fun Free Creative Sessions

Join members of BACK TO BOOKS 

and artist Carole Miles  

for a series of two hour drop in sessions 

on Friday afternoons.

The Resource Centre, 

9 Grange Place, Kettering

Friday May 30th, Friday June 6th, 

Friday June 13th, Friday June 20th, 

Friday June 27th, Friday July 11th, 

Friday July 18th, Friday July 25th

Time :- 11.00 am - 1.00 pm

The workshops open to any age but children must be accompanied by an adult. Come and get creative, share words and images, make something, write something to brighten your view from here.  Explore how we feel about where we are and how our viewpoint can change. A great opportunity to have some fun, learn skills and share your thoughts!

Free, friendly, supportive, creative sessions with coffee or tea and good conversation.

Click this link Sign Up Here now so we know you'll be joining us and we can get the kettle on!

                              

                               

Well Done Team!

A Birthday Bunting Challenge!

Up-cycling is part of the Remake Remodel strand of our current A4A project. Having been inspired by her own attempt to help Compton Verney create the world's longest line of paper bunting artist Carole Miles went across to Corby for us to work with the Stevie way art Group. 

They used an old wallpaper sample book and some of Carole's collection of rubber stamps to create 100 pieces of bunting to add to the line forming at Compton Verney.

You can read about Carole's own contribution here

You can read more about the Compton Verney's 10th Birthday World record bunting attempt here

and you can download a participation pack here - anyone can take part so why not use up some scrap paper and help out! All support will be mentioned on the Compton Verney website. We had great fun, thoroughly enjoyed taking part in this community challenge and can thoroughly recommend it to anyone else who'd like to take part!

You can see more pictures from the session here

Up-cyling in Corby

Up-cycling is part of the Remake Remodel strand of our current A4A project and over the past few weeks we've been raiding our fabric stashes and artifacts from previous projects to create new things with our lovely members who also attend Stevie Way Art Group.

Tea towels from the Invisible Threads Project

have been reworked as cushions

old degraded screens with images from our New Vistas Wider Horizons project were used to overprint left over fabric from the same project.  We also used some fabric letter stamps to jazz up our designs

 by Ann Leonard

Giving a new lease of life to old items = happiness!

You can see more photos here

Bedford Happy

As part of “Marking Our Tracks - Wellbeing Walks Further Afield” and Dan Thompson's Bedford Happy Send Us A Postcard Darling initiative children in Yr 1 worked with artist Carole Miles to produce postcards using recycled materials and stamps. Carole had been inspired by finding an unfinished piece of sewing from a very early project with the school in amongst her material stash.

Bedford happy was "A town-wide artwork, exploring how and why people are happy in Bedford. With badges, prints and other small artwork to collect across Bedford town centre."

The children had great fun talking and writing about what made them happy about being in Bedford. They loved exploring materials and making their mark, you can see the full set of cards here.

We're happy to report that Dan and Bedford Happy were really happy with our contribution "We've had some great mail art sent to the Bedford Happy studio here at Bedford Creative." and Johanne Hudson-Lette dropped Bedford happy badges and posters off at the school for the children.

All of the postcards created throughout the town were exhibited at Coffee With Art on Saturday 29th March.

Fabulous Fabrication Day in Litchborough

As part of “Marking Our Tracks - Wellbeing Walks Further Afield” Remake Remodel strand, members of Back To Books worked with artist Carole Miles at Licthborough Village Hall, rifling through old fabrics and lace trims and generally having a lovely time.

Some tea towels and other pieces from Invisible Threads came to light and were given a new lease of life by entirely new owners! We spent the day using recycled materials to sew cushion covers, hats and bags.

There is always such good conversation, so much laughter, lots of news, life stories and a great sense of community spirit amongst the participants whenever we bring the project out to this side of the county! It may have been cold, grey and wet outside but inside the room was buzzing with life and energy!